The Electric Squirrel
Top Veteran
- Location
- Finland
I got the Abbies out of curiosity and maybe a bit of nostalgia. I used to know a guy who held these hifi-gatherings every now and then not too far from where I live, and he had a setup consisting of a turntable (Michell Gyro SE, later upgraded to an Avid Volvere, SME tonearms in both), a Naim Nait 2 and a pair of Abbies. I remember liking the sound of that system, so now more than a decade later I bought the Abbies without listening at sight, since they were on sale for dirt cheap, and I wanted something in the guest room in the meantime before I get the 8" coaxes finished.Totally agree. Thats why I chose drivers that will play nice together in a first order setup…something I suppose I wouldn’t need to give any thought about if I was only using 1 speaker. The only time I’ve ever bothered with a second order is if I’m using a more exotic tweeter like a ribbon that just needs a bit more protection at the lower xover frequencies I prefer, or building the occasional 3-way system.
Single source was all the rage over here too for a little…I never jumped on board that one. I like my 2-way systems too much. Those are certainly good looking speakers though. Hopefully you aren’t a masochist too often!
Now, I used to wonder why that guy liked that Naim amp so much. I had it in for a while for a potentiometer replacement, and tried it in my own setup, and found it hopelessly dark and muddy sounding. Now I know... That muddy sound played well with the shouty nature of those Fostex drivers.
Some single driver speakers have their merits, to be fair. Mostly they are 4" or smaller and make not a lot of bass.
Back to crossovers... I really don't care much for what the electrical slope of a crossover is, as long as I get the acoustical slopes to match and do that at a point I want them to. That is usually at a point where their directivity patterns also match as closely as possible. I know controlled directivity is a very finnish thing in loudspeakers, but there is some sense to it...