How TO achieve "invisible tweeters":

(for those sufficiently deranged to believe such is possible ...)


First of all, a definition of such a state of beingness:

"Invisible tweeters" is just a shorthand for a greatly enlarged sweet spot; ultimately, nothing more or less than that -- it's a matter of degree, not of type, of quality of sound. Every audiophile who has a half-decent "rig" knows of the "sweet spot" animal -- it may be microscopically small, a head in a vice position, but it exists. And in it the tweeters are, or should be, "invisible"; your ear/brain can't pinpoint that sound is coming from the tweeter. Meaning, blindfolded, a person who didn't "know" where the tweeters were wouldn't be able to point to them accurately. And this is as good a definition as any, for what I mean by "invisible".

So in the context of this thread, what is aimed for is to achieve maximum expansion of this sweet spot. People who use good quality high power amplifiers, high efficiency speakers, active speakers of decent build, some better sorted out pro equipment are often very au fait with considerably enlarged sweet spots; they're well on the way.

So big should this sweet spot be? Well, we want the whole room to be able to characterised as such: remember, we are not changing the sound in any remarkable way, we're simply improving its quality bit by bit, so that the illusion of the invisible driver is not lost anywhere in the room -- no more, and no less than that.

A quick response to those who say that acoustically this is not possible: the argument is along the lines that the phase interference of the sound waves from the left and right speakers create the stereo effect, imaging, etc -- a construct of the brain. And I agree. Totally. But the thing is you do not have to be positioned absolutely precisely equidistant from the two speakers for this to happen. Otherwise, every audio system would have an almost microscopically small sweet spot: the head in a vice syndrome. So those systems that demonstrate an enlarged sweet spot indicate that the ear/brain is tolerant of that phase interference thingy going on, not being "perfect". Quite, quite tolerant, in fact. So what we need to do is exploit that tolerance, for all it's worth ...

...

to be continued ...

(don't worry, this is not going to stagnate, energies are going in another direction just at the moment ...)

Frank

From http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?6540-I-Wonder-If....&p=107700&viewfull=1#post107700 ...

I Wonder If....


Their lamp cord causes your amp to blow up, they'll replace it? Perhaps the most idiotic Audiogon ad I've ever seen.

http://app.audiogon.com/listings/dak...-to-improve-am

'Course if you think it's real????

http://dakiom.com/

Click to expand...

What the hell is a comment about this posting doing here? Well, their marketing approach of course is atrocious, but enthusiasm has got the better of them -- they'll only antagonise the people who may benefit ...

This is where you need to read between the lines; there is a DIY page on their site which demonstrates very clearly that they are working in the same areas as I do -- the most important point, with which many concur as a token response when asked, is that everything matters. Everything. No matter how much money is thrown at a system, or how high the bling quotient, if areas of weakness are not addressed then the sound quality is always going to be handicapped, in some way.

So, in spite of the terrible presentation of their thoughts and products, and the deep smell of snake oil, underneath is genuine awareness and understanding that taking certain measures can make quite dramatic differences to the perceived quality of sound reproduction.

Frank

Oh dear, this poor, poor neglected thread -- will have to do something about it one day ...

In the meantime, part of the story:

From http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showt...ing-for-Cables&p=114245&viewfull=1#post114245 ...

Cables are like chains; some they break under the stress, others they hang it there with solidity.

Click to expand...

Exactly. And where is the weakest link? Very easy answer -- at the ends, that's where all the good work, and money, comes undone. Let's see, we will attach these chains made from forged steel to something using bits of string: I think, if we make the connection very, very quickly, in the dark, then the audio system won't realise the kludge, that it's been tricked, that there is a major weakness right there, undoing a great deal of the "good work" of the expensive cable ...

Frank