A collaboration between different forums (PF and audio)

[arivel]

many years ago in 1952 the radar engineer and inventor John Edward Karlson together with Wayne Green invented and presented his audio speaker inspired by his studies on microwaves for antennas.
it came out a speaker that bears his name (Karlson) very controversial in the reviews of those who have had the opportunity to listen to them. some say it is excellent and others not.
like so many other audio cabinets it has its merits but also its faults apparently.

maybe someone already knows it, there is a forum dedicated to audio, international and famous, in my opinion the best for the amount of competent people who attend it, it is DIYAUDIO.
well, there are some people who are trying to find solutions to improve this speaker but it is not easy at all.

since this diffuser was born from microwave studies I thought I'd send my request here. surely there are physicists in here who can help us. a collaboration between different forums would be very nice.
what do you think ?

 

[DaveE]

controversial in the reviews of those who have had the opportunity to listen to them. some say it is excellent and others not.

That sort of defines the audiophile world, IMO. As much psychology as physics.

Anyway, look into the papers by Richard Small about analytical design of loudspeakers, there's some real physics in those.

 

[Wrichik Basu]

there are some people who are trying to find solutions to improve this speaker but it is not easy at all.

since this diffuser was born from microwave studies ...

Let me get some things straight. We do have very advanced speakers nowadays. I haven't read about the speaker Karlson and Green invented, but is it working on the same (or similar) principles that modern speakers work on? If yes, why are some people trying to improve it? If not, do you mean that this is kind of an interesting DIY project that some people are doing? Are they restoring one of those original speakers, or are they building a new and improved one based on the original design?

 

[arivel]

but is it working on the same (or similar) principles that modern speakers work on? If yes, why are some people trying to improve it?

it is different from all the others
it is not the electromagnetic transducer but the cabinet
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/download/1955-Karlson-speaker-brochure.pdf

 

[Arjan82]

Here are some of my first impressions:

So, good sound is not only about the cabinet. It is about the entire package: input (recording / mastering quality), pre-amp, amp, crossover, driver(s), cabinet(s). To say that you have invented a cabinet that is the be-all, end-all of all cabinets sounds silly to me.

Furthermore, there is quite a decent sized woofer in the thing (13.5 inch) and that's it. I find it hard to believe that such a woofer can truthfully reproduce the higher frequencies accurately. Simply because the driver is too heavy and slow to follow the intricate high frequency movements that are needed. So if the woofer cannot produce high quality higher frequencies, you can cabinet all you want, but its not going to improve much. (Maybe that's why I see some of these speakers with tweeters on top, which seems a bit of a defeat of its purpose to me)

There is an interview with the inventor here, which didn't really convince me that he really knew what he was talking about.

 

[berkeman]

surely there are physicists in here who can help us.

Of course, we are happy to help.

Those folks are welcome to come here and join PF and ask their technical questions. We will do our best to help them. This thread is now closed*.

* (and please don't call us Shirley)