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Omni-directional Speakers

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Hope some of you guys can provide me with your experiences with these speakers. I'm considering one of the Duevels but not sure how different they sound from front firing speakers. Alternatively I've also considered the Morrisons too.Do omnis lack bass?
I'm presently a single driver guy and just not sure I'll like the change.
Any omni dealers in the LA area?

Follow Ups:

Duevels or German Physiks - SNM 21:52:00 01/11/08 (1)
Any with experience with these speakers?
- RE: Duevels or German Physiks - TimTaylor 01:09:32 01/12/08 (0)
  Considering the Duevel implementation resembles the Morrison concept, it is fair to expect the presentation to be similar. The Morrison loudspeaker pages explain and describe their characteristics, which can also be said to be the Duevel experience. I haven't had the opportunity to hear a Morrison.
  
  The key difference between the Duevel design and front firing speakers is in the way sound is "presented" to the listener. If this change is desirable, then you will be rewarded with huge benefits. This is less about a varying flavor of speaker, but more like a change of environment.
RE: Omni-directional Speakers - SNM 18:22:32 01/10/08 (1)
Anyone with experience with the Morrison's ?
- MA (Open in New Window)
- RE: Omni-directional Speakers - alpha 23:07:29 01/10/08 (0)
  I have a pair of Morrison and i can tell you that they produce the best sound stage in my experience (see below). If you are into classical music (especially orchestral pieces), the morrison will take you all the way to heaven. i pair them up with bryston14. They are also very detailed and it takes some time to adjust.
  
  But to be honest i don't have too much experience with other speakers. I did long listening sessions with the Revel Ultima2, Wilson8 and magico mini at dealers. I currently own 2 pairs of merlins and a pair of polymer logic. i have also heard many speakers here and there but mostly in short sessions and i don't remember what they sound like.
  
  enjoy,
  /ant
RE: Omni-directional Speakers - jdouglas51 09:37:30 01/10/08 (1)
ohm wrote the book on omnidirectional design, and still makes products worth far more than their selling prices. even the ohm micro walsh nails it from top to bottom.
- Ohms are not omnis and Ohm specifically disavows omnidirectional radiation - suits_me 19:11:51 01/11/08 (0)
  You could go read their site, but some people here have had trouble doing that since the site uses image maps.
  
  - This signature is two channel only -
RE: Omni-directional Speakers - mbnx01 08:25:34 01/10/08 (2)
I like omni's but they are VERY room dependent. They need to be in close proximity to rear/side walls. Think of a Bose 901 (I know it's painful, but bear with me). If you put it in the middle of the room, what do you have? A single front-firing 4" speaker.

Look into the Mirage stuff. Their new 'omniguide' speakers are excellent - if your room works for them.
- RE: Omni-directional Speakers - Drew Eckhardt 11:26:33 01/10/08 (1)
  > I like omni's but they are VERY room dependent. They need to be in close proximity to rear/side walls. Think of a Bose 901 (I know it's painful, but bear with me). If you put it in the middle of the room, what do you have? A single front-firing 4" speaker.
  
  They're less room-dependent than conventional speakers and work best well away from reflective surfaces.
  
  Once you get more than 2-4' (not a typo) away from a conventional speaker in a typical room you hear more sound from the reverberant field than you do coming directly from the speaker. Your brain does a better job separating the direct sound from the reverberant field when their power spectrums match which is not what you have with a conventional speaker where the midrange starts to beam and the non-coincident midrange + tweeter create a notch in the reverberant field centered on their cross-over frequency (speakers with multiple midrange drivers have even bigger problems).
  
  Speakers with uniform total power output up to a few kilohertz therefore sound more natural; whether uniform means the same output in every direction, uniformly decreasing outside a 45 x 45 degree pyramid, or a more complex pattern like a dipole (polar response of cosine alpha) or cardioid (1 + cosine alpha). More controlled dispersion just retains texture and clarity farther from the speaker so sitting closer to omnidirectional speakers is a fine idea.
  
  Placing monopole speakers too close to reflecting surfaces is going to get you a more uniform boost than with conventional speakers where the gain decreases as you move into the midrange which leaves your singers with chest colds. They're less sensitive to the room and placement.
  
  Bear in mind that pointing drivers in one direction doesn't mean that's where the sound is headed (an eleven foot long 100Hz wave wraps around any speaker you can fit in your living room like it wasn't there) and that multiple drivers pointing in different directions don't yield omnidirectional sound (for example bipoles must have cancelation where the path length difference between listener and speakers is an odd multiple of 180 degrees).
  
  I built a set of Linkwitz Plutos for my smaller listening room. Apart from the limited low frequency output (fixable with sub-woofers crossed in at 120Hz) they're exceptional for an $800 parts cost or $3K internet direct assembled price including amplification.
  - http://www.linkwitzlab.com/Pluto/intro.htm (Open in New Window)
  - RE: Omni-directional Speakers - caspian 14:31:03 01/12/08 (0)
    I concur with everything Drew said, but would add some points.
    
    Speakers which radiate omnidirectionally all the way up into the high treble may suffer from lack of image specificity. The soundstage is huge, but individual instruments and voices can sound bloated and bigger than life (in contrast to many forward-firing minimontiors which image very precisely, but the images are unnaturally small and narrow).
    
    The best compromise, as seen in the Linkwitz Plutos and a few other available kits and models, is to cross the upward-firing mid to a forward-firing wide-dispersion tweeter on a very small baffle. This allows the response to gradually taper from omnidirectional to monopolar, at a much higher frequency than is possible with even a small front-firing box. The advantage of this is more precise imaging combined with the wide, deep soundstage provided by the omnidirectional mid-frequency radiation.
    
    The Pluto mounts the tweeter on a periscope above the midbass driver. Some designs from Dick Olsher and GR Research mount it on the front panel of the cabinet, right near the top edge. The two approaches present different phase issues which must be addressed in the crossover, but can produce equally good results if the 90 degree off-axis roll-off of the mid is smoothly integrated with the HF roll-in of the tweeter.
    
    I have built two experimental omni systems so far, one with each of the above approaches, with inexpensive drivers. Both sound far better than they have any right to, and big 3-D soundstaging with excellent separation of instruments is their forte. They work best out in the room, a good 5 feet or more from the nearest walls. The room is normally furnished with a mixture of diffractive and absorbtive surfaces.
    
    I'd recommend looking into one of the good kits before blowing big bucks on an assembled system (unless you want something really exotic, like MBLs). Hire a good local cabinet maker if you can't make the boxes, and you'll still save money and end up with something that sounds great.

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