to damp or not to damp magico vs harbeth/russell k

[hifinutt]

had a fascinating day yesterday listening to the uk premiere of the new `affordable`1 magico a3 with various folks from absolute sounds hif i pig etc . Alon Wolf presented them [ the designer and maker of magico] and they were simply lovely . no coloration at all , just very detailed with that attack and decay on all the notes . kj west one were the hosts and a great job they did too . it was worth 5-6 hours of travel to hear these

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as he was talking of course they mention the fact that the the enclosures on these are incredibly heavy and inert . as we walked in there was the whole range of the harbeth speakers and the absolutely massive 40.1 . gosh they are so big !!!

if there had been time i would love to have asked him about the various other designers philosophy about thin walled design such as harbeth and russell k in particular

"At Harbeth, that certain way is the classic British box: a thin-walled enclosure that controls resonances by means of panel tuning rather than sheer mass, said box containing drivers of generally low coloration and reasonably high sensitivity. "

In describing the construction of that British box, I mentioned my disappointment that its front and rear baffles were fastened to the enclosure not with machine screws and threaded inserts but with mere wood screws driven into furring strips. I implied that that was a less-than-perfectly tight or rigid join, and I was correct—and, as further research has shown, that's precisely what the designer of a thin-walled loudspeaker is after.

Ideally, different panels will resonate at different frequencies: the low-amplitude energy can be spread over a wide range and swept into a corner, where it's least likely to be noticed. Yet to prevent the cabinet as a whole from resonating, there must be gaps or interruptions between individual panels, and especially between the front baffle and the wrap. Recent conversations with luthier Richard Hoover, founder of the Santa Cruz Guitar Company, confirm the notion that different methods of joining and bracing two structures can be used to enhance or prevent the flow of acoustical energy from one structure to the other, and that experienced craftspeople will manipulate these variables in different ways, depending on how they want the structure as a whole to behave


Read more at https://www.stereophile.com/content/...JjIcQsr07dT.99

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