[woodsyi]

Freaking UPS did not deliever the darned things until 8:30 PM.  I was walking the dog (I was getting impatient and volunteered to walk the dog to look for the brown truck) and saw him bringing in two small boxes.  He said that's all he had.  I told him tracking  record said 3 boxes.  He shook his head and said it must be on a wrong truck and probably won't be delievered until Sat or Monday.  At this point I wanted to stangle him. But I calmed down and said, "are you sure you don't have a box so long and weighing 30 lb?"  "Oh, wait a minute," he said and went back to the truck and brought out the CDWG box.  He said he had it tucked away because it was so long and forgot.       Can you believe that?  Good thing I was out there.  

It took me an hour to replace the passive radiators because my daughter was "helping."  They are slightly deeper.  On to the wave guide.  They look just like normal grills on the out side.  Even though these are final products, I hope Brian finds a good carpenter to source it.  I was not impressed with the workmanship.  The inside of the wave guide looks DIYish with uneven grill clothing folds, pieced damping foam and a slight glue stain that can be  seen from the outside.   The fit was fine.  Brian had asked which cabinet I  had and he put the tabs in the right place to snap right in.  Aside from the glue stain about an inch in diameter, you really couldn't tell if I had the CDWG or the normal grill.  I would like to eventually replace these with a matching veneer pair without the grill cloth.  I will post pictures later -- I was going to take pictures but ran out of time.  

How do they sound?  First I had to turn my tube amps and warm up for 30 mins or so to make sure I was getting a fair first impression.  The sources, linestage and the SS amps were already on.  Click and the Bolder modified SB2 came on.  HOOOOOOOT and BOOOOOOMY.  It was like I'd turned the treble and bass all the way up in a car stereo!  Man, I was hearing all kind of extra stuff on the high end and serious reverb on the drums and bass guitar.  Some where recessed in the middle was Patricia Barber singing.  Next two hour or so was spent tuning the speakers.  In the end I removed about a green pea sized putty from each, up the mid pot all the way up at 5:00, turn down the treble pot to 3:30 and reduced power on the woofers 2 dB on my x-over.  I used the song "Crash" by Barber quartet for tuning speakers.  This song covers just about every thing a speaker has to do.   As I am doing the adjustment, I keep asking myself, "did I hear that before?"  I don't have everything dialed in but it was 1:00 AM and had to stop.  Before I went up I listened to three songs from my favorite female pop singers:  "Fields of Gold" by Eva Cassidy, "These are the Days" by Natalie Merchant and "Common Disaster" by Cowboy Junkies.  There are more details and clearness in the CDWG rendition.  I have been listening to these songs every night for the last two weeks as I have been checking on the breaking in progress of my SB2. So I know the songs well.  Here is what I get.  Attack and the decay must be improved because I hear clear intonation of voices and instruments.  The sound stage is wider and deeper.  Especially the depth -- I can locate drums in the back and guitar in the front.  The voices still hold me in thralls but they are slightly different.  I got alot more adjuments to do to fine tune but CDWG just upped the capability of the RM40s.  Oh, and the "weakness" in midbass thing is gone.  Sayonara! I am getting a lot more impact and punch down there.     I will post more as I get a chance to listen more and tweak more.

[JoshK]

How about a pic?

[Brian Cheney]

Those are handmade CDWG's, not factory.  We will have really nice ones from mls by end of January.  I sent out a few pair of handmade wave guides just to make the early adapters happy.  We will replace later at no extra charge.

Currently, two guys take all day making one pair, and the plywood part (we're using a plywood layer and a hardboard layer)  tends to warp a little.  Plus we make a lot of sawdust which our small plant doesn't like much.  But at least the CDWG exists and one can hear what it does.

I will post pix on Monday of the first mls-made CDWG's for the RM 30 as they will appear at CES.  Now those are gorgeous!

[woodsyi]

Brian,

I know I was pressing for the waveguide and I appreciate you accommodating my incessant request for these.  The product is what you claim.  The improvement on the sound is not subtle.  I expected the tuning process will take some effort on my part and have no gripes there.  Afterall, tunability is what I like about the speakers.   I will be glad to take up on your offers for an exchange later but I will pay for the difference in your cost.  As for the functionality of the CDWG I really think they make what is already a great product better.  I expected wider sweet spot, but man they tighten up the music.  I can't get over the tightness of notes.  It's the kind of difference you hear when going from a run of the mill $200 guitar to a $3000 Martin.

[Brian Cheney]

The wave guide performs three primary functions, all of which greatly benefit sound quality:

1. Dispersion is now 180 degrees horizontally full range, with sharp "skirts". Vertical dispersion improves to where trebles appear the full length of the slot.  If your ears are on a level with any portion of the slot you're covered both horizontally and vertically.

2. Lobing in the crossover is eliminated. This makes for much smoother off-axis response.  Of course, off-axis and on-axis are the same, which makes reflected sound (mostly from off axis radiation) much more linear.

3. The same amount of mid and treble energy is spread over 180 degrees, instead of an narrower, irregular pattern.  With the trebles this manifests itself as a 6dB/oct rolloff above 10 kHz.  Masking of the mid panels reduces their output about 1.5 dB, which is why you advanced the level controls.  Once the balance of mids and trebles is adjusted towards what you're used to without the wave guides their full, considerable  benefit is realized.

Basically, the interface between speaker, room, and user has forever changed, and much to the better.  In my opinion, non-CD speakers will now become less popular, and CD speakers more popular, as audiophiles are exposed to the improvements Constant Directivity brings.

[woodsyi]

I have added pictures to the gallery.

http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/modules.php?set_albumName=albuu23&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php

[John Casler]

 I used the song "Crash" by Barber quartet for tuning speakers. This song covers just about every thing a speaker has to do. As I am doing the adjustment, I keep asking myself, "did I hear that before?" I don't have everything dialed in but it was 1:00 AM and had to stop. Before I went up I listened to three songs from my favorite female pop singers: "Fields of Gold" by Eva Cassidy, "These are the Days" by Natalie Merchant and "Common Disaster" by Cowboy Junkies. There are more details and clearness in the CDWG rendition. I have been listening to these songs every night for the last two weeks as I have been checking on the breaking in progress of my SB2. So I know the songs well. Here is what I get. Attack and the decay must be improved because I hear clear intonation of voices and instruments. The sound stage is wider and deeper. Especially the depth -- I can locate drums in the back and guitar in the front. The voices still hold me in thralls but they are slightly different. I got alot more adjuments to do to fine tune but CDWG just upped the capability of the RM40s.  ...

Even in the early very rough prototypes, B, left with me, and without switching the PR, this is the same profound effect I heard.

The soundstage just takes on a more realistic palpability.  Nothing "JUMPS" out at you but as you sit there you realize you're now listening to more "distinctly real" sonic information, but it is distributed around the soundstage in such a way that it is like hearing in 3-D

At first it sounds a little "foreign" until the elements of realism sweeps over you, and you let your ears do their work.

Beleive it or not, our ear/brain duo will try to have you hear the "OLD" sound, clouding it a bit, and filling in the blanks, with your "sonic memory",  That is, your brain will try and recreate what you have heard since you bought your speakers.

When you relax and let it flow, you get the soundstage you pretty much always wanted.  It is pretty cool.

[Doug Ravizza]

Basically, the interface between speaker, room, and user has forever changed, and much to the better. In my opinion, non-CD speakers will now become less popular, and CD speakers more popular, as audiophiles are exposed to the improvements Constant Directivity brings.

Brian,

I am on the verge of puchasing the materials for acoustic wall treatments, would it be advisable to hold off treating the room until I am able to get CDWG's for my 40's, or do the same rules apply as with non-CDWG speakers?

[woodsyi]

The soundstage just takes on a more realistic palpability. Nothing "JUMPS" out at you but as you sit there you realize you're now listening to more "distinctly real" sonic information, but it is distributed around the soundstage in such a way that it is like hearing in 3-D

Hey John,  

I don't have all your accoutrement for listening in 3-D.  Somehow I don't think your style of decor would fly well with my wife. My daughter would love your place -- we are into building "fortress" while we are down there listening to music.  I got a chance to listen and tweak for 8 hours yesterday as the girls were out shopping.  More putty adjustment -- I always have to go until it starts getting worse and put some back on to make sure I got to the optimal point.  I ended up toning down the treble even more to 3 O'clock.  I fiddled with toe-in until I settled back to pretty much where I was to begin with.  

I listened at various points in the room at different height.  Dispite what Brian says, vertically the best position is still with my ears at the tweeter level but anywhere within the slot height sound is still very good unlike the non CDWG version.  Horizontallly, the best spot is still on axis in the middle a foot behind the crossfire junction, but you get good sound just about every where in the room.  In this respect, I really like the new CDWG set up since I am moving around and playing with my daughter most of the time I am listening.  This would also be good for those of you who have HT set up.

As for the overall sound, I am tying to balance the midrange to my liking.  It was mentioned before that my previous set up favored midrange since I tuned my set up (unwittingly) to accentuate the vocals in opera.   Right now, it sounds to me like the instruments overpower the voice(s) on some albums but it could be my bias toward operatic music.  Afterall they consign the whole orchestra into a pit in operas!  I am going through a lot of different LPs and CDs that I have some reference to live performances to "decide" if this is the "real" balance.  I guess I will actually have to check SPL by each frequency next.  You can see I am not being very "objective" here but, hey, I am taking the "subjective" approach since I am the one who listens to it most of the time.  

Just for curiosity I took the CDWG off and the sound was diffused.  I expected tonal imbalance due to changes in set up but i could still hear the diffusedness of notes on BCDWG (before constant directivity wave guide).   I think I am going to bring in a pair of 626Rs that's in my wife's office to do a comparison.  More to follow............

[ScottMayo]

I am on the verge of puchasing the materials for acoustic wall treatments, would it be advisable to hold off treating the room until I am able to get CDWG's for my 40's, or do the same rules apply as with non-CDWG speakers?

My advice is, hold off. You'll still want to treat, but you may want to treat differently. I expect to do a lot of work on this when I get CDWG'd 30's.  (And of course on the RM/x's when that's possible.)

If your treatments are easily moved and you have a place to put any extra treatments you don't end up needing, then there's little risk in treating now and adjusting later. But if you aren't in that position, or are treating ad hoc, it's probably pays to wait and experiment.

[Corbin Johnson]

Woodsy,

Great report.  I guess I'm next on deck to report, since I'll hopefully receive mine late this week.  I also ordered Black Hole sound treatment for my RM40's and sub, so I'm sure I've got a lot more work to do on the installation and another aspect to report on, but I won't know how to tell the difference between the Black Hole change and the CDWG change and I'm not going to take the time to do one installation and then the other.

I put my old grills on to see if I could adjust the pots to compensate for the grill fabric and I have found that I can achieve the same transparency by just cranking up the mid & tweeter pots about 20 degrees.  My wife is much happier with the grills on, but she can't understand why I now need new grills.  I told her the new grills are patented, so they must be better.  I'm not sure she buys this logic, but if it means the grill covers stay on, she's happy.

Corbin

[Joules]

Woodsy wrote
 "The inside of the wave guide looks DIYish"

Yea Woodsy, I feel your pain. I hate  DIYish Stuff  

[woodsyi]

Woodsy wrote
 "The inside of the wave guide looks DIYish"

Yea Woodsy, I feel your pain. I hate  DIYish Stuff  

I guess what I meant was DIMish (Do It Myselfish). I tend to produce less than "professionally" finished product after much time was spent learning to do something for the first time with less then optimal tools.  I have seen some gorgeous DIY products on this site so I stand corrected.  My humble apologies to those of you with great looking finished DIY projects.

[Bob Wilcox]

In another thread Brian said

I repeat: the CDWG allows the speaker to become a 2/3" wide line source above 200Hz. The effect is astounding

As mentioned above, the CDWG package requires a complete retuning of the speakers. While I have not been able to fully complete this process, I have made progress and my RM-40s sound quite different.

I heard an interesting effect the other day. I was playing Amused To Death. There is a track with a ringing telephone bell. There is some warble as the bell is rapidly struck that now resembles a slight doppler effect. I think after a ring begins, the bell does not return to its rest position before being struck again and again and the pitch varies (or perhaps the striker force is just inconsistent). I have heard telephones do this but the phone on the CD this ringing had always sounded a bit more homogenous in its ringing tone before. Now this inconsistency in the bell sound is pretty clear. Also, the various QSound away-from-speaker effects seem more precisely placed.

Bob