On this and other forums, I've discussed my bias *against* arrays. This morning it occurred to me that there is a potential 'fix' for line arrays, which I'll discuss in this thread.
First off, here are the reasons I don't like arrays, particularly line arrays:
1) They sound mushy and inarticulate, particularly as frequency rises. It's really easy to understand why this is; the sound is arriving from a series of points in space which are seperated by many many wavelengths.
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For example, in a megabuck Pipedream line array, the sound of the midrange at the top is one and a half wavelenghts out of sync with the sound of the midrange in the middle. (This is just simple pythagorean theorem; the pathlength from the midrange at the top is 50cm further than the pathlength of the midrange in the middle.)
Due to this 'mushiness', even the world's most expensive line array can't do articulation the way that a $100 Unity horn can:
unity-horn-crummy-xover.mov - YouTube
Although my Unity is rough, it's frequncy response can be fixed, but there's nothing you can do to fix the pathlength problems of the Pipedream.
2) Line arrays make everything sound huge. Whether you're listening to an orchestra or listening to a singer talking on stage, they're all the same size. H-U-G-E. This could be a defect or a feature; although I know it's not realistic, I do find the humongous presentation of line arrays kinda fun. Obviously, not hifi, but fun.
3) Every time I start warming up to line arrays, I remember how awful they sound in every concert venue I've ever been to. I've never heard a single line array in a concert that wasn't painfully bad. Line arrays naturally roll off the treble, and tweeters always have lower power handling than woofers. Which means that concert line arrays sound really painful in the high frequencies, because the tweeters are struggling to keep up with the mids most of the time. Plus, the pathlengths suck. (See point 1.)
First off, here are the reasons I don't like arrays, particularly line arrays:
1) They sound mushy and inarticulate, particularly as frequency rises. It's really easy to understand why this is; the sound is arriving from a series of points in space which are seperated by many many wavelengths.
For example, in a megabuck Pipedream line array, the sound of the midrange at the top is one and a half wavelenghts out of sync with the sound of the midrange in the middle. (This is just simple pythagorean theorem; the pathlength from the midrange at the top is 50cm further than the pathlength of the midrange in the middle.)
Due to this 'mushiness', even the world's most expensive line array can't do articulation the way that a $100 Unity horn can:
unity-horn-crummy-xover.mov - YouTube
Although my Unity is rough, it's frequncy response can be fixed, but there's nothing you can do to fix the pathlength problems of the Pipedream.
2) Line arrays make everything sound huge. Whether you're listening to an orchestra or listening to a singer talking on stage, they're all the same size. H-U-G-E. This could be a defect or a feature; although I know it's not realistic, I do find the humongous presentation of line arrays kinda fun. Obviously, not hifi, but fun.
3) Every time I start warming up to line arrays, I remember how awful they sound in every concert venue I've ever been to. I've never heard a single line array in a concert that wasn't painfully bad. Line arrays naturally roll off the treble, and tweeters always have lower power handling than woofers. Which means that concert line arrays sound really painful in the high frequencies, because the tweeters are struggling to keep up with the mids most of the time. Plus, the pathlengths suck. (See point 1.)
