Looks like PE has already pulled the page for 'em, but they were selling Peerless India LKO-somthing drivers for $2.50, or $1.25 if you bought more than 10. So I bought 20.
I thought I'd share that I've been running in my first test sample. After the first 24 hours it had developed much more body than initially present. After 48 hours of singing out one of the local radio stations I hooked it up to the Dayton WT-3.
Fs = 160 hz. Ouch. Man. Miracles I was not expecting, but a Fs more than 3x what PE said?
They changed so much for break-in, maybe they had further to go. So I got a hold of a bunch of bass warble tones and set my first testing victim running that on repeat. Maybe the radio wasn't managing to stretch out that suspension. After a few hours I did a quick measurement again and Fs has dropped to 130-something. So I'm still hoping for something approaching what was reported at PE. Their website said I think 48 hz.
I did notice on the low frequency info it makes noise. Like my sealed box subwoofer blew a seam kinda noise. I wonder if that tin dustcap doesn't need to be vented?
More info coming... I'll post the driver parameters when the Fs settles down, and after I measure a few more of them. It looks from the impedance sweep like there's some sort of resonance at ... oh, I forget, 1.8 khz or so? Like I said, more info when I feel like I've got some drivers broken in and measured.
Incidentally, I think the driver was advertised as 5.25". The cone itself measures 4", the outside of the frame 5 1/16" and the mounting ears get out to 6". I dunno where they got 5.25...
If you're out there working with these drivers, let me know how they're treating you.
I thought I'd share that I've been running in my first test sample. After the first 24 hours it had developed much more body than initially present. After 48 hours of singing out one of the local radio stations I hooked it up to the Dayton WT-3.
Fs = 160 hz. Ouch. Man. Miracles I was not expecting, but a Fs more than 3x what PE said?
They changed so much for break-in, maybe they had further to go. So I got a hold of a bunch of bass warble tones and set my first testing victim running that on repeat. Maybe the radio wasn't managing to stretch out that suspension. After a few hours I did a quick measurement again and Fs has dropped to 130-something. So I'm still hoping for something approaching what was reported at PE. Their website said I think 48 hz.
I did notice on the low frequency info it makes noise. Like my sealed box subwoofer blew a seam kinda noise. I wonder if that tin dustcap doesn't need to be vented?
More info coming... I'll post the driver parameters when the Fs settles down, and after I measure a few more of them. It looks from the impedance sweep like there's some sort of resonance at ... oh, I forget, 1.8 khz or so? Like I said, more info when I feel like I've got some drivers broken in and measured.
Incidentally, I think the driver was advertised as 5.25". The cone itself measures 4", the outside of the frame 5 1/16" and the mounting ears get out to 6". I dunno where they got 5.25...
If you're out there working with these drivers, let me know how they're treating you.
Mine are sitting in a box. When I talked to them, they had many many - so I would think they might still be available. I bought a case (24) and 10 of those .76cent tweets. They look okay. I also bought a few of those notch filters. if these are only marginal drivers, not a lot of money lost here!
I bought 2 of these full range speakers and their supported notch filters and have them currently setup in a crude ported box. I've been comparing them to other speakers I have and these do not have much bass in comparison. BUT for the cost, these really do well for the mids and highs and IMHO will not need a "helper" tweeter. My plan is to run them several hours in a much better constructed box and then figure out where to cross them over with a subwoofer. All in all I think they can fit someplace in my home and right now I'm thinking about testing them out as home theater satellite speakers.
I went back to buy some more and they are not available right now. I'd like to buy about 6 more and use them to create a portable boombox with a battery powered t amp board that I got for about $20. I already have a large plastic toolbox that the speakers and the amp/battery combo will fit into and I plan on getting an inexpensive MP3 player with FM radio to connect to it. Not talking real hi-fidelity here, but more like an outdoor lug around music machine.
I went back to buy some more and they are not available right now. I'd like to buy about 6 more and use them to create a portable boombox with a battery powered t amp board that I got for about $20. I already have a large plastic toolbox that the speakers and the amp/battery combo will fit into and I plan on getting an inexpensive MP3 player with FM radio to connect to it. Not talking real hi-fidelity here, but more like an outdoor lug around music machine.
Currently listed as out of stock, but claim to be awaiting due date. Looks like they may be getting more. Hard to tell.
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=299-280
Peace,
Dave
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=299-280
Peace,
Dave
Well, Sorry to be keeping you all in suspense! But my yard is looking much better for the delay. Not that you care, but my wife is very pleased...
driver 1 2 3 avg
re 3.496 3.516 3.486 3.499333333
fs 105 96 103 101.3333333
qts 0.9038 0.8087 1.207 0.973166667
qes 1.184 1.113 1.669 1.322
qms 3.823 2.954 4.361 3.712666667
le 0.1808 0.1613 0.192 0.178033333
mms 3.861 4.102 3.994 3.985666667
vas 0.194 0.2174 0.1949 0.2021
spl 89.19 88.82 87.47 88.49333333
ahh, the formatting on that copy/paste isn't beautiful, but I think you should be able to make it out.
These drivers take a significant amount of break-in. I tried doing a big batch of them in series-parallel, but that didn't work. They broke-in unevenly.
My drivers make noise on large excursion. I thought this was perhaps a dustcap leaking / whistling issue. So I pulled the dustcap on one. It didn't help. It might be sounding a little nicer, though. Hard to tell for sure, w/o a test box.
Anyway, I hope this information isn't too late to help those of you who have picked up some of these drivers. I was hopeing that these drivers would be a little closer to the published spec, but oh well. Let me know if you build something with these!
driver 1 2 3 avg
re 3.496 3.516 3.486 3.499333333
fs 105 96 103 101.3333333
qts 0.9038 0.8087 1.207 0.973166667
qes 1.184 1.113 1.669 1.322
qms 3.823 2.954 4.361 3.712666667
le 0.1808 0.1613 0.192 0.178033333
mms 3.861 4.102 3.994 3.985666667
vas 0.194 0.2174 0.1949 0.2021
spl 89.19 88.82 87.47 88.49333333
ahh, the formatting on that copy/paste isn't beautiful, but I think you should be able to make it out.
These drivers take a significant amount of break-in. I tried doing a big batch of them in series-parallel, but that didn't work. They broke-in unevenly.
My drivers make noise on large excursion. I thought this was perhaps a dustcap leaking / whistling issue. So I pulled the dustcap on one. It didn't help. It might be sounding a little nicer, though. Hard to tell for sure, w/o a test box.
Anyway, I hope this information isn't too late to help those of you who have picked up some of these drivers. I was hopeing that these drivers would be a little closer to the published spec, but oh well. Let me know if you build something with these!
Finally finished up building some bass reflex speakers with these speakers and the recommended notch filter.
I used the following specs to build the speakers (see attachment).
I bought some decent built speaker cabinets with lousy throw away drivers at a thrift shop for $5 for the pair. I installed a new front panel over the existing panel and a new rear 3/4 inch thick rear panel. I have stuffed the top half of the box with polyester stuffing from Wal-mart. It has a 2 inch diameter port tube. I ran some single frequencies through the speakers and at about 60 Hz the bass starts dropping off according to my listening ears (just like designed - how'd that happen?). So I'm setting up my subwoofer to crossover at about 80-90 Hz and see how that sounds. These speakers need to be exercised in the bass regions to get their best bass response. Running some bass frequencies through them for about 24 hrs straight helps.
These speakers are an inexpensive way to try out some full rangers. I'm using them with a t amp and they sound fairly decent and really work well in the higher frequencies. They are actually just temporary speakers while I build some RS 40-1354 TQWT full range speakers. I'll probably move them out to my covered deck and hang them up away from any rain or moisture. All in all I think I spent about $10 per speaker and enjoyed the process of building them.
I used the following specs to build the speakers (see attachment).
I bought some decent built speaker cabinets with lousy throw away drivers at a thrift shop for $5 for the pair. I installed a new front panel over the existing panel and a new rear 3/4 inch thick rear panel. I have stuffed the top half of the box with polyester stuffing from Wal-mart. It has a 2 inch diameter port tube. I ran some single frequencies through the speakers and at about 60 Hz the bass starts dropping off according to my listening ears (just like designed - how'd that happen?). So I'm setting up my subwoofer to crossover at about 80-90 Hz and see how that sounds. These speakers need to be exercised in the bass regions to get their best bass response. Running some bass frequencies through them for about 24 hrs straight helps.
These speakers are an inexpensive way to try out some full rangers. I'm using them with a t amp and they sound fairly decent and really work well in the higher frequencies. They are actually just temporary speakers while I build some RS 40-1354 TQWT full range speakers. I'll probably move them out to my covered deck and hang them up away from any rain or moisture. All in all I think I spent about $10 per speaker and enjoyed the process of building them.
Attachments
Foam surrounds and ferro fluid. Will the surrounds rot first or will the ferro fluid dry out first. Specs are all over the map. They don't sound good today but they might sound better tomorrow? What's acceptable about that? It is unfortunate that companies have to make such garbage and people here who don't know better get excited about being able to buy it.
Good new folks. They are no longer available. Time to move on.
Good new folks. They are no longer available. Time to move on.
rcavictim said:
Yes. These drivers are pretty far from high fidelity.
rcavictim said:
The fact that they were $1.25 each.
rcavictim said:
What, does everything have to be the Mona Lisa? I wanna investigate some Line Array action, should I buy 16 $50 drivers for an experiment? Does a project have to be expensive to teach me something? Having bought them, should the owners not investigate what they're capable of?
Why you wanna come into a thread with the word CHEAP in the title and harsh the buzz?
AdamThorne said:
There is a big difference between 'cheap' and 'garbage'.
Years ago I wanted to try some line array action too. I bought some 79 cent Chinese buy out drivers from PE. No foam surround, no ferrofluid. Consistency between drivers turned out to be so good I could not hear or measure differences between samples. They sounded so good between 200Hz and 12 KHz, I went back and bought them out thinking I might manufacture a dozen really high end loudspeaker systems with them and retire. Some of my stash now live in the best sounding speaker boxes I've ever owned or built and do not need to be upgraded to $50/driver replacements. These inexpensive drivers should last a lifetime because they did not incorporate the aformentioned manufacturing flaws. These are not the NSB drivers BTW and in comparison IMO the NSB's did not sound very good. I admit that I got lucky but I certainly seem to be good at getting lucky because I do my research and do not get excited about stuff just because it is 'cheap'.
To be quite honest, I wasn't expecting these drivers to be half as good as they are (at least the ones I purchased) and since the S&H cost more than the drivers themselves, I think they were a decent value. Now if I paid more than $10 per driver for these, I might have been expecting a refund. Just my 2 cents worth.
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