The long-awaited HUMAN 81 DK is now available.
Best viewed in "landscape" mode.
Energy Speaker Repairs
The Energy 22 was a consummate design effort by WInslow Burhoe, of EPI and Epicure fame, for Audio Products International.
It featured a relatively small diameter woofer, and a tweeter designed to handle a 1500 Hz, 18 dB/octave crossover.
The crossover diagram is below, and pretty much all I had to do to create it from the Genesis 44 crossover schematic - another, later design of Winslow's - was change a couple of values slightly to make it look just like the schematics provided by API.
Winslow has little interest in designing rock concert hall speakers - his "primary" designs have always sought to spread a full range of frequencies out into a room so the speaker "disappears", while being able to play at any reasonable sound pressure levels. In my interpretation, this means as loud as a full orchestra (sans cannons!) when seated in the twentieth row.
This level will do any rock or pop music full justice in terms of letting you hear every tiny bit of the music clearly, but obviously is not going to duplicate concert or nightclub level volumes - which of course lead to permanent hearing damage if you don't wear earplugs anyway.
They are known for sounding very very good, but also for being a little inefficient (about 86 dB/1 watt/1 meter) and having "delicate" tweeters. I don't think they are particularly delicate, per se, but a low crossover frequency combined with low efficiency can easily lead to overdriving the system, gradually cooking the Ferrofluid in the tweeter and reducing its cooling ability, until one day, "normal" usage kills it off.
Where I Come In
I have created a version of my tweeter which can be used in the Energy 22 the PRO 002 ME22.
My tweeter is a refinement of a tweeter Winslow invented prior to the Energy project, which was used in millions of speaker systems. The aluminum dome I use further reduces distortion and extends the frequency response. The concave dome provides amazingly good dispersion, for a lifelike soundstage and imaging.
It is the same diameter as the original tweeter, has the same screw/bolt hole locations, and features the same quick disconnect terminal size and arrangements.
It will work quite happily with the existing crossover, and blend well with the original woofer, although I suspect some tweaking might make them an even better combination. ("Some tweaking" of course meaning the equivalent of designing a new speaker, which I am not going to get around to doing to sell four tweeters a year.) In my opinion, to maximize the return on the Energy 22 cabinet, one should install my PRO 005 woofers - another development of a later Burhoe design - and return to the simple crossover of his earliest work. That would be the ideal. (I think to fit the PRO 005 properly, the OD of the rabbet will have to be enlarged slightly.)
To order the tweeters, please use the DIY order form located here. (By changing the number of drop-down lists of parts to choose, you can also add the new woofers and perhaps new crossover parts.)
Energy 22 crossover:
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