Julian Hirsch's Favorite Speakers

Charivari

Fighting Naïve Realism
Of all the speakers Julian Hirsch listened to, including such famous speakers as the AR LST, which today fetches outrageous prices, only one speaker earned the “100% perfect” rating. That speaker was the Design Acoustics D-6 and thanks to kfa888’s efforts, I am now the proud owner of a fine pair.

The D-6 is a most unusual speaker, shortly following the D-12 dodecahedral speaker, of which I too have a pair; it was an attempt to repackage the true omni design in a more conventional format to raise the WAF out of the negatives. There are 5 2.5” tweeters (4 of one type around the periphery and another on the baffle), a 5” midrange, and a rear-firing 10” woofer. Each is just a little smaller in depth and height than a Pioneer HPM-100, but with a wider baffle. The baffle itself is set forward and the perimeter tweeters are mounted on the angle. Overall, the construction

My preliminary listening sessions have revealed that due to the rear firing woofer makes these speakers a bit sensitive to placement. They must be approximately 3 feet from a wall for the bass and lower midrange to fill in to match the levels of the mid and tweeters. Still, the upper frequencies are still a bit more pronounced than my tastes prefer, but it is a smooth sound that is not fatiguing. Imaging isn’t pin-point, but the room-filling ability is quite realistic. With a few of my test CDs (Red Planet OST, Goran Bregovic, Lhasa, and Emma Shapplin), this is shown to be a consistent character. Low bass is a little lacking, most likely both due to my room and that these speakers don’t go down below the bottom-50s. With the gentler female vocals, the sound did not possess the slight harshness that most speakers add, HPM-100, Bozaks, even my Tannoys, that you don’t really notice until it’s not there; this pleased me to discover, though it’ll now bug me with other speakers.

With these speakers, more than others, you end up listening to the room. Due to the room effects, any sound that originally has a bit of an echoing quality is emphasized making some poorer quality recordings, those done outside of a sound-proofed room, sound on par with singing in the shower. This, though, is more a product of my acoustically poor room than the speakers. For darker rooms, these speakers may not work all that well or work superbly. With bright rooms, the D-6 seems to excel by lacking the harshness in the HF other speakers possess.

In all, I am very happy that I was able to snag a pair of these very rare speakers in such good condition, aside from a few minor cosmetic blemishes and a broken grill over a rear woofer. These are very good sounding speakers for their $249 price tag and being from 1973.

At my Design Acoustics Yahoo! Group, I’ve posted both the Stereo Review and High-Fidelity Magazine reviews.

Now, time for some pictures. Sorry about the small size of the full-on shots, my friend’s digital camera does great work up close, but goes soap opera lens (blurry) for anything else.

- JP
 
In the short time I had these at my house I was impressed. My listening room is medium large, 3 solid walls and one almost solid back wall. The wall these were backed up to is rock. I mated these with my Pioneer SX-1010 which they seemed to like (as most speakers do) I had them about 3' from the back wall and think closer might have been better. Anyway in my setting I thought these were "modern" sounding in that they had tight deep bass, and clean highs somewhat like modern sub satellite systems. I did find the rear firing woofer a little odd and you can notice it. As Charivari said, placement is crucial. I also agree that the HF is bright and sounds great not harsh.

Overall cool speakers that were fun to have for an evening.
 
Kelly, I did a lot of auditioning earlier today and left the speakers running on a Pioneer SX-535 (thanks to Brainsmasher) tuned to a local classic rock station for a few hours at lowish volume. Just now, as I was fixing up a quick dinner, I could swear they're sounding better, almost as though they've broken in a little bit -- if that's possible. There's still a slight lack in the lower midrange and the balance is still a little off, due to their current position -- on the end tables and arms of my couch -- but it's starting to fill in more.

Mark, I know about those D-4s and they've been listed several times. I chatted with the seller a little bit and got permission to post the pictures in the Visual Model Database in my Yahoo! group. Heck, they even offered to forgo the local pick-up option and ship them my way if I was interested. If you're interested, I've got the Stereo Review in there too, if you're interested. The were rated right below the D-12 (Order of favorite -- D-6, D-12, D-4, D-2); Hirsch loved them as he did the whole DA line-up.

Btw, there's also a pair of updated D-4As on "that auction site" that I'm looking for more information about, as I was only aware of the D-12A being a re-release.

But oh, I am tempted. The old D-series of DAs are probably some of the least appreciated speakers out there for what they are and so the prices are ridiculously low for what you're getting. Now's the time to snatch up a collection of 'em before the people tossing $800 at JBL L-100s realize there's a better value out there (not necessarily better speaker, though I feel these D-6s are superior to my HPM-100s).

Gah, Kelly! Don't bring up that Bose bit! It's like calling a Marantz a Sounddesign component.

- JP
 
There's a Design Acoustics Yahoo group? Next you'll tell me there is a Panasonic Thrusters group. :)
 
Don C said:
There's a Design Acoustics Yahoo group? Next you'll tell me there is a Panasonic Thrusters group. :)
Yep, I put it together 'cause I was tired of there being very limited to no information available on the net for the older DAs. Thrusters? No way. The D-series were serious attempts at hi-end speakers and were designed and built back when Design Acoustics was its own company, not yet bought out by Audio Technica under which the cheap stuff was made. Think of it kind of like those JBLs you like. The old speakers were good, but the new ones built after the company was bought out are Thruster grade.

How goes it with those APM-8s of yours? Get 'em going?

- JP
 
Well, I wasn't sure you were kidding because you are right, the new DAs are modern Thrusters. Fortunately, the earliest Point Source series were a residue of quality sound after the company was bought. The PS-6, 8, 9, and 10 are good speakers, so I hear, but beyond that ... :dunno:

Say, think someone should put together a Thrusters group for laughs?
- JP
 
Charivari said:
Just now, as I was fixing up a quick dinner, I could swear they're sounding better, almost as though they've broken in a little bit -- if that's possible. There's still a slight lack in the lower midrange and the balance is still a little off, due to their current position -- on the end tables and arms of my couch -- but it's starting to fill in more.

- JP

When I picked them up from the owner, whom by the way gets all his stuff via estate sales in the area, he said they had been sitting a while. Maybe they needed a little time to wake up. As for the lack of mids I noticed that also and that's what makes me think they sound like modern sat / sub systems.

Interesting you like them more than the HPM-100's... please elaborate.

OH, the guy you got them from paid $40 for them!!!
 
Well, I rather dislike the scavengers who feed their wallets off of death -- estate sale vultures who go straight to eBay afterwards. Still, this particular guy was pleasant to deal with, in my communications with him, and I suppose he was allowed this amount of profit. Not like he's doing a 10x price hike.

Hard to say why I like these better than the HPM-100s, though they both have nothing below 50 Hz and are both HF biased in the balance. It's just that the HPM-100s start getting very in your face in the midrange and remain so on up to 20 kHz. They just have a very PA sound and are fatiguing, as though when cranked up they can "shave off your eyebrows." Sure, they have those audiophile speaker sound to them in that they're very detailed, but it's at the expense of enjoyment. The DAs on the other hand, are a little more relaxed sounding and musical. The mids are a bit suppressed, happening up behind the speakers. It's the difference between having a pair of guitar amps sitting in your lap and listening to performers on a stage in a smallish venue. If you want to go loud and feel it in your ears and chest, then the 100s are great, but if you like kicking back and enjoying the emotions of the music, they just don't do it for me.

This is just my opinion, though it's made ardent HPM fans become downright militant in the past without cause. You may like them better due to your musician background, as they do a good rendition of an amplified performance. I just prefer a sound that's more organic, personal and the DAs do that a little better. Just so you know, I drew the comparison originally because of the similar frequency behaviors and because they are very similar in size. (In fact, I traded out a DA for a HPM-100 to form a hybrid pair for direct comparison and the above observations held for me -- 100 more accurate, detailed, and better at pinpoint imaging, but just too cold and hard.)

Yeah, the mids are starting to fill in a bit more, though that has always been the one complaint about the D-6, that the crossover does something odd in the midrange. So, I might end up taking the backs off and seeing how I might rework the crossover to fix this. Stay tuned on that.

- JP
 
DA PS-10 owner here.........

Just chiming in.Had my PS 10s for 20 years,recently got the woofs refoamed.It was worth it.Just wish there was a way to sqeeze oh,maybe another half-octave of bass out of them.Better get the seals replaced?Was playing Brubeck at Carnegie Hall(2cd) the other day.These speaks are great for jazz for one thing.Not too shoddy for classical,rock,etc.-Bob
 
i'm also a satisfied owner of a PS-10 pair that still sings sweetly, and currently hooked to a Marantz Esotec 5 integrated amp.

ps10cover.jpg
 
Wasen't the old joke about Hirsch, " Of all the speakers I've ever heard they were certainly one of them"?
 
hey,sandawa....

haveyou joined the design acoustic group? Might be my eyesight,but yours look like PS 10a s,seem taller than mine.
 
I owned a pair of Design Acoustics D4 speakers during my senior year in college. I sold off my Dynaco A25s to obtain the D4s, which were being sold used at a little high end store in Glendale. Julian Hirsch wrote a very nice review of the D4 in Stereo Review, and that influenced my decision. The D4 was a very nice floorstander. It was like an ancestor to the DCM Time Window. Probably not as smooth or musical as the Time Window, but it was not a bad speaker at all.
 
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