While there was borderline hostility, I am glad we are over that. The knowledge you both have is MUCH too valuable to distort with name calling, or as Wayne says: my speaker sounds better than your speaker.

It would be great if both of you could ship your speakers here (and yourselves as well of course, if possible!) at the next GPAF, so we can have a nice listen and post reviews on the speakers that are a product of your methodologies. That would be fun and would probably benefit you both as well in the evolution of your speakers.

Tulsa is centrally located. Shippiing speakers is not that expensive.
I'm sure we can find a comparo room for you guys at the next GPAF, if all you do is ship the speakers.
What say you?
-akhilesh

For the open baffle system I am basing my system off of the Basszilla design by Dick Olsher which has a small ribbon supertweeter (Aurum Cantus) to augment the highs from the DX4s. It provides some air (reproduces frequencies above 10 k hz) but is not a requirement for great sound (in my opinion).

Retsel

Very good summary. But I will add one slight modification/expansion, you wrote :

"Martin is top-down (design, test, design, test)."

My actual process is as follows :

1. Break in and test driver T/S parameters.
2. Design system using MathCad worksheets.
3. Build system.
4. Test acoustic and electrical response of system.
5. Design and install compensation circuit based on measurements.
6. Drag "finished" system out of basement and up to second floor listening room.
7. Final minor tweaks by ear.

Since I wrote the MathCad worksheets, I have never scrapped a box and started over. The building part is my biggest challenge. The basic box response is mathematically predictable. My goal is to merge step 5 into step 2.

Martin

Hedlund horns are a truely amazing project. I would never even consider building a pair, they are well beyond my own limited cabinet making skills. Back loaded horns in general are a very complex build compared to even TL's.

But if one were using a sub from say 100 Hz down, why would one build a Hedlund horn to be used only in the mid bass and up? Why wouldn't an open baffle or small sealed enclosure be preferable? From my perspective, the advantage of building a back loaded horn is the potential for very efficient bass output making a sub not necessary. What advantage does a Hedlund horn, or some other back loaded horn, combined with a sub produce that makes the combination better then the simple open baffle or small closed box solutions?

Martin

Dave

I have been asked that same question many times, and I like to ask it of people....after all why go to so much trouble? Well, after hearing the alternatives, all of them.......in the case of SINGLE DRIVERS...the BLH wins every time (IN MY OPINION), they simply sound better than a sealed when using a SINGLE DRIVER with a low