[Big Red Machine]

[Big Red Machine]

I'm off next week, anyone signed up to test this thing out?

[DMurphy]

I'm off next week, anyone signed up to test this thing out?

Sure--just wheel it on down to Washington.  It sure looks better than the prototype. 

[jsalk]

I'm off next week, anyone signed up to test this thing out?

If you've got the time, I've got the speaker.  Give me a call.

- Jim

[jermmd]

From the website, "The SoundScape C is a true 3-way center channel featuring the incomparable RAAL ribbon tweeter, an Accuton midrange and a pair of 7” aluminum cone long throw woofers.  The design is front-ported allowing for maximum placement flexibility.  And at 88db sensitivity, it is an easy load for almost any amplifier/receiver."

In the photo, it looks like a fifth driver all the way on the right side or is that another front port?

Forget it, I can see that it is a matching port. The internal reflection threw me off.

[woodsyi]

I'm off next week, anyone signed up to test this thing out?

My mind is willing but the body is in Virginia.  Have fun.

I am off to Dennis' lair with my old amps and new pre to listen to his SoundScape LR this Saturday though.   

[Big Red Machine]

If you've got the time, I've got the speaker.  Give me a call.

- Jim

I will.  Very busy school tests and projects week. 

[coke]

Take 2 of these, turn them on their sides, and change to a TL enclosure for $6500 

I wonder how'd they compare to the HT3 or HT2-TL

[ratso]

okay so i'm thinking a new design for surrounds built around a raal tweeter and a new sub design. how about a small enclosed sealed sub with a high powered plate amp, maybe teaming up with rythmik? a complete new HT reference line. 

[DMurphy]

It might be interesting for Jim to post a few more details about the woofer.  It's not your standard 7" unit.  I forget the deets, but they're pretty impressive.   

[charmerci]

Jim,

Do I see another speaker model coming based on the above design?

[Nuance]

Wow, that looks like a monster!  It sure will make a fine addition to the already brilliant SS's.  Once again, well done to Jim and his team.

[DMurphy]

Monsters are all relative.  The V3 Monster Center in my rec room is considerably larger.  The new mini-monster is about 31 3/4" Wide, 12" high, and 13" deep. 

[audiotom]

thanks for putting it in perspective Dennis

I have a V3 center that was starting to get envious

[studiotech]

It might be interesting for Jim to post a few more details about the woofer.  It's not your standard 7" unit.  I forget the deets, but they're pretty impressive.

Looks like the Anarchy to me......

Great woofer!  I tested a pair a little while ago and they are powerful little beasts.

Greg - www.phatplanetstudios.com

[DMurphy]

Ding Ding.   If you would like to see the little bugger in action, check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRSdoHis4rw&feature=player_embedded

[Big Red Machine]

Spent a few days with this in my HT and tried various movie types with it.  I'm not the sole instigator of this speaker, but I was a pain in Jim's derriere this summer looking for a center that would dig deep since so much content is steered to the center speaker.

I manually calibrated the system and left the center 1 dB hot because I like it hotter (and wanted to see what it could do).

Tried a usual suspect, Master and Commander, and found that the speaker wasn't giving me what I wanted.  I couldn't get it to bite and attack my face.  I was also disappointed in the bass response.  I was expecting much more in that department.

One thing I did notice pretty quickly was that on the deck of the ship you wouldn't necessarily expect sounds to reflect into and around the folks on the deck given that there are no walls on the deck.  Surprise!  Yes, there were sounds and background voices moving into the screen and deeper across the deck than I had noticed with all previous speakers.  Pretty cool stuff.

I still wasn't getting the bite I was expecting so I bumped it up another dB.  Still nothing.  Maybe this thing is just too hard to drive or too limber to be driven?  After all I have 450 watts at hand ready to starch my hair at a moments notice.  Nada.

So I watched several movies over the course of 5 days and pretty much didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the speaker and just enjoyed the movies.  First time Jim built a stinker.  Maybe Dennis lost his touch in retirement?  The movies were totally enjoyable and the Song Towers performed dutifully (they're an amazing little speaker, aren't they?!) but I didn't get the jump factor I was after.

So I packed her up on Saturday before my trip to the Palace show that night and dropped it at Jim's.  Mary came out in her overcoat to feed the kids cookies in the van while Jim and I discussed my cool response to the speaker's performance.  In that conversation two things became clear to me:

• 1

There really isn't as much bass content in the center channel as I was expecting.  Crap.

• 2

And the darned speaker was in fact performing a disappearing act that is consistent with Sound Scape performance.  It never dawned on me that since I was using ST's and this center is in the SS camp that it too should be invisible like SS owners know their towers behave.  So me wanting to bump up the output was feeding my paradigm that a center should be heard and your face should be slapped hard by it.  That's what I'm used to anyways.
[/list]

The creepy thing is how invisible this speaker can be and I can only imagine how it must integrate with the SS towers.  Jim's SSes are out of town on demo so he cannot evaluate in his home setting right now.  I believe the SS owners who are planning HT duty for their beasts will be very pleased with this speaker as it completely gets out of the way.  Can you say smooth?  Can you say holographic?  Can you say this is paradigm breaker?  I was expecting more in your face results even though I knew this was not in the same league as a Song tower.  In the end this is one of the smoothest performers I have been able to demo and for the rest of the demoed movies it did its thing quietly and superbly as an invisible speaker should.

Order Up! - Sound Scape owners!

[highfilter]

Awesome, thanks for the interesting feedback Big Red. That is exactly what I was afraid of when I heard my SoundScapes, having a center channel that would draw attention to itself. I recently just got my SS 10s and have been watching movies in 2 channel and the response is so damn dynamic and smooth, I was afraid if I had a center it would ruin the transparency of the sound.

The SoundScapes by themselves are amazing at what they do and the imaging from left to right is so seamless and integrates perfectly. This sounds like a perfect addition. As long as the center has enough mid-bass to handle deep male voices, I wouldn't expect to hear much punch out of a center channel (and the specs look great for this center). 80% is mostly dialogue.

How did you find positioning the speaker? Was it easy to place in your room? Was it on the floor angled up or was it on a stand of some sort?

Thanks for the feedback. Great information for SS users. 

[Big Red Machine]

I plopped it on the stand in front of the screen and did nothing else except calibrate it.  I ran it full range as well.  Didn't even lower the stand even though it stuck up over the edge of the screen about an inch.  I have a metal stand that can take heavy speakers.
Some blasts from the past.

[Hugh]

Pete,

You did get a chance to listen to that "Ref200" mule, didn't you?

How would you describe the differences between that and the new Center from Jim?

Thanks,