Hi Gary,
Many thanks for the great post and it was great meeting you at the show. I’m very happy you liked the system and I can’t say enough about the new Lotus amp. Vinnie did such a great job on it and it sounded so good. The system had great synergy. We had some really high dollar Triodes with silver trannies and EM320Bs there too and the Lotus has so much more control, depth, speed and grip of the speakers. They really sang and so quite too. As a tube guy, I’m totally bit by the digital bug and Dan your right on about everything we talked bought.
Thanks so much for the great compliments on the enclosures and Vinnie gets all the credit for the volt meter this was totally his idea. It gives the outside a retro look and the inside is high tech. Kind of a cool blend.
The amps can be ordered from both of us, but all technical questions go to Vinnie. Prices are still being worked out and we’ll post very soon about it.
The hemps.
Time was really short and I got the drivers about 2 weeks before the show. I ran all the simulations and came out with the first version and went to work on the boxes. When I was doing this I put them on the burner. This version which I was calling the compacts because I don’t have the names yet is a Super 3 on steroids. The wide baffle works really well and they need short stands. Noel is working on them now and he will have a fitted stand available. I had them on 12” stands at the show with a little front tilt and this was the best combination. The 18”-20” stands work well too. The short stands create some great room gain from the rear port and the speakers are so fast that the fill was really good.
The driver is the pre production version and I have to do some tweaks, but it’s pretty much all there. Looks like the production model will have a rolled wizzer, a new damping on the accordion surround and a bucking magnet. They should be here very soon. The first impressions was the extended treble. I was amazed by the treble extension these drivers have. The bass is very strong too and the best part is the speed. Very controlled and fast. The suspension and the light cone (10 grams) has a lot to do with it. Bass is strong down to an F3 of 50Hz and in room at 44Hz. The spl is 96dB and 8 ohm load. The hemp fiber is also much longer and stronger than paper and gives a great balance to the sound. I made sure the drivers had a high Q and longer x-max so that they are specifically dialed in to BR cabinets. They are versatile and the Floorstander is in the works right now. I looking for an F3 of 44 and in room at 37Hz with these. The cabinet won’t be overly large and I promised to keep the prices as low as I can.
The 4.5” drivers are on the way and I hope it works out well in the Super 3s. I want to have a floor stander version of these too.
Thanks again,
Louis