http://hawthorneaudio.com/

If memory serves, the Tannoy's are a bit more efficient than the Hawthorne's. Because the Tannoy's are made for a rear loaded horn and the Hawthorne's are made for open baffle, the two drivers are not interchangeable, so you wouldn't want to build a Tannoy horn for a Hawthorne driver. (wasn't there some Tannoy bass reflex speakers also?)
So far, I can't find anything to complain about with the Hawthorne Audio Silver Iris speakers. They do need some bass augmentation when used on a reasonable sized baffle, but even if you buy the matching bass driver, it's still cheaper than Tannoys, and the open baffle type enclosure is far easier and cheaper than a Tannoy horn enclosure.

Also, the horn high frequency drivers on these sound very detailed and no noticable horn "nasties", at least as far up as I can hear (admittedly not all that high anymore). The highs sound much nicer than the highs in a pair of Klipsch Heresy-1's I recently sold which had EV T-35 horns.
Crossover is at 3.5 kHz and is well made.
Mids sound very natural.

Dave

• Hawthorne Audio

Did you replicate the baffle of the Hawthorne Solo speaker?
Or, have you built the baffle that JohnninCR has kindly offered for use with the Silver Iris?

I would love to try the Silver Iris with Darell's bass augmeter driver when it is available. But, I have some resorvations about the the ability of a 15" woofer to reproduce the midrange area with quality and detail as a smaller diameter driver could that is dedicated to this region.

Would you please give us a description of how you feel the quality of the midrange of the Silver Iris coaxial driver is? I know this is subjective, since it it would be based on opinion and your personal taste. But your opinion could be helpful in my search for an open baffle speaker system, like the up and coming Duet.

Thanks

Norris Wilson

I made baffles similar to the Solo baffles.
Here's pics:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/the_hurdy_gurdyman/album?.dir=c24c&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/the_hurdy_gurdyman/my_photos

The mids sound more natural than either my EV LS-12's or LS-8's. They are similarly detailed to the Klipsch Heresy's I had but are less "etched" sounding. Less listener fatigue over time than the Heresy's. They just sound natural to me. I wish I could compare them to some popular speaker that everyone is familiar, but I have what I have.

Dave

Thanks for the description of how you feel the Silver Iris sounds in the midrange. Also, your baffles look nice from what I can tell from the pictures.

I have a few questions if I may.

Is the main baffle board covered with some type of porous material to deal with defraction, like possibly cork?

Is the main baffle board made of the same material as the wings, pine? Or, is it made from some type of plywood or MDF?

The wings seem to be in a fixed position of around 35°. Is this position fixed where you get the best bass integration? Or, do you have to adjust them for different recorded materials, some with too much or too little bass information?

I see that you took a picture of both of your speakers from what looks to be your listening position.
Did you get a better integration with the speakers toed in to cross in front of you, pointed directly at you, or pointed slightly on each side of you and crossing behind?

Does the inclusion of the wings and top shelf help in reducing the interferences from the rear wave and dipole effect? Or, are they mainly to increase the size of the baffle to increase the bass response?

Do you get good bass, possibly 40Hz to 50Hz, with the drivers as high from the floor as you have them mounted?

Your speakers look to be about three to four feet from the back wall, is this where they have the best bass response, balanced sound?

And finally, I see you have your TV set between your speakers.
Does this create any problems with imaging, or do you move them further out from the wall when playing music?

Thanks

Norris

>Is the main baffle board covered with some type of porous material to deal with defraction, like possibly cork?Is the main baffle board made of the same material as the wings, pine? Or, is it made from some type of plywood or MDF?

Warble tone testing drove me nuts with all the variations I'd get measuring former speakers I've owned. Move the mike a foot and get a completely different response graph.

To my ears, at the 12-foot listening position, the Silver Iris speakers have a very "fast" and clean sounding bass. The weight on the deeper tones is a bit lean and can benefit from some subwoofer augmentation, but they can be enjoyed on most music without help. It's certainly not hard to add a sub below 40 or 50 Hz if you want a little more bass foundation. Probably the bass driver offered by Hawthorne Audio would be as good a match as any reasonably affordable bass augmentation you'll find.

Dave

These are harsh words for a guy that designs by modeling and measurement. All you can do is pour yourself a couple of fingers of single-malt and listen. Your ears will tell you when it's right.

Bob