Posted by Terry Koehn on September 22, 2002 at 02:36:00:
In Reply to: Only ESL Sub with Sound Labs posted by Terry Koehn on September 13, 2002 at 23:49:28:
The question is: If you have a Sound Lab Panel or two..With @pp. 2 Square yards of bass Full Radiating Surface per side,why in the world, would you need a cone speaker trying to get out of some compress box for bass? One reasonable answer could be the placement of the ESL panels in rooms that are far too small or to close to rear walls.!..
ESL's or panel speakers of any kind, do not like to be close to back walls, they need to breath..
Suburbia & the wife may like the trendy speakers on each side & the little Amp table center, all too close to the walls look,but the price is compressed canceled bass...
I have a friend who has A-l's in a 15' living room...He might as well play them in the crate they came in.!...No breathing room ! These speakers do not even start to focus untill 20 feet or better...
One of the good things I can say about BOSE:He did address the problem that most of America listens to music in small rooms,so he bounced cheap speakers in too small of boxes, off small room walls and got a big speaker sound in a small room.!..Paul Kilpish used the corner of small rooms as the final horn stage,of his all horn system..Well-er, you sit in the SUB.speaker that way...
Low bass waves are sometimes 140 feet long...They need a lot room to develop...Even a 1/4 wave....
I know that every one can't afford large listening rooms,but what we can do is pay special attention to what is going on behind the ESL panels...That is one reason why Dr.West introduced SALLIE to try to absorb a portion of the back wave to improve the forward bass wave & reduce mid-range reflections.
I have been enjoying Sound Lab's 6 foot ESL Sub Panel for 6 months now ! It is louder,cleaner,has less distortion than any sub or cone speaker I have ever heard ! [40 years of Studio / Concert Sound] Oh yes, there are lots of cone/box speakers that have lots of big distortion that make them seem louder,but see what all of them do with a true 28 Hz wave...Or anything below 50HZ !..
Some one asked what kind of Xover should I get?...The answer : You will need a Xover that can remove 60% + Distortion and correct phase mis-match ,of 10'-290' of Phase distortion in 3000 different points in the room, all at once ! For that is what it would take to try to match a cone / box sub to a panel speaker..You may think it is matched,because that is when the cone / box sub level is louder than the ESL.
mOvies Or mUsic?...Not all,but many of my DVD movies have some of the finest recordings of music I've ever heard in them...???? The Hollywood Boys Have all the money and all the New Best Toys and they are not afraid to use them....Check out :SpyGame..The Sub Bass will cause most Cone / Box subs to leave the particle board box in Flames !..The Synth. Sub Tones from my SL ESL Sub shake my walls.. ESL rules.....