Introducing the Luna Mini Monitor!

[Cowboyup]

It does sound thunderous, earthquake-ish actually. They're tuned for extension not max spl. The hard part has been finding a midrange, tweeter and crossover of high quality AND long term reliability that was appealing to my eyes as well as WAF ��

I'm so happy I found Ascend Acoustics! I'm really looking forward to the Luna Sat's!!!

[eliwankenobi]

Just wait'll you start imagining how you could rig together four Receivers to create a 9.4.6 system plus a Voice of God speaker for Auro-3D! 16 RAAL ribbon tweeter speakers? Why not?!

Hey Rob! Are you really going for it?

[KevinC39]

Hey Rob! Are you really going for it?

Surely even Rob isn't that crazy.

Speaking of, we need Dave to come on the podcast.

[FirstReflect]

Hey Rob! Are you really going for it?

Surely even Rob isn't that crazy.

In 100% honesty, if I had the spare funds available, I might

The bigger issue is actually the equalization. Turning one AV Receiver's 7.2.4 Atmos or DTS:X output into a 9.2.6 setup requires turning off any room correction such as Audyssey. Therefore, one would have to use an external EQ solution. Naturally, I'd opt for Dirac by using a miniDSP 8x8 Dirac box. But with 16 speakers, I'd need two of them! And they're $1000 each.

Meanwhile, in order to get the x.x.6 part, but still be able to EQ all 6 overhead Atmos/DTS:X speakers, I wouldn't be able to use just any old cheap Dolby Pro Logic Receivers; I'd need ones that offer a full set of pre-outs.

Then, for the Front Wides, I'd have to decide if I want to get a second Atmos/DTS:X Receiver, or use one of my older Receivers that still has DTS Neo:X. If I went with a second Atmos/DTS:X Receiver, I could get discrete Front Wide sounds in actual Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks. But for any content that is being upmixed, I'd have to rely on DTS Neural:X, which honestly hasn't impressed me all that much. DTS Neo:X remains my favorite upmixer. But if I use that, I won't get genuinely discrete 9.x.x Atmos playback. Such a dilemma - haha.

Finally, since I'd be running everything out of pre-outs and through a pair of miniDSP Dirac boxes, I'd need external amplification for every speaker. So that would be one additional 7-channel amp since I already have one 7-channel amp and one 2-channel amp.

Tack on the Auro-3D upgrade fee, and then, of course, 5 Sierra Luna speakers, and that adds up to a pretty expensive expansion!

So to answer the first question: no, I'm not actually going to do a 9.4.6 setup any time soon. But it is NOT because I'm not crazy enough to attempt doing it. It's purely financial

- Rob H. - AV Rant Podcast Co-host

[davef]

Been a rough day at the office today...

Having said that, I received some good news today from SEAS's chief engineer Håvard. Another set of sample woofers are now ready and with these, as mentioned previously - we went with a newly formulated higher loss natural rubber surround combined with a cone that uses a combination of a low compliant weave with a higher compliant weave for the dust cap. The initial test results that have been sent to me are perfect - even better than both I and Håvard had expected.

This performance report shows even better performance compared to the initial samples sent to me, for which I designed the Luna around, and which we were just trying to match since SEAS had changed surround vendors since the original samples were made.

Of course, I still need to test them and I am generally more critical than SEAS is - but according to the tests they took - the issue I was having with the samples, even testing many various iterations of surrounds from this new vendor, has been completely resolved, not only resolved - but even better now. I have literally lost count of how many samples we have gone though...

These will be on their way to me by air tomorrow and I should have them sometime next week. If all goes well, and I now fully suspect it will - purchase orders will be placed for all Luna components within 2 weeks. I honestly don't have an estimated release date - assuming this version of the woofer is perfect, based on experience, I would guess 2 1/2 - 3 months, possibly slightly sooner or it could be longer.

This has been challenging, frustrating and exhausting and I was getting close to shutting this project down and refocusing our resources. However, we will soon have another speaker in our Sierra line that is going to be unmatched and a true engineering feat, possibly even my proudest, in the sense of achieving this level of performance in a speaker this small and what we had to go through to get there.

Like all of our products, there is not a single component in the Luna that is not fully custom to us. In fact, for this woofer - both the cone, surround, former and voice coil have been custom designed for us by both Håvard and little old me (and I stress old)

Fingers are crossed but I am fully confident we are finally there!!

Also hope to have the final prototype pair completed by the end of next week - so if anyone local to us wants to come have a listen, just let me know...

[Djoel]

Thanks David for the update, sounds like lots of trials and tribulations but the looks like they're is some light on at the end of the tunnel!

Dan

[SGCSG1]

'The initial test results that have been sent to me are perfect'

You can't ask for more than perfect.

[chomdh]

Firs time poster here. I recently received a set of Sierra Towers w/ RAAL and am thoroughly impressed. I can't stop listening to them. I'll be adding a horizon soon, and hopefully a set of Lunas for the rear in the not so distant future.

Wish I lived closer, I would definitely stop in to listen to the Luna prototype.

The way you describe this long development process makes me appreciate them even more.

You probably can't answer for sure, but if this does turn out to be the final design, how long before production units will ship?

[dtsequoia]

Awesome!

[dtsequoia]

Hey chomdh, Dave stated this in his post.

"These will be on their way to me by air tomorrow and I should have them sometime next week. If all goes well, and I now fully suspect it will - purchase orders will be placed for all Luna components within 2 weeks. I honestly don't have an estimated release date - assuming this version of the woofer is perfect, based on experience, I would guess 2 1/2 - 3 months, possibly slightly sooner or it could be longer."

HTH