Your speakers configuration is similar to Seigfried Linkwitz and his Orion open baffles, except that his system is heavily equalized, is your speakers' characteristics similar to that Orion? I have not heard the Orion.
I have heard the Orion, and while there are some things similar about them they are very different speakers in many other ways.
For one thing this speaker also has about 12db higher sensitivity than the Orion.
Do you think after you have finalised these speakers they can be considered as a pair of reference speakers for playing music 2 way at home?
Very much so.
At the end of the day these speakers are not cheap just considering the costs of speakers drivers alone.
Yes, but a fully finished pair ready for play is about half the price of an Orion. The Orion requires a minimum of six channels of amplification. This one requires only two. So you not only need 1/3 as many channels of amplification, but they can be less expensive single digit tube amps or even a small chip amp. Now it really starts to look even more the bargain.
Also one has to consider comparing these speakers against speakers like OB5 and OB7(both of them much cheaper), they must be clearly sound better for DIYers to consider building them.
They will be a lot more expensive compared to those, but again they do a lot of things that those speakers can't do. I think it is well worth it, and I am not sure that selling these as kits is the best way to move them. I may just offer them fully assembled and make a few kit deals for a limited few that think they need to build them for themselves.
Welcome to open baffle bass. This is what I heard with Linkwitz' Orions and John K's Nao dipoles. The more dipole bass systems that were in the room, the better. However, with servo control this might solve that problem to an extent.
Yes, unlike those other two, this pair will hit some really high output levels, but that is not even the half of it.
With the Orion, gain is added to keep the low end linear. The low Q Peerless woofers start rolling off pretty quick and require a lot of gain to keep them level with the rest of the speaker. Unfortunately the high Q woofers won't take a lot of power before reaching their X-max. I think in some cases the output levels below 40Hz have been reduced (less gain applied) to keep them from being over driven. On top of that issue the drivers are then limited to their compliance to bring them back to rest.
The SW-12-16FR servo controlled woofers are a very high .748 Qts as they are designed to play in free air. So they handle a lot more power in that application. Then with the added control of the servo system they stop on a dime. Once you have heard what the servo control system can do the rest isn't even close. The SW-12-16FR's are also larger (12" woofers) compared to the Peerless woofers (10" woofers) used in the Orion's. So they can sweep more air too.
My brother was over here this morning and gave these a workout with some Metallica. He was impressed with the speed of the bottom end but felt they needed a little more umf down there. So I told him, no problem. I went over to the servo sub amp and bumped it up a hair giving him the output level in the bottom end that he felt the Metallica tracks really needed.
I was expecting the simple turn of the volume knob to have added a little thickening in the lower vocal region but was surprised at how little it was effected.
I then threw on a different Metallica album and listened to the song "One". Those double bass hits were stunning. That was the tightest, fastest, and cleanest I have ever heard. This is truly impressive and I can't wait to share this one with everyone else in the audio community.
