At this year's Decware Zen Fest I will be demoing a new HDT loudspeaker, the Mk II.

It is a spin off from my idea for the "alternate tuning tweak" available for the current HDT's.

It takes the speaker in the same direction as the alternate tuning tweak, but considerably farther.

Basically in response to some HDT customers who had less then compatible rooms or electronics I wanted a alternate speaker with more weight and tone.

Of all our speakers the HDT's have a very "live" sound where our Radial 1.5's have a very "hi-fi" sound which is considerably more laid back.  In a good room the HDT's live sound is simply wonderful, but in a bad room where you're fighting a lack of bass or a peaky upper end, the Radials would sound better.

I wanted a speaker that fell somewhere in the middle of the two because I have a feeling it would be the "perfect" speaker for the "most" situations.

We don't want to employ the "alternate tuning tweak" into production on the HDT's because it's simply a tweak and it eliminates the option of using different 8 inch full range drivers, like the lowthers, audio nirvana's and so on.

Instead we will have a new model HDT, the MK II, that will be using the same cabinet and original tuning but be configured as a 2-way.  It will be using an 8 inch driver with a light weight cone made from wool and the same ribbon tweeter we use with our Radial loudspeakers.  The efficiency is an honest 94dB 1w/ 1m.  The impedance is 4 ohms.

A bonus is that a single Zen Triode Select will drive the MK II into a healthy listening level with amazing weight tone and imaging.  Speakers simply disappear and never sound thin.  It's the best match with a Zen amp so far.  Even though the original HDT is 2dB louder the MK II from 100Hz on down has considerably more output so when you A/B the two, you feel like the MK II is putting more music into the room.

The MK II is basically my original design but with the new 94db wool cone driver it's FAST.

If you feel like the single driver speakers are occasionally a bit too much to listen to but miss the openness, transparency, detail and dynamics whenever you switch to a conventional speaker then the MKII should be just perfect.

Steve

[quote author=Steve Deckert  link=1123434683/0#0 date=1123431083]At this year's Decware Zen Fest I will be demoing a new HDT loudspeaker, the Mk II.
[/quote]

This sounds fanstastic! I've been a wondering for a while why there didn't seem to be a set of speakers designed for your Zen. Sounds like you've fixed this problem and in doing so making this years decfest party pretty darn tempting! Quick couple / few questions along these lines ...

- is this the sort of event where you could hear this with these speakers with a Zen Select? Can we bring various tubes to try?

- would it be possible to mess around with the room dynamics to try and better similate what might be associated with a "poorly" designed listening space? (aka my living room)

- will these still also be availiable in kit / diy form?

appologies for the perhaps inane questions... not having been able to make defest 200* and all

--eric (trying to see if he can re-arrange his fall travel schedule)

[quote author=Chris K  link=1123434683/0#3 date=1124285984]Steve, where is the tweeter crossed over on this design? [/quote]

7950 Hz

Chris,

I am anxious to hear your reviews of a Torii/Horn combo.

Is the Torii stock?

Corey

Some pics of the HDT MK II's...

Umm.... those look nasty compared to the HDT's. Not that looks are important in this league of fidelity but I hope those are prototypes because they need some work.

Corey

I would think that having the tweeter outside of the baffle would diminish re-verberation of the driver....Also( like I thought about before) the hight of the driver in the HDT mark 1 is to low for imaging well (ear level) from most chairs. This design would seem to address both issue at once with minimal changes to the HDT.

I don't think that's temporary. That's a well thought out execution!  You know Steve, he does things differently, and for a reason.  I know how well that tweeter sounds !

Brad,

Here is what Steve said about the RL3 tweeter:

"Hanging in free space this tweeter is never smeared from direct-coupled cabinet resonance."

Hrappur,

Steve instructs one to tilt the speakers back a bit to address your concern.


I just realised what didn't jive with me about the look of these.
The 2 dispersion plates aren't joined together at the corners like they were at the original Zenfest:



Corey