Scaena install

[repman]

C1 --worth the effort to find a pair to listen to IMO.

Jack -- a DAC review with some comparisons will be up in the next week. Just got the EERA Tentation btw.

I heard the Scaenas at the Atlanta show and can not get them out of my mind. You are a lucky man I know you will enjoy these for a long time,congratulations.

 

[rblnr]

As Steve said, they're a line array and if you look at the column where would you put an 18" woofer?

The woofer is entirely separate in that it's fed by a second output from the preamp (other output goes to towers) into a digital crossover that feeds the amps that drives the woofers.

 

[caesar]

I heard the Scaenas at the Atlanta show and can not get them out of my mind. You are a lucky man I know you will enjoy these for a long time,congratulations.

Yes, everone was talking about Scaena / Bat as the best of show.

 

[rblnr]

I'm still thrilled by how they seem to put the band as a living, breathing thing right in front of me.

 

[zermatt]

Now that you have had them some time, how are these new woofers, Rblnr? Also, one thing I don't understand is why most box speakers contain the woofers inside the box while the Scaena keep them apart? Is it a different design, or just the same thing with a longer wire? A placement issue?

I have a pair of these speakers and I am using the Audionote Angaku int. amp which is only 18 to 25W. ( this is my friends amp - on loan). The speakers are quite amazing with this combo. Now since its int. amp, I go to the pass xover to feed the subs form the digital sources.

 

[Steve Williams]

What's the efficiency rating of the Scaena

 

[zermatt]

93 db!

 

[rblnr]

The efficiency rating is a bit of a misnomer because being line arrays, they project sound differently and are about equally loud at 6" and 6'. To balance in my HT I have to turn them way down bs my 91db efficient center channel.

 

[caesar]

As Steve said, they're a line array and if you look at the column where would you put an 18" woofer?

The woofer is entirely separate in that it's fed by a second output from the preamp (other output goes to towers) into a digital crossover that feeds the amps that drives the woofers.

Thanks. This implementation seems very unconventional to what most people are doing. Most people just slap the other drivers on top of the 18 inch woofers - and put them in a box. Keeping things separate, there seems to be an added benefit of being able to position the woofers in the room to help dial things in. I wonder why others don't separate the drivers out like the Scaena designers have done.

Also, it seems like you can add on parts on Lego pieces with these speakers, but their website is very confusing about this. Have you tried it? What does it do to further improve the sound, or is it just to help fill a room better? Thanks

 

[caesar]

I have a pair of these speakers and I am using the Audionote Angaku int. amp which is only 18 to 25W. ( this is my friends amp - on loan). The speakers are quite amazing with this combo. Now since its int. amp, I go to the pass xover to feed the subs form the digital sources.

Zermatt, thanks for chiming in. What other speakers have you owned and auditioned before settling on these? And what amps have you tried with the Scaenas?

 

[Steve Williams]

Thanks. This implementation seems very unconventional to what most people are doing. Most people just slap the other drivers on top of the 18 inch woofers - and put them in a box. Keeping things separate, there seems to be an added benefit of being able to position the woofers in the room to help dial things in. I wonder why others don't separate the drivers out like the Scaena designers have done.

Also, it seems like you can add on parts on Lego pieces with these speakers, but their website is very confusing about this. Have you tried it? What does it do to further improve the sound, or is it just to help fill a room better? Thanks

I have never seen a line array speaker with built in woofers

 

[rblnr]

They are modular -- my columns have 12 mid drivers, some are 18 high. And the woofers are stackable -- for my room, 2 are enough -- some installations have four or more

 

[rblnr]

I have never seen a line array speaker with built in woofers

VMPS does it in a way with some of their speakers. The RM60 has a line of 6 or so ribbon mids sitting on a base of three woofers. The RM50 is a small semi- line array flanked top and bottom by 10" or so woofers, but it is a conventional box built nothing like the Scaena with its individual glass pods and so forth.

OT, but just got one of Paradigm's new hexagonal subs, the smaller of the 2 models, and it's fantastic. Betters my JL113s

 

[Steve Williams]

Did George Bischoff design the Scaena ? I know he did the design for Nearfield Pipedreams

 

[rblnr]

Yes, he and Mark Porzilli, both ex of Pipedreams and Melos. Sunny Umrao did some of the industrial design.

 

[Steve Williams]

George is an absolute gentleman. I met him at THE Show several years ago when he had a tube DAC on display

 

[caesar]

Yes, he and Mark Porzilli, both ex of Pipedreams and Melos. Sunny Umrao did some of the industrial design.

What's the difference between Pipe dreams and Scaena, then?

 

[zermatt]

Zermatt, thanks for chiming in. What other speakers have you owned and auditioned before settling on these? And what amps have you tried with the Scaenas?

The 3.2 speakers replaced my Infinity IRS Beta's. Those I had for 21 years. I built my system around the Beta's using CJ electronics, Prem 7 and Prem 8XS. For the bass I use the CJ MF2500, that is mod ed by Music Tech ( Bill T.) These components work very well with the Scaena speaker. I also have a CJ Motif ms100 that has been rebuilt this last month, its a JFET/MOSFET amp - this amp is still breaking in but sounds also amazing. I did not have forgivable results with the Scaena Xover. The Pass Xover solved all of my issues and removed some haze in the bass.

 

[Steve Williams]

What's the difference between Pipe dreams and Scaena, then?

http://www.pipedreams.com/

http://scaena.com/speakers.html

My good friend Marty who is a member here has the large Pipedereams. His system is probably the best I have ever heard

However having heard the large Scaena speakers also designed by George Bischoff, they sounded so much better to my ears

 

[microstrip]

The efficiency rating is a bit of a misnomer because being line arrays, they project sound differently and are about equally loud at 6" and 6'. To balance in my HT I have to turn them way down bs my 91db efficient center channel.

It is due to the dependence of loudness on the inverse of the square of the distance for a point source and and inverse of distance with a line source. As the room reflections upset the model the correction factor for the efficiency is not easy to calculate and comparing efficiencies of different types of speakers is usually misleading - better trying them in your room!