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10-05-2006, 12:45 PM
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#1 of 15 
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Join Date: Jul 1999
Local Time: 04:08 PM
Local Date: 08-30-2008
Posts: 3,320
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Fascinating New HT Speakers from Bob Carver
Bob Carver is one of the true geniuses in audio, and has been for more than 35 years. The story of his first amplifier, made in an empty coffee can is classic.
This is his latest effort:
http://www.sunfire.com?CR.htm
Please note, you have to click on the image.
Ribbons are some of the very best sounding drivers ever, and they should be, the MSRP of the 5 speaker system is $4,000!
Enjoy! |
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10-05-2006, 01:04 PM
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#2 of 15
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Member
Location: Winnipeg, MB, Canada
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Re: Fascinating New HT Speakers from Bob Carver
I'm not so sure I'd call Carver a genius but he's certainly creative. I'm not sure how those speakers are going to work though given the 1.5 cross over point to drivers that fire off to the side...and the ribbon in the center is orientated to give a very narrow dispersion pattern which could be an issue.
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10-05-2006, 01:39 PM
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#3 of 15
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Re: Fascinating New HT Speakers from Bob Carver
And let the nitpicking begin...
Andy:
Let's not get overly enthusiastic about Carver or his new speakers. In my book, someone who, 30 years ago, designed a 400 watt, 9 pound amp, is close enough to genius for me.
Who in audio would you call a genius, if anyone  |
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10-05-2006, 04:02 PM
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#4 of 15
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Location: Winnipeg, MB, Canada
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Re: Fascinating New HT Speakers from Bob Carver
Art please call my Andrew not Andy...
As for whom I'd call genius? That's a good question and I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer...the smartest guy I've met in the audio world is the engineer behind NuForce. He used to design guidance chips for the military but I'm sure there are many more.
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10-05-2006, 04:13 PM
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#5 of 15
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Member
Location: San Jose, Ca.
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Re: Fascinating New HT Speakers from Bob Carver
-3dB at 95Hz? Not enough midrange.
"The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, but that they know so many things that ain't so." - Mark Twain
HT: Marantz SR-8300, MA500 monoblocks x 2, 5X GR Research A/V-2s, Adire Audio Tempest sub, Denon 2900, Oppo 980H, Toshiba HD-A2, RC2000MkII remote, Panamax 5100, Panamax Max2 sub, Slim PS2, PS3 60G + 320G USB
Bedroom: Marantz PM-7200 Integrated, GR Research A/V-1s, Sony 222ES SACD, RC3200 remote, Panamax M8EX
Audio: Audioquest * Video: Bluejeans
My DVDs  My HT
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10-05-2006, 06:24 PM
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#6 of 15
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Re: Fascinating New HT Speakers from Bob Carver
JG
Guess we might have to run those subwoofers all the way up to 100Hz , as SVS sometimes suggests. |
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10-06-2006, 12:18 PM
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#7 of 15
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Re: Fascinating New HT Speakers from Bob Carver
I like speakers that cover lower than that. Yes, a good sub can pick up that slack, but one of the characteristics I look for in a speaker is a solid midrange. Obviously, I haven't heard these speakers, and they do look interesting, but I'd still be hesitant about them unless they have a very gradual roll off on the low end. Clearly, he had a certain sub, or certain level of sub performance, in mind when he designed these as well.
"The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, but that they know so many things that ain't so." - Mark Twain
HT: Marantz SR-8300, MA500 monoblocks x 2, 5X GR Research A/V-2s, Adire Audio Tempest sub, Denon 2900, Oppo 980H, Toshiba HD-A2, RC2000MkII remote, Panamax 5100, Panamax Max2 sub, Slim PS2, PS3 60G + 320G USB
Bedroom: Marantz PM-7200 Integrated, GR Research A/V-1s, Sony 222ES SACD, RC3200 remote, Panamax M8EX
Audio: Audioquest * Video: Bluejeans
My DVDs My HT
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10-06-2006, 06:25 PM
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#8 of 15
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Re: Fascinating New HT Speakers from Bob Carver
I'm not really understanding what these speakers are. Where are the woofers? The literature is really superficial and the manual PDF link doesn't work.
"Their side-firing configuration actually takes into account the physiology of our ear-brain processing system. "
Also, what the heck is that supposed to mean? I'm really skeptical of statements like that.
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10-07-2006, 02:56 AM
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#9 of 15
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Re: Fascinating New HT Speakers from Bob Carver
Quote:
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Originally Posted by John Garcia
-3dB at 95Hz? Not enough midrange.
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Where did you get -3dB from? I didn't see it on his site. All I saw was "95Hz to 40kHz", which really gives no indication of how flat the response is or whether or not it actually produces much useful output at 95Hz. I tried clicking on the link to the user manual in case there was more info in there, but got a 404 (not found) error.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by John Garcia
I like speakers that cover lower than that. Yes, a good sub can pick up that slack, but one of the characteristics I look for in a speaker is a solid midrange. Obviously, I haven't heard these speakers, and they do look interesting, but I'd still be hesitant about them unless they have a very gradual roll off on the low end. Clearly, he had a certain sub, or certain level of sub performance, in mind when he designed these as well.
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To be fair, those speakers are pretty tiny. They're not bose-cube tiny, but they're definitely smaller than your average bookshelf speaker. The center channel speaker is just 3.75" deep! At 4.8kg you could almost duct-tape it to the front of your TV if you didn't have space on top of it! It looks like Carver is trying to move in on the HTIAB mini-cube market and you have to make some pretty serious audio trade-offs to do that. These aren't going to threaten anybody's full-range towers or even a lot of bookshelves, that much is certain. I wouldn't spend $4K on a mini-cube system myself, but there are plenty who would.
Now, if you want to see *real* genius at work when it comes to a whole lot of sound in a small package, check out the venerable Totem Mani-2. Yes, they're full bookshelf size and substantially larger than these Sunfire ribbon speakers, but they go from 29Hz - 20kHz +/- 3dB. That's damned good for a tower speaker, let alone a bookshelf! Admittedly, you'd be a fool to shove these up against the wall like you would with a mini-cube system, but they are seriously good sounding speakers.
Last edited by Terry St : 10-07-2006 at 03:20 AM.
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10-07-2006, 09:08 AM
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#10 of 15
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