Given my great interest is amplifier design; it makes sense that I should also hold a great interest in loudspeaker design. I usually liken this to the profession of a shipwright: it makes a lot of sense to know a little bit about the ocean…
Earlier this year I designed and built my first dipole system, the VK-1 Dipole Loudspeaker. I had two particularly important goals for this design. First, the minimization of stored energy: the backwave from a driver needs to go somewhere and, although fiberglass is good at acoustic absorption, it still takes several reflections about the inside of an enclosure to drop to an insignificant level. Second, the proper “voicing” of each driver: an aluminum ribbon tweeter for airy highs, a paper former/hemp cone driver for natural midrange, and a large paper cone driver for solid bass.
After six months of listening the impossible has happened: I have not made any further “tweaks” to the system and the “honeymoon” is not over! It is a joy every time I sit down and listen to whatever I am in the mood for. It is certainly not the perfect system, and doubtless it would appeal more to some than to others, but for my personal tastes it comes fairly close.