Point source or line source speakers?

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[timothyprice]

I loved that you used the term sound reinforcement. Back in the day I toured all the arenas and auditoriums around the globe. Making a hockey arena sound good when you have a cavernous ceiling bouncing mud everywhere is not easy. Plus adding a hopped up guitarist with 4 Marshall stacks set on 11 is no picnic. Just like any tool you can create the statue of David, or a pile of marble.

[Muffinx]

If you're going to be pedantic about point sources not being an infinitely small point you should be the same with line sources, a line, geometrically, is infinitely narrow. Really, it should be a spherical wavefront vs cylindrical wavefront

[gijoemolinaro]

Fantastic breakdown as per usual my favourite channel and Gentleman

[stephensr]

A point source speaker is the holy grail. Tannoy are very close. Their 15" drivers offer true point source from around 30hz up to 16, 000. There not perfect as they still have a crossover. Once heard though you will never forget.

[az_nn]

In PA, the purpose of using line source is to have 1/r behavior as opposed to 1/r^2 behavior.
In PA in smaller rooms (small in the sense of PA), another purpose of using line source is to reduce reflection from ceiling.

[catified]

Here in Canada they tried blasting you with spam ads at the gas station when you were filling up. You were basically a captive audience, well guess those stations that had this annoyance starting drastically losing business, so they got rid of them. Loud advertising of any sort is obnoxious.

[ThinkingBetter]

From an audio fidelity perspective the full range point source has an advantage of reducing direct line doubler effects between the drivers. For example, a two way speaker will have both drivers outputting sound at certain frequencies that can be out of phase. A pair of relatively cheap KEF LS50 can beat much more complex speakers (with many drivers) on resolving details I’ve found and I suspect it’s the unique KEF point source design doing it.

[chuckmaddison]

Years ago, on the subject of airport's dad said if you want to hear announcements and not miss the flight, go and sit in the toilet.
I assume it's due to one speaker in a small area compared to a lot of speakers in a large area with noise, reverberation, delays and all the other associated problems.

[markthomas]

A vertical line array is used in sound reinforcement to create a controlled vertical pattern. It does nothing for the horizontal pattern. In fact, that's a key characteristic; the horizontal pattern of the line array is the same as the horizontal pattern of a single element.

A point source is not an option in a large auditorium because the power requirements necessitate use of multiple boxes. Sound engineers think that those multiple boxes are best used as a vertical array. The alternatives (a square array, or sector coverage) present larger problems due to interference and cancellation, and sound worse than a line array.

[Bondys]

Greetings Paul. I'm really interested in line source speakers after learning about their benefits over point source designs. I'd love to get a pair and I have a budget of £4000-£5000. Which line source speakers are available within this price bracket?

I've tried to look myself but can't find anywhere that sells them. all I can find are studio monitors, Hifi and other point source speakers.

Thanks

[bargainboondocker]

I went to a George Strait concert at the Pepsi Center here in Denver a few years ago and the sound was AWFUL. They run the volume ear-bleeding loud so you have to yell if you wish to say something to the person next to you. I had to wear ear plugs which, of course, didn't help the tomes to sound clear but it did save some of my hearing. My ears buzzed for like 2 days after. When i went to concerts in the 80's everything sounded clean and you could enjoy it. I won't go to concerts any more just because all they are is an opportunity for the facility to show off how loud their line-array speakers can go.

[richbike]

best live sound I ever heard was Jon Hopkins, through a Bose (yeah blah blah) line array system outside somewhere in shropshire I think. second best was Mark Lanegan band in a relatively modern venue in Berlin...cant recall the PA system but looked line based. I suspect bad live PA is not line arrays per say but poor building acoustics, crappy sound engineers and a general perception that more is better.

[JeanKatana]

I'm wondering by the way, if there is no Problem with Phase shift in these Infinity "line source" speakers, because sitting in front of them, in high tone you have for example every 2 cm more distance to your ear a 180 deg turn.
whats the difference in distance from shortest way, 90 deg from speaker to the ear, compared to the top end (in 2, 5 meters height?) 40 cm more?
So there must be a couple of phase turns when all tweeters emit sound simultaneously. Isnt it?

[leeteng]

Really into it . You help me a lot. Thanks

[TheMasterRoom]

Paul, could you please explain if the directstream junior has toroidal power supply? Thank you very much.
Best regards from Brazil

[justinmallaiz]

Well despite what anyone says: I still want a “ not Technically a line, Triple” Line source speaker”

[StuderSSL]

I wonder where the Ohm Walsh F speakers fit in the spectrum between point and line. A friend's father had a pair back in the 70s and they were remarkable speakers.

[luke]

Another great video Paul thank you! I've always wondered though, can gigantic line array speakers re-create the human voice in the correct scale? My impression would be that they would create a wall of sound, rather than the appropriate height and size of the human voice and instruments.

[royferntorp]

Hi Paul. I have a strange question. I am about to buy some speakers that have Ribbon tweeters yet I have some doubts. My reasoning is that my ribbon mic's don't do much beyond 16k. Do ribbons have any advantages over diaphragms?

[steviegene]

Looks like you blew on of the dust covers off the infinity woofers. Been jamming?