Posted by Jim Griffin [ 12.180.247.118 ] on February 03, 2005 at 17:05:00:
In Reply to: Tangband Array & Home theater posted by Steve Hutchings on February 03, 2005 at 13:30:46:
Steve,
You need to read my comments on full range drivers in line arrays in my answer to the posting just below this one.
You can not get there from here with just the small full range TB drivers used full range. You can use what I call a quasi-line array sources like my Needles as shown in the photo (the Needles are the smaller, skinny arrays) or the larger arrays.
The Needles design uses 16 Tang Band W3-871S drivers per side with a ribbon tweeter. Thus, you have line array operation up to the crossover to the tweeter which will get you most of the near field effects of a LA and then you have essentially a point source tweeter so some limitations are imposed on in-room seating for best sound.
The best line array implemantation would be a total frequency band line array such as the larger sources (Linus 2) in the photo.
Now you can create a HT system with the R and L front speakers as arrays and then more conventional speakers in the center and surround positions. This would generate good sound but perhaps not the absolute best. The center and surround speakers would have a little trouble keeping up with the higher sensitivity of the R and L sources.
A better situation is to use 4 line array speakers in the R, L, and surround positions and implement a phantom center channel. If you are using near field line arrays, then the side to side imaging will be broader (less sound falloff R to L) so the absence of no center channel wouldn't be missed.
Jim
[ ArraySpeakers Forum ] [ Help ]