Plaster, vegetal fibers, internal resonator and sphere : it takes more than a simple planck to make the best medium enclosure ever. The Elipson 402 ,stuck between bs40 and 4020.
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Plaster,
vegetal fibers, internal resonator and sphere : it takes more than a simple
planck to make the best medium enclosure ever. The Elipson 402 ,stuck between
bs40 and 4020.
This page will be mainly talking
about my ELIPSON speakers, which I think are the best ever made. If you want
more info on them, please go to the wonderful website of www.passion-elipson.com
where everything of this legendary French brand can be found.
And I made
this little diaporama of pics I found on the French archive for television (
ina.fr ) of elipson speakers through the ages of TV :
I really don't think diy is applicable to speakers. I have seen and heard all kind of homemade speaker enclosures in my music life and every one of them sounded like s...t. Electronics can be a very nice hobby but speaker enclosure making is a full-time job, like medecine. Of course I am sure that hundred of fostex wide range planks with one cap tweeter genitors will disagree but this is only my opinion. Here is why :
THE MOEBIUS SPEAKER
To be more on the science side, please consider how a speaker works : sounds comes from its front and out-of-phase from its back. Imagine a Moebius speaker with front and back at the same place---more or less like the bottle here-- and throw 100w of rock music in it. You will hear....silence. Perfect silence. And this is the main problem. Speakers, which are exactly the same since 1877 --- invented by SIEMENS by the way !!!--- contains in their nature matter and anti-matter ( yes, too much Star Trek ). The only real way to get out of here is to make an infinite baffle, which is of course impossible. I remember a Japanese hifi freak in the '70s that transformed all his house in a gigantic baffle. Gigantic but not infinite. That means that all speaker baffles are imperfect , thus all speaker enclosures sound bad, no matter how good are the speakers in them . But some are more equal than the others.
This is where Joseph Leon,
the master mind behind Elipson, certainly asked himself the good question :
What is the most logical
solution to a human-size infinite baffle ?
Genius solution :
A concrete sphere
From theory to reality : The Elipson AMBOISE ( model bs40 )
So Joseph Leon put his theory
in the making. He took the best available French speaker and put it in a 'concrete
sphere' , actually a complicated mix of plaster and vegetal fibers named staff
by architects. Thanks to the wonderful Mr.Violet
, here are some pics of the way they made it.
File under lost art of ancient
civilisations :
"
As strong as Concorde ( the supersonic commercial plane ) and the Citroen 2CV
, Elipson spheres have conquered the world" : now that's what I call an ad.
And here is this speaker thanks to a fellow french master tweaker Thierry Martin :
The mighty SUPRAVOX 215 RTF bicone
( double cone ) . RTF stands for 'Radio Television Francaise' as it was developped
for special requirements of the national french broadcasting monopole at that
time.
Listening to the bs40 is really an experience of high fidelity in the
full sense. In other words, music comes out so real it's frightening. The ONLY
drawback of this greatly elegant solution is the lack of high treble. So you're
stuck with a problem : if you add a tweeter somewhere, you loose time coherence.
But you have to. So, at this point of compromise---the Elipson 402 here on the
top---, why not sending a boomer
?
I
am a sucker for pompous names over cypher codes: Chambord and Amboise are royal
castles. 'Required criterions from French Radio and Television'. Sounds good
too.
My main speakers : The ELIPSON 4240
The old top-of-the-line was the final evolution of the bs40 : adding a tweeter and a boomer the best way possible. Certainly expensive at the time, they still carry a high value and a legend. I can't think of a better sound and everything I tried was always below their power of spacialization and definition in the high and mids. Their low could be a tad more powerful but anytime I hear a more bassy speakers , they always seem unreal in the bass department. So I strongly believe that the bass I hear on the 4240 is the bass that was recorded and nothing else. After all, these speakers were used as monitors for very serious applications , such as national French TV and radio, legendary recording studios and eventually Jacques hifi. Look :
PPDA,
the most famous French TV reporter in front of French TV studio and pic of an
unknown theater with good speaker tastes
It is worth noting that Elipson, that still exists to this day, issued this year a brand new 140Kg version of my 4240, the mighty 4260 :
I would love to try ---and own---
these incredible reissues of my fave speaker, but I am afraid they're WAY outside
my budget ballpark.
We talk here about 18000euros a pair BUT you can have
them in lacquered white front and mat black sides. How sweet.
Other ELIPSON GOODIES
I collect old Elipson speakers : they sound and look so cool it's addicting. My fave design award --- but they were not made this way for looks : Joseph Leon had another theory about those 'pavillons' spreading the high-end of the full-range speakers differently than bass, more or less a physical crossover, thus avoiding the always compromising filters with caps and inductances galore in the soundway, and by the way, multiple speakers--- goes to the 'conques' which were used for PA in hundred of French restaurants, churches, conference hall and anything that could welcome a lot of people. But still they are very rare. Most of them went ---horror !!!--- to the garbage when their shapes screamed '70s too loud---while they were much older. I only own these small sized ceiling hangers but I can't take my eyes out of their glorious yet mysterious and mesmerizing shape.
They also went plastic ---well,
armed polyesther-- when staff specialized workers retired.
Beautiful but took the charm out
of it. And
tone too.
CABASSE : the other French legend
In France, they are the most famous legend brand and ubiquitous in expensive hifi rigs. I never tried real expensive Cabasse speaker, mostly because they are expensive. I am lucky enough to own these old SAMPAN 303 which are great but I hate their bass end. Too loud, too present. Seems all records I have were engineered by the bass player in the band. And they don't even touch the ultra-detailed highs of the 4240, let alone their stereo image.
Those old DINGHY one-wide-range-speaker are great, but only if you add them a tweeter. That was Cabasse did anyway soon after. I used them in my bedroom were their incredible 98db efficiency do miracles at very low volume settings. Good for the wee small hours.
HECO : The Kessler sisters speakers
I think they used a whole tree from the black forest to make this pair of speakers. They are ultra-heavy and nothing but solid wood anywhere you look. Their front is made of heavy gauge steel, for Glock pistol firing with music background. Useful . Four small speakers but surprising bass end and great trebles. The brand still exists, but they make cheap chinese stuff now. Good for the trees .
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