Charivari
Fighting Naïve Realism
I’ve spent the better part of today listening to music on a new-for-me pair of speakers and trying to figure out how to post some questions about them without coming across as a snob. You see, these speakers are very uncommon at fewer than thirty made according to the previous owner. When it comes to unobtanium components, far too many audiophiles are guilty of proclaiming such gear to be the greatest ever secure in the unlikelihood of someone else being able to pick up a like item and dispute the claim. To call the resultant attitude snobbish is putting it lightly, yet such persons persist to the point of shipping one of a kind speakers and such across the oceans just to establish themselves in this position. I don’t want to be like that or even perceived as such, but it can’t be helped, so here it goes ….
Yesterday, I undertook a 530 mile round trip down to Kelly’s (kfa888) place where he was holding a pair of large speakers he picked up for me (Thanks again) the other day. Of course, it was a bit of a haul, but necessary to free up his white van for other speaker sales. Fortunately, I managed to spend nearly half of the trip in conversation with some hitchhiking audio bum I picked up near Graham. The visit there made for some great comparisons between many East Coast sound speakers including the KLH 1 (far better than I was expecting). I also managed to watch our host set a new record for destruction of foam surrounds – a pair of EPIs that lasted me for two years started blowing foam chunks before a song was halfway through. Fun time overall, but long story short, I’m now the proud new owner of a pair of modified Flatline Design Model 175 hybrid ribbon speakers as designed and built by Lewis Muratori. When I first saw these listed for sale, my curiosity was immediately arrested and I knew that at the very least I had to give them a listen. Fortunately, things worked out for the better and now I have my best speakers ever (being that my Sound Labs and their $1800-2000 repair estimate have now been put onto indefinite hold).
The Model 175 takes it’s designator from the 175cm long true ribbon hung on the side of the 6’ tall cabinet. This ribbon runs from 350Hz to ~45kHz according to Russell Novak’s second Stereophile review of the speakers of which I have a very poor fax copy of. For the rest, a 5” Peerless 146MR2608 polycone driver serving midbass duty from 100Hz to 350Hz with the idea being a smaller cone in an acoustic suspension design could serve as a sufficient intermediary driver between the ribbon and woofer. The 10” woofer, unmarked and thus unidentifiable to me, is actually side mounted firing out between the speaker towers and uses the majority of the main tower as it’s cabinet. Overall construction is pretty good, but modifications have made it even better with ~5/8” front and inside panels and ~1 5/8” for the outside side and rear thanks to the addition of `” MDF. The inside is braced in several different ways and all inside panels are covered in dynamat. The crossover is mounted on a MDF tray in its own chamber at the bottom with a black plexiglass connection plate so that the whole crossover may be readily pulled out for modification. While the former Cherry finish has been painted white (I don’t mind), and the MDF modification has made for rather unstable towers due to off-center weight, the quality does seem consistent with the $4700 price tag around 1990.
Now, on to my questions and request for help …
Beyond what I’ve written above, I pretty much know nothing about these speakers and would appreciate any and all information any of you may have. Even some information about Lewis Muratori’s other designs would be appreciated.
Preliminary listening indicates that there may be a problem with the crossover due to the brightness of the ribbon and disconnectedness of the cone woofers. Early on, I encountered the symptoms of sporadic shorting of one unit, which I discovered to be due to a stray wire and tool (heatsink clamp from soldering upgrades sometime in the past, I suspect) in the crossover. The whole arrangement caught me as appearing a bit off, once the surprise at just how large a Solens 100 µF polypropylene capacitor really is. I took advantage of the opportunity to draw up a schematic of the crossovers and the result just doesn’t look right to me.
This is my schematic with the parts list below; I haven’t an original to compare to and some fairly extensive modifications have been made to these. The woofer and midbass share the same connectors. The inductors have no markings on them to indicate their values:
While these speakers are being discussed, does anyone have any good suggestions for possible upgrades to the cone drivers? The midbass needs the greatest attention, I believe and as the previous owner suggested should be upgraded. Also, despite the relatively large cabinets, the woofers roll off by 40Hz. I’d like to investigate ways to improve the bass while maintaining the tight/fast sound the Flatlines already have.
Right now, these will become my main speakers. Though sensitive to equipment, they are very good. The ribbons bring the strengths of dipolar line array sound, which I’ve always been very fond off, along with even better transparency than my Tannoys were ever capable of. The phrase is a tired old one, but true, I’m hearing things I’ve never heard before in my music including faint background choruses in some songs I did not know were there. The presentation has that Maggie magic that first brought me into this hobby, but is much more revealing of equipment, so I have much work to do there as well. The imaging is currently not as fine as with my Tannoys, but is more three-dimensional and realistic. It is very likely that room treatments (a must for dipoles) will really help this out now that I’ve changed my listening around just for these speakers and can now do treatments. Oh yes, these speakers have made me very happy and have opened a whole new avenue for improvement to my system.
My Flatlines in their former system:
Thanks for any information on these rarities.
- JP
Yesterday, I undertook a 530 mile round trip down to Kelly’s (kfa888) place where he was holding a pair of large speakers he picked up for me (Thanks again) the other day. Of course, it was a bit of a haul, but necessary to free up his white van for other speaker sales. Fortunately, I managed to spend nearly half of the trip in conversation with some hitchhiking audio bum I picked up near Graham. The visit there made for some great comparisons between many East Coast sound speakers including the KLH 1 (far better than I was expecting). I also managed to watch our host set a new record for destruction of foam surrounds – a pair of EPIs that lasted me for two years started blowing foam chunks before a song was halfway through. Fun time overall, but long story short, I’m now the proud new owner of a pair of modified Flatline Design Model 175 hybrid ribbon speakers as designed and built by Lewis Muratori. When I first saw these listed for sale, my curiosity was immediately arrested and I knew that at the very least I had to give them a listen. Fortunately, things worked out for the better and now I have my best speakers ever (being that my Sound Labs and their $1800-2000 repair estimate have now been put onto indefinite hold).
The Model 175 takes it’s designator from the 175cm long true ribbon hung on the side of the 6’ tall cabinet. This ribbon runs from 350Hz to ~45kHz according to Russell Novak’s second Stereophile review of the speakers of which I have a very poor fax copy of. For the rest, a 5” Peerless 146MR2608 polycone driver serving midbass duty from 100Hz to 350Hz with the idea being a smaller cone in an acoustic suspension design could serve as a sufficient intermediary driver between the ribbon and woofer. The 10” woofer, unmarked and thus unidentifiable to me, is actually side mounted firing out between the speaker towers and uses the majority of the main tower as it’s cabinet. Overall construction is pretty good, but modifications have made it even better with ~5/8” front and inside panels and ~1 5/8” for the outside side and rear thanks to the addition of `” MDF. The inside is braced in several different ways and all inside panels are covered in dynamat. The crossover is mounted on a MDF tray in its own chamber at the bottom with a black plexiglass connection plate so that the whole crossover may be readily pulled out for modification. While the former Cherry finish has been painted white (I don’t mind), and the MDF modification has made for rather unstable towers due to off-center weight, the quality does seem consistent with the $4700 price tag around 1990.
Now, on to my questions and request for help …
Beyond what I’ve written above, I pretty much know nothing about these speakers and would appreciate any and all information any of you may have. Even some information about Lewis Muratori’s other designs would be appreciated.
Preliminary listening indicates that there may be a problem with the crossover due to the brightness of the ribbon and disconnectedness of the cone woofers. Early on, I encountered the symptoms of sporadic shorting of one unit, which I discovered to be due to a stray wire and tool (heatsink clamp from soldering upgrades sometime in the past, I suspect) in the crossover. The whole arrangement caught me as appearing a bit off, once the surprise at just how large a Solens 100 µF polypropylene capacitor really is. I took advantage of the opportunity to draw up a schematic of the crossovers and the result just doesn’t look right to me.
This is my schematic with the parts list below; I haven’t an original to compare to and some fairly extensive modifications have been made to these. The woofer and midbass share the same connectors. The inductors have no markings on them to indicate their values:
While these speakers are being discussed, does anyone have any good suggestions for possible upgrades to the cone drivers? The midbass needs the greatest attention, I believe and as the previous owner suggested should be upgraded. Also, despite the relatively large cabinets, the woofers roll off by 40Hz. I’d like to investigate ways to improve the bass while maintaining the tight/fast sound the Flatlines already have.
Right now, these will become my main speakers. Though sensitive to equipment, they are very good. The ribbons bring the strengths of dipolar line array sound, which I’ve always been very fond off, along with even better transparency than my Tannoys were ever capable of. The phrase is a tired old one, but true, I’m hearing things I’ve never heard before in my music including faint background choruses in some songs I did not know were there. The presentation has that Maggie magic that first brought me into this hobby, but is much more revealing of equipment, so I have much work to do there as well. The imaging is currently not as fine as with my Tannoys, but is more three-dimensional and realistic. It is very likely that room treatments (a must for dipoles) will really help this out now that I’ve changed my listening around just for these speakers and can now do treatments. Oh yes, these speakers have made me very happy and have opened a whole new avenue for improvement to my system.
My Flatlines in their former system:
Thanks for any information on these rarities.
- JP
Last edited:
I´m much more of a snob than you are. I´m pretty sure there´s no other pair of speakers like mine in the whole world. 
