Hi-Fi Honesty

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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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Re: Hi-Fi Honesty

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

That is the way the industry was and I was talking about it over 30 years ago and called mad because of it. Our whole industry back then was bonkers and corrupt. AND I am still largely treated the same way, exampled by the recent thread at Audio Abattoir I started based on this one. Only one person wants to talk about what I am saying everyone else wants to insult me - all I do is tell the truth and they still can't cope with it.

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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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Re: Hi-Fi Honesty

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

The Sara was the same but the Kef Kit 2, only one tweeter connected though the other was replaced by a resisitor.

The other daftee was the Kan. There was a company called Chartwell who had a BBC licence for the LS3/5a, they went bust, and their cabinet maker was stuck with hundreds of cabinets and no buyer. Ivor bought them for peanuts, got the Kef drivers and cobbled a simple crossover to create an abomination that squawked and squeaked out something resembling music. Where the LS3/5a was a bland sat on unmusical lump, the Kan was the opposite and the early ones even frightened cats. Ivor of course talked it into being the best thing since sliced bread. His dealers wanted a cheap-ish small speaker to sell LP12s with, that was its job.

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Re: Hi-Fi Honesty

Unread post by karatestu »

Multiple drivers in the same cabinet can work though can't it ? My speakers have two bass drivers just like the linn isobarik. I never tried two mid drivers but i did try two tweeters (although different tweeters and one in another box) with one forward firing and one up firing. It was an interesting experiment.

Its the same old bollox - something designed to make as much money as possible and hyped up with marketing bullshit. I have a friend who was an Audi salesman for many years. Told me a few things. They had a term called SWAN - sell what's available now. Never trust a salesman.
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Re: Hi-Fi Honesty

Unread post by _D_S_J_R_ »

Lindsayt wrote: Mon Mar 25, 2019 11:58 pm Thinking about it, the Linn Isobarik is like a huge April Fool's joke.

So you have a kit version of the Concerto. Made by Kef. Who make boringly bland drivers and speakers.

And you have one drunken Scottish man. Who thinks that putting two speakers into one cabinet will sound better than one speaker in one cabinet.

And this is somehow taken on by Ivor T, who is no speaker design expert. And you end up with this thing with drivers wired in parallel. With one bass unit stuffed inside the box. And a midrange unit and tweeter firing upwards, because... well why not?

It's pretty big and square and ugly. And costs a lot. It's also low efficiency and impedance and rather amplifier fussy.

And then you have several hi-fi magazines raving about this speaker, saying it's the best speaker you can buy!

Yeah right. And spaghetti grows on trees.
Last time...

The Isobarik was NOT square and ugly, it was rectangular, quite deep for a speaker box and a good pair drove a suitable room rather well. The KEF drive units aren't in the slightest bit bland - quite the opposite in that period and I still respect the Concertos if raised off the floor a little - have you even heard a pair? NOTHING like the stuff they made in the 80's! Early 'Briks had twin crossovers, so a three ohm load in the midrange that most domestic amps of the late 70's couldn't handle. Top firing mid (and tweeter). Sound familiar?

One magazine 'raved' about it, Chris Frankland. A shame Paul Messenger can't be persuaded to come here and put you right on many of these things - Lord, he hung around this scene enough at the time (and I'm not criticising either). Can't say any more - not worth the headache I'm getting. As for upwards facing drive units, all the Cubes do this, but even more so...
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Dr Bunsen Honeydew
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Re: Hi-Fi Honesty

Unread post by Dr Bunsen Honeydew »

Cubes are unique design with rebuilt drivers, they are not copies, or two Harbeths in one box. Isobaric was invented by Harry Olson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isobaric_loudspeaker not Hamish or Linn. The point I am making is Linn designed NOTHING, they copied, they stole, they ripped off, until they tried to design electronics, hired people who in reality knew feck all and made a nasty sounding pigs ear of it, but the marketing and stranglehold on the industry meant they sold.

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Re: Hi-Fi Honesty

Unread post by Classicrock »

I agree the Kan was a horrible sounding speaker. Isobariks did have something going for them but not exactly to my taste. How random the thinking was on driver replacement I can't say. It had the reputation of being a difficult load to drive. An excuse for selling you a stack of Naim amps. I've heard worse. Actually preferred the smaller Saras. It's all relative and never liked the flat earth sound. I can't say much in hi-fi isn't borrowed or copied. I just raised the hackles of some Audio Note fans on Hoffman by pointing out that PQ just buys the rights to existing product and tweaks them by adding fancy components for his expensive ranges. At least he started from something that was above average but the 'improved' products have some eye watering prices.
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Re: Hi-Fi Honesty

Unread post by _D_S_J_R_ »

Isobariks in their early days were very time consuming and difficult to make (I saw the empty carcasses in 1983 having to have all the interior partitions and mid-lines created and added at the factory, which was rendered significantly less in the last issue cabs they made with crossovers in the bases and later in the stands). The passives couldn't be properly driven by much back then and the active ones changed according to the amps used - Naim bolt-up 250's were a MUCH nicer sounding, more musical and sweet-toned product than the CB ones were and active 'briks reproduced that with ease. I heard active Isobariks with Naim (CB and bolt up), Linn, Nytech (delightful little CTA 252 plus two power amps active system they offered for them) and even Meridian had a go (using equalised drivers which changed the tone quite a bit I remember - pissing in the wind really)

There's a pic of the Falcon crossovers they made for the Kan on the net somewhere - have a look here -

https://www.stereo.net.au/forums/topic/ ... storation/

Not what I'd call simple crossovers, but that bass-mid driver couldn't really be used with anything less and the tiny tweeter dome doesn't really go down far enough, so there's a hole between the two drivers made worse as the KEF driver deteriorated in the mid 80's.
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Re: Hi-Fi Honesty

Unread post by Colin Wonfor »

Not much has changed, I have had problem with a bully and his mates with there lies since 2009. But it got worse after 2011 and in 2014 IT decided with it mate to make life hell for me.
Shame they never look at my history when I was forced from Magnum that IT thought I was ended and nothing could be better than Magnum, whoops the Claymore fixed that, and now this IT is learning slowly that the new kit I made is much better.
So keep writing Doc lets kill the sods.
It can be done so imagine it.

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Re: Hi-Fi Honesty

Unread post by Lurcher300b »

and nothing could be better than Magnum, whoops the Claymore fixed that, and now this IT is learning slowly that the new kit I made is much better.
But given the title is HiFi Honesty, why is c better than b better than a? What was it you know when you made the Claymore that you didn't when you made the Magnum?

For a example from LDA, I have made three jfet input phono stages, the current MCj3 is not particularly better than the previous, I have changed the design so its cheaper to make so I can sell it for less, and it got a better case because I found a case maker and any other number of choices that I made with experience, both to make it easier to make and a couple to make it sound better. But neither are as good as the Ref phono I made for Music First. I don’t know how to make a better one than that, I could change it, but I doubt it would be better.

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Re: Hi-Fi Honesty

Unread post by Daniel Quinn »

That's today.

Tommorow you may learn something that results in a better sound.

Knowledge is not static

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