Well
It is some time later and I have learned something about an OB setup. As listening to music is so important for me I cannot stop at just listening. To what i am listening must be realistic in its presentation. I am not the only one. It does not matter how much i love Mahler or Rachmaninoff, Lou Reed, Beau Brummels or Sigur Ross, I cannot listen to them on a mediocre set up or worse on a ghetto blaster.
If i hear a violin a voice or a bell ringing, it must sound real enough as simulation to fool my brain that it is the real thing i am listening to. This is not an easy accomplishment and there are many diverse ways which will make you happy with this "real enough simulation"
Ob is the way to go but with the proper set up. I have disregarded maybe not justified the PAudio 8 inch SN-8MB series II. They missed the ehh 3D placement that i need to be fooled. But i replaced them with the B200. Before applying the B 200 in my setup i painted them with 4 layers of C37 violin lacquer ( also did this but not before placing them but after some days listening, to the SN-8MB and found it to be a big improvement in clarity and micro details).
After 4 days drying I mounted the drivers in my simple OB baffle and used the DEQX to give them in 2 way filter. 60db cut off at 150 hz and 2 khz The Peerless HD tweeter took off after 2 khz ( also 60db/oct) and GR Research servo woofers (4x) took care of the bass.
It was a minor improvement over the PAudio, but was it an improvement? I was very dissappointed> After all i have read many positive stories of the B200 in this circle. I played them in for 5 days non stop with the ISOTEK burning in CD and that improved the sound into more lush, less hifi, more musical. But in no way i could be fooled i listened to the real thing.
How strange, I have very cheap Eltax monitors in my kitchen costing 70 dollars a speaker that sounded more coherent and whole with the DEQX and such a pleasure to listen to and so musical. ( I admit i changed all the cheaply caps in the Xover with Sonicap generation 1) But still??
Then as an experiment as the B200 are essentially sold as a single driver speaker, i Xover with the DEQX at 150 hz and 8kHz and wow... that made the difference. Suddenly the sound became whole for me and my brain happily completed the simulation in a live sounding one.
But how can this be? The DEQX is renowned for its continuous phase correction in real time. So whatever X-over freq. you choose the tweeter will always be in phase with the bass-mid driver over all freqs. So i experimented and found out it was the back wave, the dipole effect
that in my case for my brain, that was needed to make the sound whole.
My tweeter is not a dipole so all the sound over 2khz in my original setup, was monopole, not OB at all. It just fired in front of the baffle to me. I dont have a tweeter at the backside of the baffle.
When the B200 took over the high freqs it did broadcast them to the back wall . After playing with the different Xover points i found the the best sound came when i set the Xover to 4,5 khz ( the diff between 4 or 5 khz was subtle) . The high tones were much more airier when they came from the Peerless HD. But the sub high tones under 4-5 khz had to be dipole.
Also for some reason when the high tones ( 2-4khz) came from the B200 they had more slam, for some reason more robust, more body dare i say then when at the same loudness coming from the 1 inch tweeter.
So after all i have not judge the Paudio in a fair way. I do need a second back firing tweeter in order to listen to the Paudio well.
But i am a very happy camper at the moment. The B200 is a super midranger . All its rising freqs are tamed by the DEQX and they sound transparent and fast. The sound in OB is BIG and life like.
I can really imagine how Paul Hynes is happy with his tower of power of 8x B200 a channel. I would urge you Paul to paint them
My listening setup is a modded SB3 with Paul Hynes PWS ( 3.3V and 5V) and digital total mod of Wayne and S/PDIF mod of PAT.
2 highly modded non FB triode PP Jadis tube amps for mid and highs and Servo woofers with servo amps from GR-Research
and Felix (6) with different RC coils for front end or amp duties
