Posted by Wayne Parham [ 151.193.213.24 ] on February 16, 2006 at 16:55:36:

In Reply to: Re: million readers a month posted by manualblock on February 16, 2006 at 15:37:09:

I think dropping the HL10A was a mistake. If you use a pair of them in parallel, you have a nominal 4Ω load. That's a good option. The HL10C is probably OK, but they had to fudge stuff to get the motor strength, and that required a smaller cooling vent. I'm not sure that was a good idea. Maybe it will work just fine in some applications, but I still prefer the HL10A with its larger cooling vent. And there are people out there with an investment in sound equipment using HL10A's already that won't be able to maintain their speakers because the part is no longer available.

I had planned to make a scaled version of the 12π basshorn sub, a smaller, lighter horn with a pair of HL10A drivers in push-pull. They would use the same heat exchanger as the 12π too. This proposed 10π basshorn was to be something that would have been good for smaller venues. Where the 12π was a Top-Fuel Dragster, this 10π would have been Super Comp. Still an all-out performer, but smaller and lighter, for smaller venues that didn't need the oomph of the 12π.

But I'm not going to go through that design effort for the HL10C. It is waaaay too much work to spend the time developing a good loudspeaker only for the vendor to drop support of parts contained inside it, so I am very glad I hadn't undertaken the 10π project yet. This kind of thing has happened before, and it is a major inconvenience when you have put as much effort in a loudspeaker design as I do. These things aren't one-offs, and they aren't a trivial design effort.

I'm also disappointed Eminence decided to drop the Magnums. They're never going to sell as many of the most expensive premium parts they have as they do of the inexpensive bang-for-the-buck parts. But it's nice to have the good parts available.

I always liked their mid level stuff, but I'm disappointed that they've dropped the Magnums. They've modified them in a way that makes them unworkable for me. I don't intend to design something for the new drivers they're building now, so that means I won't be offering a premium line using Eminence any longer. They're still great for the bang-for-the-buck lines, but I was hoping to see them maintain their high end stuff too.

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