Modern Ohm speakers still go for omni by using a cluster of mids/tweeters on top of the basket of an upside-down woofer, (which still uses a huge solid enclosure.) No need for the exotic driver to approximate 360deg sound.
Used Gallo CS-2s go for $350-$450 now, were $850 new. Hella value imho. They don’t use the spheres or their patented cabinet filling method (which is killer) but make their bass with transmission line cabinets. They are good down to 45hz, which is pretty good for a small bookshelf speaker.
If you can spend a little more, plan to use a subwoofer anyway, the Reference Strada are basically the mid/tweeters from the Reference on either desktop, wall or floor stands… They go for $750-$1000 used, but were $2k+ new. They are wonderful, but need bass help.
The Reference 3’s are basically the above with a 10in sealed dual voice coil sub on either side, go for $1200-$1500 used ($3k+ new) Any of the above are special if only for their dispersion… Every seat in the house is good
Good sound for myself is paramount. Since the tops will be open baffle (backless) the bleed will sound good enough for everyone else while skating (remember that the bass is omnidirectional) If I want to play for a crowd at charging stops, I can flop the board onto its side, use it like a boombox.
Read his patent for cabinet stuffing… Perforated Polyethylene film (think holey tape made from the same plastic as shopping bags) rolled into “logs”, stacked like logs in a wood pile, filling the entire volume of the enclosure. He got woofers to extend 10-15hz lower than they would in any other sort of sealed enclosure, with better extension than in a tuned enclosure, with none of the associated group delay. The way 95% of store bought hifi speakers make their bass is via cabinet tuning = delayed bass. Max delay at 30hz with a ported / tuned cabinet might be 15-20ms. With sealed is more like 2-3ms. Open baffle, none.
T-line bass (see Gallo Classico family, including the CS-2) does produce significant group delay.
It is nice to actually hear 45hz in music, even better when it’s not time smeared.
Mini DSP would work, but due to their licensing, not cost effective. Also quite lo-fi, even compared to the $90 bluetooth receiver/dac I mention… really. The HD version of minidsp is nearly $200, and as large as the Audiocontrol 2xs, which imho sounds better.
I may try the tiny Dayton DSP boards for fun… only $22 for quality similar to minidsp + free dev tools. The programmer board is an extra $25, but so what? I’m still reading the docs, trying to determine whether I can do a proper 2-way stereo crossover with one board… I don’t want / need the breakout board with jacks, but that only has THREE outputs, (2.1). I think the kernel board has 4 DAC channels for output, can be used directly.
Yeah deep bass is great 45hz imo is a bit light, I’m a deep bass junkie and built a rhytmik servo 15" at home and I get down to like 15-18hz, the sub will kind of walk itself out of the room. The sub is of course sealed I loved sealed enclosures for all my bass. Also run that with stacked electrostats; audiostatic wing A and Acoustat model 1, 2 Adcom gfa-565 and 2 qsc model 1400.
Also yeah Minidsp is a bit pricey for the good stuff, didn’t know about the dayton dsp that looks interesting.
Not an expert here. But wouldn’t it make more sense to have speakers closer to the riders ears? Like a neck brace almost with the speakers oriented towards the ears? Obviously tough to design with comfort in mind while wearing a full race helmet…
Yeah, I’m not satisfied with 45hz at home either, but with these constraints, I’ll be happy to achieve that. No low B string action for me.
For my HT, which is 2.1, I use a pair of dual 15in open baffle woofers (4 total) crossed at 45hz (18db/oct) with an 18db/oct subsonic filter at 18hz. I drive 'em with a shitty old QSC 380 USA PA amp. They get the job done, but are immense and hideous. They started life as ported PA subwoofers. I removed all 4 handles to purposely make the cabinet leaky. The “tops” are said Gallo CS-2, fed by an early 1970s BGW 250 PA amp. Prior to this monstrosity, I used a 4x15 ported bass cabinet (an early 1970’s Crate w/ CTS square magnet drivers with the back removed. Worked fine, but WAF was very very low.
You think I (and my dog Nina) would have more fun with her being dragged around behind me on her own board (or bike trailer) or in a front or back mounted baby carrier type contraption that I wear?
That’s awesome Open baffle subs get pretty intense
The qscs aren’t lookers that’s for sure, but I’m running them bridged mono on my electrostats and they dip to 2ohm I think but they work great despite arcing. Loud music for a while causes the fans to spin up a lot.
The Anthony Gallo patent for cabinet stuffing expired in 2018. I’ve got a mountain of shopping bags squirreled away. Since I already have 3 of the drivers I’m considering, I’m going to experiment with his stuffing technique, see if I can get one of 'em to perform a bit better in one of those 0.2cuft wedge enclosures. If the single 10in woofer in the Ref3 can make smiles down to 24hz with the tiny internal volume of that enclosure (basically the size of an 11in sauce pan + maybe half that volume in the spine of the enclosure) I think I can make one of the TB subs sound good in 0.2cuft. The patent is hard to understand, even with images, but you can read it here: US6073723A - Acoustic damping material - Google Patents
You’re fishing for a “nice rack” comment… I’ll oblige: Nice rack (of amps.)
I’m a big fan of older QSC, BGW and the newer switching Crown stuff. (I was a Macrotech maniac for 10 years when I did club sound, but the fans are proprietary and stupidly loud… too loud to use for home hifi w/o an amp closet.) I run an old Carver PA amp in the den that I quieted by replacing the fan. You can do the same with yours. Good PC case cooling fans can be MUCH quieter that what these were born with, and still move enough air.
The low end freq response has a lot to do with room size and placement as I’m sure you know so the right 10" no doubt can do it. A big room would probably need a decent sub or sub tower though
Yep I been wanting to put this crap in a closet. And yes thanks for the compliment, always fishing. I really only bother if someone might care. I bought these based on counting transistors inside and they amounted to roughly the same amount as the adcom 565s and they were $200 or something for the pair.
I haven’t used them since spring 2017, but my silliest open baffle project consisted of 8x shitty poly cone MCM 55-1290 8in woofers per side + a single “vintage” paper + whizzer cone Dukane FR speaker as a mid + a double stack of Linaeum membrane tweeters on top. I tri-amped 'em through a rare Sundholm crossover which I managed to fry. (ONE fried Tantalum cap amongst a sea of about 150 of 'em… Screw that troubleshooting job… I’d have to life the leg of every one until I found it.) They sounded magical, especially the bass, but created no pressure in the room like a good “normal” subwoofer. Odd in a very pleasant way.
You’d enjoy audiosciencereview.com He does quite brutal/thorough testing of DACs, headphone amps, power amps, and you’ve be surprised to see what comes out on top for SINAD, distortion, SNR. These newish class-D amplifier modules from B&O (Icepower), Hypex, etc. are absolutely incredible for the $, and much smaller and quieter than PA amps (thx to efficiency of Class D… Not much heat to radiate.)
Most good commercial PA processing/preamp/crossover gear has a SNR of 95-100db, and good power amps around 95db. Even portable DACs and phones like the LG V series boast a SNR of 108db or better, and the GOOD Icepower / Hypex amps can best even that. Since some of these modules have a SMPS built-in, all you need is an enclosure + input jacks + binding posts + power cord to make an amp. The fancier commercial amps use their own PSU + preamp front-end, but the same amp modules.
Sure, and OUTSIDE is the hardest room of all to fill with bass. Open-field, I get no help at all. In a room, I could use placement (near a wall, in the corner) to help fill in what I’m missing at the bottom.
I’ll stop boring everybody (but you apparently) and go make some sawdust.
I really only bother if someone might care. I bought these based on counting transistors inside and they amounted to roughly the same amount as the adcom 565s and they were $200 or something for the pair.