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Sunfire XT Cinema Ribbon: "HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!?!"

lattiboy

lattiboy

Well-Known Member
I am a neophyte when it comes to audio. I've only seriously been interested for a few years now and am too cheap to do things "properly". I get interesting speakers from garage sales and craigslist and power them with decent components, but I've never really owned anything "high end" or other money-is-no-object level audiophile gear.

I just received the Sunfire Cinema Ribbon XT CRM-2 speakers and after a few hours of listening I am attempting to not lose my head with how good they are.

I've never heard anything like them at their size. Here they are in front of the Mission MS-50, previously my pound-for-pound favorite speaker. I used a flash to illuminate the ribbons.

r8RTjmH.jpg


They're about 30% smaller and roughly twice as heavy. It's a damn feat of engineering that all of this sound fits in a minuscule box.

I'll let the video do the talking here as whatever nonsense I could string together about "soundstage" or "immersive imaging" wouldn't really be as interesting. This is my Chromecast audio running Tidal HIFI at about 40% volume with my lil' SMSL as-98e.

 
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Nice pick up. I'd love to own a pair. And no off the shelf drivers in your speakers. Bob Carver designed both the ribbons and the woofers. The ribbons are now available for DIY use. Parts Express sells them, after Carver released the design to the general public. Not sure about the woofers though. I've never seen a good, close up picture of them. Maybe you can snap a few pictures for us? :D
 
As good as they are they have been out done by the "The Carverfest" speakers. Basically a redesign of the CRM-2 speaker that was sold as a kit for the Carverfest get together several years ago.
Bob Carver himself was involved in the cross over design and voicing. These are meant to be used with a subwoofer to pick up the low end. It's amazing the amount of quality sound that comes out of either of these two tiny speakers. Another Carver innovation.

BillWojo
 
I have a couple pairs of those ribbons (really quasi ribbons as they're laminated to mylar) in use either as retro-fits, or additional highs, I'd love to find a pair of the sunfire speakers for a reasonable price.
Congrats!
 
BillWojo said:
As good as they are they have been out done by the "The Carverfest" speakers. Basically a redesign of the CRM-2 speaker that was sold as a kit for the Carverfest get together several years ago.
Bob Carver himself was involved in the cross over design and voicing. These are meant to be used with a subwoofer to pick up the low end. It's amazing the amount of quality sound that comes out of either of these two tiny speakers. Another Carver innovation.

BillWojo
Click to expand...

post the schematics, would you? I'd love to build a pair, and I have a third pair of the sunfire ribbons still in the box just waiting for the right speaker
 
jazzmans said:
post the schematics, would you? I'd love to build a pair, and I have a third pair of the sunfire ribbons still in the box just waiting for the right speaker
Click to expand...

Ditto. :thumbsup:

I wonder if there's a thread on "The Carverfest" speakers? I'll have to do a search, and see...! :idea:
 
Part of the design was Bob's high back EMF pressure thing. So the box size is a big part of the way it works. To replica means getting the box size to be pretty spot on. It was really tight inside to get the drivers magnets in the space and then get the crossover components in. It'd be some work to get it figured out in reverse. Before stuffing....

CF%20speaker%20inside.jpg


EV3
 
StimpyWan said:
Nice pick up. I'd love to own a pair. And no off the shelf drivers in your speakers. Bob Carver designed both the ribbons and the woofers. The ribbons are now available for DIY use. Parts Express sells them, after Carver released the design to the general public. Not sure about the woofers though. I've never seen a good, close up picture of them. Maybe you can snap a few pictures for us? :D
Click to expand...

As requested! They're so tiny, but they put out a very convincing amount of bass.

vjLHsCI.jpg
 
lattiboy said:
As requested! They're so tiny, but they put out a very convincing amount of bass.
Click to expand...

Thanks!!! :beerchug: Though, I wish that I recognized them? I'll have to look through Parts Express, Madisound, and Solen, and see if they have something like it. I'd love to clone a pair.
 
evsentry3 said:
Part of the design was Bob's high back EMF pressure thing. So the box size is a big part of the way it works. To replica means getting the box size to be pretty spot on. It was really tight inside to get the drivers magnets in the space and then get the crossover components in. It'd be some work to get it figured out in reverse. Before stuffing....

CF%20speaker%20inside.jpg


EV3
Click to expand...

Oh my...!!! :yikes:
 
Which thread specifically has the specs and dimensions? I love that site, but get buried quickly.
(this is after half an hour of perusing that specific forum) thanks.

You have no idea how badly I want to build a pair of these now.

Edit to add, I think I found the thread, seems there were a few sets built for carverfest... damn I'm jealous! (I swear I missed that entire sub-forum back in 2015 or I'd own at least a pair now!)
 
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If the schematics are still posted on the Carver site than it's fine. I believe that James had posted it for the general membership to see and was going to take it down. These speakers are now part of his product line.
Yes, building them was fun, they are packaged very tightly in that aluminum extrusion and they needed to be tightly sealed, even the end caps had a small amount of sealer that needed to be applied.
The end result is simply amazing. If I recall, they are rated at 400W! Although I wasn't there, there are reports of one cabin at the Carverfest that managed to smoke a driver in one. They were being played at insanely loud levels to try and see when they would give up. LOL

BillWojo
 
jazzmans said:
Which thread specifically has the specs and dimensions? I love that site, but get buried quickly.
(this is after half an hour of perusing that specific forum) thanks.

You have no idea how badly I want to build a pair of these now.

Edit to add, I think I found the thread, seems there were a few sets built for carverfest... damn I'm jealous! (I swear I missed that entire sub-forum back in 2015 or I'd own at least a pair now!)
Click to expand...

I 'think' this is the tread. Plus a 2nd one. At least both look long enough to be worthwhile! It's always nice to find new ribbon designs. Looks fun too.
 
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Newbie, reviving an old thread.

I'd love to find some more info on these. The links above are either dead or broken. I've done some searching, but can't seem to find any more info on these. Does anyone know where to find more info?

evsentry3 said:
Part of the design was Bob's high back EMF pressure thing. So the box size is a big part of the way it works. To replica means getting the box size to be pretty spot on. It was really tight inside to get the drivers magnets in the space and then get the crossover components in. It'd be some work to get it figured out in reverse. Before stuffing....

CF%20speaker%20inside.jpg


EV3
Click to expand...
 
Who is this mysterious James fellow!? Trying to track down more info on these, but I can't find anything out there. Most links above are dead or broken.

Thanks.

BillWojo said:
If the schematics are still posted on the Carver site than it's fine. I believe that James had posted it for the general membership to see and was going to take it down. These speakers are now part of his product line.
Yes, building them was fun, they are packaged very tightly in that aluminum extrusion and they needed to be tightly sealed, even the end caps had a small amount of sealer that needed to be applied.
The end result is simply amazing. If I recall, they are rated at 400W! Although I wasn't there, there are reports of one cabin at the Carverfest that managed to smoke a driver in one. They were being played at insanely loud levels to try and see when they would give up. LOL

BillWojo
Click to expand...
 
voicekiller said:
Who is this mysterious James fellow!? Trying to track down more info on these, but I can't find anything out there. Most links above are dead or broken.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
James was the owner of the CarverAudio forum. Pretty gifted guy in a lot of ways with construction of lots of things. He drove the work on those and Bob came in and was very involved. I don't believe he's active in audio in more.

The design was heavily dependent on the box design for the sound. Drivers are loaded always by the box, but in that very small box, tight quarter design, even more so! Put those same drivers and crossover in any other sized box and it wouldn't work right at all. The drivers are still current.

On the old forum, not too long after the original CarverFest build, a fella come along that did do a heck of a job of building a replica of that design in a very pretty wood box. So it can be done.

Many of the participants of that build are still around on a forum put together to continue the same forum and CarverFest get togethers. Here...https://carveraudio.proboards.com/

If we can get past the Covid era, Bob should be back this fall for CarverFest.

EV3
 
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