I want CES 2011 NOW!!!! New Product Rumours

[Mr Peabody]

A MA dealer told me the RX-6 was quite a bit better than the RS-6. I am also interested in hearing the GX. I hope the economy is good enough for the store to bring something in from the GX.

[Ajani]

A MA dealer told me the RX-6 was quite a bit better than the RS-6. I am also interested in hearing the GX. I hope the economy is good enough for the store to bring something in from the GX.

The RX-6 is highly regarded for bringing much of the quality materials and sound from the Gold Series down to a much more affordable price range... I expect the new GX line to do the same by bringing Platinum quality down to the Gold Range...

There are real advantages to having flagship ranges to trickle down technology from...

[JohnMichael]

The RX-6 is highly regarded for bringing much of the quality materials and sound from the Gold Series down to a much more affordable price range... I expect the new GX line to do the same by bringing Platinum quality down to the Gold Range...

There are real advantages to having flagship ranges to trickle down technology from...

I own a pair of MA RS 6's and I am not sure how I feel about metal cones. Something is not quite right. The Mo Fi OML 1's which use a silk tweeter and a coated pulp woofer sound much better in the range they cover. The RS 6's are in the closet collecting dust.

[Ajani]

I own a pair of MA RS 6's and I am not sure how I feel about metal cones. Something is not quite right. The Mo Fi OML 1's which use a silk tweeter and a coated pulp woofer sound much better in the range they cover. The RS 6's are in the closet collecting dust.

Probably just a system synergy issue... Metal tends to lean towards the bright side and Krell is not known for being rolled off and soft sounding...

You might want to put the RS6's on A'gon...

[atomicAdam]

Ajani -

I should be headed to CES 2011 - I'll make sure to check these out for you and give you a report.

I'll hopefully also get more time with those LCD2 cans.

[Ajani]

Ajani -

I should be headed to CES 2011 - I'll make sure to check these out for you and give you a report.

I'll hopefully also get more time with those LCD2 cans.

Excellent! I look forward to your impressions on all 3...

[TheHills44060]

I own a pair of MA RS 6's and I am not sure how I feel about metal cones. Something is not quite right.

I agree JM. Most of the time subwoofers are the only speakers I can tolerate metal cones in.

[atomicAdam]

I own a pair of MA RS 6's and I am not sure how I feel about metal cones. Something is not quite right. The Mo Fi OML 1's which use a silk tweeter and a coated pulp woofer sound much better in the range they cover. The RS 6's are in the closet collecting dust.

AH HA! Now you know why I moved on a bit...

[RGA]

John and Adam

The thing with the driver materials is the companies out to make a buck need to differentiate themselves from the pack. The driver itself may in fact be technically superb but it doesn't mean that the sound will be anything other than fatiguing over long listening sessions. Kevlar was written about and people found them to be highly problematic beaming whatever. but they don't sound good in music listening applications IMO. Driver integration is not just a crossover but a sonic character that the driver itself puts out. Because a given woofer may put out 200hz so will four others but they don't all sound alike doing it and that is one reason to consider materials. At some point the tweeter hands over to a woofer and if the materials are dissimilar then a good ear or even average ears will at some point hear that handoff. On a showroom floor a speaker like the Monitor Audio designs with dissimilar drivers can generate a wow factor but sooner or later that dissimilarity will creep in IME. Which might be why the founder of Monitor Audio doesn't own them himself!!!

Someone read a graph and it looked good so build them and have lots of advertising on the cool new tweeters. Metal, titanium, tube tapering, ribbon, circular ribbon, stretched ribbon, stretched metal, Platinum, Diamond - and it's oh so "cool" - it's a shame they almost always get outclassed entirely by speakers using boring old silk domes and paper. A good plasma in Acapellas or Manger flat cones, field Coils have sounded good but the costs. I have never been convinced by a speaker using a ribbon tweeter. Actually I've never been convinced by a ribbon doing anything. I've liked two recently - Sonist and Audio Zen but even here I kind of feel it could be better with a regular boring old silk dome. The added zing sssss (detail) would be removed and it would like integrated better with the woofers. Although I liked them at the show quite a lot. (but then a show is a 15-45minute listen and then on to the next).

[Ajani]

John and Adam

The thing with the driver materials is the companies out to make a buck need to differentiate themselves from the pack. The driver itself may in fact be technically superb but it doesn't mean that the sound will be anything other than fatiguing over long listening sessions. Kevlar was written about and people found them to be highly problematic beaming whatever. but they don't sound good in music listening applications IMO. Driver integration is not just a crossover but a sonic character that the driver itself puts out. Because a given woofer may put out 200hz so will four others but they don't all sound alike doing it and that is one reason to consider materials. At some point the tweeter hands over to a woofer and if the materials are dissimilar then a good ear or even average ears will at some point hear that handoff. On a showroom floor a speaker like the Monitor Audio designs with dissimilar drivers can generate a wow factor but sooner or later that dissimilarity will creep in IME. Which might be why the founder of Monitor Audio doesn't own them himself!!!

Someone read a graph and it looked good so build them and have lots of advertising on the cool new tweeters. Metal, titanium, tube tapering, ribbon, circular ribbon, stretched ribbon, stretched metal, Platinum, Diamond - and it's oh so "cool" - it's a shame they almost always get outclassed entirely by speakers using boring old silk domes and paper. A good plasma in Acapellas or Manger flat cones, field Coils have sounded good but the costs. I have never been convinced by a speaker using a ribbon tweeter. Actually I've never been convinced by a ribbon doing anything. I've liked two recently - Sonist and Audio Zen but even here I kind of feel it could be better with a regular boring old silk dome. The added zing sssss (detail) would be removed and it would like integrated better with the woofers. Although I liked them at the show quite a lot. (but then a show is a 15-45minute listen and then on to the next).

I agree with your general view that dissimilar driver materials are not likely to integrate well... That has been my experience with combinations such as aluminum tweeters and kevlar midranges... I think it is often just a case of looking at specs and tossing in exotic materials...

I think, however, that your decision to apply that theory to Monitor Audio is way off base.. Monitor Audio uses the sames C-CAM (Metal drivers) from woofer to tweeter... The only distinction in the tweeters was adding a thin layer of Gold over the already metal driver... In the Platinum line they use the C-CAM material to create a ribbon tweeter... So it is not a case of using completely different driver materials that don't integrate...

One of the reasons I like Revel and also Monitor Audio is because of using similar materials for all drivers... I believe that we too often blame crossover design for the inherent incompatibility of different driver materials...