| The Dream Maker takes an innovative approach to music reproduction that gives greater weight to psychoacoustic considerations than most contemporary designs do. One of the biggest differences between live and reproduced music is the nature of the reverberant field. Compared to what we normally experience in a home listening room, in a good live music venue the reverberant field begins to arrive much later and is much more densely energized, and also decays more slowly. In addition, in a good recital hall the spectral balance of this reverberant energy does not depart significantly from that of the first-arrival sound. Research confirms that a well-energized, spectrally correct, late-arriving reverberant field is indeed beneficial in smaller rooms as well. However, not all reflections are beneficial even if they are spectrally correct; reflections arriving earlier than 10 milliseconds after the direct sound tend to be detrimental to tonality, clarity, and imaging. On the other hand, reflections arriving later than 10 milliseconds behind the direct sound add richness and liveliness and a sense of envelopment with little or no detriment. Now this10 millisecond interval - corresponding to a path length difference of 11 feet - is not a hard-and-fast barrier; rather, it’s more like a fuzzy transition zone. With normal forward-firing loudspeakers, the relative amount of late-arriving reverberant energy is much too low to approximate the sound field we’d experience at a live performance. Unusually wide-pattern (or even omnidirectional) loudspeakers will improve the relative level of energy in the reverberant field, but in many cases increase the amount of undesirable early reflections. In addition, omnidirectional systems often give exaggerated image size for solo instruments. Dipolar radiators come closer to the ideal, as the additional reverberant energy from their rear radiation is directional enough that its arrival time can be controlled simply by positioning the speakers far enough out from the wall behind them. Owners of dipoles have often observed that their speakers sound much better with about 5 or 6 feet of space behind them than they do close to the wall, as predicted by our psychoacoustic observations in the preceding paragraph. The Dream Makers use a controlled-pattern bipolar configuration, as this gives greater dynamic impact and amplifier compatibility than a comparably-sized dipole would. The radiation pattern is 90 degrees front and back, which just happens to mimic the radiation pattern of the legendary SoundLab A-1. In addition, Dream Maker’s rear-firing drivers are vertically offset relative to the front-firing ones, which smoothes the in-room response in the bass region. Recommended set-up calls for positioning the speakers a good 5 or 6 feet out from the wall behind them, along with a very large amount of toe-in (typically 45 degrees or so). This extreme toe-in avoids the early sidewall reflection and gives a much wider than normal sweet spot without exaggerated image size. The result is uncannily life-like reproduction because the Dream Makers are working with your ears and room instead of against them. The Dream Makers made their debut at the 2007 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver. Here are a couple of comments from people who listened to them extensively: “Of all the rooms at the show, big or small, this room, and Duke's speakers, were the finest thing I heard. They invited the listener into the music and presented a wonderful soundstage that felt as if I was there.” - Thomas Portney, blog on Stereophile.com “My favorite of all the speakers at the show was the AudioKinesis - and in a very difficult room, too. I very much enjoyed listening to my Mercury "Picture at an Exhibition" disc at Row 15 playback levels - this is a CD that is nearly unplayable on most hifi systems due to the extreme slewing requirements on DAC converters, amplifiers, and speakers.” Lynn Olson, post on diyaudio.com. The Dream Makers present an amplifier with an easy 16-ohm load, and the efficiency is a real-world-friendly 92 dB. The bass tuning is user-adjustable to allow tailoring for room acoustics and/or amplifier output impedance, and the treble tilt can be fine-tuned by the user. The Dream Makers were designed on the Atma-Sphere S-30 OTL amplifier but will work well with many other specialty tube amps, as well as with virtually any solid state amp. If you have the room available to set them up correctly, the Dream Makers are competitive with well-designed loudspeaker systems retailing for two or three times their price. Specifications:
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AudioKinesis Dream Maker
