Yesterday was a watershed day for us. Dennis Murphy flew in with his "magic comparo" box and six of us spent the day putting prototypes of this new design through their paces. We had three complete prototype pairs up and running in order to make a final determination as to which midrange would make the cut.
I am very happy to report that it was no contest. There was a clear, unanimous favorite.
So after three years of planning and almost a year building and testing prototypes, the design is now in the books and we will shortly be announcing this new model.
We are currently building one pair each of the 10" and 12" woofer versions. As soon as they are finished, we will shoot some pictures, do a complete write-up and post the new design on our web site. There isn't much more to say about the design until then.
We owe a debt of gratitude to all those who helped make this project possible. Dennis has invested countless hours in this labor of love and deserves all of the praise which will undoubtedly be heaped upon him. We probably drove him crazy and I apologize for that.
I'm sure I drove our staff members crazy as well, especially Sam Zioli, John Fallows, Teresa Allen, Juan Luis and Ammar Dabesh. They put in countless hours on prototype after prototype and I'm sure they wondered if we were pouring money down the drain on a project that would never see the light of day. Hopefully they will derive the benefits they deserve for their efforts.
Others I would like to give special thanks to include Jeff Bagby for design work on the spectacular woofer section, Paul Kittinger for early work on the TL prototype version of the woofer section (in the end it didn't work out, but his help in reaching that conclusion was invaluable), John Janowitz for building some great woofers, Alex from RAAL for his work on the spectacular ribbon tweeter, FAL for their tireless efforts even though we were unable to use their driver in the end, Mike Vettraino for some very accurate design and CAD work, Bob Bogart for ongoing work on custom-designed polymers which will be used in the final product, Tom Boyer and the staff at Solid Concepts for CNC and milling work, and the list goes on and on. (Are my 45 seconds up yet?)
The point is, this was a huge project in the end - far more complex than imagined when Dennis and I began discussing it about 4 years ago. And without the help from all these people and more, we would never have reached the finish line.
Personally, I am very pleased with the results. Along the way, I was often told we were crazy designing a high end flagship model in the middle of challenging economic times. On those occasions, my response was simple...I'm not really concerned with whether or not we sell enough pairs to recoup our R&D costs. We simply wanted to see what we could accomplish with no restraints. And now that I have the speakers I wanted personally, I need to thank everyone who made that possible. You are all the very best.
- Jim
