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September 14, 2007 - 9:37pm
#1
One for those interested in speaker design ...
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Toon- Thanks for the link. Lenehan makes some compelling arguments for their case/cause and when they really get going they can hire an editor to iron out all the grammatical glitches that permeate their website text.
But I digress... What your audio society failed to consider in their little speaker comparo is the " Down Under Physics" effect, or DUP, for short. Since the B&W's and SF's were manufactured in the northern hemisphere, their components' electronic molecular fields rotate in a clockwise fashion. When connected in the southern hemisphere, the opposite rotational field is forced backwards through these devices which plays havoc with their electroacoustic transduction. Game Lenehan.
Just try using those smug little suckers up here, (where we all stand on our feet and not our heads) and they might not fare so well. But fear not, we sell many expensive electronic conditioning devices to adapt these products to our correct molecular orientation.
Glad I could clear that up for you and welcome to our little audio society!
Ouch - guess I should've seen that coming
Fear not though; when auditioning products from the wrong side of the Equator we invariably treat ourselves liberally with a special amber fluid to achieve the required molecular reorientation ... you probably know it as "beer". 
Thanks for responding, rvance, and I'm glad you found the link of interest. Grammatical issues aside, I was surprised at their willingness to disclose detailed design and construction features that many other manufacturers would likely wish to remain "proprietary".
Actually the pieces were written quite well, but with a puzzling lack of punctuation. I was impressed with the undoctored cutaways of the speaker cabinets and the design disclosures and, more importantly, I think their passion and commitment to the accurate reproduction of music is why they achieve the excellent sound you heard.
They are not afraid to do the hard work it takes to reduce production variables that other manufacturers might accept. They probably won't make too many industry friends debunking the alchemic mythology that marketing substitutes for design integrity, but that's okay.
I'm going to try the beer tweak real soon. Sounds like another great idea from Australia!
Have to agree with everything you've written, rvance. Yes, the punctuation is poor; but because that forces you to read text more carefully to assimilate the meaning, I have had cause to wonder whether it isn't sometimes done deliberately?! Sorry, chronic conspiracy theorist
When the designer spoke to us, passion was very much in evidence, as was an absolute single-minded pursuit of perfection (or as near as you'll get to it in practice) ... I mean, winding every inductor by hand
As regards the role of marketing, Lenehan bemoaned the difficulty of breaking into retail channels due to the refusal of many "audiophiles" to trust their own ears. The retailer could encourage them to audition the speakers against established rivals; they'd happily agree that the Lenehans sounded better, but still buy the name brand. I guess there's a comfort factor in buying a product that you can read favourable reviews of and that your peers will admire (instead of saying "you should've bought ..."), and a substantial proportion of people aren't willing to step outside that. I don't know if it's an issue that's been tossed around before in these forums ... if not then feel free to chime in, anybody