I am often asked if the upcoming FR-30 loudspeakers are a "line source" or a "point source". When I explain they are neither I get some crossed eyes.
A true line source is by definition floor to ceiling. So if a manufacturer is claiming this or that speaker's a "line source" then it's easy to verify. Are they floor to ceiling high?
A true point source would be infinitely small and full range. To date that's never been built and is unlikely to emerge in our lifetimes.
It's easy to get tangled up in terminologies and even easier for engineering nerds like me to get so specific with answering questions that between the questions and answers we wind up getting nowhere.
Nowhere's not a great place to be.
What's holding us back is our desire to catalog everything. It's far easier to imagine big concepts when we place them in neat little packages: electrostats, planars, dynamic drivers, time-aligned, line source, point source, coaxial, modular.
The problem with neat little packages is we lose meaning.
Perhaps we're in need of a few new terms?
