I was listening to some of the Usher loudspeakers and checked the name tag of a gentleman entering the room. The nametag said, "Joe D'Appolito". I was slightly stricken for a moment, then I decided to discuss something that he and I both had in common - crossovers. I mentioned the similarities between the Thor and the 1801 during their simultaneous development. The conversation continued for about 30 minutes. We discussed a bunch of stuff. I don't think any of this is "privileged", so I will take the liberty of conveying some of his thoughts.
We discussed paper woofers. He conveyed that when crossing a woofer low the cone is almost always purely pistonic. When cones are used at higher frequencies they are stressed by the rapid transitions. Thus, a paper cone for a woofer is just fine. He prefers to cross woofers to a midrange at 250hz or lower. This ensures that one driver covers a greater portion of the midrange.
We also discussed the Usher drivers. Some of them look very similar to Scanspeak units, but Usher drivers are made in China. He said that out of 50 drivers only one was considered bad. This indicates very good quality control. This leads me to believe that some very good stuff can be produced in China and southeast Asia.
By Ellis Audio.
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