| Tom Danley leaves Servodrive/Sound Physics Labs??? [message #29237] |
Sun, 02 January 2005 17:57  |
 Steve Shafer
Messages: 170
Registered: June 2004
Location: Utah |
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Hello:
I have been surfing several different audio boards out there, and the talk is that the father of the Lab Sub-Tom Danley-has left SPL.
One post that I read stated that SPL is too focused upon miliary and industrial projects for Tom's tastes.
Perhaps just more internet urban legend, but it would be great to hear from Mark Seaton on this one.
If Tom has left, I bet a few Pro Audio companies are getting ready to offer him a big $$ job.
Steve S
[Updated on: Sun, 02 January 2005 18:08]
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| Re: Tom Danley leaves Servodrive/Sound Physics Labs??? [message #29257 is a reply to message #29237 ] |
Sun, 02 January 2005 21:39  |
Al Limberg
Messages: 1485
Registered: April 2004
Location: Saginaw, MI |
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Sounds to me like something from the distant past. The original company - 'Intertech' - was much more interested in the industrial and military applications of Tom's technology. While I'm pretty foggy on the details, Tom managed to find someone who promised to be more sympathetic to the musical applications to buy out the original owners but that person then ran things into the ground and left Tom holding the bag as it were. Thru the good graces of Tom's old friend Brad Skurran (sp?), the company was revived as Servo-Drive and SPL. I had the pleasure of visiting their facility in the summer of '03 and if there was anything military going on it was exceptionally well disguised! I would be surprised if Tom would make such a move as his family is very high on his list of priorities and SPL gives him more freedom than most .
But I could be entirely wrong.....
?;o)
Al
If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get one million miles to the gallon, and explode once a year killing everyone inside - Robert X. Cringely
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| Reference for T.D leaving Servodrive [message #29267 is a reply to message #29237 ] |
Sun, 02 January 2005 23:02 |
Steve Shafer
Messages: 170
Registered: June 2004
Location: Utah |
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This is one of tomservo's posts on audioasylum
Posted by tomservo ( M ) on December 29, 2004 at 12:56:06
In Reply to: Pinging Tom Danley posted by KCHANG on December 28, 2004 at 14:29:24:
Hi Kurt
Hey I remember the day you guys came up and aren’t you the fellow who had those amazing little full range drivers at the Chicago horn show some years ago too?
I was really impressed with those (Fostex I think you said?) drivers on your "casual baffle board".
As I recall, the speakers I had at the time you guys came up were a square, 60X60 2 way Unity horn and a pair of 10 inch woofers out board on the sides. That became a product called a C-3 and a couple years after its introduction the configuration (with side firing woofers to produce forward lf directivity etc) was not so loosely copied by a larger pro-sound company as a "line source" concert speaker.
That product (the prototypes you heard) had pretty good phase response through the horn range (4, 5 inch mids, 1 B&C compression driver), being about + - 120 degrees of acoustic phase from about 350Hz to 10KHz using TDS. Below this they were like a regular direct radiator in a vented box (a bunch more phase associated with direct radiation and the box low cutoff).
Normal, multiway speakers would typically have hundreds or thousands of degrees of phase span in the same range, measured the same way fwiw.
The "best" so far (using only passive filters) that is in production is the Runt, which has an acoustic phase which is at about +45 degrees at 100Hz, falling to about zero at 300Hz, staying around zero to about 3KHz and then rising to about +450 degrees at 20KHz (reflecting an equivalent shift in position reaching about ¾ inch at 20KHz.).
That last rise can be fixed but I could not hear the difference and more parts cost more $.
I intended to snag a pair of these to let Tom try them, seeing as how he has left the world of (large) horns behind, maybe its the effect all that iron he was around I dunno 
The most recent effort is the td-2, this is a 3 way horn (an attempted improvement on the td1 using what I learned since it was designed) and I have had several versions of that which were "near zero" even more of the range.
This remains at the limited prototype stage.
The company Yorkville in Canada is making several versions of the Unity under license and are doing well with the product. Not only that but I made the acquaintance of a couple nice people up there who love speakers as much as I do, in Bill’s case, maybe more.
Anyway, I like the company’s approach and double that for the folks I have met and deal with.
Servodrive / SPL went the route of side by side demo’s and some trade articles which leads to sales, but that alone is not what is needed to grow beyond those that can be reached that way. This resulted in a number of high visibility installation’s but again usually only when a side by side demo was possible.
As a result the REP’s who show the product have good sales, the ones who’s "trunks are full" already or "have a bad back" (don’t demo product) don’t sell much.
In frustration with this approach and other issues, I quit on Oct 15th and am pursuing a couple other possibilities with several new speaker inventions.
Servodrive / SPL seems to be putting all their eggs in the military / industrial sound basket instead, oh well, I just don’t find the idea of producing the sound and intensity of a jet engine (for active sound cancellation and testing) to be as interesting as music / sound reproduction for "listening"..
If you horn guys have another local meeting and want to hear a pair of the prototype td2’s (although the horns are not painted), I do have a pair.
Cheers,
Tom Danley
[Updated on: Sun, 02 January 2005 23:06]
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| Bummer [message #29275 is a reply to message #29267 ] |
Mon, 03 January 2005 00:29 |
Brad Litz
Messages: 96
Registered: April 2004 |
Nothing Better To Do |
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I've been waiting for a set of td-2's. Now what??
Brad Litz
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| Re: Tom Danley leaves Servodrive/Sound Physics Labs??? [message #36284 is a reply to message #29237 ] |
Fri, 18 February 2005 11:11 |
[x]
Messages: 642
Registered: August 2004
Location: The Land of the Ice and S... |
Has No Life |
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Did he (tom) have a hand in the Unity-series Subwoofer?
You should make a Unity-series all-horn-loaded box that would fit with the same form factor as TX-series equipment, so that there would be an affordable large-format unity horn.
Also, I wonder what will happen to SPL/Servodrive after all this.
[Updated on: Fri, 18 February 2005 11:14]
I've said and written things in the past that I wouldn't throw away in my own trash can for fear that you'd find them. My name is mud.
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| Re: Tom Danley leaves Servodrive/Sound Physics Labs??? [message #36577 is a reply to message #36284 ] |
Mon, 21 February 2005 04:06 |
Todd Michael
Messages: 23
Registered: January 2005 |
Here Often |
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BHFProfessional,
If I answer your question honestly it would be yes and No, I guess I should explain what I mean by this.
When I say "no" I mean Tom did not design the new UCS1 Unity subwoofer, he had no hand in directly designing the horn flare or the custom made woofer used in this cabinet, this was done by myself. Tom heard one of the early prototypes while here on a business trip many months ago and that is pretty much as close as he has come to it.
When I say "yes" I mean that I have had a working relationship with Tom over the last two years and I would be lying if I tried to deny that some of his design influence has "rubbed off" on me.
I do not think many would argue that in the current sea of professional speaker designers Tom stands out from the rest and I find him a great source of inspiration.
As for making more Unity inspired products.....Just hang in there a little longer. The next one we release I guarantee will raise more than just a few eyebrows....
Take care.
Todd Michael
Yorkville Sound
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