The Houston Audio Society's October 6th meeting will include three topics. First, Buddy Allen, manufacturing and quality control engineer for Acoustat, will describe his experience with that manufacturer of electrostatic speakers and electronics. Second, we'll hear my new DR912a line arrays. Third, we'll audition and compare several standmount speakers.
Buddy is a personal friend and an accomplished musician. He joined Acoustat shortly before their merger with David Hafler corporation in the 1980's, and he will discuss his role in improving the manufacturing and quality control process for their electrostatic speakers and solid state amplifiers.
The DR912a line arrays are a DIY design incorporating nine BG Neo8 PDR tweeters and twelve Dayton Audio RS180 midwoofers in a 7' 8" enclosure, with a mono TC Sounds Epic 12 subwoofer. The active crossover is a DEQX, which also does equalization and room correction. We'll hear several genres of music ranging from quiet girl-with-guitar Americana to full symphony orchestra playing ffff with giant pipe organ. Construction pictures can be seen here:
http://fredt300b.smugmug.com/Hobbies/The-DR912a-Line-Array-Speakers/21201321_b8FFDH#!i=2066494604&k=qLq5pDrFor the standmount speaker comparison we'll be hearing Dennis Deacon's new D-Sonic 1,200 watt/ch class D monoblocks for the first time. For each speaker pair in the audition we will measure the frequency response, save the response curve, and then hear some music. For subsequent speakers we will do a comparison of that speaker's measured response to the previous one, then listen and discuss the relationship between the measured response and the subjectively perceived sonic characteristics. Meeting participants are invited to bring speakers for this topic. So far we're expecting speakers ranging in price from $30/pr to a $1,200/pr.
Everybody is invited to our meetings, and no RSVP is required. Just show up and have fun. The meeting begins at 11:30 am, and we plan to order pizza for everybody who's present at noon. We'll post driving directions on our web page a week before the meeting:
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/houstonaudio/
