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[Matteo Lanzi]

I do love the CQ's, done a bunch of shows with them.  They have one bad habit, and that is that the horn and the woofer have opposite polarity - a common sin from those days to help with the crossover point.

Were you aware they don't have pole cups?

I had actually read they did have the pole cups. I’ll wait till I get them then decide on best solution, probably stacking on top of vertical subs, though they might not go high enough.
For their “normal” use, PA for our rehearsal room, I’m not too worried.
Re. the polarity issue, it’s the first time I hear this. Any special tip on how to manage? Thanks, M.

[Mac Kerr]

I had actually read they did have the pole cups. I’ll wait till I get them then decide on best solution, probably stacking on top of vertical subs, though they might not go high enough.
For their “normal” use, PA for our rehearsal room, I’m not too worried.
Re. the polarity issue, it’s the first time I hear this. Any special tip on how to manage? Thanks, M.

It's only an issue if you are testing polarity with a "clicker", they are designed that way.

Mac

[Scott Helmke]

Re. the polarity issue, it’s the first time I hear this. Any special tip on how to manage? Thanks, M.

It's mostly only an issue if you're doing something like reinforcing music where the sound from the performers is about the same volume as from the speakers.  I noticed it doing acoustic music, could never quite get the sound right.  For rock music it's rarely a problem.

[Mark Wilkinson]

It's mostly only an issue if you're doing something like reinforcing music where the sound from the performers is about the same volume as from the speakers.  I noticed it doing acoustic music, could never quite get the sound right.  For rock music it's rarely a problem.

The polarity inversion was simply part of what it took to get the gently sloping phase trace all the Meyer boxes are so well known for.
Something appears amiss if there was anything wrong sounding.  That flattish phase is nowadays everybody's goal.

The technical reason for the flip was most likely whatever type/order crossover the box was using, had an inversion of its own...that needed to be countered by a driver inversion.

[Scott Helmke]

The polarity inversion was simply part of what it took to get the gently sloping phase trace all the Meyer boxes are so well known for.
Something appears amiss if there was anything wrong sounding.  That flattish phase is nowadays everybody's goal.

The technical reason for the flip was most likely whatever type/order crossover the box was using, had an inversion of its own...that needed to be countered by a driver inversion.

The difficulty is that the horn has reverse polarity from the woofer (or vice-versa, not sure which one goes positive for positive signal input off the top of my head), so that if you can hear the acoustic source at similar volume then you can never have "correct" polarity for both drivers. 

As far as I know the CQ is the only Meyer product that had one of those polarity flips, though you'd see it from other manufacturers at the time.  The replacement product, the UPQ, doesn't have the problem.   Ultimately for that particular gig the CQ was overkill anyway, and I switched to a UPJ instead.

(also the UPQ has a pole cup!)

[Mark Wilkinson]

The difficulty is that the horn has reverse polarity from the woofer (or vice-versa, not sure which one goes positive for positive signal input off the top of my head), so that if you can hear the acoustic source at similar volume then you can never have "correct" polarity for both drivers. 

As far as I know the CQ is the only Meyer product that had one of those polarity flips, though you'd see it from other manufacturers at the time.  The replacement product, the UPQ, doesn't have the problem.   Ultimately for that particular gig the CQ was overkill anyway, and I switched to a UPJ instead.

(also the UPQ has a pole cup!)

Hi Scott, I'm left wondering if somebody did a driver replacement, either you or it was bought used and replaced prior.
Cause lord knows, Meyer is meticulous about verification. I just can't imagine the CQ-1 differs from their signature phase trace, like in your UPJ.
The woofer and horn should have both been polarity +, acoustically for sure. Both drivers should have read pol+, after the self-powered processing.
 
One thing that grieves me about self-powered speakers, as a guy who likes to dissect what smart folks do, is how you can't easily see what's going on with an individual driver.
Like how you can't pop an individual driver without opening up the box and unhooking the drivers so only one driver is running at a time, ....cause HF will dominate the pop polarity.

Having fun building speakers, I like to dissect what smart folks like Meyer and others do, and then try to replicate...
Got a UPA-1p busted open right now... i measure each driver raw in box, then each processed, then summed,....  and hope/pray like hell lol, that i can learn something ...

[Scott Helmke]

Hi Scott, I'm left wondering if somebody did a driver replacement, either you or it was bought used and replaced prior.
Cause lord knows, Meyer is meticulous about verification. I just can't imagine the CQ-1 differs from their signature phase trace, like in your UPJ.
The woofer and horn should have both been polarity +, acoustically for sure. Both drivers should have read pol+, after the self-powered processing.

Oh no, this is something Meyer did, not me.  I've even discussed the matter with one of their alignment guys (Magoo), who showed how to "fix" the problem using group delay but with the cost of additional latency. 

Frankly they're a little embarrassed about it when you ask.  But as I've said, it's rarely a problem in most situations and it is a really nice sounding speaker.

[Brian Bolly]

Hi Scott, I'm left wondering if somebody did a driver replacement, either you or it was bought used and replaced prior.
Cause lord knows, Meyer is meticulous about verification. I just can't imagine the CQ-1 differs from their signature phase trace, like in your UPJ.
The woofer and horn should have both been polarity +, acoustically for sure. Both drivers should have read pol+, after the self-powered processing.

Hi Mark,

This is kind of an "open secret" about the CQ-1 (and CQ-2), and is easily viewable in MAPP XT.  A simple polarity reversal doesn't quite fix it, but the Delay Integration processing in a Galileo Galaxy does.  The three attached screen shots show the following, all measured at 1m On Axis:

- UPJ-1P (red trace) and CQ-1 (brown trace), no processing
- UPJ-1P (red trace) and CQ-1 (cyan trace) with polarity flip on the CQ-1
- UPJ-1P (red trace) and CQ-1 (magenta trace) with pc100 Delay Integration on the CQ-1

From what I understand, the CQ was the product that was "never supposed to be".  It was built for a specific purpose for a specific client where another box wouldn't physically fit, and once people started hearing it they asked if they could order it because it was/is a really good sounding box.

[Brian Bolly]

Hi Matteo,

As others have said, the CQ-1 is a great box, and where you will run out of headroom first will be in the low end of the response, so adding a HPF will help.

The USW-1P, on a 1:1 with the CQ is about equal in output from 30-70 Hz.  So if you're adding a HPF to the CQ and a LPF to the USW, you will have a linear system with no LF rise.  Fine for some things, but probably isn't enough output for what you're looking for.  A 1:2 system of CQ to USW would be an improvement, especially when adding a HPF to the CQ.

A 650-P on a 1:1 with the CQ-1 will give you around a +3dB to +5dB LF rise over the response of the CQ, so it will be a more "modern" curve right out of the box.  Plus, the stacking height is better, and the 650-P is not that difficult to move as it is a tilt-and-roll type of box with the wheels on the back/bottom, except when you involve stairs - it would definitely be a 2-person lift going up stairs.

If someone has modified the CQs with a pole cup (they were never manufactured with one), be VERY careful of trying to put them on a speaker stand - your average speaker stand can't take that kind of weight.  I would be hesitant to even suggest trying it.

[Mark Wilkinson]

Hi Mark,

This is kind of an "open secret" about the CQ-1 (and CQ-2), and is easily viewable in MAPP XT.  A simple polarity reversal doesn't quite fix it, but the Delay Integration processing in a Galileo Galaxy does.  The three attached screen shots show the following, all measured at 1m On Axis:

- UPJ-1P (red trace) and CQ-1 (brown trace), no processing
- UPJ-1P (red trace) and CQ-1 (cyan trace) with polarity flip on the CQ-1
- UPJ-1P (red trace) and CQ-1 (magenta trace) with pc100 Delay Integration on the CQ-1

From what I understand, the CQ was the product that was "never supposed to be".  It was built for a specific purpose for a specific client where another box wouldn't physically fit, and once people started hearing it they asked if they could order it because it was/is a really good sounding box.

Thank you, Brian for that info, and Scott for bearing with me.
Interesting history of the CQ-1.

[ProSoundWeb Community]