Overall a good design that considers 1) what it takes to get a full-sounding surround speaker, yet 2) still have a minimal impact in a tight room. The crossover networks for all Philharmonic speakers were developed by Dennis Murphy, who has a proven track record in crossover designs for Salk Sound, Ellis Audio, and many popular public domain kits, such as the MBOW1 and CAOW1. Per Dennis, Salk Audio is going to help him finish up existing orders, and will also have the right to incorporate the Philharmonic BMR into its line-up.
Dennis has developed this new 3-way design using the same RAAL ribbon tweeter.found in the New Philharmonitor. Andrew Jones and Dennis Murphy agree on the 3 way being better in their speaker lines.
Sounds like Dennis Murphy is still struggling with his mental health, and will be dropping out of the speaker making business for good. The BMR is a flat-diaphragm speaker that uses strategically placed weights in the diaphragm to counteract the mass of the voice coil at higher frequencies.
Dennis replaced the stock tweeter of the Pioneer SP-BS22-LR speakers with a much nicer Vifa 1” silk dome tweeter from Parts Express and then designed a new crossover to match this improved tweeter to the stock 4” woofer. Dennis has golden talent, and golden ears. During my trip to CES I learned that Dennis can design a crossover equal to the very best in the business. He is an accomplished musician, and designer. The driver operates as a piston at lower frequencies, but shifts to a bending wave motion mode in the lower treble, and to a second bending mode in the upper treble. Finally, there are measurements of several classic and current commercial speakers, such as the Acoustic Research AR3a, the NHT Super One, the JMLab Mezzo Utopia, and Tannoy Westminster. Whether a 3-way speaker is better or worse than a 2-way speaker depends mostly on the specific two speakers being compared and the intended application. There were a couple crossovers I thought Dennis could easily improve upon. The cabinets for our 3-way speakers … Dennis offers speakers with these modifications installed and tested. Dennis Murphy does have the coveted Ph.D., but it is in Economics. The woofer chosen is the 7″, Scan Speak 18W/8545. The mid-range is an innovative Balanced Mode Radiator (BMR).