http://i.nextmedia.com.au/avhub/austral ... lo-res.pdf” I certainly did use my experience at Linn with the so-called isobaric bass loading, especially that of the Sara where they put it inside a stand-mount with a two-way driver configuration. This led to great bass but an awful midrange. The two mid/bass drivers started to decou- ple when the sound’s wavelength became comparable to the distance between the drivers.’
How did you avoid this problem now?’
I asked. ‘This was actually avoided in Linn’s Isobarik DMS already. That was a three-way system with the isobaric woofers being rolled off before they could decouple. Of course Legend’s isobaric Small Reds are also three-way. Perhaps you could say that the isobaric Small Red is a stand-mount speaker like the Linn Sara but one that was properly designed! I believe that designing a loud- speaker is not magic. It is mainly about hav-
ing a good understanding of the physics, engineering, materials and psychoacoustics involved, then implementing it as best one can... including the inevitable compromises. That does involve intuition and experi- ence. For example, because of the different wavelengths involved, the ear evolved for survival over the millennia using different strategies for directional discrimination at different frequencies. So I try to use lower- order crossovers at low frequencies where time/phase effects are more important. If necessary, I use higher-order filters at higher frequencies where amplitude effects are more important (and where cone break-
up with its amplitude distortion is usually paramount). At low frequencies, the longer overlap of driver frequency due to shallower slopes is also less important because beam- ing/lobing is not a problem when distances between drivers are much shorter than the wavelengths [Crawford has written a ‘White Paper’ on this subject, which is available on his website, linked to a review of his Legend Kantu]. I have tried to use most of this knowledge with not just the Small Reds but all the speakers I have ever designed.’
