Home Speaker Asylum

General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

Re: Green Mountain Europa's or Carolina Audio JSM's

I have the Europa's and I have to say they are the most impressive speakers I have heard, bar none. As far as the 1st order x-over is concerned, it makes a tremendous difference. One comparative listen is all it takes. Carolina Audio is a single driver, no x-over system. Basic physics tells us the following:In a single driver, phase shift won't be caused by an electrical crossover- there isn't one!. The signal remains free of crossover parts distortions/haze too.

However, any driver has mass, suspension, and damping (by the suspension's resistive losses and the amplifier). Thus it is a "damped harmonic oscillator"- in a Physics 101 book.

A harmonic oscillator has a 1/4 wave's worth of time-delay down at its low-frequecy resonance, compared to the midrange tones. For a sealed woofer with -3dB at 40Hz (close-mic'd measured), that means 1/4 of 1/40th of a second, or 1/160th of a second=6.25 milliseconds. That doesn't sound like much time delay, but it is ~7 feet of distance, at the speed of sound.

Put two microphones on a piano- one for the left hand, one for the right; both equally close to the strings/soundboard. Now, impose 6.25 milliseconds delay between those two mics- that is, between the lowest notes and the mid-scale notes.

Imagine what the piano would sound like if the right hand tones got to the microphone seven feet sooner than the left hand's lowest notes, because that's what's happening as you slide down the scale for ANY loudspeaker- and it's a gradual change in phase, which is why we don't complain too much.
Just some food for thought. Trust your ears guys....not speaker manufacturer's hype. If hype was king, we would all own Bose 901's
Good listening, Dale


This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Signature Sound   [ Signature Sound Lounge ]


Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups


You can not post to an archived thread.