[milford3]

  Here is Axiom's new tower (biplole design) they're introducing at an audio show in Montreal.  No word on production schedules, mearsurements etc.  It's that new.

[FireGuy]

I've been following Axiom's anticipated new speaker announcement for while.   I suppose we all had visions/expectations of the new model but I was not expecting this.  I appears their engineers are solving (or have solved)  inherent engineering flaws common with bipole designs.  If this is the case, and given Axiom's excellent (if not industry-leading) price-to-performance ratio...this M80 Flagship look-a-like could be ground breaking.

[milford3]

I tried to call Allan Lofft about the new tower, but he's out right now.  He will call back.  He always does.

[mrhyfy]

looks familiar!


"Bryston loudspeaker"

[milford3]

Yes they do look like Bryston's.  Axiom drivers are used in many speakers enclosures.

[FireGuy]

I haven't heard confirmation yet  from Bryston of a collaboration for an Axiom-designed loudspeaker.  I tend to believe it's going to more in the application area.  And if so, the announcement may be coming soon.

[mrhyfy]

I'm fairly sure (can't quote it) James Tanner has acknowledged Axioms involvement in the project.

[milford3]

Notice the difference between the two.  Axiom speaker is ported in front and rear.  The Bryston is not.  But we don't have a pic of the Bryston rear so is the Bryston ported or not?  Both look very nice.

By the way,  Duke lost!  Great game.

[FireGuy]

New Bryston Monos for the new Axiom?

Here's Axiom's engineering philosophy on this new design (Linear Field Radiator)...

The solution? Come up with a way to give the speaker a perfect power response, get rid of the cancellation, and make sure the tonal balance is perfect. Easy, right? Yes, it does sound easy, but practically it's difficult to implement. You need to drive the front and back sections differently and independently. That's why we need an extra stereo amplifier for this speaker. We also need to have far more control over the acoustic response of both sections of the speaker, something impossible with conventional crossover networks on their own. 4-channel DSP to the rescue!

If you do this right, and, believe me, that takes a mountain of R&D, you can have your cake and eat it to. Exactly what we are doing and, more importantly why, will remain a secret. What we have been able to achieve is what we believe to be the first "omnidirectional" speaker, which we've codenamed LFR (Linear Field Radiator), that does not trade off neutral tonal balance and imaging precision for an artificially big sense of space. If you have listened to bipolar speakers before and haven't liked them, you need to listen to these!

Source:  Andrew - Axiom Audio

[milford3]

Ears, ears.  I have to listen both!!

[Duke]

Looks to me like the speaker is only bipolar above the first crossover frequency; in other words, there are no rear-facing woofers.   One possibility is that the crossover frequency is high enough to avoid the wrap-around notch (see link below), which would be excaberated by the relatively narrow, deep baffle.  Another possibility is that the rear-facing drivers are connected in reverse polarity (dipole instead of bipole), which wouldn't result in bass cancellation because the bass is only coming from the normal-polarity front woofers.

If smooth power response is a high priority (as is apparently the case), then it is quite possible that the output of the rear-facing drivers is tailored to complement that of the front-facing drivers and compensate for their non-constant-directivity characteristics.  This approach could give a smooth net power response but imo it would not be ideal because the spectral balance of the reflected energy from the rear-facing drivers would be significantly different from the spectral balance of the direct sound from the front-facing drivers. 

In the absence of relevant information from the manufacturer this is of course all just armchair quarterbacking, but I have played the bipolar game a bit myself and so have some appreciation for the challenges and benefits.

http://www.hifizine.com/2010/06/the-controlled-pattern-offset-bipole-loudspeaker/

[milford3]

Great read Duke.  This bipolar design from Axiom will prove a very interesting listen.

[mrhyfy]

notice the Bryston speaker has "better" drivers

[milford3]

Collaboration from Axiom and Bryston has not been revealed yet.  It looks to me that the only difference between the drivers are the caps.  And caps mean little to no sonic difference.

[Letitroll98]

The latest I heard Bryston was rethinking releasing a speaker line.  The larger caps could mean larger voice coils.  Or they could be for appearance.  Or to modify the upper range of the driver.