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Even more show stuff

Perla audio was showing the midrange from a planar magnetic speaker they plan to introduce next year -- just the driver, as the speaker isn't ready yet:





It certainly looks impressive! The voice coils are -- get this - silver. I was puzzled by this as aluminum has a higher conductivity/mass ratio but they said the silver sounds better.

The Perfect Technologies glass dynamic dipoles, besides looking impressive, had a very spacious sound:





As with the other omnidirectional dipoles I heard, I was pleased by their imaging, which might not have been the equal of the line sources but was close in a much more practical form factor, and far better than the imaging I heard from any non-dipole save perhaps the Magicos (and that was under special circumstances -- huge room, noel room treatment, and special recording). It isn't that the other speakers didn't do depth and lateral spread -- in many cases they did -- but that they didn't have the magic carpet effect of being transported into a real acoustical space with real instruments -- the images were scrambled, often vertically as well as in terms of depth.

I asked about the glass piece behind the midwoofers and was told that the drivers are mounted to it, rather than the front panel, to minimize vibration. Clever. The woofers, mounted in opposition, should also tend to cancel the vibration. Some very nice, innovative yet sound design. I thought the balance a bit bright for my taste. Otherwise, they were a pleasure to listen to.

As everyone knows by now, Parts Express is carrying the BG Neos again:









I was told that under the new arrangement, they will be the exclusive American distributor of the Neo line. Currently they're selling the Neo-3, -8. and -10, and they may be adding some other models (presumably the PDR's and perhaps the 8S?). The RD line, unfortunately, will not be offered.

At Madisound, I saw a familiar face:





I mentioned that it was a lot smaller in person than I thought it would be and was told that everybody says that. Unfortunately, they weren't demoing the complete LX-521, apparently they did that last year but as they aren't really a demo room it wasn't ideal for them. Davey's Mini DSP XO for the Linkwitz wss there as well, and if my fading memory serves me, they were showing a plate amp with a Mini DSP built in.

Unfortunately, I missed hearing DEQX on Maggies -- that was last year's demo and this year, they were showing it with a custom dynamic three way, and doing a before/after with a $20 horn which was actually really impressive as a demonstration of the technology but didn't say much about the improvement to be had with high end speakers.

Alan Langford, DEQX's general manager, was good enough to spend some time discussing their use with Maggies. He said that they already have curves for many Maggie models, so that in most cases no user measurement is necessary for the driver correction and crossover curves. (After those one time measurements are taken, a second in-room calibration is performed with parametric IIR filters). I asked him about other Maggie models or modded units, and he confirmed that they should be measured outside or in a large space like a gymnasium to eliminate reflections -- even an anechoic chamber won't suffice because they aren't anechoic at low frequencies. He also said that those measurements should be made at three meters rather than in the near field

I mentioned that I might be using a subwoofer thanks to the bass problems in my room, and Alan said that units are starting to turn up on the used market and can be had for as little as $1000. Apparently, older units of any vintage will still interface with the newer ones so they can be used in parallel. Larry, at their DEQX dealer in Denver, apparently stocks some old units and is the expert on what's available.

DEQX, like some other exhibitors at the show, was using the new Roon media player, and said that their new models can receive data streamed from it, as well as from JRiver.

I did get to here the DEQX with the Kyron planar dipoles -- it's included in the system:





At $112, this system isn't cheap, but imaging was spectacular and it looks like they'd be a great option for people who want the dipole sound and can't accommodate line sources.

Spatial Audio was demoing their open baffle titanium cone speakers:









I was glad to hear that they're doing quite well for a small manufacturer, selling 80-100 pairs a month.



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