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Oh My God! Polyplanars Have Been Re Incarnated !

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I finally got through to the designer of these planar speakers, and asked him how they worked.
Apparently SRS bought the rights to the old Poly Planer design, and re did it.
The SRS speakers use an updated Poly Planer styrofoam driver, driven by a conventional voice coil.
Rings are strategically placed in the styrofaom to effect resonance,
The SRS speaker uses a conventional dome tweeter from 2.5 khz up
Crossover is 6 db per octave.
I was told the SRS driver goes up to 10k, but in the intrest of off axis dispersion, a tweeter w/crossover was used.
Maybe when i get mine, i will "pull the plug" on this tweeter and its crossover, and let the Polyplanar driver run on out to a Raven Ribbon, or something ?
The speaker was originally designed to go after Magneplanars and Martin Logans, and compete in the high end arena.
It was 3 years in development.
Then, the powers that be at SRS decided to lower the retail price, and sell it at Best Buy.
Best Buy, at the last minute, balked because of the Planars need for a subwoofer, and concern about possible customer placement problems with a dipole.
SRS damps the back wave of the driver somewhat, kinda like what Quad does, but that wasnt good enough for Best Buy.
Instead of going after their true market, the high end customer, SRS marketing got greedy, and now must suffer the consequences.
My speakers will be here on March 12th, it should be interesting ?
Isnt this hobby fun ?

Poly Planers Re Incarnated ! (Open in New Window)

Follow Ups:

Polyplanars from SRS..can they rise from the ashes of $200? - Wadric 16:05:05 04/18/05 (0)
I also picked up a pair of these Klayman SRS speakers for $200. They arrived packed like $1000 speakers and looked that pricey, cosmetically. They sounded like crap in the male alto/female voice. I, too, blame the crossover and the tweeter choice. I was surprised to see that they are not dipoles. The back side is closed on the tweeter baffle and heavily damped on the planar drivers.
So, what to do with them? I disassembled one and the tweeter is about a three inch baffle right between the planar drivers. It has a 1" dome that I haven't identified. I am going to monkey with the crossover first and then consider replacing the tweeter. I will report on the results, if there is any interest, i.e. others stuck with beautiful crappy speakers.
BTW, my MMGs arrived a week later and ...WoW...that's what I have dreamed of in sound. I am thrilled and pushed the SRS's into the far corner to wait while the MMGs break-in.
I invited a friend to listen to the MMGs this weekend. He is not very 'techo' minded, but attends a lot of concerts and collects classical CDs. I played the Elgar Cello concerto with Dupre playing cello. After 15 minutes or so, he turned to me with a smile and said, "This is like being at an actual performance."
Re: Oh My God! Polyplanars Have Been Re Incarnated ! - DavidJames 07:20:16 03/13/05 (1)
Did you get them yesterday and get a chance to listen? I'd love to hear your thougths
- First Impressions ... They Suck ! - ka7niq 07:37:42 03/13/05 (0)
  Out of the box, they were absolutely horrible!
  After 4 hours, they got better.
  They image better then my Mg3A's.
  I am listening w/o subwoofer right now, and RAP BASS Cd is breaking them in as we speak.
  As of this moment, I wouldnt reccommend these speakers,
  They have some serious female vocal troubles.
  Perhaps this will go away with break in ?
  But, they also have a unique transparency to them compared to Magnepans too.
  It does some things better then any speaker in recent memory.
  They play real loud, but sound horrible when turned up too ?
  Perhaps the upward masking of a subwoofer would help ?
  Oh well, stay tuned, but dont buy them..yet !
  BTW, they made Tommy James and the Shondells sound wonderful!
  there is something about them i like,, some things i hate.
  Lets give em a chance, but i can tell you this right now.
  The driver in this has moments of brilliance, and at times its almost eerie in its transparency.
  But, at 10 hours of play, its bad outweighs its good.
  stay tuned, ok
Re: Can't find other info... - bogie7@mindspring.com 04:42:27 03/11/05 (1)
Guys, that makes me nervous - About the only stuff I see is from the company itself... Are these guys for real, or is this the "high end" equivalent of a white van?
- Hardly ! - ka7niq 06:54:17 03/11/05 (0)
  SRS is a large company, used to be owned by Howard Hughes !
  White van ?
  You MUST be kidding ?
  SRS does business with Toshiba, panasonic, Sony, Apple, etc.
Re: Oh My God! Polyplanars Have Been Re Incarnated ! - Scholl 16:47:57 03/09/05 (5)
I picked up a pair a few weeks ago.
Good construction.
Fill the room nicely with modest power.
Good detail and dispersion.
I tried them with MAC 40s with good results then a push pull DHT DIY amp with fuller sound.
Depending on the music you like they'll need a sub.
Let us know how you make out removeing the tweeter. That's the week point in the speaker.
- Well, There May Be Several Options Open Thanks To... - ka7niq 20:33:10 03/09/05 (0)
  The wide range SRS Poly Planar driver.
  It goes out to 10k, so perhaps simply changing the tweeter to a really good dome, and leaving the first order crossover frequency alone.
  But yours are only a few weeks old, perhaps the tweeter needs to have its suspension stretched ?
  Of course, if one is willing to sacrifice dispersion, one could simply raise the domes tweeters crossover point way up, like up at 7K or so.
  One would then have an almost full range driver.
  You would have to toe the speaker in, and the sweet spot would be narrow, but directional speakers tend to get real holographic because they take the room out of the equation more then wide dispersing ones do.
- Re: Oh My God! Polyplanars Have Been Re Incarnated ! - Pete Whitley 17:41:42 03/09/05 (3)
  Hi Scholl,
  I'll take that as you like the speaker and thought it was well worth $200. I just bought a pair myself. Do you like them more than MMG's? What do you not like about the tweeter?
  Thanks,
  Pete
  - Re: Oh My God! Polyplanars Have Been Re Incarnated ! - Scholl 14:06:58 03/10/05 (1)
    I like the speakers.
    It's been way too long since I've heard Maggies so I can't say.
    To me the speaker sounds rough at around the crossover like maybe the tweeter isn't suited for that low and shallow of a crossover.
    I use the SEAS 27TDC in several designs including a simple 12" two way with the JBL 123A-1. The woofer has a 1.1mh choke the tweeter an 8uf cap and 2ohm resistor. That tweeter can handle the 6db crossover that low without honk or a stressful sound.
    I'm not sure how these speakers are put together or how easy it would be to swap tweeters.
    They play smoothly and loud enought to fill the room but they woun't rock the house.
    The fit, finish and service from SRS is first rate. It was a very smooth and fast transaction, less than a week.
    - Why Swap The Tweeters ?? - ka7niq 20:11:53 03/10/05 (0)
      If, after break in, the tweeter does what you say, heres what i plan to do.
      I would simply raise its crosover point until it sounds good, and aim the panels right at me.
      The panel will go right out to 10k I was told, but how well, or how directive is anyones guess ?
      Mine will be here Monday!
  - Re: Oh My God! Polyplanars Have Been Re Incarnated ! - CdnAudio 10:17:59 03/10/05 (0)
    What is the sound like compared to your maggies - I have a pair of 12's and my girlfriend loves them but her room is not set up well for the Maggies and she only has a 50wpc Rotel Amp - would these be a suitable substitute?
    Thanks.
Ha ha - Jon L 12:29:42 03/09/05 (2)
Great find. I have no idea how they would sound, but I like your idea of taking out the tweeter.
In fact, I can see a Stacked version with something like Aurum Cantus G2 ribbon crossed at around 7-8kHz via active x-over..
Too cheap to pass up, too cheap to pass up... I need some speakers for my HT.
- Maybe My Magneplanar MG3a's Can Donate Their Ribbons To The Cause ? - ka7niq 12:55:43 03/09/05 (1)
  Yeah, you are right, too cheap to pass up.
  91 db efficient too ... did someone say Tubes, LOL.
  I will give them an honest review, and i will laugh my ass off if they kick both my Eminent Technology LFT V111a's and the MG3A's butts.
  If they do, perhaps i will stack em, and use the MG3a's ribbon tweeter.
  If the SRS driver can go way up to 10k, i bet it is directional as hell up there ?
  that means, in one spot, it should image lime a mutther funker, huh ?
  Or, they could msound like unadulterated sheeit, in which case the styrofoan drivers should make good beer coolers.
  Actually, SRS had the styrofoam specially made for them, because the engineer told me that todays styrofoam is different from yesterdays. The adhesives used are the exact same ones used by PolyPlaner.
  PolyPlaners were used in a Lot of Dental offices, because they were flat, and easy to install.
  I "auditioned" them in a dental chair, sounded pretty good too, or was it the Nitrous Oxide, LOL !
  - These SRS's sound like the BES speakers of the past - Ron L 06:52:06 03/10/05 (0)
    ...or at least that's what I believe they were called. They were flat-ish, though not as thin as the Maggies or ET's. If you took off the grill, you'd see styrofoam of similar qualtiy to what was (and is) used to pack mid-fi amps and the like. In the middle, or there abouts, was a driver's magnet assembly, sort of looked like a Jensen car speaker of that era. My bro's friend swore by it, thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. But now he has Martin Loagan's. As I recall, I remember not being particularly impressed with them. At the time I had Magnepan MGIII's (the original).
    These SRS's might be suprisingly good, though my guess is you won't be ditching your ET's anytime soon.

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