YG Acoustics add in Stereophile

FWIW I agree that to evaluate *the sound* of a speaker at a show is hit or miss at best. But to document a situation wherein a driver bottoms out once a certain combination of frequency and amplitude are met- that is a different matter. The room they had was not that large- we were not playing that loud a volume (leastwise not in my book anyway), yet the midrange driver buzzed loudly as it bottomed out repeatedly during the duration of the bass note.

I think the design path was: no crossover capacitor in series with the midrange, instead limit its excursion via an airtight box on the backside of the driver. The advantage of this approach is that crossover cap isn't there to mess up the sound of the mids and highs.

The downside is threefold: the midrange is electrically in parallel with the woofer, making this an inappropriate load for a tube amp (8 ohms in the mids and highs, 4 ohms in the bass; no tube amp will play the bass right on it as a result), no crossover on the midrange means that with enough bass excursion the driver can bottom out (which could damage the driver), and finally doppler-effect distortion from the midrange driver due to excessive excursion.

I don't recall the amp being used (it was transistor) but the speaker sounded good when otherwise within its limits.

John, regardless of whether or not you feel a $1000 cap is overpriced has nothing to do with the actual cost of the parts. I was only pointing out that they may well have the same amount of money into crossovers as they do drivers. In addition they *could* have substatial time into rebuilding stock drivers to their specifications. (This is all speculation, I do not know if they use off the shelf drivers or not) If you design and manufacture loudspeakers, you know as well as anyone that which drivers are used only play a small role in how the system actually sounds. Crossover implementation, cabinet construction, and damping *can* play a larger role than drivers, depending on the system.

I'm not convinced that sound quality is related to retail price. Someone could use lesser drivers than Seas and still make the claim that their system is the best on earth. It is nothing more than a claim, and it is subjective. Because of that, there is no such thing as the "best" speaker. Even if you had a speaker that perfectly reproduced recordings, some may not care for the sound of it.

Atmasphere, you like I, are speculating about the crossover design, and correct me if I'm wrong, you don't actually know if there is a capacitor in the midrange circuit or not.

S7horton, you are quite right, but having done this a few years, there are certain things that show up from time to time that you get to recognize. If there *was* a capacitor in the midrange circuit, it was very large and very transparent. Those two qualities, as many speaker designers know, do not go hand in hand. But there could have been one- if so it would have been an expensive part!

Occam's Razor suggests that it was not there at all.

Atmosphere,you had intrigued me(a few days ago) by mentioning Classic Audio Reproductions.First oof,the prices seem quite reasonable for the cabinetry alone.

Can you possibly mention how these speakers come off,in sound,to you?Are they full range?

I've heard similar "looking" speakers(of course this has no meaning) at the Lamm exhibit(HE 2006),where they were very rolled in freq extremes.

We have a good enough audio vocabulary these days to understand your thoughts,should you be so inclined to state them.

THanks,as always

Me too!!!!