@Matthew J Poes Cool! I think your article will be very helpful once all is said and done. The insights and tips you get from Polk is something we’re sure to all benefit from.
I’m on a totally different amp (PM-10 giving the MC452 a rest), and still enjoying the output. To really see if the amp topology makes a difference I will need to haul my RB-1590 out of my HT to test with.
I am in a similar boat. My only options for single ended amplifiers are an Onkyo receiver and an Acurus amplifier that recently started to motorboat. I had planned to have it fixed and never got around to it.
I look forward to your findings. I’ve also been talking to Al Griffin about his day experience. I found it insightful.
what other speakers have you owned or used? I’m curious what you think of the sound outside it’s staging. There is no denying that the SDA tech works. These speakers project a sound image like nothing else. However, a good review needs to address not only their one trick, but how they handle everything else. These are not cheap after all. I am forming an opinion but want to listen to them more before putting this in my review.
I also have to warn everyone that it is highly likely that this speaker will not have measurements like
@shadyJ would normally include. These are just too big and taking measurements is going to be difficult. Unless a small army of people want to drag these out of my listening room and carefully set them atop a 6’ stand, withSoundUnited giving their blessing, I don’t see how we can do it. Instead, James and I plan to try two techniques that we have toyed with as an alternative for large speakers. We shall see id they work out.
I also plan to take binaural measurements and do a binaural listening video. The binaural measurements will be used to try and measure the degree of crosstalk cancelation. I am not certain this will work. Traditionally, studies measuring the effectiveness of crosstalk cancelation take a binaural measurements and calculate the difference between the left and right ear. A system that works perfectly would be such that a left channel sweep would be, say, 85dB in the left ear, but 0 dB in the right. That won’t happen in practice, but a substantial reduction in the right channel would lead us to believe its working effectively.
in addition I want to examine combfiltering. One or the arguments In the literature in support of crosstalk cancelation is that it substantially improves the response consistency of the center image relative to the left and right channel by reducing comb filtering. The literature suggest that this is audible and is one of the claimed benefits of a 3-channel front stage. By measuring a binaural impulse of the left, right, and lef+right I can compare and test this theory. If the left+right is highly correlated with the left and right separately (and this correlation is higher than with SDA off) then we can again conclude that it’s working as intended.
I figure I should take advantage of who I am and my tools and try to do the best review I can. Plenty of people will review this speakers subjective performance. Many will measure its basic frequency response. I want to measure it’s crosstalk cancelation ability, since that’s what makes it unique.
