Thanks Greg. Cost has nothing to do with these changes. These changes are for the net Sonic result only. Here is what I have found on the DI speaker.
I have debated in my mind if I should share this next point. I do not want to cause the builder any problems as I have spoken to him once and he seems like a passionate fellow audiophile. However, I feel it must be shared as this community continues to share experiences with the DI speaker. The fact is we are hearing different versions of this speaker. No way we can share our evaluations of the same speaker. Fact is we are hearing different versions as I will unpack shortly. There are pretty diverse crossover designs and crossover points in owners speakers. Which one do you have? Which one was reviewed by Terry and others? Don’t know. But I do know they will most certainly sound different.
I know the first set I heard had an obvious emphasis in the upper mids/highs and presence area. I commented on this in this thread. The second pair I heard, and now own, did not display this personality. Actually, my set seemed more balanced top to bottom. Was it the gear? The room? Well, these always plays a role, but this difference seemed to me to be beyond that.
I have had the opportunity to see what is inside of three different DI speakers and can tell you the XO design differs substantially in each one. The bass crossover is constant and I am referring only to the mids and highs - the upper portion of the speaker. My speaker was built in August and I have shared diagram of the highs/mid board already. The other two speakers are a couple of months older.
I wont share the specifics so as to bore you or get lost in the weeds, but will share enough to make the point. The capacitor value on the 6.5 inch mids varies over 100% speaker to speaker with the same value inductor in each set. Yes this means those drivers are playing differing frequencies. The cap values on the center tweeter and outer ring of 6 tweeters varies over 100% set to set. The number of inductors and resistor values differ from set to set on the tweeter array. The wiring scheme of the array also differs in the three sets. The bottom line is the various speaker arrays will sound different.
I understand fine tuning a design over time, but this seems beyond that? You decide for yourself on that point. My points are these;
1) Understand when someone says they feel the speaker is a tad thin sounding or a tad too brilliant and immediate, they may be hearing a slightly different design. Whatever comments are being made are reflective of that generation of DI. I am not sure what base is for this speaker.
2) I would like to know what the builder has settled on now. Can we expect more changes beyond some tiny adjustments. The differences I saw are not tiny.
Wiithout being flippant I am asking for the real DI speaker to stand up. Some ears will hear these differences as glaring while others will find them slight. I am sure they all sound good and don’t question that. However, we do need to know our DIs differ and some of our evaluations and comments may be born out of these differences.
I understand that the net result of these varying Crossover designs can still deliver similar, not identical, sound. I am sure the builder aims for that. However, I am also sure they do deliver sonic differences as why else would the builder keep tweaking if not for fine tuning and improvement.
