Well, it's been several weeks now, and I am absolutely fighting the incredible urge to say these are the best speakers I've ever heard...

This has been quite a journey, and is an incredible story.  I am experiencing a surreal sonic experience that is consistent.  It's possibly the most impressive thing I've ever heard.

Female vocals, vocals period, are next level.  These babies are measuring almost dead flat.  How refreshing!  Without a crossover.  Yes, vocals, piano, classical, rock, blues, jazz, electronica, so far they have let me hear what each one is actually supposed to sound like.

This is a teaser, just to say there will be a lot more.  Consider this a design log.

Here is a picture of my new favorite wide-band (100Hz ~ 20kHz ) driver.  It sounds like the F15, almost exactly except it's so much faster!  Fastest driver I have ever heard.



And the mid bass hit is insane, the integration with the sub is surreal.  These hit as hard as the Headwreckers, and I am driving them with the 2 watt Zen Triode.  The bass - it is the best bass I have ever heard.  I don't understand how it's possible, the sub hasn't changed, I have just installed these in place of the Tiny Radials and that's it.  The bass is so full and textured, it just hangs on forever and stops on a dime, but it grabs you.  I can feel it all over my body, the walls the floor, the benches, it's dense and lacks nothing.  Embarrasses almost everything I would say.  Didn't see that coming from a 3 inch driver.  Just when you think you know it all...

Fasten your seatbelts, the Audio Gods are at it again, ready to shatter myths and teach us all.  The picture, like a crop circle, is enlightenment. Study it.  I'll be back with the story as soon as I get time.   Right now I am witnessing what sound might be like in the spirit realm where the laws of physics can be bent to your will.

Steve : )

I’m calling dibs on first position on the list. Sign me up.

Randy

Not fair, Steve. We need a better picture for scale.

I think that video was his initial direction before stumbling on his excitement in creating this thread. The driver in the picture above is different as well as the baffle thats shown in the video.
The sound was a bit dry in the video IMO.
Waiting on edge

So along comes some email from an AI place claiming it can take a product photo and turn it into a 15 second video, you write the script!

I had to see this...  Looks like it was targeted at small products about the size of a shampoo bottle.   I don't make a lot of stuff that small, and certainly couldn't find any decent product shots without backgrounds, so I decided how is it going to know how big it is?  I'll just see what it does with this Lii Song photo...



And this is what happened.  Actually the video was impressive, but I'll spare you that.  Point is, I fell in love with the speaker even more once I had seen it shrunken down to this size!

I had to hear it.  Had to.

So after about a week of wanting a pair creating enough creative energy building up like a giant fart, I decided to make a pair look as close to that as I could.  

I had to find a driver...

To get a pair to look like this fantasy wood that Lii Song makes in the piano factory ( I suspect with a giant color printer) I choose African Padauk and then painted the sides black leaving the stripe down the center.  Then I softened the line with lacquer thinner.  It came out okay.  Meanwhile I made a steel stand for it, just scaled down from the the full size, welded it together and painted it black.  Used some high-end posts and spikes and presto we have a pair of the AI speakers for real.

After a few more weeks of break-in they sounded pretty damn nice.  

This inspired me to see what would happen with a different hopefully better driver, or was it the reflections that makes it not as enjoyable as the Tiny Radials?  We won't know until we have a second pair with different drivers.

Yes, the next driver I tried was the $113.00 Visatons.








I updated how the binding posts are mounted since the previous pair.

I spend my workday in front of these speakers, and have the ability to play them by myself in the mornings before Steve makes it into the shop. The various iterations of this design are all nice. But, the current version really throws the other two under the bus, and fast! If you were wondering if there is any fluff or bias in Steve's opinion, I assure you there is not. I listen at a lower volume than Steve usually does. Like the rest of our lineup these guys perform wonderfully at low volume, allowing me think about my work while I listen. When it is time though, these things can also GET DOWN AND BOOGIE!

In fact I am in the office right now, Sarah Jarosz is playing. It is possible that this may be the best I have heard her sound. I am currently pondering if the detail, or the soundstage is better at the moment. It's a toss up, really.

In working in the area I need to use the space as best I can through the day. That being said I have need to move one or both of the Bitsy's to make room to set things. Yes, they sound better in a prime position, but they do not fall apart outside of the " best" positioning. Some of these moves have been quite drastic. I expected a bit of degradation in the room presentation, and there was some, but not nearly what I expected.

The boys are here... gotta go...

just dropping my 2cents

Here is the current model.  I did two versions of it, each with a different woofer location to see which I like better.  These are the ones that are likely unbeatable.  We will see.  There is one more design in the pipe.




I'm going to name this one the DFR87.  As you can see I have moved the binding posts down to the base instead of putting them into the baffle.  I think this will work best.  The Zen amp f'ing loves these things.


(P.S. The manufacture cared enough and has enough attention to detail to place the label on the back of the magnet not only centered but straight. )

So are these like serious listening speakers or an improvement for a desktop workstation?

Dom, I’m wondering the same thing myself. I’m eyeing these as part of a near-field home office system that I want to put together.

These  little guys play incredibly well in th office, but they have a back wall within two feet of them in the office setup. I was only privy to a brief showing of them in the big room( in the same position as the ZROBs) and it was also very nice. I had wondered if they would transfer well to the larger environment, and they seemed to do at least fairly well, if not very well... but, I would need a serious second and/or third listen to really zero in on my thoughts of their use in a more open environment... for what its worth.