Not DIY, but...

[gbegland]

I just read the "white paper" from Avalon Acoustics. Whew, talk about a bunch of verbal diarrhea! Sounds like a new statement product from them is on the horizon, but right now my head hurts from the "scientific" assault.

http://www.avalonacoustics.com/pdf/TESSERACT%20WEB%20STATEMENT.PDF

Greg

[Face]

$300,000 for all that, sign me up.

[Hank]

Well, lots of the red subject statements are good Mom and apple pie, but some of the descriptive hyperbole is quite fascinating and would make the most eloquent ad copy writer green with envy. I've GOT to have a four dimensional hypercube!! To heck with O.B. Line Arrays and Planars! My checkbook is hyperventalating :B

[Juhazi]

Jeez, I read that too
- Transducer (why not speaker)
- No distortion, no phase shift (really?)
- etc.

Per se good and solid principles that are challenged in every (real) speaker design. But how well did they really do?

[AdelaaR]

The loudspeaker industry is, in this regard, comparable to the race bicycle industry.
Slap your customer around the head with all kinds of incomprehensible scientific sounding techtalk that "proves" all kinds of benefits compared to the opposition and apparently it makes some people buy anything at any price.

[JonMarsh]

I downloaded that a few weeks back when it first came up. I figured if I brought it to the attention of the forum, I'd just further cement my nutcase status here, which I didn't really want to do, even if justified.

I sort of have a "special relationship" to Avalon because of that with it's original founder (not Neil Patel), but I have to admit this "white paper" is a lot to digest. But not totally intractable- it does have my curiosity up. Full impedance compensation was a given by the early Avalon speakers, but left behind with many later models. The bottom end is apparently an Isobaric configuration with a custom driver with a system Q of 0.5, which is the only way to go if you want really clean step response, I.E., "fast" bass without overhang.

On the other hand, things like "Pioneering technology in inductor and core design makes possible 10x the current spike within the device before saturation effects are present" - :rofl:

Geez, guys, the dung is getting a bit thick- gapped inductors or air core inductors are known well to any competent power designer... though that is a bit of a qualification, as I've met many incompetent ones in the course of my day job.

I just hope in the end it's not one of those things that makes me go, "Duh! Of Course!" Why didn't I do that, instead of building the Isiris for the last 8 months!".

All hyperbole aside (and there certainly seems to be plenty in this publication), I bet it will be an interesting speaker...

[gbegland]

You know, 15 years ago, I used to tell people that some of my favorite "traditional" boxed speakers were the top-of-the-line Avalons driven with Spectral gear. I heard that system so many times, I did many thing extremely well. The newer stuff really does nothing for me, so here's to hoping that some of the white paper gobbledy gook at least leads to some nice innovation. Not holding my breath though.

The whole reason I even looked at their website was because of a little blurb John J. of AE/Lambda drivers mentioned on an AVS forum post. He's got a bit of a marketing nightmare going on over there because of huge delays on a group buy. He listed several manufactures who were currently using his drivers. I know about all of them except Avalon. I have never noticed Avalon using anything other than Eton. So, I wonder if the new speaker is using a custom woofer from John.

[JonMarsh]

Could be. They use a custom version of the 13" Eton with an underhung VC for the Isis; of course, they use Accuton mids a lot, and tweeters too. I hope this winds up being an interesting system, just for the sake of moving the state of the art forward. I like some of the things Magico is doing, for example, but the industry could stand to move a little away from just "more bigger".

[amik]

You know, 15 years ago, I used to tell people that some of my favorite "traditional" boxed speakers were the top-of-the-line Avalons driven with Spectral gear. I heard that system so many times, I did many thing extremely well. The newer stuff really does nothing for me, so here's to hoping that some of the white paper gobbledy gook at least leads to some nice innovation. Not holding my breath though.

Was that the 2C3D system? If so I heard it on several occasions (the first time was with Jim Thiel, interestingly enough) and it was quite impressive. Really a testament to system design as it was clearly more than a set of nice speakers and electronics. A lot of effort in optimizing the room.

[gbegland]

Was that the 2C3D system? If so I heard it on several occasions (the first time was with Jim Thiel, interestingly enough) and it was quite impressive. Really a testament to system design as it was clearly more than a set of nice speakers and electronics. A lot of effort in optimizing the room.

Now that you mention it, I think so. Only system in the largest room at the dealer, speakers well out from the walls and good treatment. My buddy worked there so I could go in any time with CDs and have a blast.

Greg

[gbegland]

First picture and some specs released. I don't see a flux capacitor anywhere though, so maybe it's on the back side. I still think it sounds like L. Ron Hubbard wrote that "whitepaper".

Greg

[Face]

FYI, the woofers are AE.

[oneplustwo]

Brick wall listening room?

[JonMarsh]

That's a PhotoChop job, guys... Why they would put that up on their site if they don't have a finished product to show really beats me...

[JonMarsh]

First picture and some specs released. I don't see a flux capacitor anywhere though, so maybe it's on the back side. I still think it sounds like L. Ron Hubbard wrote that "whitepaper".

Greg

Maybe it's all Science Fiction- but nothing that will win a Hugo!

[gbegland]

FYI, the woofers are AE.

Yeah, see my post above about the mention from John J. @ AE.

Greg

[JonW]

Those are some bold claims. It would probably be great if they could achieve all of that. So will they show us all the data and plots of the final speaker? :B :P

It may be my sciencey background, but I'm always suspicious of such claims if they are not backed up with data. Similarly, we have the YG Acoustics example in which they provide plots, but no labels on the axes, among other information left out. So they give the impression of showing data without actually doing so.

But maybe that is too harsh. There are so many points in speaker design where you have to make a design choice. And one direction versus the other is not better or worse, just different. Plus we all like different things in speakers. When I've had 2 pairs of speakers playing in my house and multiple people to listen, there has never been consensus on which speaker is preferred. It's a fun hobby. But I wouldn't want to make my living doing it, feeling the need to make such bold claims. Kind of like htguide. It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live here. :P

[dar47]

I'm not liking that look too much, looks like some KKK hat with an eye peaking out.8O

[Face]

Questionable...