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In Reply to: probably not. posted by layman on March 24, 2007 at 20:17:35:
No, they were made by Level 9.
Actually, they were designed by Bruce Thigpen here in Florida.
Bruce is quite a clever guy, and an inventor of several things, such as a fan type subwoofer that modulated air, and an air bearing tone arm.
He owns Eminent Technology.
The planar magnetic drivers VMPS uses are his old design, and he licensed them to Level 9 in Canada.
From what I understand, some guy named Drago modifies them for VMPS, perhaps for AV 123 too, and I know he replaces the stock magnets with NEO ones, presumably for more efficiency ?However, he MAY increase the magnets spacing, or use a diaphragm with more mass to lower resonance so it can be used farther down in frequency ?
In that case, he may be forced to use NEO Magnets to re gain the efficiency lost by such a move.
In a conversation I had with Bruce, I mentioned to him that his old ribbon was being modified with "better" magnets.
He expressed some concern, stating a more powerful magnet was not always "better".
He said building a ribbon was a "balancing act", and too much magnetic force can be just as bad as not enough.From what I am told, this Drago guy knows what he is doing.
I go WAY back with ribbons Layman, back to the old Strathern days.
Julius from Audire used to modify the old Stratherne, and I built a full range ribbon array using 6 of them per side.EQ was needed of course, and they were "interesting".
However, I found them too flawed for my ears.
The Problem I hear with most ribbon speakers is their designers TRY and get too much out of them.
These smaller ribbons just do not like to play low, and therefore I see them as like a dome midrange.
Most dome mids don;t like to play low either, but can be great, if used correctly.I find it "interesting" that AV 123 did not choose to cross into their ribbon midrange until up at 630 hz, and used a mid bass coupler to "fill in" that range.
Many just do not realize that the range between 100 and 500 hz is VITAL to musical fundamentals.
Any thinness there, and musical timber is out the window.
Many are surprised when hearing my Matrix 801's to hear "so much" music coming out of the 12 inch "woofer".
But B&W use this woofer to help "play midrange", and have went to heroic lengths with the Matrix Cabinet to make this possible.
Personally, I do not care HOW a device plays music, as long as it plays it, and does it well.
I have heard good, and bad examples of many different methods of making sound.
I do not feel that ribbons are "inherently superior" to good cones and domes.
IN fact, the Magnepan Ribbon Tweeter to me does not do cymbal crashes or brushes/high hats as well as the Matrix 801 series 2 tweeter, nor does it reproduce the sound of rain as well either.
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Follow Ups
- Re: probably not. - ka7niq 23:03:59 03/24/07 (0)
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