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I would definitely be interested in a bigger center channel speaker sized between the Duo and the Horizon. A three way would be ideal. To be honest the Horizon is just too big for most people. Most people make compromises to make it work. One of the most common compromises is putting the tv too high (hate this so much). If Dave would make a 3 way center channel that is less tall and wide, but was more deep, I would assume it would work better in most people's home. What do you think Dave?
I believe this has been done in the form of a customized Horizon, making it shorter but deeper. Dave can correct me if I'm mistaken.
Ok, something that is not custom, as it is way too pricey. I would like a three way to have the tweeter to be on top of the mid driver. Not a mtmm as in a lot of the custom Horizon. Of course for something like this, it would require a new smaller mid woofer.
I bet a newly designed three way center isn't going to be cheap either.
Unless it is going for a rather small midrange, there is so much in height to reduce. A smaller mid may not play low enough to be properly crossover to the woofers in a tweeter- mid vertical alignment.
To make a smaller center speaker that is still three-way (WTMW), you would either need a substantially smaller midrange driver or a smaller tweeter, or some combination of both. The RAAL tweeter is a big part of the size - it's much taller than a lot of domes are.
Salk has some three-way center speakers with RAALs, and they - like the Horizon - are quite tall.
If you want a shorter center that's still three-way, you're almost going to have to go to a midrange as small as the BMR driver, or a tweeter that isn't a RAAL ribbon.
That's a very good point. All I wanted was to bring it up and see what Dave would come up with :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Beave
I wonder if a concentric driver on the Sierra Horizon could be used to eliminate the width of having the tweeter and midrange being next to each other, and instead they would overlap. You wouldn’t have the midrange chamber to take advantage of I’m guessing so there’s always that. The acoustic performance wouldn’t be as good I’m guessing either. But to save space it’s possibly something to consider.
This probably would only work for the NrT and not the RAAL tweeter.
I’d go with a modified Sierra Horizon if given the choice, it’s more narrow and longer, but also more expensive. The only way I can imagine it being noticeably shorter is to remove one of the bass drivers. That would probably have a largely negative impact on performance tho, but maybe not so negative if using a subwoofer.
You would also have to deal with the underlying driver acting as waveguide, so you would have to get the shape correct to get the correct dispersion characteristics for the tweeter, which then affects the dispersion characteristics of the underlying/midrange driver. The shape of the driver is something us non-speaker engineers often overlook...we just talk about size. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by choirbass
I have to agree that this is, IMO, the biggest hole in the Ascend lineup. (Though at some point in the future I'd be interested in seeing a larger tower with even better low-frequency extension—maybe 8" drivers—I think that's just me...)
While the performance of the Horizon is great, the fact of the matter is that an awful lot of AV furniture simply will not accommodate a speaker that's 11" high. The "magic number," as far as I can tell, is around 8" high. I think this is the Achilles of the Horizon. While the Luna Duo is a good center channel, it's still not a 3-way and it doesn't quite fill that size space.
If Dave could produce a 3-way center channel that was right around 8" high, I think he'd sell truckloads of them. I definitely would own one right now in place of a Duo.
The fact that he hasn't suggests this is a difficult design problem. I think Beave has it exactly right: the challenge is the height of the RAAL tweeter. It's hard to imagine a midrange driver that would fit vertically with a RAAL tweeter and allow the cabinet to be only 8" high. I think even a BMR would be a little big for that. So then you start thinking about things like WMTMW... ugh. The PSB PWM2 and PWM3 use this configuration, but it's not common. There's probably a reason for that.
I wonder how many hours Dave has spent pondering this?
I'd be on the buy list for this, as well.