After Branwell's good experience with the BMS/DDS combo, I was inspired to test the pro consept myself. But this time I mated the BMS 4540ND with the well regarded CD horn XT1086 from Eighteen Sound. I tried them as HF units above 1.5kHz in my XLS12/RS180 dipoles. The XT1086 is unique that it is designed much like the OS waveguide that Geddes recommends to eliminate the nasty "horn sound" common in pro gear.
The sound is a real chock compared to the 1" dome sound that I'm used to. Subjectively it is completely distortion free, no matter how hard I try to push them. The dynamics seem to be almost unlimited. The sound is also very smooth and pleasing to listen to. Within the beamwidth of the horn, the sound character is stable, and drops smoothly outside.
I love this sound, but.......
it doesn't sound natural :cry: You get a really, really good speaker sound instead of a natural presentation of the source material.
It sounds like the speakers are placed in a completely dead room. There seem to be no high frequency reflections at all. This is impressive, but not natural.
I suppose that the "dead room" sound comes from the directivity control that simply eliminates much of the off axis high frequency radiation. I also suppose that the "speaker sound" comes from that the power response is greatly reduced in the XT1086 operating range compared to the woofer and midrange operating range that in dipole mode holds up the power response all the way from low bass up to 1.5 kHz.
I think that the large difference in power response between dipole radiation and a CD horn is somewhat a showstopper. With a boxspeaker however I think this combination can result in a very good sounding system.
I have ordered a more shallow waveguide to see if I could tame down these drawbacks and still get the low distortion/compression sound.
The story will continue...
The sound is a real chock compared to the 1" dome sound that I'm used to. Subjectively it is completely distortion free, no matter how hard I try to push them. The dynamics seem to be almost unlimited. The sound is also very smooth and pleasing to listen to. Within the beamwidth of the horn, the sound character is stable, and drops smoothly outside.
I love this sound, but.......
it doesn't sound natural :cry: You get a really, really good speaker sound instead of a natural presentation of the source material.
It sounds like the speakers are placed in a completely dead room. There seem to be no high frequency reflections at all. This is impressive, but not natural.
I suppose that the "dead room" sound comes from the directivity control that simply eliminates much of the off axis high frequency radiation. I also suppose that the "speaker sound" comes from that the power response is greatly reduced in the XT1086 operating range compared to the woofer and midrange operating range that in dipole mode holds up the power response all the way from low bass up to 1.5 kHz.
I think that the large difference in power response between dipole radiation and a CD horn is somewhat a showstopper. With a boxspeaker however I think this combination can result in a very good sounding system.
I have ordered a more shallow waveguide to see if I could tame down these drawbacks and still get the low distortion/compression sound.
The story will continue...
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