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[Dan Fowler]

Has anyone used speaker made by a company called Soundsphere?  One of my clients is requesting that we install these speaker for them...  

At first glance they seem kind of gimmicky...  

http://www.soundsphere.com

[Rich Wirz]

Depends on what they will be used for.  For simple paging and voice applications they are tolerable, but if they want anything more than elevator background music try to talk them into something else.  I did a favor for a friend of mine a few years back by doing a talent show in a high school theatre that had like 6 of them throughout the space - absolutely horrid sounding for a live performance.  Of course, that was a few years back and I see now that they have included subs also, but I still wouldn't trust them.  There are much better alternatives out there, IMO.

[Dan Fowler]

That's the feeling that I got from just looking at them...  My client wants to use them for their main speakers...  For live performance!  

I think I will create a new motto for myself:  "If it looks like its from the movie Spaceballs... [insert funny comment here]"

Thanks for the info.

Dan

[Dan Timon]

For a live performance application, this speaker may not merely be a poor choice-it may be one of the WORST choices. It is designed to project equally in all directions. So the sound from the PA would hit the stage with the same intensity as it projects into the house. If the speaker is placed in a normal center cluster location, it is closer to the stage than it is to the house, so the stage will get LESS Gain Before Feedback than most of the house. This is beyond foolish.

For paging and background music, the speaker has its share of proponents. I am not one of them, again because the sound projects with equal intensity toward walls, ceilings, and other places where people cannot be. It then reflects and eventually fizzles out or reaches an ear. So the problem of intelligibility, already one of the toughest challenges in a public space because of critical distance issues and the preponderence of reflected sound hitting a listener's ear, can be made much worse with these omnidirectional speakers.

But that is just me.

Regards,

Dan Timon

[Rich Wirz]

For live performance ?  Man, steer this guy away from them - unless he absolutely wants a cheesy system that will totally fold when he tries to pump anything heavy duty into them.  And like Dan T. says, the principle behind them is suspect at best - the sound is designed to get thrown straight up and the conical tops to them disperse it in a 360 degree pattern.  Kind of like setting a speaker at Point A and aiming it and bouncing it off a wall to get to Point B  And Dan's point about gain before feedback on stage is right on - I played with them for about 10 minutes before I gave up and brought in my own system.