Welcome to Audio Circle.
Interesting looking design. I like the concept. Any plots with on/off axis measurements? Any experiments with adding a dipole tweeter to increase the soundstage?
Not sure why folks are bothered by the amp suggestion. Looks like these are clearly not designed for the small SET folks. The nature of a planer 3 way crossover speaker probably means they need some current to achieve realistic dynamic range passages.
I'm curious about the drivers. Are they proprietary, or sourced? If sourced, what brand(s)?
Are you selling direct from the web only, or adding dealers? Coming to Capital Audiofest?
Hello, Rusty -
Thanks very much for your email and compliments. I do have measurements of the reference model but don't want to publish yet until I confirm production models. Each speaker will be measured separately so it matches the reference speaker. I can tell you that the off axis response looks really great and there is minimal lobing vertically on the production sample. Response is truly +/- 3 db from 35 - 20K.
In my life I've owned some wonderful speakers such as the Infinity Servo-Statik 1A. So ahead of its time - but a pain to set up and depended on the room mores so than a point source. I am playing with adding a rear planar on larger models with its own level control - but that will depend on blind listening when that model is prototyped. Hopefully you will have a chance to hear EDDIE and you may think dipole is not needed. Even I was surprised after all was said and done with the soundstage.
The amp issue is very real for people. Yes, it's not a SET. It will play at lower levels with a smaller amp. But as you so keenly mentioned, current will allow for greater dynamics. Low current really makes the bottom end suffer... One of my test amps - a hybrid with Class A tube front end and Darlington array on the back end tweaked toward Class A just falls apart on the bottom on higher volumes. The NuPrime STA-9 is awesome. The difference is outrageous. At that level you can hear the difference between DACs in a very real way - not slight but huge.
(I am developing RUBY - a smaller 2-Way that is VERY efficient.)The mid-woof is very low mass designed to match the planar. I chose the ribbon over a planar tweeter so as not to sound so sterile on the upper octaves. The Strat F1 planar is totally proprietary. I love that driver. From an engineering perspective it's amazing. They are substantial to say the least.
John Casler is the exclusive marketing guy right now for EVOKE. You may know him from VMPS. We are showing at THE Show in Newport Beach next month. Those are the only plans for right now. You can find him here on the EVOKE threads.
Please drop an email if you have any other questions.
Thanks,
Mark