DIY Master Anthony's 15" Coaxial Speaker: a small reviewSince it has no name yet - lets just call it "15 Coax" for the meantime. But for some reason the word "serenade" keeps popping in my mind
I wonder why
Last night's evaluation came as a planned preliminary evaluation of both his 15" Coax as well as his 10" Coaxial with a chrome ball, which I guess we can call "planeta" - again, I wonder why
It was also an opportunity to return some stuff to Anthony as well as to check on some projects that I wanted done.
For the informal review, we used 2 amps:
a) Vintage Fisher X-100 all tube integrated amp
b) Modified Sakura AV-200T hybrid integrated amp
For a source, we used his Sony CDP-X5000
http://sites.thestar.com.my/audio/story.asp?file=/1997/6/12sonyFor the software - this was really a timely review as earlier in the afternoon I went to What HiFi in MCS & scored 14 CDs for my collection. Might as well use them for the evaluation.
But before I go rambling into the review - here's something that greeted me when I walked in Anthony's HT showroom
Hmmm......tsalap tsalap
Fisher X-100Anthony mentioned that the 15" Coax driver has a 95db sensitivity and that housing it in an enclosure will yield an even higher sensitivity for the speaker. With that in mind, the Fisher's 16watts x 2 should be able to drive those 15s fine.
At about 10 o'clock volume, the speakers easily filled his 22sqm HT room with above average listening levels that if you open his HT door, we could possibly awaken some of his neighbors.
But if these neighbors get startled from their sleep - they will be serenaded with a melodic realism that closely resembles "live" music. Each timbre & tone seems like it has an airy space surrounding them in presenting a holographic image of the performers just a few feet in front of you. While it embodies the same characteristics as any good decent speaker like imaging, detail and spaciousness - it still adds a bit more in its soundstage & aura making you part of the music - which provides a very enchanting experience.
To be honest, I was more engulfed in enjoying the music than doing any critical listening.
Physics does play a large amount in this experience & having a large driver does present you with a fuller spectrum of sound that is lacking in conventional/smaller drivers. The absence of any complicated crossover network in its design, while not only gives you a higher sensitivity but also shows the quality of your gears in an almost pure form.
This was very evident in using the Sakura AV-200T Hybrid amp.
Sakura AV-200T I've always wondered why Anthony replaced his Fisher X-100 with the modified Sakura - which actually made me borrow one from him a few weeks ago.
In tonight's review, the Sakura did have a slightly more powerful presentation but sound became analytical & thin sounding (manipis). Whatever dynamic realism we felt when using the Fisher was gone & bass even became non-existent. In short, no soul.
After listening to this Sakura for about 2 songs, we swapped it back to his Fisher amp.
Granted that Anthony was having issues with his fisher amp - this event surely enticed him to having it fixed
and restored back to its pristine condition.
Anthony figured that issues coming from his Fisher amp did make some bass notes a bit bloated and sometimes boomy.
10" Coax - "Planeta" While I've envisioned this as a novel idea - it was just that, a novel idea.
It sounded good, but laid back in such a way that the singer is behind the speaker.
Due to the dispersion, there was no imaging and most likely a perfect design for ambiance/background music.
A possible solid (than hollow) ball could be experimented on or maybe use the 10" drivers just like the 15" coax design. Anyway, I think Anthony plans on using them as surround speakers for his HT instead.
I will continue with the rest of the review by tomorrow - antok na ako eh
