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"The Lab"

Nov 30, 2015 at 7:50 PM Post #14,929 of 20,146
nmatheis said:
What's your take on the "driver wars" Alex?
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Selection of the driver type, the crossover, and the tuning is what makes the sound.  Number of drivers give you more flexibility with additional building blocks, but not sure if you can directly correlate # of drivers to a better sound quality.  I'm still amazed by Piotr's craftmanship.  When I reviewed his Ei.xx, I mentioned about "cooking recipe" of his design, and he replied with a following:
 
"Think of tuning a monitor as cooking a stake with asparagus on a side. Too long on grill and the meat is dry, too long in the water and vegies are hard and blant in taste. Not enough seasoning and you end up wanting more :) For Ei.xx I selected two dual drivers with tuned vents and low THD.A speakers come as vented and tune-vented.[edit] there are non-vented drivers as well, but we focus on vented options here [end] Vented drivers have simply holes in the back that amplify anything from 10 to 3000Hz. Tuned-vents increase only certain range like say 10-500Hz (depends on driver) Tuned vents also offer lower THD than just vented design.
Point is - driver selection is important and proper choice will get you sound you wanted in the first place. Obviously the same crossover design could have been applied to different drivers, probably only two (like Knowles CI family) instead of four, but I was after completely different sound than CI drivers would produce.
We also recently got request to incorporate Ei.xx bass section as is into custom project with 12-drivers in total, and it merged pretty well with proper adjustments on higher frequency drivers.
So think of drivers as building blocks that create the whole. You can add or remove something and it can be done either by selecting new ingredient (driver) or seasoning (crossover) - both are really important but only when combined properly give you what you wanted."
 
Also, Savant was a good example of how far you can push the limit of 2-driver design.  And, I'm reading that some people like K10 over Savant, and some the other way.  So it comes down to a sound tuning preference.  The only true judgment I can make is by analyzing Westone IEMs since I had a chance to review/compare their 3-/4-/5-/6-driver designs.  UM Pro 50 is a scaled up version of UM Pro 30, but I'm not sure if it was tuned to sound better in order to justify price premium or due to limitation of 3-driver vs 5-driver designs.  The same with W40 vs W60, double the price but not necessary the performance.
 
The interesting comparison would be between flagships of different manufacturers, such as 6-driver ES60, 10-driver K10, 12-driver A12, and 14-driver ZEUS.  You can probably add 4-driver SE846 (had a brief testing, wasn't impressed), and UERM (isn't it 3-driver design?).
 
Nov 30, 2015 at 8:07 PM Post #14,931 of 20,146
Again, back to JH as an example, the Angie (2 low end BA's) can't go as low as the Layla (4 low end BA's). Is it tuning or driver count? Don't know personally, but would like to. Both are reported to be tuned the same by JH.
 
Nov 30, 2015 at 9:41 PM Post #14,932 of 20,146
Guys, I just wanted to say thanks for your discussion regarding driver numbers. Been enlightening to hear impressions and opinions on the subject.
 
So I guess the gist of it is there is some merit in having double digit drivers and its not just a matter of the "more is better" mantra.
 
Nov 30, 2015 at 11:19 PM Post #14,936 of 20,146
Labsters wanted to ask the council for some advice.

Was looking for suggestions a powerful, clean sounding and neutral portable amp. Something with good dynamics as well. A slim footprint would be bonus :)

I would be using it with my phone, ipod classic and X7.

Any advice in this regard would be greatly appreciated! Looking forward to your collective wisdom on this dear tribal council ;)
 
Nov 30, 2015 at 11:22 PM Post #14,937 of 20,146
redjohn456 said:
Labsters wanted to ask the council for some advice.

Was looking for suggestions a powerful, clean sounding and neutral portable amp. Something with good dynamics as well. A slim footprint would be bonus
smily_headphones1.gif


I would be using it with my phone, ipod classic and X7.

Any advice in this regard would be greatly appreciated! Looking forward to your collective wisdom on this dear tribal council
wink.gif
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I really like the C&C BH amp, although I'm not sure they are making it any more. Powerful enough, slim footprint, and definitely dynamic. 
 
Nov 30, 2015 at 11:54 PM Post #14,939 of 20,146
redjohn456 said:
Labsters wanted to ask the council for some advice.

Was looking for suggestions a powerful, clean sounding and neutral portable amp. Something with good dynamics as well. A slim footprint would be bonus
smily_headphones1.gif


I would be using it with my phone, ipod classic and X7.

Any advice in this regard would be greatly appreciated! Looking forward to your collective wisdom on this dear tribal council
wink.gif
Click to expand...

Cayin C5 
 
BOOM
 
Nov 30, 2015 at 11:54 PM Post #14,940 of 20,146
redjohn456 said:
Labsters wanted to ask the council for some advice.

Was looking for suggestions a powerful, clean sounding and neutral portable amp. Something with good dynamics as well. A slim footprint would be bonus
smily_headphones1.gif


I would be using it with my phone, ipod classic and X7.

Any advice in this regard would be greatly appreciated! Looking forward to your collective wisdom on this dear tribal council
wink.gif
Click to expand...

Shanling H3 FTW!!!
 
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