NFR 645 updates

Planar Speaker Asylum

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Well, a while ago I said that I would tell how each part of the update went and had left off at the point of telling about the Goertz foil inductor.
I had the use of several sets of ears on the final tests. The long and the short of it...we did not hear any difference between the Uber-coil and a nice air-core Madisound coil of the same value (I had my wife ship some of my coils down to me). The choice of values seems to be spot on though; either coil solved the crossover problem to the ribbon. The Goertz coil sure does look awesome though...
My listeners do report that the speakers do not sound as they did when I started; they report increased air, midrange depth and articulation,ribbon to woofer integration, and better mid to deep bass integration with the mods. I even had a dealer of much more expensive speakers give a thumbs up. But they still seemed to think the speaker a bit "light in the loafers" as far as bass to midrange balance on the Spectron. The tubeahaulics went on how SS amps could not be full in the bass.
But....there was an evil plot brewing in my mind. Since I had bread-boarded all the cross-over outside the speaker so that changing parts was easy I tried an experiment on my listeners. I put the original coil back in the circuit (while they drank the beer and ate the sandwitches) but did not reinstall the woofer series resistors. I told them that I was installing another mega-priced part....I think I told them it was cryogenically treated and blessed by the High Priestess of the local Wiccan coven by the light of the Full Moon...
Upon firing up the speakers with some Patricia Barber, we were all amazed at the bass fullness and the proper "feel" to all the accustic bass instruments. Even the tubahaulics were impressed. Disc after disc was played. This configuration (original coil, no resistors, black hole,Theta cap) was pronounced by all as being the best that they heard yet and wanted to know where to get such a wonderous coil. I led them on for a while before admitting that the coil was the stock one. They did not believe me and wanted to know where I REALLY got it from....
Any way as it turns out, removing the resistors gave a shut-off point for the woofers that was aproximately what the point was for the Uber-coil, but I now had a slightly higer level of bass and low mids to work with. I am sure that in an anechoic chamber it would look awful, but in real rooms (we tried the speakers at another guys house for fun) this arrangement just sounds more "real".
I have plans to try other drivers as the bass-mid driver and will report as I can.

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Parts Connexion

Topic - NFR 645 updates - rp1@surfnetusa.com 23:08:06 09/04/03 (3)

Re: NFR 645 updates - rlinder 15:58:58 09/05/03 (1)

repost -> "Newform Research Update - Aug 2003" - Mart 22:28:26 09/05/03 (0)

Thx _ <nt> - Mart 04:44:39 09/05/03 (0)

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