[Marbles]

Mike, if you were going to build a "cost no object" dream speaker, what would it be?

[Eric]

I can hardly wait to hear his response

[Mike Dzurko]

Mike, if you were going to build a "cost no object" dream speaker, what would it be?

We already build it, we call it the Jaguar/LFM  

[Andrikos]

How about a line array. Would that interest you?

[Marbles]

Mike,

I half expected that reply.....

On the other hand, that implies that you don't day dream about a bigger (or smaller) and better speaker.

Hopefully that means you have other things to dream about  

[nathanm]

Hey, it's cost-no-object now!  That means they can raise the price of the Jaguar\LFM!  Come on Mike, slap a price tag of a million dollars on there!  (well, actually make it the Reference Elite Custom Deluxe which includes personalized name plate, maybe?)  Speaker prices these days need to be more insane than they have been.  All it takes is more zeros.  Be the first!

[zybar]

I dream about retirement!

That would allow me time to spend with my family, pick back up my gold game, and spend more time in front of my stereo.

George

[Mike Dzurko]

How about a line array. Would that interest you?

Andrikos:

I spent much of two years of my life working with a 100-20Khz line source. There were some very magical moments for sure. I'll see if I still have pics on my home computer and post and comment later when I get home.
Took a quick peek at your pics, it looks like you did a terrific job with your arrays; beautiful! Gotta give you a hard time on your center speaker though, build yourself something to get it off the floor  
More later, thanks!

[Mike Dzurko]

Mike,

I half expected that reply.....

On the other hand, that implies that you don't day dream about a bigger (or smaller) and better speaker.

Hopefully that means you have other things to dream about  

I must admit, I dream about smaller speakers that sound as good but don't require the warehouse space or two people to move  

I have so many great things in my life to dream about  

[Mike Dzurko]

Hey, it's cost-no-object now!  That means they can raise the price of the Jaguar\LFM!  Come on Mike, slap a price tag of a million dollars on there!  (well, actually make it the Reference Elite Custom Deluxe which includes personalized name plate, maybe?)  Speaker prices these days need to be more insane than they have been.  All it takes is more zeros.  Be the first!

Nathan:

You must of been in some of our recent meetings! Let's just say that it won't be long and the Jaguar/LFM will sell for significantly more than the current price . . . it will also be available only by special order with an avg. lead time of approx. eight weeks. Funny thing is, we'll probably sell as many or more at the higher price, but we won't be using up the warehouse room that we do now.

[nathanm]

That's good, but how significantly?  Take for example any one of the many super expensive brands out there.  Let's just use the Wilson Watt\Puppy thing because they share some similar appearances with your model.  Those guys are selling them for what, like 30 grand or something.  Now as everyone knows, 30 grand is entry level price for experiencing Krall and Jones in your living room.  Why would anybody even bother with a paltry 6 grand for your speaker?  It probably sounds like a broken TV set for that pittance.  Maybe it would be okay for the kid's romper room.  Now, say you put your speaker next to the Wilsons with a MILLION dollar price tag on it.  Immediately it becomes the logical choice for discriminating customers.  Your speaker has got wood on the sides, and chicks like that.  They ain't gonna be too keen on that macho gloss crap Wilson is shilling.  But the important part is that it should be a million bucks, otherwise there's too much competition.  You'll get a magazine cover at the very least with a price like that.  Make sure to mention the phrase "State Of The Art" somewheres too.  I'm tellin' ya, you'll be able to fulfill those retirement plans a few decades early with a smarter pricing plan!

[Andrikos]

How about a line array. Would that interest you?

Andrikos:

I spent much of two years of my life working with a 100-20Khz line source. There were some very magical moments for sure. I'll see if I still have pics on my home computer and post and comment later when I get home.
Took a quick peek at your pics, it looks like you did a terrific job with your arrays; beautiful! Gotta give you a hard time on your center speaker though, build yourself something to get it off the floor  
More later, thanks!

Thank you very much Sir for your kind words.
It was, insanely enough, my very first foray into the magical world of speaker building. I gotta say I learned a lot and I'm very happy that I did it.
As for center speaker, I really don't see the need for it (just yet at least).
The soundstage out of these puppies is so HUUUUGE that a center speaker would be redundant IMO.
As it is right now, only another identical line array would do justice as a center and that is impossible with my current screem setup.

I'm awaiting on your line array pictures. It should be iteresting to see.

Thanks again Mike and all success to your endeavors. I've read only positive impressions about your products.

[Mike Dzurko]

Thank you very much Sir for your kind words.
It was, insanely enough, my very first foray into the magical world of speaker building. I gotta say I learned a lot and I'm very happy that I did it.
As for center speaker, I really don't see the need for it (just yet at least).
The soundstage out of these puppies is so HUUUUGE that a center speaker would be redundant IMO.
As it is right now, only another identical line array would do justice as a center and that is impossible with my current screem setup.
 ...

My bad, in one of the pictures I thought I saw a center speaker sitting under the middle of the screen on the floor.  I bet your system sounds wonderful! Here's a link to what I was talking about. I believe we worked on this in 1992 and 1993:
http://www.audioc.com/aboutaci/vls.htm

[Marbles]

With the better ribbon drivers of today, is it time to reserect this design?

[Mike Dzurko]

That's good, but how significantly?  Take for example any one of the many super expensive brands out there.  Let's just use the Wilson Watt\Puppy thing because they share some similar appearances with your model.  Those guys are selling them for what, like 30 grand or something.  Now as everyone knows, 30 grand is entry level price for experiencing Krall and Jones in your living room.  Why would anybody even bother with a paltry 6 grand for your speaker?  It probably sounds like a broken TV set for that pit ...

Nathan:

I think you should be on my marketing team, or perhaps the CFO. I could retire off the sale of one pair of Jag/LFMs

[Mike Dzurko]

With the better ribbon drivers of today, is it time to reserect this design?

Short answer, no way. Adding slight detail to the answer: This 72" magnetic planar was my third major foray into using nearly full range line source drivers. Three strikes and they're out . . .

The first were the Strathearn Ribbons from Ireland for which I was the exclusive U.S. importer for a time (very early 80s I think). We had several systems including one large stacked unit called the JCRS which had some amazing qualities. The second foray was with the Gold Ribbon Concepts drivers soon after the Strathearns. We used these in a variety of configurations including an onwall that wall shaped exactly like the Emerald On-Wall except around 30" tall. Both these drivers could do wonderful things with the right filters and rear dampening. Both these drivers had reliability issues which cost me dearly.

Fast forward to the early 90s: I stumbled upon this very promising device and really threw all our resources at it. Once again, QC issues caused huge problems, and this time the financial loses were very serious. My holy grail of a line source driver that could play from 100-20K turned out to be a myth.  A newer version of this driver is being used in systems that I believe sell in the $30K on up range.

The funny thing was that I started A-Bing these magical monsters with the basic dynamic cone driver multi-way system configurations (early Jaguar, and a model called the Shadow). The VLS had the edge in some ways, but it became apparent that for a fraction of the cost, a well designed and built point source replicator could offer equally satisfying musicality and far greater reliability.  

So there you have it, maybe more than you wanted, but it was a great question and I was on a roll

[Eric]

I can only add here that a friend of mine came over to my house to hear the Jaguar LFM's immediately after a listening session with some new Watt Puppys. He said the jags gave up very little in terms of sound staging and actually excelled in terms of tonality etc.

All I know is I love mine. They are both beautiful to look at and hear. I just added a Dodson DAC-263 to the mix. The jags were able to translate the nuances of the DAC wonderfully. Maybe I should post a review of the DAC in the critics corner as well.

If you are in the Northern Illionois area and want to hear the jags, let me know. Maybe we can work something out

[nathanm]

Is there a picture of the knobs extant on that EQ\XO doohickey on the bass cab?  Just curious what they were.

[zybar]

I can only add here that a friend of mine came over to my house to hear the Jaguar LFM's immediately after a listening session with some new Watt Puppys. He said the jags gave up very little in terms of sound staging and actually excelled in terms of tonality etc.

All I know is I love mine. They are both beautiful to look at and hear. I just added a Dodson DAC-263 to the mix. The jags were able to translate the nuances of the DAC wonderfully. Maybe I should post a review of the DAC in the critics corner ...

Eric,

I don't want to hijack the thread, but I am very interested in hearing your thoughts on the Dodson.  I have heard the 218 and was very impressed but can't afford the $8k price tag.

George

[Eric]

Zybar,

I am enjoying the Dodson very much. I have had it in my system for about 1 week. Things I noticed right away:

1. More detail - by that I mean I am able to hear deeper into the soundstage.

2. The instruments have more natural tonality.

3. On things like kettle drums the bass tightened and the drums sound more real

4. Deeper soundstage

Everything just sounds more musical to me. The music has better pace, and I feel more involved in the performance.

Ralph Dodson also seems like a great guy in terms of customer service