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Planar speaker project

nerdorama

AK member
Subscriber
Anyone ever seen something like this? I bought 3 pair to try them. Should have a test setup working this week. They were made by a company called Great American Sound. Don't think it's the amp company. Came from Paul Allen's yacht after he died.

They are on ebay. Search for
Audiophile GAS Quasi Ribbon Planar Magnetic Transducer Driver Speakers
 
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Looks like an Infinity EMIM on steroids. Definitely not the amp company, the logos are completely different. Odd that they have no internet mention; according to its Wiki page, the yacht was launched in '03; assuming it was fitted out a year earlier, by then, most companies were online, or at least you'd think there would be people with their products who would be talking about them.

Impressively wide frequency response. Based on the graph, you could probably get away without using a tweeter, although I'd probably want to combine with a nice planar or ribbon. High pass at 400hz, probably.

Roll your own Genesis Prime? Actually, they seem a lot like the Strathearn MRHF used in the Quantum Reference Standard. Nope, I'm wrong, that was a true ribbon midrange.
 
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They look well made and very robust. With the reported frequency response, they should sound balanced and even in tone. Three pair will make for a nice line array. And thoughts on woofers?

Keep us informed as to how they work out...! :)
 
Thanks for the heads up, I just grabbed three pairs as well. They seem very similar in design to BG's planar drivers, if they perform nearly as well I will be very happy. The FR graph does look promising.
 
I have a couple of old Infinity Monitor Jr boxes which I've converted to hold 2 Vifa 8" woofers. I'll use these as stands for the planar test mules and then my miniDSP for starters to figure out the crossover/EQ/level issues. Should be listening before the weekend. Hopefully the planar sensitivity will be somewhat higher than the paired woofers so I can do a good level match.
 
I have a couple of old Infinity Monitor Jr boxes which I've converted to hold 2 Vifa 8" woofers. I'll use these as stands for the planar test mules and then my miniDSP for starters to figure out the crossover/EQ/level issues. Should be listening before the weekend. Hopefully the planar sensitivity will be somewhat higher than the paired woofers so I can do a good level match.
Looking forward to your feedback
 
Interestingly, if there's an image posted of these, I cannot see it. But it appears as though others have
no image that I can see ...
but perhaps they are referencing images seen when they do a search on eBay

Anyone ever seen something like this? I bought 3 pair to try them. Should have a test setup working this week. They were made by a company called Great American Sound. Don't think it's the amp company. Came from Paul Allen's yacht after he died.

They are on ebay. Search for
Audiophile GAS Quasi Ribbon Planar Magnetic Transducer Driver Speakers
 
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no image that I can see ...
but perhaps they are referencing images seen when they do a search on eBay

Was referring to the comment made by StimpyWan; "They look well made and very robust". As you say, they must have searched them on eBay
:beerchug:

Thanks. Found them, unfortunately a little out of my budget right now. That's okay though, more for others to enjoy.
 
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I work for a company that makes flexible heating elements, and most of our products are essentially the same thing as those diaphragms, and those in EMITs and EMIMs (though our products are heaters, so the foils and trace widths used are deliberately high resistance). Most of our heaters are made on Kapton, which is what the Infinites are, but I am not sure what material GAS used. Kapton has the merit of very high heat tolerance, which is why it is also used for voice coil formers.
I tried to interest them in making replacement diaphragms for the Infinities, but absent an actual order, they weren't interested. And they may have been right because soon later, a guy started offering replacement diaphragms - his company's name was AVA (which I associated with Audio by Van Alstine, but there was no relation). After several years, the company seems to have disappeared, so demand may not have been great enough to sustain production (Correction - as posted below, AVA is still in business, so my statements are incorrect. My apologies) We actually have the capability of making very long heaters, and those GAS diaphragms seem quite long - wonder who made them.
 
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Hard to know who actually made them @Nat . Paul Allen had so much money he may have funded a company to make them as a one off for his boat. Not sure what to play for the first tune. Maybe some Steely Dan. The real first thing will be an MLS type burst from Arta so see what the FR looks like and how the sensitivity matches with the woofers. Hope I can get to that point tomorrow so I can listen over the weekend. Going to use my miniDSP and biamp for starters until I get some discovery under my belt.
 
And they may have been right because soon later, a guy started offering replacement diaphragms - his company's name was AVA (which I associated with Audio by Van Alstine, but there was no relation). After several years, the company seems to have disappeared
AVA (American Vintage Audio) is still around, still making replacement diaphragms, and in fact the owner, @Bobbyd38, is a member here.
 
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