How about building a DIY variant of the Audience "2+2" Clairaudient speakers which received a rave review in recent "Positive Feedback Online" issue #47. These speakers use Audience's 3" drivers. A pair of "2+2" speakers would require a total of eight A3 drivers.
There's an interesting review of Audience "4+4" and the smaller "2+2" Clairaudient speakers: http://www.audience-av.com/tradeshows/Show2010PosFdbkRm4035.html
A quote from this review:
"My first listen to the 4+4 was sans subwoofer and was quite simply amazing. This speaker is without doubt the least colored, most natural sounding speaker I have EVER heard. The result is a naturalness, effortlessness, transparency, and coherence that simply has to be heard to be believed. Honestly, I'm not sure my words can do it justice at this point."
"And guess what, I think that the more diminutive 2+2 was even better with respect to coherence and soundstaging."
These Audience Clairaudient "2+2" speakers use the newer proprietary 'A3-S' driver, but I understand that the 'A3-S' uses the same motor and even looks identical -- so maybe the model 'A3' that is available to hobbyists might be similar?
For DIY, a 1/2 cu ft Parts Express Dayton rectangular cabinet might be used to mount four Audience A3 drivers ("2+2" layout) -- two on the front panel and two on the rear.
Instead of using a passive radiator for more bass, may use one or two side-mounted, active, woofers (for example 6.5" Seas Excel magnesium W18 cones & maybe use big series laminated core inductor for roll off of these woofers). This way, the A3 divers should play louder with less distortion.
Perhaps the panel space between the "2+2" two front-mounted A3 drivers could be occupied by a ribbon tweeter (see the picture of the small Audience '2+2' speaker in the Positive Feedback review). For example, the smaller RAAL 70-10D ribbon could be fitted -- with a crossover at a high frequency (like 6.5 kHz, quasi-first order slope (?)).
Maybe adding a good ribbon would help compensate for any performance advantage that Audience may have for their newer proprietary Clairaudient model "A3-S" driver? Time-align the acoustic centers of the ribbon and the front-mounted A3 drivers. The best ribbon tweeter candidate seems to be the RAAL OEM 70-20 but it's only available to qualified companies.
However, perhaps a Raal ribbon really wouldn't improve subjective sound quality, considering the ear's sensitivity to extremely high frequencies, and the benefit of radiating all sound from the same {single full range} driver.
Also, consider 'boffle' fiberglass layers (open-back) or maybe an aperiodic cabinet configuration.
A centrally placed Velodyne DD-15 subwoofer, crossed in at 80 - 100 Hz, & located immediately behind the listener, works surprisingly well for arrays of A3 drivers.
There's an interesting review of Audience "4+4" and the smaller "2+2" Clairaudient speakers: http://www.audience-av.com/tradeshows/Show2010PosFdbkRm4035.html
A quote from this review:
"My first listen to the 4+4 was sans subwoofer and was quite simply amazing. This speaker is without doubt the least colored, most natural sounding speaker I have EVER heard. The result is a naturalness, effortlessness, transparency, and coherence that simply has to be heard to be believed. Honestly, I'm not sure my words can do it justice at this point."
"And guess what, I think that the more diminutive 2+2 was even better with respect to coherence and soundstaging."
These Audience Clairaudient "2+2" speakers use the newer proprietary 'A3-S' driver, but I understand that the 'A3-S' uses the same motor and even looks identical -- so maybe the model 'A3' that is available to hobbyists might be similar?
For DIY, a 1/2 cu ft Parts Express Dayton rectangular cabinet might be used to mount four Audience A3 drivers ("2+2" layout) -- two on the front panel and two on the rear.
Instead of using a passive radiator for more bass, may use one or two side-mounted, active, woofers (for example 6.5" Seas Excel magnesium W18 cones & maybe use big series laminated core inductor for roll off of these woofers). This way, the A3 divers should play louder with less distortion.
Perhaps the panel space between the "2+2" two front-mounted A3 drivers could be occupied by a ribbon tweeter (see the picture of the small Audience '2+2' speaker in the Positive Feedback review). For example, the smaller RAAL 70-10D ribbon could be fitted -- with a crossover at a high frequency (like 6.5 kHz, quasi-first order slope (?)).
Maybe adding a good ribbon would help compensate for any performance advantage that Audience may have for their newer proprietary Clairaudient model "A3-S" driver? Time-align the acoustic centers of the ribbon and the front-mounted A3 drivers. The best ribbon tweeter candidate seems to be the RAAL OEM 70-20 but it's only available to qualified companies.
However, perhaps a Raal ribbon really wouldn't improve subjective sound quality, considering the ear's sensitivity to extremely high frequencies, and the benefit of radiating all sound from the same {single full range} driver.
Also, consider 'boffle' fiberglass layers (open-back) or maybe an aperiodic cabinet configuration.
A centrally placed Velodyne DD-15 subwoofer, crossed in at 80 - 100 Hz, & located immediately behind the listener, works surprisingly well for arrays of A3 drivers.
