As some of you know, I was up at Adire land yesterday. It was fun in that I got to meet Wes (Mr. Flamboyant). But what was really cool was some of the things I got to demo. One of those things was the Extremis 4's. They are still waiting on the one's with the new phase plugs that will be flat past 20 kHz. So the one's I listened to rolled off a little early. They were in a .2 cubic foot ported enclosure (don't know tuning), and rocked. They definitely sounded like they had a small dedicated sub somewhere, and hidden tweeters. But the quality of sound was there as well. We didn't turn them up that loud, but they seemed to have plenty of power from the 25 watt amp powering them. From what I understand, they may not be able to reach reference levels, so using one of them as a dedicated front for home theater might not be in the future. But as surround speakers, or some nice small bookshelf speakers they would work great. I also think they would work great in cars. I should also mention that these are prototype speakers still. Nothing is set in stone about them yet, including size. But I was most impressed with them, as was many other people who heard them at CES from what I hear. I truely believe XBL^2 will be the future of speakers. This is just one more example of why I think this is true. Other cool things I got to see/hear: discontinued Veda's at Dan's house (VERY nice sounding) HE10's used as center and surrounds the Sadhara running off of too little power the Slurpy machine Sir Mixalot played on some HE10's and lots of other stuff I can't divulge. :bag:
Thats sounds fairly absurd to be honest. Good up to 20khz yet still gives some bass output? So good from guessing 100hz or so to 20khz? I'd definately have to hear that to believe it..
If those Extremis 4's can hit 105-110 dB's in car, stay (relatively) flat down to 80 and up to 20K, and if they can do that with less than 100 wrms per/...I'm in. That sounds like I'm expecting much...but most of the stuff I've read about the Extremis (with the exception of how much power it "needs") says it will do it (high end extension will be there after the phase plug...I've read). Imagine the look on someones face when you tell them your "f'in loud" truck only has a set of 4's and 10" sub If the 4's don't give the output I'm looking for, the bigger Extremis, I'm sure, will.
How's the off-axis response look on those? luv, I could definitely see the 4" and 10" combo coming this way also
Actually in the enclosure they were in, Dan mentioned they were good down to about 50 Hz. Remember that although the cone is small, it does have about 6-7mm of linear throw behind it (better than some subwoofers). They do suffer from a lot of IMD distortion, which is expected. But the nice thing is that it is inaudible. Dan was telling me about how what is usually audible in IMD distortion is the BL distortion and inductance distortion that used to go along with it. XBL^2 took care of that, so all that is left is IMD distortion. It is definitely something you have to hear to believe, as many were shocked at CES.
Not too good actually. They do decent, but probably not good for door mounting. And actually the 4's will probably be better than the larger drivers since beaming will happen at a higher frequency with the smaller cone. These are mainly designed for home audio use. But I figure they would work well in Jeeps, Geo Metro's, etc. where they have 4" speakers up front. The larger excursion will give the lower frequencies that usually lack from those speakers (I know from my moms car). They also probably would do pretty good in kickpannels.
Interesting. Thinking of my surround channels right now. Buying Elite 7.1 reciever in the next week or 2 , needs big rear fill
I heard these at CES... What was impressive about them was exactly that - the range of the sound. I thought they sounded about an octave shy of not needing tweeters.. Maybe not an octave, but they seemed a bit mellow, if you know what I mean. It would be cool if the phase plug really did extend the response up that high. B) But at any rate, I got to hear these at CES, nothing else running.. these 4's and nothing else.. I believe in sealed cabinets (unless they were ported out the rear). The range of these things really was tremendous, they reached way up high, well past most mids... And even more impressive was how low they extended... If you were on a game show, blindfolded, and they wheeled these out for you to listen to, and you would win a prize for guessing what size speakers you were listening to, you probably would have said "A set of bookshelves... sounds like a soft dome small tweet, and an 8" driver" Pretty impressive!
Sounds like it'd be fun to play with them... Think i'll get me a pair when they come out - if they're not too costly... New computer speakers for me! Oh, i'll also need an amp to drive them then...hmm...
Seth, what reciever are you buying? we're getting a 7.1 reciever in the summer.... we're probably gonna go ahead with the HK 7200(flagship) you done a/b testing with it? I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to hear the ebst stuff adire has as far as towers go... like a tweeter, 4", and then like 3-4 8"ers.. or a 10 or 12. Gonna drop 3000/pr on some towers.... would like to support dan if he has osmethign that can compete with B&W 802s or paradigm studios....
Either the Elite VSX53TX or the VSX55TX. I have listened to several of last years lines all mid to absolute high end for the respective lines, Denon, HK, Marantz, Elite, Sony ES, Onkyo, Mittsubishi, etc. I auditioned many with the B&K 6 series, and some Paradigms. My favorite combo was the Elite 43 series and up with the Paradigm. The Paradigms were a bit bright through the Denon units, and Sony ES was a bit more bright, but the others were too bright. The warmth of the Pioneer Elite units, and the accuracy of the Paradigms were an amazing combo. More people I know like the Denon units a bit more, claiming the Elites are too laid back. I noticed the B&Ws sounded like ass through the Elites, but the brighter units favored them. Overall the Elite lines impressed me most. I like the Elites for their preout function as well. I would love to run the Butler tubes, and the reciver will work well now, then I can eventually run the Butlers off it, then the flagship Anthem Preamp. Room for growth. That is key. I heard the Anthem, some Bryson monos and the Focals.... Oh my,my,my,my... I got some serious wood. But damn, that room was running about $80,000 in equipment, not to mention how much in interconnects, conditioners, etc... That was $80K in goodies I could see. *edit, if you can, look into the VSX49TXi or the VSX59TXi for the Pioneer Elite flagships, and hook 'em up with the Paradigms... you will cream your jeans.*
