Opinion on speaker choice

[revans]

For a portable speaker system I'm looking to use two Tang Band W4-1320SC 4" Bamboo Cone Drivers wired in parallel per stereo channel (so 4 speakers total): http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...ewRand=6427019 This is because the TBs are 8 ohm and I'm using the Amp6-Basic, so I want to reduce the resistance to 4 ohms.

Would these speakers be a good option? I'm really just looking for peoples' opinions on this choice. Maybe you have a batter idea? Also, I do not want to have to use a crossover, so no tweeters to complement it or anything.

Thanks

[norman bates]

dual full range drivers can be trouble due to different distances from 2 drivers to your ears.

You want to make something like these ?
http://www.dagogo.com/47LabGaincard-OmegaMinuet.html

I'm going to run a pair of those 4" bamboos per speaker, but I sit 11' away, and will use a 12" crossed in 80-200hz. If you sit closer, then you need one driver, maybe a fostex fe167e that everyone seems to love.

what do you mean by portable ? small box ?

Those 4" bamboos are supposed to be nice and clean but even ported, best they do is f3 near 80hz (if I remember right). Sealed qtc .707 is a tiny .08ft3 per driver but f3 is 150hz I think. You may want a notch at 6khz but I also read that you could run without because s's and t's tend to be 8khz while shout is 1-2khz. Havn't seen anyone bashing them. Bamboo cone, shorting ring, 3.5 gram cone, cast frame, it is worth $50.

The w4-1052 is $20 cheaper per driver and 2 in a 1 ft3 ported box tune / f3 I think just below 60hz, but I read that they have a little of that poly sound (not the most detailed but better than typical polys). Those minuets above used this driver.

Norman

[revans]

@ norman:

By portable I'm talking about a boombox kind of thing, that can run off batteries, like the Boominator on the forums here or the Podzuma at Parts Express (except maybe a bit smaller/lighter).
What sort of trouble do you mean? (relative to the 2x full ranges per channel)
A lot of the time it'll be in a dorm room, so going by what you said about listening distance one full range per channel might be better, but it will also be used in larger rooms and outdoors so two per channel could still be okay.
That said though, me and my mates are no audiophiles, so we may not even notice the trouble from two per channel. On that topic, I also have no idea what you are talking about with all that stuff about notches at 6khz and s's and t's etc. (Though I do know it's related to crossovers, which is why I wanted to avoid them as they seem complicated)

[Cal Weldon]

You can avoid some of the problems with two drivers if you mount two of them facing the front and the other two facing outward on the sides at 90 degrees from the front. You'll get a more open and airy sound and the side firing drivers will act like a bass compensator (BSC). Remember that for each driver, your enclosure must increase in size also.

[norman bates]

Cal Weldon

are those the xbl ones with that $26 horn loaded vifa that zaph likes so much ?

I like the psuedo dipole thing there, I assume the 2 full rangers are in parallel (or series) run wide open ?

Norman

[norman bates]

"what sort of trouble do you mean (relative to the 2x full rangers per channel) ?"

well if you sit exactly on axis with the speaker you may be ok at about 5'. Sitting 11' away if you are sitting and it is lined up there, all will sound good. But if you stand up, you will lose your highs.

"for a dorm room"

ah, I miss the days when I cared little for sound quality and played my 15" vegas as loud as they would go.

"notchs s's and t's"

I call it an awareness problem or a disease that we who care what it sounds like come down with. As your ears become more trained (as you care more about what it sounds like or want to hear more detail in your recordings), you become more intolerant to flaws in your speakers. My brother in law brought over some dumpster diver specials, a small truck box with a 15 and a piezo (both drivers run wide open). I cringed when I popped the 15 out. I hooked them up, he liked em. Some people are lucky, they can enjoy music on a clock radio. He didn't care as much as I do about how good it sounds. So I hooked up my 2 way center channel (which has a lot of issues but some strengths also). I had to coach him (lead him ?) on the flaws. "Listen to the kids chorus (Godzillaz) in the background, on yours it is mush, on mine you can hear it is kids singing. You have a bunch of lower midrange but hey if you like it, then so be it." I now after hearing it, understand a larger wave launch for voice, compared to small holes from which sound comes on my normal 2-3" drivers. The piezo on that truck box was too low in level and as I expected from a piezo running wide open it made a etch sound when highs went through it. Similar to dj speakers that go tccch, tccch, tccch on every cymbal hit, that is a resonance that all piezos have but can be designed around if you know what you are doing. The 2 way with 15" went a little loud, like turning up a tv way to loud, very blurry and hard to hear voices.

Keeping it simple and having bass at the same time, I still believe a pair of w4-1052 in a ported box would be perfect. You even have some bass along with high intelligibility for music and movies. F3 is 49hz and tuning it at 53hz. So put 2 of them in a 1ft3 box (frames touching) with a 2" port 1.71" long.

Try it. If you can build a box, you are only out $40 to try 1 loudspeaker box with 2 drivers.

Or $200 can do well at a pawn shop if you are lucky.

Norman

[revans]

Wow... living in New Zealand can be really inconvenient sometimes.
Shipping hefty speakers all the way from USA to NZ costs more than buying the speakers themselves and makes a relatively cheap excursion a bit on the expensive side. I guess I'll have to go with it though, because I've never found anywhere decent in NZ to get loudspeakers.
Unless there are any kiwis out there who know somewhere that could be useful?

[Cal Weldon]

Originally posted by norman bates
Cal Weldon

are those the xbl ones with that $26 horn loaded vifa that zaph likes so much ?

I like the psuedo dipole thing there, I assume the 2 full rangers are in parallel (or series) run wide open ?

Norman

Hello Norman,

Those are the Calhouns from the planet10 website, designed by Scottmoose. They use the CSS WR125's running wide open with a modified Tang Band tweeter. The TB modification as I see it is the addition of an aluminum finned heatsink glued to the neo magnet. The WR's are running full and the tweeter has a single small cap only. Quite a nice combination.

Tweeter minus the magnet:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=264-804

[revans]

Ok I think my budget for international shipping will only extend as far as 1 speaker per channel, which has kind of buggered what I had originally planned when I started this topic.

Norman thinks that a pair of w4-1052 would be great but would anyone have any other recommendations for a pair of drivers to be used with an Amp6-Basic?

[NICKEL]

Free Shipping!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Tang-Band-W4-132...3286.m20.l1116