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flat speakers


Rich newby

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has anyone tryed the carlsbro NLightN Speakers. I cant imagine any base from them. for anyone who doesn't what they are they are flat speakers they measure 86mm deep. I just cant imagine the bass from them. if anyone has used them id like to know what you think, as they could change the world of speakers.

here is a link

 

http://www.carlsbro.co.uk/CarlsbroWeb/More...php?code=SS3210

 

any experiences?

thanks

rich

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Fla speakers have been around for years - I had some in the 70's. You are quite right, they are very bass light. The cut off on the carlsbo's is stated as 100Hz, but no specs as to the output level at that freq. No doubt great for voice.
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I've used some of the Fane Flat Panels, and they appear to have a great bass response......until you put them on a wall, or too close to a wall - they use the air behind for the bottom end - but there is a small sub that can be put around the room to compensate.... Just 2p's worth ;)
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We have 4 pairs of NLightN in our hire fleet, we only use them for conferencing and small infill for speach applications. Good speakers, but do quite frequently break up when driven a bit hard - and youre right absolutely no bass as such.
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Oh and you cant really even put music through them to a decent level without ill effect. Do they even still make them? I think they were originally produced for conference type stuff asnd installs as they used to boast the fact that you can cover the front in a picture of logo etc.
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We have some NXT's (can't remember the make) installed in our crypt ceiling for speech and service relay applications. We do seem to have rather a lot, and a quick go at the EQ (which I know I'm not allowed to touch!!) gave a reasonable, if micro-system-like sound. Fantastic for speech, not fantastic for music as such, but work well for acoustic numbers. Bass is erm, light, but there's enough bottom end to get the idea of what's going on. They'll also go surprisingly loud, given what I'd come to expect.
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The ones I had in the eighties were actually made totally from Polystyrene! a coice coil and magnet in the middle, with concentric rings of polystyrene joined with some kind of light blue sticky mastic. Handled about 25W from memory - never caught on, but were good for speacha and background.
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  • 1 year later...

I thought I'd resurect this thread to see if anyone's had anything else to do with these since 2 years ago. I'm looking for something to go in a small restaurant to provide a PA for duos playing light "music while you eat" stuff, maybe keyboard or guitar and vocals. I remember having a demo of these when they were being designed and hadn't yet been released and the selling point seemed to be that you could stand right in front of them and still not get feedback (because of the way they work). In a small space that sounds like a real selling point. With a single powered sub and the NlightN panels behind the duo they could avoid the need for monitors and fill the room very nicely.

 

The question is, with the use of a sub what is the quality like?

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aaaah good old DML's. As other people have already said, they're good for some things, not so good for others. I did my dissertation at uni on these so I know a fair bit about them.

 

I'm guessing most people know the general ins and outs, but just as a broad overview...

 

They don't work like oridnary loudspeakers! They don't have a 'pistonic motion' characteristic, but instead vibrate randomly - kind of difficult to explain, but in effect they are an array of very tiny loudspeaker units which sum together to give the desired output. The upshot of this is that it gives a very diffuse dispersion characteristic that is pretty much flat regardless of frequency over 180 degrees. If used unbaffled, the rear output can also be used - though this isn't particularly usefull if yur mounting them on a wall. They do suprisingly sound quite nice and natural though, in my opinion!

 

Bad points... as already stated they're not particularly loud (certainly not for large scale sound reinforcement), and there's not alot of bottom end too them... but for background music in bar or resaturant they'd be fine, you'll probably want a couple of subs in there too.

 

My 2p.

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saw a band in my very local local, had a pair of these and the subs to go with, which look like block of concrete, very impressed at the sound, they were being used for vocals and keys and after having a look at them in the break I was astonished at the clean volume you can get out of them

and after lifting them, think sort of 5-8kg-ish each excluding the sub (which I know weighed as much as a block of concrete) was suitably impressed

may even buy some for my own pub-rock band :)

 

Andy

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  • 1 year later...
I thought I'd resurect this thread to see if anyone's had anything else to do with these since 2 years ago.

 

hi.

 

I had 4 of these (2 per channel), with an 18" 1KW carlsbro sub, running them through an active crossover set to 150Hz, off a c-audio 1.2kw amp.

 

net split was about 10:1 in energy, sub to panels.

 

the sound was like angels singing. absolutely brilliant. you can't drive them too hard, because they'll sound crap, but that's a management problem, not a speaker problem. 100W PEAK, 60W running load. they sound best about 1ft minimum from a wall, and from about 1m away. due to their chaotic sound, they work nicely in bad spaces. you can add them to an existing set up and they seem to 'tie' the other speakers together - cleaning up the overall sound somehow. they'll work co-operatively together and don't produce any sweet/dull spots.

 

I used to hammer them with techno, psychedelic techno, hard house and vocal / ambient / jazz. they handled it all very well, when not over driven. since they've no bottom end - which you can't expect them to have, as they aren't full range speakers, they need a sub (or two) (or three), and I think the sound out of them is flat enough and clean enough to deserve a good sub.

 

make sure you don't over drive them. every complaint I've ever heard is due to them rattling out when the panels go spastic from too much energy in.

 

I lent my panels to a friend, who won't give them back...

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