Same experience here.
Won't speak about high end audio, but in the Guitar World, if you want the (still highly regarded and sought after) 60 y.o. speaker technology of Alnico magnets and light paper cones and voice coils, for a very specific sound, you have to pay a lot for the "reissued" Celestion "Vox Blue".
Still the king.
Of course, others tried to jump on the bandwagon.
Respected Guitar Player Magazine made a live Test called "Guitar Player Live speaker shootout" including 15 models.
Hey, wait a minute !!! didn't you say they were rare and hard to find speakers?
How did they come out with 15 models to compare?
Let's see:
1) we have the original one. The Celestion Blue itself. British sound.
2) we have "the other" original one, the Jensen P12N. American sound.
3 to 7) Ted Weber offers 5 versions, with distinct flavors.
He had to make them "in house", they are handmade in very small quantities or built on demand. Good.
8) The Eminence version.
Why am I not surprised?
They could and did make it, for a good competitive price and as many as you want, quick.
9 to 13) Magic Parts SP12ALN. / MojoTone MP12R. / MojoTone MP12 RHD. / New Sensor 12ALP. / New Sensor 12ALK.
Guess what? *All* of them OEM made by .... Eminence
So much so that Guitar Player had to write a special paragraph:
So maybe Eminence has something going for them .
Would I call it experience/good manufacturing/good Business practices?
I guess so
If you want to read the original article:
Guitar Player Speaker Shootout
As of edgewound voice coils, even I, a small scale speaker maker can (and do) offer them.
No big deal.
As of Eminence, they offer tons of speakers with them , as in:
and in the Factory description, they include:
Vented structures?
Possible from an engineering point of view, but not practical tooling up in very small orders, such as 100 units.
Anyway I *think* the OP is not exactly asking for them.
Really don't understand how in a discussion about making "old style" speakers, some posters needlessly object based only in "Hi Tech" or "snobbish" or "cutting edge" features ... which were never asked for by the OP.
In Argentina we call that "mear fuera del tarro", loosely translated as "trying to pee into a pot ... and missing ...
".I'm sure there must exist some native English phrase meaning about the same
"venting in the motors"
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
In Argentina we call that "mear fuera del tarro", loosely translated as "trying to pee into a pot ... and missing ...
I'm sure there must exist some native English phrase meaning about the same
Here you "throw out the baby with the bath water."
Eminence does do edgewound coils in-house. Those are used in a number of their "HO" versions of woofers.
I saw their voice coil winding operation when I visited the factory about 8-9 years ago. As I recall, it was pretty impressive to see how they were taking bare wire and coating it and running it through some long rectangular ovens and then doing a semi-wet wind with it.
They don't do a lot of different former / collar materials or multi-layer flat wire, but you can do a "user supplied part" for a very small surcharge. When I was there, they were building some Community woofer in the test lab using some coils from Precision Econowind (on an aluminum former) and were also installing a forced air pole piece cap for cooling purposes (that Community also has as a supplied part).
That being said, for your application it sounds like kapton (or possibly glass fiber) would be the way to go anyway.
I saw their voice coil winding operation when I visited the factory about 8-9 years ago. As I recall, it was pretty impressive to see how they were taking bare wire and coating it and running it through some long rectangular ovens and then doing a semi-wet wind with it.
They don't do a lot of different former / collar materials or multi-layer flat wire, but you can do a "user supplied part" for a very small surcharge. When I was there, they were building some Community woofer in the test lab using some coils from Precision Econowind (on an aluminum former) and were also installing a forced air pole piece cap for cooling purposes (that Community also has as a supplied part).
That being said, for your application it sounds like kapton (or possibly glass fiber) would be the way to go anyway.
"venting in the motors"
"(or possibly glass fiber)"
They offer that as standard in their Impero™ models, could be specified on others.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
"(or possibly glass fiber)"
They offer that as standard in their Impero™ models, could be specified on others.
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Such voice coils are easy to get and use.
FWIW here's my Guitar speaker FAHEY G12EWA100 (side by side with a famous example)
With a very interesting "EV meets Celestion" sound.
Has a little of everything:
1 1/2" voice coil (classic Jensen diameter), 130 mm magnet (same thing), rectilinear 11 rib cone cone halfway between British (8 ribs) and American (up to 22 ribs).
The VC is Edge Wound Aluminum on Fiberglass, light and strong.
Not a kilowatt PA driver by any means, so no fancy magnet venting, but I always use vented polepieces (it's just an extra drill operation at the lathe, which takes 30 seconds).
In a nutshell, making standard speakers is not rocket science, although like anything else, if you want to complicate it, the Sky is the limit .
FWIW here's my Guitar speaker FAHEY G12EWA100 (side by side with a famous example)
With a very interesting "EV meets Celestion" sound.
Has a little of everything:
1 1/2" voice coil (classic Jensen diameter), 130 mm magnet (same thing), rectilinear 11 rib cone cone halfway between British (8 ribs) and American (up to 22 ribs).
The VC is Edge Wound Aluminum on Fiberglass, light and strong.
Not a kilowatt PA driver by any means, so no fancy magnet venting, but I always use vented polepieces (it's just an extra drill operation at the lathe, which takes 30 seconds).
In a nutshell, making standard speakers is not rocket science, although like anything else, if you want to complicate it, the Sky is the limit
.
Really don't understand how in a discussion about making "old style" speakers, some posters needlessly object based only in "Hi Tech" or "snobbish" or "cutting edge" features ... which were never asked for by the OP.
In Argentina we call that "mear fuera del tarro", loosely translated as "trying to pee into a pot ... and missing ...
I'm sure there must exist some native English phrase meaning about the same
Don’t worry about it mate. It just shows how many have not pursued OEM loudspeaker design and is easily influenced by marketing hype from a sales rep pushing a shiny new product.
Some of the responses are similar to those who would not build an amplifier for there are many amplifiers available, offering various types of wattages, in which you can purchase on the market.
Possibly some of the respondants don't realise that this is Diyaudio.com and, the only limiting factor building anything, is yourself.
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