[phoenix_rising]

Hi All,

Has anyone tried enabling a timepiece yet and if someone has what were the results ?

I would be interested in any thoughts from Bob as well on Enabling speakers.

Thanks

[ted_b]

In all my years in this hobby I've never heard the term "enabling".  What is it, in regards to speakers?

[mcullinan]

I think its sexual...
 
Mike

[mikef]

Mike, you think everything is sexual....

[doug s.]

In all my years in this hobby I've never heard the term "enabling".  What is it, in regards to speakers?

read about it here:
http://www.planet10-hifi.com/index.html

and, a pic of an "enabled" fostex driver.  it's the dot's, stupid!   


doug s.

[mcullinan]

Mike, you think everything is sexual....

hehe... tru...
please blame it on the wife and being married.
Mike

[konut]

What a coincidence. I spoke with Bob about this last week. For a brief explanation of what this is see                    http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue21/standingwaves.htm
Although Bob had not heard of this, he immediately saw the validity of this approach. His feeling was that in order to be implemented properly, the entire speaker would need to be evaluated rather than just treating raw drivers and dropping them into the cabinets. He also pointed out the this would invalidate his warranty.

[RodMCV]

Good link, thanks.

[Karsten]

Hmmm, so now we will have speakers with miniature footprints all over..

I could possibly imagine some effect in treating domes or cones under controlled circumstances, preferably done by the manufacturer of the driver. Definitely not a thing i would recommend doing on improvised DIY basis.

Doing it all over the speaker would look like an attack of a delirious telegraphist. However I would not rule out the possibility, that it could have some effect, to make some sort of optimized pattern in the inner and outher surface structure of the speaker cabinets. Again, I think this would have to be designed in from the beginning, to be nice and really effective.

Regards,
Karsten

[phoenix_rising]

I think its sexual...
 
Mike

Yep,

From what others have been reporting about the effects it is a real eargasm.

I hope that Bob does something down this line so users can buy the enabled drivers from him and we can just drop them into the existing TimePieces.

phoenix

[konut]

Hmmm, so now we will have speakers with miniature footprints all over..

I could possibly imagine some effect in treating domes or cones under controlled circumstances, preferably done by the manufacturer of the driver. Definitely not a thing i would recommend doing on improvised DIY basis.

Doing it all over the speaker would look like an attack of a delirious telegraphist. However I would not rule out the possibility, that it could have some effect, to make some sort of optimized pattern in the inner and outher surface structure of the speaker cabinets. Again, I think this would have to be designed in from the beginning, to be nice and really effective.

Regards,
Karsten

There is quite a long thread at DIYAudio forum about the EnABL process, 44 pages and 1093 posts.       http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=100399
I have read, and continue to read, the entire thread. The originator, and holder of the patent, is Bud Purvine who has been doing this 'mod' for 30+ years. In that time, there is only 1 driver he says this process has not been able to help. When I mentioned this to Bob, he suspected it was a metal cone driver. I could not recall during the chat. In going back to the thread I found that Mr. Purvine originally started these experiments with Walsh(OHM) drivers, which are metal cone. Here is a quote, from post 994 of that thread, referring to the driver that was not helped.


"EV TH 350 Absolutely no detectable difference between treated and untreated, in two systems. Does begin to shine a light upon why horns are beloved by so many, even with their frequency band width limited drawbacks.

The sound character of a treated horn does not become that of an EnABL'd driver when EnABL'd. The horns inherent clarity just becomes more intense. So, apparently, horns with properly designed compression drivers are the equivalent of an EnABL'd driver, due to the CD imposing a lack of same frequency ringing just as EnABL does."

This could lead one to hypothesize that the wave guide of the Minis already minimizes the artifacts that are tamed by the EnABL process in the tweeter. The woofer, however, might be a candidate for treatment.
Mr. Purvine is incredibly generous with his time and expertise in that thread and has posted the correct placement of the 'footprints' to people who submit photos of the driver in question, using a CAD program. FWIW, there is universal praise from those who have tried this technique. It is often stated, that they cannot go back to the untreated driver. As for 'measurable' data, the people who have measured distortion characteristics of treated vs untreated drivers find that, though distortion is not lowered significantly, it is redistributed in such a way as to increase low level detail and bring clarity to otherwise congested and complex musical passages.

If I were a  richer man, I would not hesitate to 'sacrifice' a set of woofers for this experiment. But I'm just a poor working slob just happy to get a standard set of Minis.
If Bob wasn't so busy, his curiosity might cause him to be willing to try this.

[BudP]

Hi All,
I am the individual behind the EnABL mask. konut thrust an e mic in front of my face and I find myself compelled to type......

Looking at the drivers in question. Appears that 104 dB is an effective maximum radiated power from the 100 watts continuous shown. I will assume that the drivers and cabinet are beginning to show signs of strain at these levels. That further transient excursions, utilizing the 350 watt max are increasingly strained, flattened in sound stage, compressed and smushed together into a less well understood sonic presentation, than what is found at more reasonable, and typical, listening levels.

Were they to be EnABL'd this warning of eminent driver death would no longer be available. so the manufacturer is very correct in pointing out that the warranty would be void. Not because EnABL will in any way damage the drivers by applying it, or listening at the same reasonable levels as before. But, with 9 to 15 dB more uncompromisable headroom available from the drivers emitter surfaces, it is quite likely you will burn out the voice coils, before you realize that, just because it sounds so good when played ever louder, that does not mean that the original thermal and movement limits, were also removed when the dynamic headroom was raised.

As a saving grace, the EnABL process will also supply you with an additional 50 to 70 dB down coherent signal sources, that are no longer lost in the tumult and resonance of same frequency signals, in a "hall of mirrors sense" that all pseudo pistonic drivers, not treated to proper termination as a bending wave device exhibit. The EnABL process does provide this termination, without altering, THD, frequency response, or sensitivity in any appreciable amount. So, the "character" that attracted you so much in the first place, will not be trifled with. Instead, the previous boundaries of coherent information, at both ends and in the middle of the dynamic scale, will be drastically extended and remain constant, regardless of the average level of playback.

This ridiculous set of statements will be found to be true across the frequency spectrum, in all types, sizes and formats of drivers. Except for the superlative EV TH350 tweeters. Multi way systems are just as amenable as are single driver systems. Applying it to a bass speaker provides a dramatic increase in texture, musician applied emphasis, correct decay of notes, spatial definition, tonality and a lack of room resonance excitation.

All of this stuff has always been there, just covered by the lack of proper termination, since almost everyone thinks of drivers as pistons. This causes them to use mass load damping schemes, with abrupt changes in surfaces, mass, and wave prorogation speed. All of these mass damping schemes actually just make the reflections and diffractions worse, everywhere but the one tiny area in the frequency spectrum where they actually do provide benefit. Even Baraneck, the "father" of the modern first approximation analysis of speakers, as pistons, knew this was an erroneous presentation and pointed it out in a mid chapter of his pivotal work "Acoustics". Unfortunately, he did not have Lincoln Walsh's work to refer to and left the solution to the problem up in the air.

Best thing to do is get someone to treat a set of "other" drivers for you, perhaps as a second system. I can point you to an extremely good source if you wish, but hesitate to do so in this forum, for this manufacturer.An alternative is to learn how to apply EnABL to your computer speakers, or car speakers or to the egregious boom box residing in your home. Tools needed are cheap, under $30, time to learn proper procedures, about an hour of practice. Time to treat two simple cone, full range drivers, after you can get to their emitter surface, about two hours, total time, spread over three days. The results will astonish you, and they will come from no longer hearing something you were not really conscious of, except as a loss of "quality" of reproduction. EnABL doesn't "add" audiophile qualities, it removes impediments to hearing music and it's inherent qualities.

All for now, my two typing digits are fed up with this abuse.

Bud

[mgalusha]

Hi Bud,

Just wanted to say welcome to Audio Circle and I'd like to thank you for your generosity with the information about the EnABL mask. I've been reading the loooong thread on DIY audio as well and I'm about ready to take the plunge on my speakers (not SP Tech).

Mike G.

[Aether Audio]

Guys,

Interesting subject.   Feel free to discuss and speculate to your heart's content.  As for me, I don't think I want to get involved in this one.  You know me... old "hard-core engineer" Bob has to see some scientific data and test results first.  I have my suspicions and/or opinions, but you know what they say about those and sphincters... everybody has one.

Have fun 
-Bob

[konut]

Thanks Bud, for weighing in, and welcome to AudioCircle. I appreciate you taking your time to comment on EnABL in general and as it would apply to the Timepiece Mini in particular. As I've never heard an EnABLed speaker, I cannot give any first hand experience as to the effect. As with much info that is found on the web, I've learned to be more than a little skeptical as to the veracity of the 'facts'. Having said that, its particularly encouraging that those who have made the leap, and have tried your process, unanimously agree as to the positive benefits. It would take a conspiracy of monumental proportions to have gotten the participants in the EnABL Processes thread, at DIYAudio, to agree so universally.

I find your comments about assuming strain at high power levels puzzling. Usually manufactures of drivers err on the conservative side of power capability to avoid liability with regard to the survivability of their products. It has been my experience that as long as an undistorted signal is maintained, most drivers are capable of much more output without distress. That is a general statement. With regard to the Mini, in particular, I'm sure that because of the triple constrained layer construction of the cabinets and the careful implementation of the crossover, using premium parts, the distress you assume just does not apply in this case.

As a caveat, I would like to inform all those not familiar with Bud's writing style that he has an incredible, self deprecating, sense of humor and that any statements he has made that might be construed as confrontational, be looked at in that light instead. I hope I am not being to presumptuous or patronising

[BudP]

I am persuaded that all things perceived are ordered by those that are not.

Bob,

Grab your hip waders and join as we probe the grass of CSD for movement within the first 20 usec, or the demo of phase lag to lead at 16 kHz and above, across a 30 deg span, pivoting at 1 kHz or so, without altering the frequency response, in a physically, rigidly controlled, set of tests. Or perhaps join John Ver Halen from Lowther America as he ponders why nothing changes in measurements, but everything is different, except what he is used to.

We have yet to find a test, based upon pistonic theory of operation, that shows any sort of changes. Very embarrassing to someone, somewhere, but they are pretending to have clothes on anyway. If the audible loss of noise and confusion, depth of field to infinity and vastly improved low level wide band signal coherence weren't so compelling, I would have shut up a long time ago.

Please join in, perhaps your suspicions and opinions will lead the rest of us to some further understandings. None of ours seem to make a whit of difference to the continued functionality, nor ability to evade time tested audio test measures, of these foolish chicken tracks.

Bud

[Aether Audio]

Oh... as a little "adjunct" to the above...

The main reason having your SP Tech speakers "Enabled" would void your warranty is this:  Let's say a woofer fails because of manufacturer defect.  Well, we as a manufacturer of systems built with these drivers have a little more "clout" with the driver manufacturer than you as a hobbyist typically would.  Even though a driver may be technically beyond its warranty period, if we return units that have such a defect there's a good chance we'll get credit for it anyway... as long as there are no signs of tampering or modification.

Well, I doubt seriously that the driver manufacturer would be so gracious as to extend credit when a driver is returned to them with little "dots" all over it.  Sure, those dots would have nothing to do with the driver's failure, but I can just hear the driver manufacturer's thoughts as I write.  If they were to "permit" that then the next thing you know they'd be getting drivers back with all sorts of mods having been made and customers wanting credit for them too.  That's a can of worms they wouldn't want to open and I completely understand why.

So... not intending to rain on anybody's parade, but that's why we can't warranty a driver after it's been treated by the "Enabled" process, or any other for that matter.  Now, if such a process were actually provided by the driver manufacturer... well, I guess the warranty issue would be a moot point.  Who knows?  Maybe we'll start seeing some of them offer such devices.  If so, you know me... I'm open to anything.  Until then I think we'll just have to live with poor old "disabled" drivers.

OK... just to stick my neck out a little... I wonder how much effect within the passband of operation the Enabled process would have on a metal cone driver crossed over at or below 1kHz, with a 4th order L-R slope?    Due to their rigidity, the drivers we use "push" their "bending wave" break-up modes out to around 5kHz.  Due to our low crossover, that ugly gremlin is well out of the picture.  But...at that frequency they do ring like a bell, but below that they behave as darn near perfect pistons.  That's the whole point behind the concept of using a metal cone in the first place - no cone flexing and hence lower distortion within the confines of the pistonic region. So... does the Enabled process still apply?  If so, please tell me how as I'm all ears.

-Bob

PS.  Hey... seeing that the woofers we're using now are "disabled," maybe we can get their cost subsidised by the Social Security Administration.

[BudP]

Bob

Thank you for commenting further on your suspicions. And for explaining a manufacturers view point on warranty. I fully concur with both.

I have not treated a metal cone driver, that is a direct radiator in the conventional pistonic sense. My comments come from other cone materials and/or other metal driver configurations. I have treated metal drivers, however, I am not advocating that anyone here treat their SP drivers. I am here only because of an invite to comment upon EnABL and any comments I have made are not to be assumed to be coming from a position of treatment advocacy. If you are happy with the music your systems make, you would be foolish to alter them, most especially when the "expert" on those alterations cautions against it and the designer and producer also says, don't do it.

Now, with disclaimers out of the way, I still don't want you to treat your SP drivers.

Here are some inching's of my neck, out into the chopping block. The use of a metal driver with a broad pistonic pass band, deep within that pass band, is highly intelligent. Lot's of folks don't do this.

I don't think that the bending wave questions, brought up by both Baraneck and Corrington were aimed at this special case. Nor were Lincoln Walsh's investigations. But the EnABL process may still offer some forms of benefit to your stiff driver. The mechanism that causes EnABL to function as a termination is one of exclusion. Energy that has passed beyond the pattern, is not allowed to re pass that pattern, within the time interval allowed, by the distance of the pattern from the final cone terminus, as a reflection from that cone edge.

I will inch my neck out a bit further and say that you do have same frequency ringing, within a very short time period, from edge reflection, be it at end of metal or mass damping surround. There are some very clever edge terminations shown over on the DIY Audio site, that could be used as a surround based termination, that would also eliminate these reflections. They use noticeably more mass than EnABL, but they are quite effective. Search for Mamboni, or look for the Ohm Walsh thread. I don't think your metal driver has these termination mechanisms, but I could be very wrong here. Just so you don't have to waste time searching.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=100390&perpage=25&pagenumber=4
post # 81 onward.

The other event that EnABL controls is edge diffraction, out into the third dimension, off of the cone and into the air as a compression wave. You can use it to allow the transverse wave to "step over" fairly tall objects, without allowing Raleigh waves, or other transient standing waves to form, or narrow angle diffractions to occur. It will also control these events on incident surfaces, horn terminus, baffle edges etc.

What I cannot claim is that these aids would be as useful for the SP metal cone, as they are for cones made from other materials. I would appreciate your journeying to these particular sites on the EnABL thread and would ask you to review the test data and procedures provided there, by SoonSGC, a retired Aerospace engineer living in Taiwan.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=1206356#post1206356
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=1221791#post1221791
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=1226268#post1226268
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=1227789#post1227789
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=1231568#post1231568

I find his materials to be interesting. Please note that the actual applied EnABL pattern, on metal cones, will have considerably less mass than what George Soon uses for his experiments. Not that I think he was in error, at all.

Here are the final neck extensions of the night. The pattern is typically applied using a flat filled acrylic paint. It is 100% soluble in isopropyl alcohol. We have not even hinted at discussing how domes respond.

Now, thanks for welcoming me and my oddball activities. I sincerely hope I have not offended anyone with my comments. You will find that my brain stem is not screwed into the more, normal socket.... and yes, it is very dark here.....

Bud

[phoenix_rising]

Hi Bob,

Well I for one hope you test an Enabled driver, it would cost very little to try it and see if there was any audible benefit from the process. If there was you could offer an upgrade to existing users.

phoenix

[BudP]

Hi All,

Just a note to let you all know about a three part EnABL tutorial, now completed, over on the Hawthorne Audio forum. Pages 8 and 9.

http://www.hawthorneaudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=21618#21618

Most of the information can be found in the DIY Audio, EnABL monster, but I took pity on the newbies over there..... and on the rest of you too.

Bud