Philharmonic Audio - 3-way open back ML-TQWTs designed by Dennis Murphy

[Dennis Murphy]

well that'd be a big waste of a good pair of accurate speakers like philharmonics...

First, a big tip of the hat and thanks to GranteedEV for his excellent responses. Between rehearsals and building Philharmonics, I don't have as much time as I would like to keep up with questions. He's da man. I can understand why people are a little suspicious about my using an $80 midrange when I've been associated with designs that use the much more expensive Accuton midrange. Between my and GranteedEV's responses, I hope you can see why I chose the Neo8 planar. Again, if I thought the Accuton would perform better in the Philharmonics, I would offer it. I would be happy to provide my measurements of the Accuton in the SoundScape cabinet and Neo8 in the Philharmonic cabinet, and I'll try to find time to post those tomorrow. As Granteed has pointed out, all that matters is how a given driver measures in the cabinet that houses it. And also how it measures after filtering from the crossover. As for the location of the crossover, both the Chinese cabinets and the custom Phil3 cabinets have a separate crossover compartment in the bottom of the bass module. If need be, it could be detached from the bottom plate and sent to me for service. But that shouldn't be necessary--there's not much that can go wrong with a crossover unless the user does something really dumb. Which would never happen, because the customer is always right.

 

[Ricardojoa]

Jim Salk and Dennis Murphy strive for transparency. They don’t design for warmth. As an example, the Philharmonic 2 can make you think you are sitting on stage with a symphony orchestra. The instruments have can have a palpable reality, roundness of tone and grit. That can be very thrilling, but is not what most would call warm.

Bob

When i first fire up my ST, i thought they sounded warm compare to my Sierra. There is something abought the depth of the midrange.
In the other hand, the ST still sounded more reveling,detail and with more resolution.
So a warm speaker doesnt necessary loosses all that transparency. It really depends how warm we are talking about to what we are comparing.

 

[Ricardojoa]

The midrange has some warmth, as in it is intimate and romantic, but the speaker itself is not "warm." A warm speaker is a flawed speaker. I think the depth that the SoundScapes offer gives a perceived warmth, but what you're actually hearing is a better sense of space and accuracy; it's just a natural, believable sound and it draws you in quickly. In comparison, a non-open rear wave design sounds more forward or "in your face," but that is a product of the design.

Hehe, I'm working on getting the go ahead to snatch up a pair of Philly 2's, but no guarantees. We just bought a house and have other expenses. But if I hear/purchase a pair I'll be sure to keep you all informed.

Agree.
My ST has a perceived warmth to it but i would not call it warm speaker, and i totoally agree with the part of depth you describe. Maybe thats what is im looking for more!

 

[Solid-State]

i recommended the ncore module not the ucd

I am now considering NC400 and recant my comments on Bruno/Philips patent licensing costs. $400 bucks a channel is decent when compared to "high end" boutique gear. He is THE class D genius today so I can only image the ncore performance.

 

[woodsart]

I am now considering NC400 and recant my comments on Bruno/Philips patent licensing costs. $400 bucks a channel is decent when compared to "high end" boutique gear. He is THE class D genius today so I can only image the ncore performance.

Hey SS, just read about the NC400, however, I am not a diyer! Don't think my tubey will drive the Phil2s in the theater area...maybe the monitors.

Interesting what they said that this amp neither added "dirt nor fairy dust".

I think I can say the same for the Phillys!

I am also anxious to hear more about this....now out of stock amp!

Wonder if this would be too much of a challenge for a newby!

And, Ricardojoa, the STs simply blew me away!!!

 

[Nuance AH]

Agree.
My ST has a perceived warmth to it but i would not call it warm speaker, and i totoally agree with the part of depth you describe. Maybe thats what is im looking for more!

Then you will certainly find it with an open-back planar design. I've never heard better sound stage depth than when listening to the SoundScape 12's at RMAF in 2010. I was in awe!

Folks, since this is the Phil's thread and not the DIY thread lets try to stay on topic. There is an appropriate place for DIY chat, Solid-State, but it isn't here.

 

[GranteedEV]

Hey SS, just read about the NC400, however, I am not a diyer!

I am also anxious to hear more about this....now out of stock amp!

Wonder if this would be too much of a challenge for a newby!

The hypex stuff is basically your choice of module + parts or a full on kit. if you can put a speaker crossover together i can't imagine not being able to put an amp kit together. I'm not making claims of magical sound here but it is truly the best all around measuring amp i can think of. Things like IMD and SNR are essentially "unmeasurable", the clipping behaviour is graceful, and the efficiency is through the roof... some are running these 400w @ 4 ohm amps without heatsinks O_O. I think an amp that does so little to the signal, with all that headroom, is a perfect fit for the philharmonics, but then again i also think you could drive the phils with my marantz sr6003 receiver perfectly.

And now back to Nuance talking about how the soundscapes sounded better than the orions, and revels, yet somehow he ranks the dynaudios and vandersteens higher

 

[woodsart]

Thanks, the phil 2s will, at the moment, be driven by the XPA-5. I think I will be pretty satisfied with that for now. If I decide to use them in the PC room instead of the PhilharMonitors.... that is where I could run into power issues.

These 2 new sets of music toys to play with will keep me busy for awhile.

Either way they are excellent sounding speakers, just picking them up at Dennis' will certainly be sufficient for now and make me verrrrrrry happpppppy!!!

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

And now back to Nuance talking about how the soundscapes sounded better than the orions, and revels, yet somehow he ranks the dynaudios and vandersteens higher

And back to me talking about how speaker X sounds better than speaker Y, then back to you talking about how speaker V sounds better than speaker W, and then back to DenPureSound talking about about how speaker T sounds better than speaker U, and as the world turns so does speaker Z sounds better than speaker A.

I don't care what anyone says, Bose, Zu Audio, & Wilson Audio are the best ever.

I think Bose has the patented Zero Order Crossover, which is better than 1st order, which is better than 2nd order, which is better than 3rd order, which is better than 4th.

 

[Nuance AH]

LOL - touche fellas.

Granteed, when are you going to order a pair of Phil's buddy? Its a new year so how about some new speakers?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

LOL - touche fellas.

Granteed, when are you going to order a pair of Phil's buddy? Its a new year so how about some new speakers?

He needs to either win the lottery, inherit money from somewhere, or quit school and get a full time job!

When I was in college, I had a full ride scholarship which not only paid for all my tuition, but also gave me $500 cash per month stipend to spend on whatever.

I spent most of it on speakers, amps, and preamps.

 

[Adam]

When I was in college, I had a full ride scholarship which not only paid for all my tuition, but also gave me $500 cash per month stipend to spend on whatever.

I've got two words for you, and they're not "happy birthday."

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I've got two words for you, and they're not "happy birthday."

Hey, nobody's perfect!

 

[GranteedEV]

I suppose I could save up for a pair of phil 2s. set aside 300 a month for them, put the seos build on hold. that's about 7 months of saving give or take, accelerated if i work during the summer. But i'd get a whole lotta 'you just bought speakers 2 years ago, why do you need more speakers?'.

At least with the diy i can halfassedly justify that the point isn't new speakers i don't need that cost more than the last new speakers i didn't need, but just for the fun of building. Or something.

Plus, saving would mean ;;not;; buying copies of games i'll never play....and i know i HAVE to buy Tales of Graces F, Uncharted 3, Devil May Cry HDCollection, FF XIII-2, Tales of the Abyss 3D, Xenoblade Chronicles, FF Versus XIII and MGS HDCollection.

;P

I'm a video game hoarder. Half of my game collection is still in its plastic packaging. "Some Day"

 

[Adam]

Hey, nobody's perfect!

Man, you just love rubbing it in, don't you?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Man, you just love rubbing it in, don't you?

No, actually I'm just a humble servant (on my knees praying right now while the choir sings through my Salons).

I just now realize that the Philharmonic speakers kind of resemble those Wilson Audio speakers in terms of the shape from the front!

What would happen if Wilson Audio asked Dennis to design speakers for them?

Introducing Will & Phil:

 

[Nuance AH]

I suppose I could save up for a pair of phil 2s. set aside 300 a month for them, put the seos build on hold. that's about 7 months of saving give or take, accelerated if i work during the summer. But i'd get a whole lotta 'you just bought speakers 2 years ago, why do you need more speakers?'.

At least with the diy i can halfassedly justify that the point isn't new speakers i don't need that cost more than the last new speakers i didn't need, but just for the fun of building. Or something.

Plus, saving would mean ;;not;; buying copies of games i'll never play....and i know i HAVE to buy Tales of Graces F, Uncharted 3, Devil May Cry HDCollection, FF XIII-2, Tales of the Abyss 3D, Xenoblade Chronicles, FF Versus XIII and MGS HDCollection.

;P

I'm a video game hoarder. Half of my game collection is still in its plastic packaging. "Some Day"

Just by Skyrim and Battlefield and by the time you're finished getting everything out of those games you'll have saved enough money (previously spent on games) to buy speakers.

What would happen if Wilson Audio asked Dennis to design speakers for them?

They might actually have a good sounding speaker then.

 

[its phillip]

Plus, saving would mean ;;not;; buying copies of games i'll never play....and i know i HAVE to buy Tales of Graces F, Uncharted 3, Devil May Cry HDCollection, FF XIII-2, Tales of the Abyss 3D, Xenoblade Chronicles, FF Versus XIII and MGS HDCollection.

;P

I'm a video game hoarder. Half of my game collection is still in its plastic packaging. "Some Day"

I'm guilty of the same, but I usually open the games and make sure they aren't scratched...I just never get around to playing them. My backloggery says I haven't played 84.5% of my games - and some of the ones that have been played were only played for about 5 minutes

I'll be buying most of the games you listed too. Probably won't get the mgs collection or uncharted 3 though.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

BTW, Philharmonic speakers are just wonderful for gaming.

I just love the way pacman sounds on these speakers.

 

[cpp]

Ah Grant just complete school get that engineering degree find a great job and then you can buy all the audio equipment you want and a whole lot of games.