Tang Band Full Range project

[mikje]

I picked up some Tang Band W4-657SH 4 inch drivers for $5 a while back. I put them in ported boxes I built using WinISD. Not impressed.
Meanwhile, I noticed some wooden ice buckets on clearance at Target a few weeks ago. They looked about the right size to use for speaker cabs... someday.
Today was the day. I took the TBs out of the ported cabs, and put them in the sealed ice buckets, and...Wow! What a difference. They sounded great. After they played for a few hours and broke in a little, they sounded even better.
The cabs are about 346 cubic inches, which is pretty far from what WinISD called for (maybe I'm not using WinISD properly).
I'm running them off a Velleman DIY amp I bought from PE. Between the amp and the speakers, my DIY button is being pushed. Lots of fun, and the sound is impressive.

Mike

[Godzilla]

I always thought all the TBs i've tried sounded great in sealed cabs.

But they can also sound great in other cabs too... like simple ported:

http://www.zillaaudio.com/tb-1320-bamboo.htm

Godzilla

[fakeout]

How often does it happen that WinISD doesn't work well (like in the first post)?

[kctess5]

Do you have a sub? My sealed TB towers have absolutely no bass, they drop off around 150Hz.

They sound great over the rest of the range though

Those look cool

[Godzilla]

Often drivers dont sound good even in cabinets designed using WinISD or any other app (is there an app for simming speakers for the iPad?). Sometimes I think leaving too little space behind the driver causes congestion. Tho mike's enclosures may have been similar volumes the cylindrical enclosures leave ample room for the driver to operate without immediate back wave interference... Imo

[fastbike1]

For starters, you don't know whether WinISD was used properly in this case. Further you don't know whether the published specs for the drivers reflect the actual specs. My experience has been that TB drivers measured specs tend to be further from published, more often than Dayton, Peerless, HiVi drivers.

You also don't know if the box was built correctly. WinISD just gives a box size. Zilla makes a point about backwave. The box needs some treatment to handle backwave and resonance. You don't know anything about the actual box.

Originally Posted by fakeout

How often does it happen that WinISD doesn't work well (like in the first post)?