Planar Speaker Asylum

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RE: Magnepan HATES this man - one simple trick!

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In Reply to: RE: Magnepan HATES this man - one simple trick! posted by farfetched on September 08, 2012 at 18:05:49

For what it's worth, I read somewhere that Magenpan says the white socks are the most acoustically transparent.

That being said, I agree with ahendler -- any grille cloth is going to affect the highs on any speaker.

One possibility would be to use a largely open screen, something that would improve the aesthetics a bit. Another would just be to ignore the problem, lots of things affect the HF balance.

Follow Ups:

RE: Magnepan HATES this man - one simple trick! - BigguyinATL 13:16:40 09/12/12 (1)
Yes, but the highs are already too bright - unless to don't have them pointed right...

I've always lappreciated loudspeaker manufacturers that take the grill design into account -
Aesthetics: only the most hardcore form and function guy thinks a driver (planar or round) is beautiful (some ribbons - and certainly some horns can be bared to the world artfully
Reliability: Nothing worse than a loved one's finger poke or claw mark to ruin a fine listening session.
Acoustics: A poorly designed grill will add delays, acoustic and vibration resonances, change the directivity and provide some high frequency attenuation. A properly designed grill will offer some well-mannered attenuation, and perhaps enhance the directivity or the loudspeaker.
Three most important things in Audio reproduction: Keep the noise levels low, the power high and the room diffuse.
- RE: Magnepan HATES this man - one simple trick! - josh358 09:58:16 09/13/12 (0)
  They're certainly too bright in my room, albeit it's a very bare room.
  
  Wendell has an interesting perspective on the brightness issue. He says that it's generally caused not by excessive tweeter levels (although of course this can happen), but by midbass issues.
  
  I'm guessing that in the case of the large true ribbon Maggies as well as the 1.7, HF dispersion is so nearly ideal that an acoustic lens wouldn't buy you anything. Not so the MMG's or 12's.
  
  I can see using an acoustic lens on the short ribbon tweeters to improve their dispersion, e.g., the Minis, but there would be efficiency issues (or cost, since you can make them efficient enough). You could make a true Mini Maggie mini monitor without the vertical dispersion limitations of the desktop speakers, but it would cost more because you'd need to use neo magnets and/or a transformer to account for the losses from the acoustic lens.
I think there are exceptions... - E-Stat 09:09:06 09/10/12 (3)
That being said, I agree with ahendler -- any grille cloth is going to affect the highs on any speaker.

Tightly stretched spandex is pretty darn transparent, both visually and sonically. Have any trouble counting the stator wires?

I learned this years ago when I re-socked some Acoustat 2+2s. Just this past weekend, I installed new spandex socks on a pair of 1+1s used in the garage. I specifically listened for and heard no difference at the top.
- Berlin - farfetched 18:05:17 09/11/12 (0)
  early to mid 80's. Used to see a lot of this. Freaked everyone out too. Now we take it for granted. Funny how to things used we get, no?
  
  / optimally proportioned triangles are our friends
- RE: I think there are exceptions... - hella356 10:39:00 09/10/12 (0)
  When I took your advice (thanks again!) to re-sock my Acoustat 2+2 with Spandex, I also couldn't hear a difference between the Spandex or nude. This was not the case when I removed the old heavy socks, which clearly muffled the highs. The Spandex works splendidly, and looks great, too; much better visually than the old style, IMO. I don't know if Magnepan socks are as restrictive as the old Acoustat socks were, but if so, I highly recommend Spandex. You have tons of colors and even patterns to choose from, if you'd like.
- RE: I think there are exceptions... - josh358 09:45:01 09/10/12 (0)
  True. I guess I should have said "any grille cloth that hides what's underneath." Don't know how to get around that one. You could use plastic with holes in it as in an audio transparent screen but I have yet to hear of one that doesn't affect the audio to some degree.
  
  I wonder though whether the effect of the fabric is really harmful, in the sense that it reduces the highs very slightly, but a bit of EQ would bring them up again -- far less EQ than you already need to compensate for the room and recording. In other words, is it harming the sound in some way other than a minimum phase reduction in amplitude response, which is reversible? It might arguably even improve things by increasing the damping, some planars have fabric on the back for this purpose (and I think the small holes in the pole piece of Maggies does that as well, provides air damping).

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