[FredT300B]

Hi, Jim. I'm glad you finally joined the discussuion, and thanks for posting the link. 

[Jim Griffin]

Fred,

Thanks for fanning the flames on line arrays.  I'll stop by to add my inputs when I can.

Jim

[Hank]

Yep, Denny, Danny got you on that one.  Everything is big here in Texas - even physics principals.
 aa

[Daygloworange]

That's what I get for asking a question that I thought was rhetorical. 

Cheers 

[klh]

I think Danny's point on time smear being miniscule (or unimportant) as the distance between the listener to the central part of the array vs the distance between the listener and the top or bottom part of the array is tiny when compared to the delay coming from 1st reflection points in a room. Since we rarely listen ouside, there are more important issues to deal with.

On a separate issue, Fred made a point that time smear is less of an issue with taller ribbons since they by nature have an extremely limited vertical off axis response. Since time smear also seems to be more appearant with shorter wavelengths, one can extrapolate that a line array using the taller BG planars would have less time smear than most pure ribbons since the BGs can be crossed over lower. One would also think a shorter array would also have less time smear. If all this hold true, then it's reasonable to think the LS6 (based on this limited discussion) would theoretically have very little time smear. Does this make sense?

[JonFo]

I find that after more than a decade of listening to Martin Logan ESL’s, that 4’ of  linear vertical dispersion is sufficient for frequencies >500Hz. Both by hearing and through ETF measurements, I don’t notice any significant ‘time smear’ from the 4’ linear wave launch from the panels.
From the front, I believe ribbons and ESL’s have pretty clean, and limited,  vertical dispersion such that one is really listening to the segment of the line that the plane of the ear is on.

With really big panels (Monoliths) that go down to 250Hz or so, I find that even the mid-range is very controlled (although room modes begin to impinge more seriously).

What I’ve found totally lacking in ESL or other ribbon or planar designs is a matching mid-bass (60 – 350hz) dispersion and power curve. A >4’ line array of 7” or so drivers playing that range fixes that very nicely.

Therefore, I find that one of the biggest benefits of a line array is smooth and plentiful bass and mid-bass with dispersion characteristics that compliment Electrostats perfectly.