MEADOWLARK AUDIO SHOP PICS

Have not considered it, and am don't expect that the distributors whom I trust vend any. I learned early on that BOTH the drivers and the supplier/distributor need to have the right qualities. Do you know of such a source? It maybe a fun thing to investigate.

On the subject of drivers, check out this set lined up for a Merlin prototype. Looks like Christmas morning to this kid. Each of these drivers is amazing. I've been getting used to the big-boys in one dual woofer mule, can barely wait for the second unit to join in. The unusually supple suspension apparently does good things for very LF resolution. The downside being that it's easier to bang the stops when there's very LF signal. I'm trying not to HP them, am aiming for solid performance into the teens. So, yep, as usual, add multiples 'til that limitation moves out of the picture.

An inspiration came, a few weeks back, by the sight of a shiny new racer on the St. Lawrence River with FIVE 450HP Mercury outboards crammed onto the transom. Most lunatics would have stopped at four, but not this guy. There's no way you'd get me on that thing - but he's my guy!


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Sorry I don't know of any manufactures of field coil drivers. I believe that field coil drivers were popular in the good old days. I heard that they are more expensive to make hence the lack of options and manufactures. I think the Focal uses a few in their higher end speakers. Many people claim they are sonically superior. Also the requirement to have an additional power supply complicates things. I found this online Field Coil - inSync.

BTW do you have any distributers of your new speakers. Are you open to having people visit your shop to listen to some of your newest creations?
 
Sorry I don't know of any manufactures of field coil drivers. I believe that field coil drivers were popular in the good old days. I heard that they are more expensive to make hence the lack of options and manufactures. I think the Focal uses a few in their higher end speakers. Many people claim they are sonically superior. Also the requirement to have an additional power supply complicates things. I found this online Field Coil - inSync.

BTW do you have any distributers of your new speakers. Are you open to having people visit your shop to listen to some of your newest creations?

Sorry I don't know of any manufactures of field coil drivers. I believe that field coil drivers were popular in the good old days. I heard that they are more expensive to make hence the lack of options and manufactures. I think the Focal uses a few in their higher end speakers. Many people claim they are sonically superior. Also the requirement to have an additional power supply complicates things. I found this online Field Coil - inSync.

BTW do you have any distributers of your new speakers. Are you open to having people visit your shop to listen to some of your newest creations?
Thanks for asking. Most of our sales are made directly, and overwhelmingly to prior Meadowlark owners. Few of those guys even bring up the subject of an audition. We do have a talented reseller in the Atlanta area and we do enjoy giving auditions at the shop. We are in a remote location 90 miles N of Syracuse, 1000 Islands region.

Yes, there's always beer.
 
Thanks for asking. Most of our sales are made directly, and overwhelmingly to prior Meadowlark owners. Few of those guys even bring up the subject of an audition. We do have a talented reseller in the Atlanta area and we do enjoy giving auditions at the shop. We are in a remote location 90 miles N of Syracuse, 1000 Islands region.

Yes, there's always beer.
Thanks Pat I am in the Toronto region. I visited you at your shop in Watertown many moons ago when you upgraded my Kestrels to hotrods. I need to plan a visit some time soon, I would love to hear your new line up.
 
Pat, you might be getting into crazy territory there. Is that meant for stadium use?

And I thought my Blackbirds were loud …
No, no, no....that's nowhere near excessive. The engineering problems in the low bass are complicated by two adverse square functions that sum. It's not a 'common sense' kind of thing. What is practically necessary just looks nuts.

Too, some of our customers have very voluminous venues. I can bottom-out that twin 13.5" 1KW system in my 24x32' with mid-vigorous pressures. I admit to boosting into the low teens, but that's the whole point. It's luxury, you know?
 
Thanks Pat I am in the Toronto region. I visited you at your shop in Watertown many moons ago when you upgraded my Kestrels to hotrods. I need to plan a visit some time soon, I would love to hear your new line up.
Ditto. Did someone say Havenite road trip?
 
Sure. You never know what's gonna be set up. Today, I'm running Kingfishers, expecting a gent to will-call his pair on Monday. I'm pretty sure he has no idea what he's getting into, so may as well have the pleasure of demonstrating.

I can play them with and without LF augmentation, so he can get an idea of what turning his three-ways into four-ways would do. Every upper bass system does better when relieved of the heavy lifting and the results are so apparent. That's one of my favorite advantages of Next Gen - you can legitimately turn a three-way into a four-way. That was never possible, but now it's a piece o' cake. ;) ;)

Soon enough, Merlin proto will be in the spot. That's actually a revision of four-driver three-way, Ibis, into a two chassis five-driver four-way, with the big-boys taking over below 70Hz. So - dual band bass, two drivers per band, 'outght be darn articulate.
 
Pat, you might be getting into crazy territory there. Is that meant for stadium use?

And I thought my Blackbirds were loud …
If you're not using all of the available output, you should lower the Input Level to suit. Reason: minimize bit dithering at your source.

Some guys use the Presets to make high and low output settings, to get better results for low level listening.
 
These flew the coop today. Smiles all around.

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I'm running my pair with a single Merlin LF system while the second is in the clamps. LPed the sub at 70, while the mains are HPed at 60. That seems to be working out in, every setup we've tried, as a DSP sneak-attack on floor bounce. I never imagined, when starting down the DSP path, that we'd take on floor bounce. ;) ;) ;)

The setup is a 13.5' isosceles triangle, so the apparent stage is kinda wide. Still, nice sharp focus.

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Prototype Ibis revision from a four-driver three-way to a five-driver four-way, heading to the shop floor, after nine CAD cycles. Objectives: break the cabinet into two modules, the large single cabinet Ibis V1 being an large and heavy pita in production. And, at the expense of needing another channel of amplification, for a total of five, bringing in the unbelievable Satori MR13P midrange.

Combined with one of two LF systems that will fit to the rear, will become Merlin seven-driver five-way or nine-driver five-way. The distinction will be the limits of what we've begun referring to as "bandwidth/amplitude", because one can select any point on the bandwidth/amplitude tradeoff limit curve. Some rooms need lots.

Design is always a bag of compromises, but I'm thinking we're giving up nothing on the big boys, it's a good feeling.

We've figured out a way to make Ibis V2 easily upfittable to either Merlin variant, by the customer, with just a screwdriver. And a few grunts, I suppose. ;)

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Really liking the Ibis V2 complement. I almost wish these were available when I got the Nightingales. The 13" wide Nightingale ended up being a bit more imposing than I anticipated in my space.
 
Prototype Ibis revision from a four-driver three-way to a five-driver four-way, heading to the shop floor, after nine CAD cycles. Objectives: break the cabinet into two modules, the large single cabinet Ibis V1 being an large and heavy pita in production. And, at the expense of needing another channel of amplification, for a total of five, bringing in the unbelievable Satori MR13P midrange.

Combined with one of two LF systems that will fit to the rear, will become Merlin seven-driver five-way or nine-driver five-way. The distinction will be the limits of what we've begun referring to as "bandwidth/amplitude", because one can select any point on the bandwidth/amplitude tradeoff limit curve. Some rooms need lots.

Design is always a bag of compromises, but I'm thinking we're giving up nothing on the big boys, it's a good feeling.

We've figured out a way to make Ibis V2 easily upfittable to either Merlin variant, by the customer, with just a screwdriver. And a few grunts, I suppose. ;)

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Pat, I'd like to get your take on how you approach tweeter and mid range driver height in these designs that start getting taller. You still try to keep them at hear height?
 
Really liking the Ibis V2 complement. I almost wish these were available when I got the Nightingales. The 13" wide Nightingale ended up being a bit more imposing than I anticipated in my space.
Ibis is intended as a mere 30 Hertzer. That 20-30Hz band is does require quite a bit more volume, hence the larger footprint.

When mated to the Merlin LF system, the whole rig will be a tad on the large side - owing to the 14" wide LF system. And total depth gets to about 30". I don't expect it to be used in other than larger venues.
 
Pat, I'd like to get your take on how you approach tweeter and mid range driver height in these designs that start getting taller. You still try to keep them at hear height?
Yeah, you don't really want to be looking up into the soundstage. It's pleasing, though, to be looking straight ahead at it. Or, in the case of smaller speakers, slightly downward. The very popular Kestrel had its tweeter at 33" and guys really liked the presentation. Today, we're running Kingfisher, with tweeter at 37" and it's more than pleasant. The presentation of singer playing piano seems in scale and believable.

We've been working with the tweeter center at 46" on several designs, and it's great. My ear height in the listening position is 42" - so the tweeter being 4" higher at a range of 13 feet results in an upward angle of just over one degree - not even remotely noticeable. Keep in mind that you have to listen to large arrays at a substantial distance. I think 46" might be an issue at 6'. If someone wanted to run Ibis at 6', or even 8', I'd advise against it, probably not make the sale, since there's really no listening height that would work at that range. He'd need a smaller array, with potentially a LF system to achieve the bandwidth, if desired.

But, yeah, I'd resist the idea of running the tweeter at much higher than 46, assuming normal seating heights.
 
'keep kicking around different approaches to making this monster appear less large. We' like to keep the mains baffle width to a minimum, but are working with a minimum width for the LF system of 14". At first, we had the whole LF cabinet at 14W, but this plant-on-cheeks idea works too, by cheating the needed width to the lower 19", and canting the rear face forward above that line.

The idea is that a guy could go with the mains, which is Ibis V2, and have the option of adding the LF system later to arrive at Merlin. We have an idea, pretty much worked out, that would allow that upgrade to be easy to implement by the owner.

The planned larger variant of Merlin would have two pair of 13.5" LF drivers per side - so the idea of looking svelte completely flies out the window. At that level of stupidity, I don't imagine anybody cares. ;)


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“The very popular Kestrel had its tweeter at 33" and guys really liked the presentation. Today, we're running Kingfisher, with tweeter at 37" and it's more than pleasant.”

My recently acquired Kestrel Hot Rods have taken up residence in the bedroom, where they’re working better than they did in the living room. (I’ll be writing up more about the experience in due course.) As to height, the Outlaw LCR speakers, which were a 2-1/2 way MTM design, recommended a tweeter height of 39” which, if run vertical, meant stands of 29”-30”. Seems high to me, maybe because my stature and chairs put my ears about 6” lower. Curious that satellites are often set much higher, but with vertically aligned drivers the tweeter is effectively “back” from the woofer, maybe aligning them at some distances, but with higher order crossovers, that may not be significant.
 
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