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Press Release:
Arvo Parrot Speaker System,
from Lipira Suction Labs
It is with great pleasure that we are able to announce the development of the first speaker system by Lipira Suction Labs, the “Arvo Parrot”. Founded as a new development division of the parent family group of AudioWorx/Klone Audio, Lipira Suction Labs is a wholly disowned subsidiary formed to develop advanced acoustical and manufacturing techniques, based on the leading edge thinking of late 19th century acousticians and physicists. Building on the work of Helmholtz, Volt, and Ohm, we are re-exploring and redefining matters long thought laid to rest by less observant practitioners of the acoustical arts.
The “Arvo Parrot” is a radical innovation in acoustic technology following closely in the footsteps of it’s forebears in dipole dynamic loudspeakers. With a nod and a tip of the hat, we acknowledge the key contributions by our predecessors such as Jim Winey, Bob Carver, Sigfried Linkwitz, and Jeff Duddleston, but we’ve refused to be bound by the conventions of their thought- we’ll make our own innovative developments as soon as we can think of them.
Why a Dipole Speaker?
First, let’s not confuse full range dipoles with dipoles used as rears in home theater, or dipoles used to get two fishing lines in the water at the same time. The unique property of a dipole speaker is having sound output front and back which is 180 degrees out of phase. As a result, there is a large drop off in response to the sides (nearly zero) due to the resulting figure eight front to rear dispersion, which greatly lessens the interaction of the speaker with the room acoustics, and also gives your neighbors fewer reasons to pound on the walls when you’re playing your HT soundtracks a little too loud.
A well designed dipole speaker will often give the impression of listening to a large pair of high quality headphones, due to the unusual midbass and midrange clarity they achieve by avoiding multiple room reflections which can muddy the sound. A poorly designed dipole speaker, on the other hand, may more nearly resemble listening to a $15 dollar set of RS headphones through an inexpensive receiver turned up too loud. There’s still a certain inescapable clarity to the sound, but otherwise the experience doesn’t have much to recommend itself.
Our principle designer was given German made toy steam engines at a tender age, and due to this exposure has always had a certain fascination with things involving pistonic operation. This continued with motorcycles, then progressed to V8 equipped automobiles of questionable safety, finally culminating in the pursuit and use of loudspeaker drivers maintaining pistonic operation in their operating band. He claims that this mode of operation reduces the coloration and smearing in the critical midrange frequencies, but the marketing department suspects his real issue is just a simple phobia regarding plastics, especially polypropylene.
Regardless, the loudspeaker drivers used in the Arvo Parrot, none of which were designed by us (yes, we know all real loudspeaker companies design and manufacture all their drivers themselves- we’re one of the fake loudspeaker companies, like Wilson Audio, Joseph Audio, Proac, RB Acoustics, Acoustic Reality, Krell, etc) are fully certified to operate in a pistonic mode in at least some part of the operating range- hopefully, including where we use them.
Bass Reproduction- warm, liquid bass with lots of detail
The Arvo Parrot delivers an authoritative low frequency presentation, with pitch definition so keen you can calibrate a digital frequency counter by ear with it. Low frequencies are covered up to 200 Hz in each speaker by a pair drivers passinlgy optimized for dipole operation or some type of low frequency sound reproduction. These combine remarkably high cone excursion capability with low distortion and good response linearity to roughly 352.186 Hz. We configure the voice coils in a series parallel array which results in a benign 8 ohm amplifier load for all the unfortunates still using receivers instead of separates. You know who you are.
Midrange Regeneration- Optimized for female voice and luteharp
For the upper bass and midrange, we rely on two HiVI M8a magnesium/aluminum 8” driver to deliver the goods with finesse, which, unlike the Titanic, have a rather attractive gold anodized cone color instead of the more commonly found boring black. (who says we don’t care about Spousal Acceptance Factor?). Rumors that the art director running the marketing department had the primary say in choosing these drivers based on their cool appearance have not been substantiated in either the mainstream press or the auidophool underground magazines. And, for the time being, just ignore those malicious whisperings on the internet.
Treble Reconstruction- Why wet is good
Smoothness combined with clarity is the goal we have for the Arvo Parrot. Imagine Andreas Vollenweider’s “White Winds”, where the lapping of the water on the shoreline is so crystal clear, yet so smooth and wet that you’ll be checking the hem of your pants for dampness and your carpet for water stains when you’re finished listening.
We conducted extensive research the weekend before last into suitable drivers to mate with the HiVi M8a’s. In the end, we couldn’t find any gold colored ones, and after considering the Accuton C44 dome midrange for the the upper mids, our accountant threatened to kill the engineering director, as a pair of these costs more than four Hi-Vi M8a’s combined. Pistonic midrange drivers aren’t cheap, especially not ones that can almost double as tweeters, considering it’s upper breakup mode is nearly at 20 kHz. Bringing in the recommendations of a secret well known outside consultant, who will only be identified as “Mark K”, we avoided a duel at dawn between engineering and accounting, and initially settled (provisionally) on using the Vifa XT25 for the treble range. Unfortunately, the money we saved by not buying Accuton drivers will be spent instead on psychiatric analysis for the Engineering Director, who has an extreme phobia over anything with the “V” letter in it, after an unfortunate experience being forced to watch a science fiction TV series titled similarly. After suitable psychiatric treatment, he has now agreed on a more reasonable tweeter choice, an SS9800.
Developed with exclusive cloaking technology
The Arvo Parrot is the first in what many hope will be an extremely short series developed using new proprietary “cloaking technology”. The key requirement of this technology is to prevent premature disclosure during the development stage of the proprietary technologies being developed and discarded for the Arvo Parrot, prior to publishing all details of the design on the Internet. Early development versions of this cloaking technology used a Martha Stewart Dacron fiber fill comforter in a light blue shade (sourced from KMart) to provide draping, acoustical damping, and general obfuscation of the development mule. When it was found that the blue color of the cloaking device didn’t blend in very well with the color of the development mule, our art director was able to suggest and locate a nice down comforter sourced from CostCo, with a beige duvet cover; this provides a near perfect “low observables” stealth technology for the development test bed, as we achieved a near perfect color match, plus, we believe, improved acoustical damping from the natural down stuffing.
Advanced Composite Construction
The Arvo Parrot’s construction includes advanced thinking (for us) in the choice of construction materials, choosing to eschew the more commonly used plywoods and particle board. Instead, an advanced multilayer composite was developed over the course of a couple of weekends, incorporating constrained damping and variable density laminate layers. This stems from our experience with the Klone Audio “Legacy Whisper” project, and realizing that this could wind up being one heck of a lot of work if we weren’t careful. This construction technique results a very stiff, deadened 1-1/8” baffle for mounting the drivers, with an attractive raw finish that blends very closely with our unpatented cloaking technology. The utilization of this technology led us to reconsider all aspects of our manufacturing technologies, and even forced the shop foreman to purchase a Jasper router jig, in spite of his dedication to being the last holdout in the North American continent from doing so.
Standards and Options
Standard finish on the Arvo Parrot is blonde Oak and black grille cloth, with Cardas binding posts in a bi-wire configuration for bass and midbass-treble. Internal wiring is by 12 AWG Litz cable, but Cardas wire or Kimber 8TC is available. Consult your Lipira Suction Labs sales associates for details about this and other upgrades available at exorbitant markups.
Suggested ancillary equipment:
You don’t REALLY want us to go here, do you? And give you some kind of lengthy list of unobtanium based equipment without which your listening experience will be totally flawed? I didn’t think so.
Hint: No feedback loops. It’s really that simple.
~Jon
Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....
Arvo Parrot Speaker System,
from Lipira Suction Labs
It is with great pleasure that we are able to announce the development of the first speaker system by Lipira Suction Labs, the “Arvo Parrot”. Founded as a new development division of the parent family group of AudioWorx/Klone Audio, Lipira Suction Labs is a wholly disowned subsidiary formed to develop advanced acoustical and manufacturing techniques, based on the leading edge thinking of late 19th century acousticians and physicists. Building on the work of Helmholtz, Volt, and Ohm, we are re-exploring and redefining matters long thought laid to rest by less observant practitioners of the acoustical arts.
The “Arvo Parrot” is a radical innovation in acoustic technology following closely in the footsteps of it’s forebears in dipole dynamic loudspeakers. With a nod and a tip of the hat, we acknowledge the key contributions by our predecessors such as Jim Winey, Bob Carver, Sigfried Linkwitz, and Jeff Duddleston, but we’ve refused to be bound by the conventions of their thought- we’ll make our own innovative developments as soon as we can think of them.
Why a Dipole Speaker?
First, let’s not confuse full range dipoles with dipoles used as rears in home theater, or dipoles used to get two fishing lines in the water at the same time. The unique property of a dipole speaker is having sound output front and back which is 180 degrees out of phase. As a result, there is a large drop off in response to the sides (nearly zero) due to the resulting figure eight front to rear dispersion, which greatly lessens the interaction of the speaker with the room acoustics, and also gives your neighbors fewer reasons to pound on the walls when you’re playing your HT soundtracks a little too loud.
A well designed dipole speaker will often give the impression of listening to a large pair of high quality headphones, due to the unusual midbass and midrange clarity they achieve by avoiding multiple room reflections which can muddy the sound. A poorly designed dipole speaker, on the other hand, may more nearly resemble listening to a $15 dollar set of RS headphones through an inexpensive receiver turned up too loud. There’s still a certain inescapable clarity to the sound, but otherwise the experience doesn’t have much to recommend itself.
Our principle designer was given German made toy steam engines at a tender age, and due to this exposure has always had a certain fascination with things involving pistonic operation. This continued with motorcycles, then progressed to V8 equipped automobiles of questionable safety, finally culminating in the pursuit and use of loudspeaker drivers maintaining pistonic operation in their operating band. He claims that this mode of operation reduces the coloration and smearing in the critical midrange frequencies, but the marketing department suspects his real issue is just a simple phobia regarding plastics, especially polypropylene.
Regardless, the loudspeaker drivers used in the Arvo Parrot, none of which were designed by us (yes, we know all real loudspeaker companies design and manufacture all their drivers themselves- we’re one of the fake loudspeaker companies, like Wilson Audio, Joseph Audio, Proac, RB Acoustics, Acoustic Reality, Krell, etc) are fully certified to operate in a pistonic mode in at least some part of the operating range- hopefully, including where we use them.
Bass Reproduction- warm, liquid bass with lots of detail
The Arvo Parrot delivers an authoritative low frequency presentation, with pitch definition so keen you can calibrate a digital frequency counter by ear with it. Low frequencies are covered up to 200 Hz in each speaker by a pair drivers passinlgy optimized for dipole operation or some type of low frequency sound reproduction. These combine remarkably high cone excursion capability with low distortion and good response linearity to roughly 352.186 Hz. We configure the voice coils in a series parallel array which results in a benign 8 ohm amplifier load for all the unfortunates still using receivers instead of separates. You know who you are.
Midrange Regeneration- Optimized for female voice and luteharp
For the upper bass and midrange, we rely on two HiVI M8a magnesium/aluminum 8” driver to deliver the goods with finesse, which, unlike the Titanic, have a rather attractive gold anodized cone color instead of the more commonly found boring black. (who says we don’t care about Spousal Acceptance Factor?). Rumors that the art director running the marketing department had the primary say in choosing these drivers based on their cool appearance have not been substantiated in either the mainstream press or the auidophool underground magazines. And, for the time being, just ignore those malicious whisperings on the internet.
Treble Reconstruction- Why wet is good
Smoothness combined with clarity is the goal we have for the Arvo Parrot. Imagine Andreas Vollenweider’s “White Winds”, where the lapping of the water on the shoreline is so crystal clear, yet so smooth and wet that you’ll be checking the hem of your pants for dampness and your carpet for water stains when you’re finished listening.
We conducted extensive research the weekend before last into suitable drivers to mate with the HiVi M8a’s. In the end, we couldn’t find any gold colored ones, and after considering the Accuton C44 dome midrange for the the upper mids, our accountant threatened to kill the engineering director, as a pair of these costs more than four Hi-Vi M8a’s combined. Pistonic midrange drivers aren’t cheap, especially not ones that can almost double as tweeters, considering it’s upper breakup mode is nearly at 20 kHz. Bringing in the recommendations of a secret well known outside consultant, who will only be identified as “Mark K”, we avoided a duel at dawn between engineering and accounting, and initially settled (provisionally) on using the Vifa XT25 for the treble range. Unfortunately, the money we saved by not buying Accuton drivers will be spent instead on psychiatric analysis for the Engineering Director, who has an extreme phobia over anything with the “V” letter in it, after an unfortunate experience being forced to watch a science fiction TV series titled similarly. After suitable psychiatric treatment, he has now agreed on a more reasonable tweeter choice, an SS9800.
Developed with exclusive cloaking technology
The Arvo Parrot is the first in what many hope will be an extremely short series developed using new proprietary “cloaking technology”. The key requirement of this technology is to prevent premature disclosure during the development stage of the proprietary technologies being developed and discarded for the Arvo Parrot, prior to publishing all details of the design on the Internet. Early development versions of this cloaking technology used a Martha Stewart Dacron fiber fill comforter in a light blue shade (sourced from KMart) to provide draping, acoustical damping, and general obfuscation of the development mule. When it was found that the blue color of the cloaking device didn’t blend in very well with the color of the development mule, our art director was able to suggest and locate a nice down comforter sourced from CostCo, with a beige duvet cover; this provides a near perfect “low observables” stealth technology for the development test bed, as we achieved a near perfect color match, plus, we believe, improved acoustical damping from the natural down stuffing.
Advanced Composite Construction
The Arvo Parrot’s construction includes advanced thinking (for us) in the choice of construction materials, choosing to eschew the more commonly used plywoods and particle board. Instead, an advanced multilayer composite was developed over the course of a couple of weekends, incorporating constrained damping and variable density laminate layers. This stems from our experience with the Klone Audio “Legacy Whisper” project, and realizing that this could wind up being one heck of a lot of work if we weren’t careful. This construction technique results a very stiff, deadened 1-1/8” baffle for mounting the drivers, with an attractive raw finish that blends very closely with our unpatented cloaking technology. The utilization of this technology led us to reconsider all aspects of our manufacturing technologies, and even forced the shop foreman to purchase a Jasper router jig, in spite of his dedication to being the last holdout in the North American continent from doing so.
Standards and Options
Standard finish on the Arvo Parrot is blonde Oak and black grille cloth, with Cardas binding posts in a bi-wire configuration for bass and midbass-treble. Internal wiring is by 12 AWG Litz cable, but Cardas wire or Kimber 8TC is available. Consult your Lipira Suction Labs sales associates for details about this and other upgrades available at exorbitant markups.
Suggested ancillary equipment:
You don’t REALLY want us to go here, do you? And give you some kind of lengthy list of unobtanium based equipment without which your listening experience will be totally flawed? I didn’t think so.
Hint: No feedback loops. It’s really that simple.
~Jon
Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....
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