UncleMeat

When Zappa released this song, the ADL wanted it 'banned' LOL. All that did was create more publicity. In order to be fair and politically/ethnically neutral, Zappa wrote this song: UMRK WARNING: Some people (cupcake eaters) might find this material offensive. I for one, care less for them. -The Utility Muffin Research Kitchen

The very nature of a joke is to laugh at the folly, misfortune or expense of another individual, ethnic class, sex, or religion. There isn't much in this thread that wouldn't offend someone, somewhere, for some reason. Asking people to post politically correct jokes is a joke in and of itself. JMO

Yes, a wave front of sound could be visualized as a 'bubble' that is expanding in radius from the speaker element. By the time the bubble is 4' tall from the CF speaker it's probably at 8-10' away, and this is where the AL-III ribbon 'starts'. That's just a guesstimate. SH is dependent on speaker 'crosstalk'. If the speakers are too wide in location the crosstalk will actually be too low for SH to work. There is a sweet spot/ratio of width to distance from listening position; I'm sure you will find it.

This might be because the AL-III and ALS ribbons are a line source. If they are rated 86dB/w @ 1m then a small sensor at 1m distance is measuring 86dB. That's OK if the source is a small ribbon element, but with a 4' tall ribbon element a dB meter may only be sensing a portion of the entire signal/energy coming from the driver. In a large room the point source of sound is going to become diffuse/reduced in energy more rapidly than the tall ribbon. This is a best guess at answering your question, there may be a more correct answer coming if I'm wrong about this.

OK, so the reason the little ribbon creates more sound per-watt is because the big ribbon on the AL-III has been physically reduced in volume via a resistor within the crossover. The woofer of the AL-III is only 86dB/W efficient so the ribbon must be matched in output by cutting it's efficiency so it will pair with the woofer at all volume levels. The CRM-2 as a similar comparison to the CF speaker is 90dB/W efficient, but the ribbon probably does not require as much attenuation to mate with the side firing drivers (the raw ribbon driver is 94dB/W efficient).

I don't quite understand the question, are you asking why the CF speakers are not as loud as the AL-III's when driven with the same volume setting?

The M1.0t if it's non-inverting has about 30dB gain. The M500t has approx. 26 dB gain. The CF speakers are a bit more efficient than the AL-III's mainly because the woofer on the AL-III is reduced efficiency. I would say how you've got it set up with the M500t driving the CF speakers, everything is probably pretty close to balanced in output level.

I'm not running my ALS ribbons in parallel with CF speakers, but I have run them in a tri-amp configuration with the ALS woofers and Magnepan 55" ribbon tweeters. I'm using the DBX Venu360 as a crossover and for time alignment. Sound is quite good the image is a wider than with the ALS ribbons but a little less detailed/precise in location. Yes, moving the ALS forward should get you closer in time alignment to the CF speakers. Measure the distance from listening position to the drivers the closer to all being the same distance the better; unless a bit of time delay improves the 'holography'. I would start with them all at the same distance from listening position and then adjust forward/back to find the best overall sound.

Have you tried talking to the folks over at http://forums.slimdevices.com/ Logitech stopped supporting the Squeezebox hardware, but there are a great number of people still using the products and several are still developing software for it. Once up/running my Transporter has been trouble free. I have more issues with the Mac that runs the server software than the unit (always asking if I want to "allow" the Transporter to connect).

WHICH Squeezebox @WJStephens ? I'm running the Logitech Transporter, works fine for me. A well known/respected C! member sold me this unit and he was telling me that the standard Squeezebox units are issue prone and are of reduced audio quality. There are quality differences between streaming players!

What other units have you compared the Polk Omni P1 with David?

There are two digital players in my system and one of 3 CD players that do not give me listening fatigue. The other two (Marantz CDR-510 and Marantz PMD-371) are good but you can hear some 'issues'. The Marantz PMD-580 and the Logitech Transporter are excellent for digital sources. The Carver SD/A-490t is magical with the right tubes. Above all of these still sits the Marantz SLT-12 turntable (for me). Yes, the Transporter has more dynamic range, and there are are no 'ticks' on soft passages; but for lifelike sound (in my system and to my ears) the turntable still wins.

Mostly vinyl, some CD'S, some streaming. I don't have a high-res service I've bought a few tracks from iTunes for reference songs. It's supposed to be a lossless format, but still CD quality not high-res. The player is most important when it comes to playback of CD or digital streaming sources.

The Dark Knight Rises, Batcave scene. Two Carver ALS Platinums flanking the city-wide surveillance screens/system: