You are welcome! This is a really nice project you have here, I am looking forward to seeing some pictures of it when you are done!
He is "Mr. Widget"
Just to clarify for the SET crowd and posterity:
The TAD 1601a is a fantastic woofer. Or subwoofer. It does not need tons of watts. I am guessing a 3 watt amp will be reasonably loud. It is very fast sounding. It doesn't have a heavy cone, huge diameter or travel voice coil, and is not for heavy bass thumping, or super loud use. That being said, in a normal room, it is super clean, fast, loud,clear, and will do plenty of bass, especially in a cabinet designed for that, and possibly with additional EQ, and with several hundred watts available. The 1601b is slightly more bassy sounding, 1601c similar to 1601a, in the same 8 cubic foot cab.
The TL-1102 is a small hifi woofer, TL-1101H is a high efficiency small woofer, and the TH-1201H is a midrange that is very high efficiency, high fidelity, and can go low for a midrange, but not into the bass region. The 1201 sounds more clear in the midrange region than the small woofers. If you put your ear up to it, it seems most of the sound eminates from the dust cap region, and hardly any sound comes from closer to the edge. I always think about figuring out how to remove the cone and still have the thing work. I doubt previous comments on the cone weight typo of 6 grams actually being 60 grams are correct. A midrange usually has much lower cone weight than a woofer, so 6 grams is probably closer to the truth.
The TAD 1601a is a fantastic woofer. Or subwoofer. It does not need tons of watts. I am guessing a 3 watt amp will be reasonably loud. It is very fast sounding. It doesn't have a heavy cone, huge diameter or travel voice coil, and is not for heavy bass thumping, or super loud use. That being said, in a normal room, it is super clean, fast, loud,clear, and will do plenty of bass, especially in a cabinet designed for that, and possibly with additional EQ, and with several hundred watts available. The 1601b is slightly more bassy sounding, 1601c similar to 1601a, in the same 8 cubic foot cab.
The TL-1102 is a small hifi woofer, TL-1101H is a high efficiency small woofer, and the TH-1201H is a midrange that is very high efficiency, high fidelity, and can go low for a midrange, but not into the bass region. The 1201 sounds more clear in the midrange region than the small woofers. If you put your ear up to it, it seems most of the sound eminates from the dust cap region, and hardly any sound comes from closer to the edge. I always think about figuring out how to remove the cone and still have the thing work. I doubt previous comments on the cone weight typo of 6 grams actually being 60 grams are correct. A midrange usually has much lower cone weight than a woofer, so 6 grams is probably closer to the truth.
Double check before you build.
Unlikely this will ever be a problem to anyone, since both the JBL sub1500 and the TAD 1102 are long out of production and rare; still, as diy speaker building goes, there are certainly some of each sitting in closets that will show up on eBay or at estate sales someday. If the above stated opinion that Widget used both in sealed enclosures is based on not seeing ports on the baffle rather than direct knowledge of revisions to Widget's very fine build, this--when I heard those speakers, both drivers were ported out the back. And I also remember Widget saying each had five cu ft, TAD's largest recommendation for the 1102, good down to 30Hz, and Widget's experimental recommendation for the sub1500 supporting high efficiency systems, tuned to 20 or 21 cycles per second (for conversing with the whales).
Unlikely this will ever be a problem to anyone, since both the JBL sub1500 and the TAD 1102 are long out of production and rare; still, as diy speaker building goes, there are certainly some of each sitting in closets that will show up on eBay or at estate sales someday. If the above stated opinion that Widget used both in sealed enclosures is based on not seeing ports on the baffle rather than direct knowledge of revisions to Widget's very fine build, this--when I heard those speakers, both drivers were ported out the back. And I also remember Widget saying each had five cu ft, TAD's largest recommendation for the 1102, good down to 30Hz, and Widget's experimental recommendation for the sub1500 supporting high efficiency systems, tuned to 20 or 21 cycles per second (for conversing with the whales).
My post above regards the earlier version of Widget's four-way. The version in the photo posted by POS is different—smaller. The TAD 1102 is in 1.5 cu fit ported and tuned to 50Hz as per the smallest if three options specified on the TAD technical sheet packed with the woofer.
The JBL is in a small closed box (I think about 2 cu ft or so) and equalized for the desired response, which is the kind of application that sub was designed for.
The JBL is in a small closed box (I think about 2 cu ft or so) and equalized for the desired response, which is the kind of application that sub was designed for.
It depends what you are trying to do. That is a sound reinforcement woofer. Not a great choice for in-home hi fi. I would never pair it with a TAD 1102.
Looking at Widget's design and using a 15" driver to fill from 75Hz down.
I understand that many thought the Sub1500 is the perfect answer but I want to learn more about how these things are chosen when the original option is no longer available.
It looks like the JBL drivers come and go , almost capriciously, and I'm new to thinking about speakers in a disciplined way. I have built a few but it has always been on intuition , based on years of experience with other materials and I admit that any success I've had has been pure luck.
I chose that 18Sound driver based on a search through the offerings of a number of known brands and picked that one largely because of how it looked and what the brochure said about it.
I suppose the best question I can ask in response to your "I would never pair it with a TAD 1102." is , Why not? and what other drivers would you pair with it?
Thanks for your reply BTW. It's been a while since this thread was active.
I understand that many thought the Sub1500 is the perfect answer but I want to learn more about how these things are chosen when the original option is no longer available.
It looks like the JBL drivers come and go , almost capriciously, and I'm new to thinking about speakers in a disciplined way. I have built a few but it has always been on intuition , based on years of experience with other materials and I admit that any success I've had has been pure luck.
I chose that 18Sound driver based on a search through the offerings of a number of known brands and picked that one largely because of how it looked and what the brochure said about it.
I suppose the best question I can ask in response to your "I would never pair it with a TAD 1102." is , Why not? and what other drivers would you pair with it?
Thanks for your reply BTW. It's been a while since this thread was active.
OK, if you don't mind, some more questions.
The first difference from the 1401 that I notice is that they both have rubber surrounds. Is that significant?
Though I've heard a couple of drivers with rubber surrounds I thought were good - the Dynaudio driver in the PMC LB1 and the Acuton ceramic drivers - in general I've liked more often drivers that happened to have rolled paper or cloth so that's what I leaned toward. (I've also seen many rotted surrounds)
I also notice that the motor structure is the same for the 1401 and 1500, but that the 9500 has a markedly lower Le , which I'd guess is a very good thing.
While I can take in D.A's comment about the 1401 being a reinforcement woofer, I don't really know what that means in terms of ability to reproduce what it's fed.
The first difference from the 1401 that I notice is that they both have rubber surrounds. Is that significant?
Though I've heard a couple of drivers with rubber surrounds I thought were good - the Dynaudio driver in the PMC LB1 and the Acuton ceramic drivers - in general I've liked more often drivers that happened to have rolled paper or cloth so that's what I leaned toward. (I've also seen many rotted surrounds)
I also notice that the motor structure is the same for the 1401 and 1500, but that the 9500 has a markedly lower Le , which I'd guess is a very good thing.
While I can take in D.A's comment about the 1401 being a reinforcement woofer, I don't really know what that means in terms of ability to reproduce what it's fed.