110db With One Watt? No Problem.

Nightfall

http://m.swtimes.com/features/entertainment/fort-smith-man-revolutionizes-speakers

Steve Rader likes his music loud and with loads of thumping bass, yet he holds zero tolerance for any distortion.

The 64-year-old Nashville native and long-time Fort Smith resident has designed and patented a special stereo speaker, the CH-Series Folded Exponential Horn Loudspeaker, which provides music fans the ability to play their favorite songs at a high volume level and with no discernible distortion.

Standing 55 inches tall and weighing 207 pounds, each cabinet is made by Rader’s company, RM Loudspeakers, and utilizes angled side walls and an inside curved panel that directs waves through the back wall when gravity and centrifugal force move the waves around the cabinet’s final curved surface, Rader said.

Each speaker cabinet holds the remarkable ability to push sound for yards and yards, all without losing sound detail or volume, he said. A lack of “choke points” also prevents distortion because the cabinet design is free of any sudden bends of two flat surfaces, Rader said.

“I’m really excited and I’m really happy about the speakers,” said Rader, who designed the speakers with the late Louis Calvin “Cal” McClure of Van Buren before obtaining the patent in 2011. “It’s been great when people hear the speakers and they become interested. It’s nice.”

With his speakers placed in the garage and facing the street to the north, Rader demonstrated the power and clarity of the speakers by playing CDs by Lady Gaga, Robin Thicke, Al Green and old-school bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson. He turned up the stereo volume and then walked across the street. The speakers’ volume and sonic details virtually were the same, whether one stood 10 feet or 50 yards in front of the speakers.

“And that high-but-comfortable volume level is operating on a half-watt of power,” Rader said with a grin. “And that sound mix is just a straight sound mix — a flat mix. There’s no bass or treble button or lever on the amp or stereo, so there’s no boost to the bass or high end, yet that 12-inch speaker is throwing a lot of bass out.”

The loudspeakers are capable of providing 110 decibels of sound by using only one watt of power, which is a rarity even in today’s tech-savvy world, he said.

Part of the speaker’s clarity and warm, analog-type tone can be attributed to the fact that the speaker’s 12-inch cone doesn’t “push or hit the air” while emitting bass-level sounds, Rader said.

“With other speakers, you have the speaker and sound hitting the air, like you would hit a pool ball with a stick, which breaks up the air and sound waves,” said the former employee of the Klipsch and Peavey companies. “With these speakers, you don’t have that compressed air rushing off the cones. It’s clean and clear.”

Rader said he is “so happy” with the full, “non-harsh” sound his loudspeakers provide. It’s a sound that was in his head for years before he and McClure created the CH model.

“I went to East High School in Memphis before graduating in 1968, and after school, we would go to this stereo store,” Rader said. “You would hear sounds in there that just melted you. I wanted to have my own speaker do that.”

After attending Memphis State University for a couple of years and studying polymer science at Hercules Research Center in Willington, Del., Rader began working in the furniture industry. He moved to Fort Smith in 1975, and duties with Lilly Industrial Coatings included providing varnishes and other finishes to furniture. After Rader was called to the same field of work in Brazil, he was approached by an older man who had an idea about a new type of stereo speaker.

“He approached me before I left for Brazil, and I thought, ‘who is this man?’” Rader said before laughing. “That man was Cal McClure, and so I gave him a couple of speakers to work with. He called me later and said, ‘Steve, you have to hear this.’”

Rader went to see McClure and was “blown away” by what he heard.

“Cal was an electric engineer, and during World War II, he worked for RCA,” he said. “Cal developed radar stuff for the military, and later, he worked for Hughes Aircraft Co. in California. He even worked a bit on the Lunar Lander at NASA.”

For years, Rader and McClure worked together on speakers and other equipment, forming a strong business and social bond.

“Cal died about three years ago — he was about 90 then,” Rader said. “These speakers, those came out of us working together all that time.”

Rader said he’s thankful he has a family who understands his love for loud, clear music. He and his wife have a daughter, Lori Boyd, and three granddaughters. Those granddaughters seem to love music as much as Radar.

“On nice days, I’ll raise the garage door and play the speakers, and the girls will come over after school,” he said. “The girls will be dancing out here. They really like getting into the music.”

Among Rader’s favorite CDs to play through his CH Series speakers are The Beatles and Linda Ronstadt. The license plate on Rader’s Corvette reads “Let It Be” in honor of the Fab Four, and when he hears Ronstadt’s recording of “When You Wish Upon A Star,” he freezes silently. When Ronstadt’s voice goes into its upper register on that recording, Rader smiles and closes his eyes for a couple of seconds.

“I’m not a musician — I don’t really play any instruments — but when you work closely with music for years and years, you get to where you can train your ear for music,” said Rader, who also created and holds the patent to his new Dr Peppermint candy. “You get to where you can pick up minute differences in music.”

As the final chords of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” made their way through the speaker cabinet and across Radar’s driveway and street, Rader smiled.

“Yeah,” he said with a laugh. “I guess you can say that I make sweet music and sweet candy.”

Rader said he plans on selling the speakers to those who own or manage larger venues, such as churches and theaters.

“If a church wanted a new pipe organ, you’re talking about $1.5 million,” he said with a grin. “I can do a series of speakers stacks, assemble those in the sanctuary — 15-inch or 18-inch speakers — and have the pastor in that same system.”

Rader then laughed.

“And then with that speaker system, I could simulate everything about that pipe organ,” he said while still smiling. “And that church, well, they also would have $1 million in their pockets.”

F1nut

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see anything revolutionary there.

Nightfall

F1nut wrote: »

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see anything revolutionary there.

I agree that whoever wrote the article used some overly ambitious words.

Nightfall

Also this:

utilizes angled side walls and an inside curved panel that directs waves through the back wall when gravity and centrifugal force move the waves around the cabinet’s final curved surface

I had no idea that gravity actually pulled sound waves down? Is this true? Even if it did I would see it being negligible if anything at all, hopefully somebody with more knowledge can answer this.

Jim Shearer

Looks like a back loaded horn to me. Something that might have been revolutionary about 90 years ago.

Cheers, Jim

mhardy6647

There were these guys -- Voigt, Klipsch, Olson, Hilliard, Shearer (yup!)... some others, too...
As it says in Ecclesiastes, "There is nothing new under the sun".
There's something else about "New wine in old casks", too ;- )


We can only do about 104 dB with a watt at my house -- so I use 3.5 watt amplifiers, you know, for some headroom.

CoolJazz

An interview with more. The part that catches my attention....mention of phase coherency.

rmloudspeakers.com/ch-11r-review.html

CJ

[Deleted User]

"phase coherency"
bet I'll have issues with that later today.

CoolJazz

And the patent itself...

patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=262&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&s1=McClure.INNM.&p=6&OS=IN/McClure&RS=IN/McClure

voltz

Jim Shearer wrote: »

Looks like a back loaded horn to me. Something that might have been revolutionary about 90 years ago.

Just put the 2nd coat of clear coat on my DIY Back loaded horn's

But his sure looks better

[Deleted User]

A-Ha! that is what you are up to.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Tough audience, dude's just trying to get people to check out his speakers, who cares if he oversells them a little? Just give them a listen and make up your own mind on whether or not you like them, who gives a rats **** what it says on the box?

CoolJazz

I would like to hear them. The high efficiency means a lot to me...I think far more small detail comes out with the efficient designs. That interest makes me want to dig for more detail about what the story says.

His website I linked above, rmloudspeakers, has on the speakers page a listed base price of $17.5K. Should be pretty good...you'd hope.

The patent appears to claim....the speaker shape and form, nothing more. Though it doesn't relate that shape to any performance claims, measurements or any advantages in anyway. So I guess you can't copy...it's shape. But, if the form it comes in gives it good sonics, that may be what matters after all.

CJ

cnh

CoolJazz wrote: »

I would like to hear them. The high efficiency means a lot to me...I think far more small detail comes out with the efficient designs. That interest makes me want to dig for more detail about what the story says.

His website I linked above, rmloudspeakers, has on the speakers page a listed base price of $17.5K. Should be pretty good...you'd hope.

The patent appears to claim....the speaker shape and form, nothing more. Though it doesn't relate that shape to any performance claims, measurements or any advantages in anyway. So I guess you can't copy...it's shape. But, if the form it comes in gives it good sonics, that may be what matters after all.

CJ

So what do our resident carpenters think? Could you fabricate cabs like that for less than $2000 and source drivers for 1-2 K including crossovers. Then sell them at less than half his MSRP and still make a profit?

mhardy6647

voltz wrote: »

Jim Shearer wrote: »

Looks like a back loaded horn to me. Something that might have been revolutionary about 90 years ago.

Just put the 2nd coat of clear coat on my DIY Back loaded horn's

But his sure looks better

Oh, I don't know about that. I think yours looks grand.



Now, if youse guyses are interested in... shall we say... nonstandard loudspeaker enclosure designs... there was/is always the Karlson Kabinet.



As owner of a mismatched pair of Karlson-esque designs (one is an authentic Karlson K-15; the other a K-12 knockoff made by Pioneer a long, long time ago) I can tell you that they're... interesting.

john Karlson was (ostensibly, at any rate) a microwave engineer -- the Karlson enclosure's design principles were said by him to be inspired by/based upon microwave feedhorn design.



PA020003 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

mhardy6647

As far as high-sensitivity drivers go -- there are many many options (including commercial drivers).

Some time-honored choices (in terms of current production) would include:
http://www.lowther-america.com/Introduction_to_Lowthers/
http://www.greatplainsaudio.com/

In terms of good vintage high-sensitivity drivers, the choices are myriad. Altec, JBL, Electrovoice, Jensen, University, Tannoy, Goodman's, Stephens Trusonic, RCA, Western Electric, and others made some superb high sensitivity drivers over the years. Some are still inexpensive and plentiful; others are stratospheric in price and/or difficult to find. Many are worth the effort & expense, though -- depending on one's taste, of course.

I think most folks here probably know that the ones I use (mostly) are early 1960s vintage Altec Duplex 604E drivers with Mastering Labs crossovers. The above-mentioned GPA drivers are direct descendants of the Altec Duplexes. The Duplexes are, relative to my tastes at any rate, superb loudspeaker drivers.

DSC_5735 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

DSC_5746 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

604Etest by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

voltz

This is the 1st time I saw these speakers opened up like this I was thinking from the other pic's this was maybe a open baffle but now I see how it works!

voltz

X you may want to look at Omega speakers also I like the looks of theirs and people on their forum sure brag about them!

http://omegaloudspeakers.com/home.html

mhardy6647

voltz wrote: »

This is the 1st time I saw these speakers opened up like this I was thinking from the other pic's this was maybe a open baffle but now I see how it works!

Folks do use Duplexes on OB (see below) -- but I am not one of those folks.
These cabinets are a fairly straightforward reboot of a classic Altec cabinet design, made for corner placement (if desired) and raising the drivers to more or less ear level for a modern domestic setting (as opposed to a 1950s recording studio setting). Here're the details if you ever feel like slapping a pair together:
http://www.wardsweb.org/Billfort/
"Billfort" is an AK member/moderator.

gp4jesus

mhardy6647 wrote: »

....We can only do about 104 dB with a watt at my house -- so I use 3.5 watt amplifiers, you know, for some headroom.

LOL!

The "extreme" efficiency rating caught my eye & like anyone else I'd like to hear them too.

Like some, I'd like to see some test results. I wouldn't be surprised if the frequency plot looked like an aerial view of Grand Canyon along w/ phase etc. I would be surprised if the average 1W/SPL was much above 100dB.

Tony