Tweet
I have learned so much in the three years since I originally designed the Sunflowers. I was plagued by the thought, "What would I do differently now, knowing what I do?" Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore, and went at it. The result was more work than I expected, but very worth it.
The Sunflower Redux is an entirely different-sounding speaker than the original. Where the original was very "live" and almost seemed to bound around the room, these have a very precise and focused sound--with imaging and soundstage on-par with my best "boxed" designs. The real benefit of the dipole mids is the lack of "coloration" from being in an enclosure. (Funny, isn't that what Linkwitz and Kreskovsky were saying all along?)
Of course, taking a driver out of an enclosure causes a whole slew of issues--many of which I glossed over in the past, but now I was willing to deal with head-on. I did my homework this time, and really read up on Linkwitz' and Kreskovsky's sites (Which were very helpful, by the way. Thanks, guys!). Then there was a lot of trial and error, and measurements of all different kinds.
I'm extremely pleased with this re-design. The Sunflower Redux fit in well with the rest of my designs in terms of an "overall sound." They seem happy playing any style of music, and don't seem to be influenced by the room they're playing in (within reason, of course).
I regret to say that I had to switch over from Passive Crossover Designer to LspCAD to complete this design. PCD is still my preferred software, but it didn't allow me the flexibility to re-arrange components to achieve the response I wanted. (I'm not saying this kind of design couldn't be done in PCD. I've heard Jeff B's "Archos" design for Salk Sound... it's quite awesome)
Crossover and graphs attached below. More details are in the writeup .
The Sunflower Redux is an entirely different-sounding speaker than the original. Where the original was very "live" and almost seemed to bound around the room, these have a very precise and focused sound--with imaging and soundstage on-par with my best "boxed" designs. The real benefit of the dipole mids is the lack of "coloration" from being in an enclosure. (Funny, isn't that what Linkwitz and Kreskovsky were saying all along?)
Of course, taking a driver out of an enclosure causes a whole slew of issues--many of which I glossed over in the past, but now I was willing to deal with head-on. I did my homework this time, and really read up on Linkwitz' and Kreskovsky's sites (Which were very helpful, by the way. Thanks, guys!). Then there was a lot of trial and error, and measurements of all different kinds.
I'm extremely pleased with this re-design. The Sunflower Redux fit in well with the rest of my designs in terms of an "overall sound." They seem happy playing any style of music, and don't seem to be influenced by the room they're playing in (within reason, of course).
I regret to say that I had to switch over from Passive Crossover Designer to LspCAD to complete this design. PCD is still my preferred software, but it didn't allow me the flexibility to re-arrange components to achieve the response I wanted. (I'm not saying this kind of design couldn't be done in PCD. I've heard Jeff B's "Archos" design for Salk Sound... it's quite awesome)
Crossover and graphs attached below. More details are in the writeup .
Attached Files
Comment