[Duke]

The Cloud Chasers are the third and final speaker of my new more-affordable lineup.   The same controlled-pattern offset bipolar configuration is used that made its debut in the $9k, Golden Ear Award-winning Dream Makers, but in a somewhat smaller and more affordable package:



The Cloud Chasers use the same drivers as the Rhythm Prisms and Planetarium Gammas, but with a second horn and woofer on the rear of the enclosure.  The rear woofer is closer to the floor than the front woofer - this is the "offset".

Advantages of this format include:

a)  Puts more spectrally-correct energy into the reverberant field while preserving the benefits of a fairly narrow-pattern first-arrival sound.  When set up as recommended, this additional reverberant energy arrives late enough that it is beneficial instead of detrimental;

b)  Wide sweet spot and good tonal balance throughout the room when set up correctly;

c)  No baffle-step falloff in the lower midrange region;

d)  Reduced floor-bounce notch;

e)  When set up as recommended the front and rear woofers are each a different distance from the room boundaries in all three dimensions, resulting in smoother in-room bass. 

The distance-from-the-wall requirement is identical to what a fullrange dipole speaker calls for, so that's not something new.  I've chosen drivers that I think are a very good value, and I think the room-interaction advantages of this configuration are of greater benefit than twice-as-expensive drivers would be.

My target market is people who really like the way a good planar speaker sounds, but who also want serious impact and dynamic capability, perhaps along with specialty-tube-amp friendliness.  In my opinion much of the magic of a good planar derives from its dipolar radiation pattern, as the backwave contributes additional reverberant field energy that arrives late enough to be beneficial with proper setup (sound familiar?).  Several of my customers have replaced rather well-respected planars with my bipolars, and here you can read the online review of one of them.   

Like my other vented speakers, the port tuning will be user-adjustable.  Among other things, this will facilitate integration with a subwoofer system.  By plugging one of the ports and lengthening the other, the tuning is lowered drastically and the -3 dB point is raised to about 60 Hz.  A sealed Swarm or other high-quality subwoofer system can then be added if extension down into the bottom octave is desired.

The Cloud Chasers are equally at home at low SPLs in a modest room or high SPLs in a large room, though subwoofer support would probably be required in the latter case. 

Specifications:

Type:  Controlled-pattern offset bipole, vented box

Radiation pattern:  90 degrees in the horizontal plane both front and back from about 1.4 kHz on up

Impedance:  16 ohms nominal, tube-friendly

Efficiency:  95 dB/1 watt, but note that the 2.83 volt sensitivity is only 92 dB because 2.83 volts into 16 ohms is 1/2 watt 

Recommended amplifier power:  3 to 800 watts

Thermal compression:  Less than 1 dB at 100 watts (115 dB SPL)

Typical bandwidth, solid state amp:  mid-30's to 18 kHz

Typical bandwidth, low damping factor tube:  low-30's to 18 kHz

Dimensions:  43" tall by 22" wide by 15" deep

Estimated weight:  175 pounds each

Price:  $5500 per pair, plus shipping

[lonewolfny42]

Duke....

The Cloud Chasers use the same drivers as the Rhythm Prisms and Planetarium Gammas, but with a second horn and woofer on the rear of the enclosure.  The rear woofer is closer to the floor than the front woofer - this is the "offset".

How about a photo of the back...

Good luck with the new speakers...

[Duke]

Duke....

How about a photo of the back...

Good luck with the new speakers...

Hmmm.... I'll have to think about it.   I've pretty much verbally given away what I'm doing back there, haven't I?  Jim Griffin figured it all out over a year ago, and he's never seen any of my speakers. 

I'll reveal this much:  On the back of the cabinet there is one port near the top, offset to one side, and another port near the bottom, offset to the other side.  The idea of course is to physically spread out the bass sources so that each interacts with the room boundaries differently.  Now I could have achieved a bit more distance between the ports by putting the bottom one on the front of the cabinet, but made a concession to aesthetics and kept the front relatively clean.  I'm not sure how much of my wierdness people are willing to put up with. 

[rajacat]

  It would be interesting and unique if you had such a room that the bipoles could be in the center (with proper spacing of course) so you could have wide sweet spots facing the front and rear of the cabinets. Maybe try to design a solution that would hide the speaker cables and terminals.  The speakers couldn't be faced inwards @45 degrees however  I do prefer my bipoles facing straight ahead. Must be the room in my case?

-Roy

 
 

[FredT300B]

Will you be taking these to the Lone Star Audio Fest?

[pardales]

Could you say a little more about what is a proper set-up for these speakers? Can they be placed near wall?

[Norris Wilson]

Duke, the new Cloud Chaser bipole speakers look great.  And the price certainly is more main stream.  I am looking forward to seeing you and Lori at LSAF.  And listening to any of your new creations that you bring.

Norris

[226bw]

Hi Duke,

The speakers look great! Exceptional price. I assume this is the speaker you suggested would be a good fit with my listening preferences.

Cheers,
Chris

[EthanH]

These speakers look pretty cool.  It seems like your design philosophy involves everything I like in a speaker:  enveloping soundstage, non-fatiguing sound, great and punchy bottom end, and the ability to be driven by amps that actually sound good.  I really look forward to hearing your stuff one day.

Good luck with the new line.

[Duke]

  It would be interesting and unique if you had such a room that the bipoles could be in the center (with proper spacing of course) so you could have wide sweet spots facing the front and rear of the cabinets. Maybe try to design a solution that would hide the speaker cables and terminals.  The speakers couldn't be faced inwards @45 degrees however  I do prefer my bipoles facing straight ahead. Must be the room in my case?

I design my speakers with that extreme toe-in in mind.  The expectation is that the listener in the middle of the sweet spot will be about 20 degrees off-axis, and most speakers, probably including Louis's bipolars [correct me if I'm wrong!], are optimized for best response on-axis. 

Now my bipoles can certainly be set up as you describe, in what might be called "room divider mode".  I've heard of Maggies being set up like that.

Will you be taking these to the Lone Star Audio Fest?

Either these or the Rhythm Prisms, more than likely.   Do you have a preference?

Could you say a little more about what is a proper set-up for these speakers? Can they be placed near wall? 

Good question.  I would say that 3.5 feet between the center of the back of the speaker and the wall is about the minimum.  When you get too close to the wall, you start to get a coloration from the strong early reflection.  With greater distance from the wall not only is the time delay increased, but also the angle from which that early reflection arrives.  In general the greater the horizontal angle between the first arrival sound and its early reflections, the better from a coloration standpoint. 

Okay, that was more digression than needed, wasn't it?  Briefly have the speakers at least 3.5 feet out into the room, toed in at 45 degrees (as shown in the photo), such that their axes criss-cross in front of the normal listening position.  If you can pull them them out five or six feet, so much the better for image depth and for the speakers disappearing as the apparent sound sources.  Proximity to the side walls seems to be less of an issue.  Briefly, anywhere you could place Maggies, you could place the Cloud Chasers.

Now very best imaging for one person comes from aiming the speakers right straight at the listener's ears, in which case you might want to bring down the treble a wee bit.  This is accomplished by changing an external resistor in a cup on the back of the speaker, which serves to "tilt" the tweeter's response up or down.  I think this arrangement has several advantages over a variable L-pad.

Duke, the new Cloud Chaser bipole speakers look great.  And the price certainly is more main stream.  I am looking forward to seeing you and Lori at LSAF.  And listening to any of your new creations that you bring.

Thanks, Norris!   Let me know which ones you'd like for me to bring.

The speakers look great! Exceptional price. I assume this is the speaker you suggested would be a good fit with my listening preferences.

Thanks Chris, and yes these are the ones I had in mind.  I really think that one of the keys to recreating the "feel" of a live performance is a fairly late-arriving, powerful, diffuse, spectrally correct reverberant field.  I'm not saying that's the most important thing, but it's an area where imho there's usually worthwhile room for improvement.  If I'm doing my job right, the Cloud Chasers combine the feel of a good planar with the liveliness and impact of a good high-efficiency speaker.

These speakers look pretty cool.  It seems like your design philosophy involves everything I like in a speaker:  enveloping soundstage, non-fatiguing sound, great and punchy bottom end, and the ability to be driven by amps that actually sound good. 

Thanks, Ethan!

I do sacrifice some bottom-end extension to get the liveliness that comes with high efficiency.  I mean let's face it, 40 Hz is not very impressive for such a big speaker.  But the presentation sounds full on cello (as an example) because the rear woofer's energy wraps around and fills in where we'd otherwise have a baffle-step falloff.   And the bass has that impact/slam thing going on, which big woofers are good at. 

[rajacat]

Duke,

Last night I tried the 45 degree configuration again and my opinion has changed. I now think that when I first tested the 45 degree placement, I didn't point my single driver bipoles at enough of an angle, maybe 30 degrees or so, and the drivers didn't cross directly in front of my listening position. I now prefer the 45 angle. The sound stage is wider and the imaging is more refined. There also seems to be more high frequency energy perhaps because the drivers are pointing closer to my ears and, as you say, the side walls aren't contributing unwanted reflections (not enough delay?) and distorting the sound.

Every time I read your astute posts I learn something useful. Thanks!

-Roy

[Norris Wilson]

"Thanks, Norris!   Let me know which ones you'd like for me to bring."

Duke, I am not sure which speaker would be best suited for the rooms at LSAF.  My first choice would be for you to bring the Cloud Chaser and sealed Swarm system.  But?

I love that ambient effect that your Dream Makers produced when listening on the two ocassions at RMAF and LSAF.  To my ears, there is not enough ambient effect in most point source speakers in an average home audio listening environment to give that live sound effect.
But, as with all things in a personal observation regarding audio, it is subjective for obvious reasons.  We are all different, with different degrees of perception.

Most of all, I am looking forward to seeing you and Lori, the real power behind your products that reproduce the projection of your minds eye.

Norris

[Duke]

Last night I tried the 45 degree configuration again and my opinion has changed. I now think that when I first tested the 45 degree placement, I didn't point my single driver bipoles at enough of an angle, maybe 30 degrees or so, and the drivers didn't cross directly in front of my listening position. I now prefer the 45 angle. The sound stage is wider and the imaging is more refined. There also seems to be more high frequency energy perhaps because the drivers are pointing closer to my ears and, as you say, the side walls aren't contributing unwanted reflections (not enough delay?) and distorting the sound.

That's great!  Glad to hear the extreme toe-in works with the Omega bipolars!  Yeah, you usually have to go all the way to 45 (or thereabouts) for the benefits to pop out, if they're going to.

I suspect the relatively smooth off-axis response (no major discontinuity like many two-ways) is an important factor in your success with the Omegas. 

Duke, I am not sure which speaker would be best suited for the rooms at LSAF.  My first choice would be for you to bring the Cloud Chaser and sealed Swarm system.  But?

I love that ambient effect that your Dream Makers produced when listening on the two ocassions at RMAF and LSAF.  To my ears, there is not enough ambient effect in most point source speakers in an average home audio listening environment to give that live sound effect.

Unfortunately I don't think there's room in my car for Cloud Chasers + Sealed Swarm + anything else.  I would bring the Swarm if the Planetarium Gammas received a sudden surge in attention, but it looks to me like the Cloud Chasers and Rhythm Prisms have generated a lot more interest. 

Glad you like what the bipolars do!  I really think one of the critical differences between live sound and most home stereo systems is the nature of the reverberant field.  Now the ideal would probably be a fairly directional multichannel system with a late-arriving, rich reverberant field generated by dedicated rear-channel speakers, but in a two-channel system I think the bipolar format is very competitive.  For example, I do not think a comparable subjective improvement could be achieved by using twice-as-expensive woofers and compression drivers.

[drphoto]

Duke, I feel like you've designed the speaker I've been dreaming about!     Guess I'll just have to wait to hear from pharmacy school as to whether I try them later this year or have to wait another four. (audio will have to be put on hold if school is a go)

BTW: I've toed in my Merlin TSM-MMe around 45º and love it, even though Bobby recommends only a very slight angle. Plus, I'm sold on multisubs. I'm even going to try it with a live band PA. I used to mix sound for a local band that had four powered 18" subs. We always stacked a pair per side, like everyone else. Next time they play, I'm gonna stop by and suggest they try distributing the subs.

[rajacat]

Duke,

Well I've revised my opinion again. Now I've reverted back to a more or less standard toe-in for my bipoles. I mentioned in my previous post the increase of high frequency energy with the 45 degree placement but after a day of listening the extra energy was starting to irritate me and I was noticing some high freq. distortion especially with high treble piano and female vocalists that wasn't there before.

Perhaps the controlled directivity of the wave guides inherently prefer the 45 toe-in whereas the dispersion of the single driver Omega is more immenable to standard placement. I think that I'm getting a more balanced presentation now. I beginning to think that I should place casters under my 100 lb. speaker stands so that placement experimentation is easier. The spikes that I now use are a PITA.

-Roy
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