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I chose to use Monitor Audio R952s and Celestion SL600s to audition the Samson & Delilah combination, as both speakers feature the bass quality I like: a very fast, tight low end, with very well-defined leading edges to the sound. Both speakers are free from upper-bass overhang; although the ultimate weight of bass-guitar tone may not be there, the considerable degree of clarity very easily allows the listener to identify the type of instrument and how it is played, both factors germane to the music.

Auditioning involved the following permutations and…

The Sumo Samson's nominal impedance is quoted as 8 ohms. In fact, I measured a minimum value of 8 ohms at 170Hz, the value below that frequency averaging about 12 ohms. This is an easy load for any amplifier, and supports Sumo's recommendation that bridged amplifiers work best with Samson. (Bridging a 4-ohm rated amplifier may double the voltage swing into the load, but it effectively turns the amp into one best suited to 8-ohm loads.) The plot of impedance with frequency (fig.1) revealed the basic box resonance to lie at 52Hz with the reflex ports tuned to 27Hz…

Samson: Reflex-loaded subwoofer. Drive-unit: 15" (380mm) pulp-cone woofer with 4" (100mm) edge-wound voice-coil. Frequency response: 25-125Hz !q1dB. Recommended crossover frequencies: 50-125Hz. Sensitivity: 91dB (2.83V, 1m). Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Minimum recommended amplifier power: 200W RMS. Maximum recommended amplifier power: 1000W.
Dimensions: 22" (560mm) H by 29" (740mm) W by 19" (480mm) D. Weight: 150 lbs (68kg).
Price: $650.

Delilah: Two-way electronic crossover with high-pass outputs, in-phase and anti-phase low-pass outputs, and…

Quiet, please, Mr. Olsen is about to describe the disadvantages of multiple–drive-unit systems. "The radiating surfaces must be separated by a…

Technical details
Pawel Acoustics was established in a small Swiss village in 1981 to produce high-end audio equipment for both the consumer and professional markets. A physical examination of…

Because the PA-1 is so revealing of spatial information, it ruthlessly revealed the artificiality of multi-miked recordings. An…

While on the subject of foam diaphragms, I recently ran across an interesting article, by Dr. H. C. Bennet-Clark, in the March 1969 issue of Wireless World. Bennet-Clark is a zoologist and an avid audiophile. At the time he was involved in a research project examining the courtship of fruit flies, in the course of which pulses of sound were played to the flies to simulate their courtship sounds. This "love song" is apparently produced when the fly flaps its wings and consists of a single cycle of pressure change lasting 3ms. It was this sort…

The science of loudspeaker design is clearly dependent on measurements (footnote 1). Performance predictions of various loudspeaker models have to be verified experimentally. Once the validity of a particular model is established, it may be used to optimize a design to a given set of criteria. Most loudspeaker designs represent compromises in which a number of performance criteria have been juggled to achieve a hierarchy of priorities that appeals to the designer. The art of loudspeaker design lies in the ability of the designer to choose wisely. Which design…

Description: Two-way stand-mounted loudspeaker with passive radiator. Free-field frequency response: (pink-noise on axis at 1 meter), PA-1: 60Hz–20kHz, ±2.5dB; Reference: 60Hz–20kHz, ±2dB. Sensitivity: PA-1: 89dB/1m/1W, Reference: 90dB/1m/1W. Recommended amplifier power: 35Wpc minimum, 80Wpc maximum. Impedance: PA-1: 6 ohms nominal; Reference: 4 ohms nominal. Maximum spl (per pair at 2m): PA-1: 104dBA; Reference: 105dBA. Harmonic distortion (at 90dB spl, 150Hz–16kHz): PA-1: 2nd harmonic, 3% max; 3rd harmonic, 2% max); Reference: 2nd harmonic, 2% max; 3rd harmonic…