Getting bored with my current small woofer speakers. They sound great, but I want more bass. Turning them into 3 ways is not motivating me enough to get off my ass. Plutone kit is very appealing, but too expensive for a diy kit and they will still need subs and that is tricky. Legacy Focus at $7500 just a bridge too far right now, cuz my "beloved children" are sucking up the money like a sharknado! Cars, college, clothes, phones, WTF! Wife wants the big room back, for her big screen Hallmark, Tom Brady and Tucker Carlson TV, and entertaining friends and bizsociates, you know - normal human habitation. Can't blame her. I'd like those changes too, PLUS a huge underground sound studio. She also wants me to clean up my lab (formerly known as the game room) so she can have an office in there, and the room over the garage is destined for exercise equipment and ping ping table instead of a nice audio room. So I'm left with the smallest room in the house, besides the pantry and the bathrooms (I am grateful!) My daughter gave up piano lessons so the music room is freed up for audio room. It is warm and sunny, but very cozy @11W x 12L x 9H. I have played music in there before, but speakers were too big so I'm not sure how it "sounds." I like that it's small, I am like a den animal I like to be in a small box, alone with my music.
I've been rereading (again) the threads on diyaudio.com about line arrays using small full range drivers like Vifa TC9. I was interested in this topology ever since I saw the line array article years ago from John Murphy at
http://trueaudio.com/array/An expert speaker designer friend said I wouldn't be happy with the quality of the high frequency of array made from full range drivers so I skipped it. But the guys over on diy are convincing me that treble is good and to give it a try after all.
I think full height corner arrays would be perfect in the small room, conceptually at least! Reality has a tendency to spoil the best fantasies. Array requires EQ, probably digital to get the most out of it, with room correction, etc. But it's still crossover less speakers so I could still use tube amp if I want, it has nominal 101dB sensitivity at nominal 4 ohms, or I could make it 95dB at 16 ohms, good for tube amp. It takes up no floor space, good for small room. It has incredible low distortion bass, and they say it is supremely musical, as most tall speakers are. I am curious whether the treble will be very good or not, I am spoiled by a lot of great tweeters over the years, but the impulse measurements of the tall arrays posted on diyaudio.com suggest great treble performance, despite my common sense knee jerk tendency to wonder how the hell 64 tweeters in one room can be a good thing? I know 64 woofers in one small room will be a very good thing.
Who has heard tall arrays and what did you think? Ever heard corner arrays?
I heard the tall free standing Lingdorf arrays once, meh. Charlie always speaks highly of his arrays. I've heard a bunch of Selah arrays, both straight and curved CBT. But I'm not convinced that I've heard what is possible from a high end line array yet. The boys on diy say the EQ is critical to making it work well. That probably means a Windows PC at the heart of my system. Not thrilled with that. But it's not too expensive to try with these Vifa drivers that everyone says sounds soooo good. Your thoughts appreciated!