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School speaker project

I have some comments on your survey:
1. Monitor - Critical Listening Monitoring means for the recording or mastering process, what percentage
of listeners do you think are doing this? Critical Listening might better go along with Casual Listening or background music
not sure what this question is looking to answer.

2. Musicality - Realism I see a musical speaker as providing realism so they are the same from my point of view. I would
put Analytical (linear frequency response and low distortion) at the other end of Musical. Poorly engineered might be another
possibility but I doubt anyone wants this though some might call particular models in this class musical. There are really good
and bad musical designs. Good musical designs, IMO are close to Analytical but deviate slightly for psychoacoustical optimizations.

4. Easy to Drive - Needs More Power I see easy to drive as an input impedance that is not too highly reactive or dips too low
in the magnitude of the impedance. Needs more power suggests an inefficient design, since a reactive load needs more current,
how much is more power, 50, 100, 200W? There are several ways to fix this.

PSB and perhaps Paradigm (are they still in business?) should be in your list of companies as value leaders.
Vandersteen might be of interest to you since their value speakers are, mostly, covered in cloth.

I read something here about "good drivers" it is possible to get excellent performance from not very costly or advanced drivers.
This is called value engineering, ask the question does adding money here significantly improve the audible performance of the
speaker as a system.
 
Nothing is more sustainable than recycling and reuse, so I second GD70's recommendation. Rather than creating a product - consider creating a process where a range of recycled drivers (component speakers) live a second life. New speakers (today) are mostly constructed in low wage countries, with lax environmental air/water/solid waste regulation and shipped across the ocean to us here. If you extend the useful life of existing drivers you eliminate emissions from mining, manufacturing and shipping. Crazy idea, instead of making new - using what we have.
 
Tool the survey. There was little to no acknowledgement of the type of speakers I prefer, magneto dynamic panels and electrostatic.
 
rmeade makes a very interesting suggestion, though I can imagine that the practical issues that would confront any attempt to recycle/modify speakers on a large scale would be pretty daunting. But it might make an interesting and reasonably inexpensive project if the OP wanted to do it. I suspect he would learn a lot from taking apart a bunch of speakers and reworking them - I know I have.
 
Hey - you asked for comments, and he gave you his. No need to get snarky. There have been homebrew electrostatics and magneto dynamic speakers, and while electrostatics are difficult to make sustainable and low cost, magneto dynamic speakers can be fairly low cost and no worse, and maybe better, than any other kind environmentally speaking.
 
Nat said:
Hey - you asked for comments, and he gave you his. No need to get snarky. There have been homebrew electrostatics and magneto dynamic speakers, and while electrostatics are difficult to make sustainable and low cost, magneto dynamic speakers can be fairly low cost and no worse, and maybe better, than any other kind environmentally speaking.
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Apologies, I genuinely thought that he was being sarcastic and so I decided to be be sarcastic back. Very sorry if I misinterpreted him and if my comment came off as rude
 
@Yerg :

Tiffs abound here at AK!

That’s one of the elements that gives it its “charm”! ;)

That said, most of us who have been AKer’s for a while get used to this and figure out how to navigate the myriad of personalities with carefully crafted responses!
 
To me, the word sustainable implies something more than a one off using scrape lumber. For something to be sustainable, it also needs to be repeatable, else there's no need for sustainability. If the term is meant to be 'eco friendly', that's a different story.

If you're looking for truly sustainable material, check out laminate Bamboo lumber. A bit more expensive (but still not bad) than wood, but much more sustainable (and also stainable - to make it look pretty ;) ).
www.woodworkerssource.com

Bamboo

Woodworkers are loving Bamboo
www.woodworkerssource.com www.woodworkerssource.com
 
Yerg said:
Apologies, I genuinely thought that he was being sarcastic and so I decided to be be sarcastic back. Very sorry if I misinterpreted him and if my comment came off as rude
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No worries, I thought he was joking as well LOL!!
 
@Yerg:
I guess you don't know that magneto dynamic (Magnepan type) and ESL's (electrostatic) can be and sometimes are DIY speakers. I could have also mentioned Heil (folded ribbon) and true ribbon type speakers or even plasma speakers, Then, there are the Radialstrahlers exclusively from MBL.

By DIY in this case, I mean speakers that you make from scratch. You don't buy of the shelf woofers, midranges and tweeters.

Heils and true ribbons are usually only used as tweeters. The Radialstrahlers look like three progressively smaller Rugby balls stacked on top of each other.

Panels which also includes most open back speakers are dipolar. That means the rear wave is 180 degrees is out of phase with the front wave. The Radialstrahlers are omnidirectional. None of the speakers I've mentioned are normally housed in boxes. I have not used box type speakers since I heard and bought a pair of Magnepans in 1976.

As for taking offense, you're new to AK and probably around the age of my grandchildren. Consequently, I categorized your response as ignorance augmented by youthfulness.

FWIW: Were I president Ukraine would have all the military supplies it needs.
 
JoeESP9 said:
@Yerg:
I guess you don't know that magneto dynamic (Magnepan type) and ESL's (electrostatic) can be and sometimes are DIY speakers. I could have also mentioned Heil (folded ribbon) and true ribbon type speakers or even plasma speakers, Then, there are the Radialstrahlers exclusively from MBL.

By DIY in this case, I mean speakers that you make from scratch. You don't buy of the shelf woofers, midranges and tweeters.

Heils and true ribbons are usually only used as tweeters. The Radialstrahlers look like three progressively smaller Rugby balls stacked on top of each other.

Panels which also includes most open back speakers are dipolar. That means the rear wave is 180 degrees is out of phase with the front wave. The Radialstrahlers are omnidirectional. None of the speakers I've mentioned are normally housed in boxes. I have not used box type speakers since I heard and bought a pair of Magnepans in 1976.

As for taking offense, you're new to AK and probably around the age of my grandchildren. Consequently, I categorized your response as ignorance augmented by youthfulness.

FWIW: Were I president Ukraine would have all the military supplies it needs.
Click to expand...
Building my own drivers as a product would be remarkably difficult and way out of any buyers budget for labor cost alone, which is why I thought you were just joking. Apologies again.
 
No problem. Although I have built amplifiers and preamps from scratch, I have no desire to make my own Magnepans, Heil's, ribbons or ESL's.

OTOH, a number of AK regulars have made their own open baffle type speakers. You might want to take a look at them. They share the same open box less sound that panels have.

If you're in the US Parts Express has a boatload of different speakers. They range from raw drivers to kits with everything included.
 
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