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When bigger is better

Paul's Posts — 19 June 2012

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When bigger is better

I remember well my first encounter with the Infinity IRS speaker system – it was an experience filled with awe both at the size and presence of this massive system as well as the magnificence of the performance.  That first event took place at Harry Pearson’s home in Sea Cliff New York and it lives with me to this day.

I think perhaps what impressed me most was not the system’s total mastery of the room it played in, nor its ability to render a lifelike orchestra or large group perfectly.  Rather it was its uncanny ability to playback a single instrument or small group better than anything I had ever heard before.  This, the first and finest example of the line source loudspeaker.

In later years Infinity founder and my partner in Genesis Loudspeakers, Arnie Nudell and I built a more modern version of the original IRS called the Genesis 1.  1.2 tons in system weight, the setup included 4 floor to ceiling towers: two midrange treble wings and two woofer columns and here again was another implementation of what is known as the line source.

A line source loudspeaker is simple.  You need only built it with speaker drivers covering every inch of space from floor to ceiling to have it qualify as such.  And here’s the thing – there is perhaps nothing in the loudspeaker world that more accurately reproduces a single perfect point in space than this floor to ceiling approach – which looks about as counter intuitive as anything I have ever seen.  The biggest loudspeaker system you can imagine reproducing more perfectly a single performer on acoustic guitar with perfect image size, specificity and reproduction – it just doesn’t make sense to you visually as you sit in awe of what you’re hearing.

Of any regrets I have over my 40 years in this field it’s that I did not acquire and still have a pair of these magnificent line source loudspeakers.  I miss them.

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About Author

Paul McGowan

Paul McGowan is the CEO and co-founder of PS Audio Inc. a Boulder Colorado design and manufacturing company of high-end audio products and services. McGowan has been designing and building high-end products for nearly 40 years. Hobbies include skiing, music, hiking, artisan bread baking, kick boxing and cooking. He lives in Boulder Colorado with his wife Terri and his 4 sons.

(13) Readers Comments

  1. Soundminded

    June 19, 2012 at 5:31 am

    If line arrays beat point source speakers, why not go all the way to large surface arrays? Seems like a good DIY project. Don’t even bother to cut the 4 x 8 plywood. Just hammer them into 2 X 4 or 2 x 6 frames, then go at it with a hole saw until your arm gets tired :-) Monopolar or bipolar?

    • hahax

      June 19, 2012 at 6:55 am

      Having been around while another line source was designed, the Pipedreams, I can tell you that a surface, non-line source won’t image. And you want it monopolar. Rear radiation was tried and didn’t work.

  2. hahax

    June 19, 2012 at 6:59 am

    I recall the 1st time I heard the IRS. It was outside a hotel room at Chicago CES. The door was locked for a controlled presentation so I was waiting for the next show. It was an old hotel with high ceilings and the door had to be at least 7 feet tall and solid wood. They were playing Dafos and the drum was dropped. That door moved! Only being closed stopped it from moving a lot.

    • June 19, 2012 at 7:47 am

      That was us!

      • Look2France

        June 19, 2012 at 10:27 am

        I worked at Infinity Systems when Arnie, Cary, & John Miller ( w/Bascom K. popping in) created the IRS. I was one of the pr of hands that delivered the 1st pr to Arnie’s house

        • June 19, 2012 at 11:04 am

          Wow, cool! The move from Chatsworth to the hills where Arnie lived must have been something to see. I remember well his pair in the house, they sounded great and it was on this pair that we auditioned the first PS Audio 200C power amplifier and made the decision to eliminate the output inductor – I think I’ve written about that.

  3. oliver T. Finch

    June 19, 2012 at 10:02 pm

    Instruments at a live performance move tremendous amount of air. Tall line source speakers with their multiple drivers have very big cone areas and move huge amounts of air. This is closer to reality resulting in a sense of realism that a speaker with fewer drivers just cannot achieve no matter what claims are made.Line sources have an effortless bigness to their sound. Laws of physics are incontrovertible.The big line source will easily beat any system with fewer drivers when it comes to effortless, really big life like sound. Little wonder that you still fondly remember the IRS and the Genesis. Regards.

    • Soundminded

      June 20, 2012 at 4:35 am

      Live music produced by acoustic instruments heard in a large public venue has qualities that no home sound system today can come close to duplicating. Most of what you hear at a live concert is the result of the venue itself, not sound directly from the sources. This is true even if you sit in the front rows and increasingly so as you move further back. The sound envelops you. It has a different tonality that is both clear and mellow. It’s ability to fill up what is perceived to be a very large space for a considerable time from each note at what is perceived to be at a greater distance then sound from speakers confers on the sounds a sense of its power without deafening you that home sound systems cannot recreate. These are all consequences of the acoustics of the venue. Improving the small percentage of what you’d hear at a live performance that gets onto the recording and then playing that part much louder cannot make up in quantity what it lacks in quality. To mindlessly pursue that end without limit on cost or practicality as the exclusive means to better sound from recordings has hit a brick wall that can’t be knocked down.

    • June 20, 2012 at 6:36 am

      Oliver, I completely agree

  4. oliver T. Finch

    June 19, 2012 at 10:09 pm

    Horns move great amounts of air and this is why they sound big in a realistic way. Regards.

  5. June 20, 2012 at 9:02 am

    Paul –

    You and Arnie are my primary inspiration in the creation of my Kipnis Studio Standard (KSS)™ for Audio and Video Presentation, featuring 128 speaker elements working together in an unbroken 12. 12 hemi-spherical array, which places the listener AT the performance (recording):

    http://www.kipnis-studios.com/The_Kipnis_Studio_Standard/Kipnis_Home_Theaters.html

    It is no accident that the Infinity IRS System and the Genesis 1 are legendary. But if you are looking and listening with a mission to “Up the (SONIC) ante”, then I think WE should do some work, together :-D

    What say you?

    Cheers -

    Jeremy

    Kipnis Studios

    www,UltimateHomeTheaterDesign.com

  6. June 20, 2012 at 9:55 am

    Thanks Jeremy! I am honored.

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