TangBand W8-1772

[ziocalepino]

Hello, a guy here in Italy spoke me about TangBand W8-1772 full range speaker. He told that it sounds very well at a non to great price. He suggests me to use a bass reflex enclosure, the Fostex' one plan for FE206. What do you think about all this: quality of TangBand and bass reflex enclosure?
Thanks to all of you
Ziocalepino

[kenpeter]

Sounds just like Lowther to me, in every way that I personally dislike.
Maybe I just have tin ears? I could never use, even if price was $0.

My friend owns a pair of these and has tried every type of cabinet:
Open baffle, sealed box, relex, double reflex, horn, Karlson. There is
just no fix, I don't know why he bothers to keep trying. Where do
the good reviews come from? Do reviews write without hearing it?

I feel this whizzer cone to be an unfortunate size. Small 1" whizzers
and big 4" whizzers (Beta12LTA) with or without phase plug do not
fatigue my ears. Play this or any 2inch whizzer, I will quickly leave
the room. Slightly off axis is OK, everywhere else is too "silibant?".
Not exactly, but something sort of like that. Don't have right word
to describe. Its in the vocal range somewhere...

There is an unintentional added sound, not a natural part of music.
A blindfolded man can clearly identify this size of whizzer in use.

The quality of the craftsmanship is fine, I don't believe that to be
the problem. Its a very nice looking, even well made. If anything
that sounds so awful could be forgiven just cause its well made?

[hm]

Hello,
for BR take the W8-1808,
better TS for BR,
i would prefer a sat Horn
or a double horn for the 1772
like SCHALMEI, RDH20, SAXOPHON

[Pit Hinder]

Hi,
value for money is quite OK with Tangband (having said that, I don´t know what they cost in Bella Italia). As to them sounding "harsh"...you have that with 8" drivers that are not strangled to sound "soft". Don´t have them shout into your ears, aim them at a point 1m in front of you. Good bonus effect: the Sweet Spot will be wide enough for your gilfriend sharing the music.

Pit

[Bob Brines]

Originally Posted by ziocalepino

Hello, a guy here in Italy spoke me about TangBand W8-1772 full range speaker. He told that it sounds very well at a non to great price. He suggests me to use a bass reflex enclosure, the Fostex' one plan for FE206. What do you think about all this: quality of TangBand and bass reflex enclosure?
Thanks to all of you
Ziocalepino

The 1772 works fine in a BR. I recommend ~40L net with a 3"x4" port. This will give an F10 in the 30's. I know that the 1808 gets a lot more play here, but it requires a MUCH bigger BR, so much so that I recommend that it be used in a MLTL rather than a BR. The 1808 is better for an OB, but why waste an 8"er on an OB?

As to sibilance on axis, most FR drivers are top heavy on axis. At 15* off axis the 1772 is wonderful. It is the only FR driver I have found that goes above 10kHz at 15*.

Bob

[Defo]

Originally Posted by kenpeter

Sounds just like Lowther to me, in every way that I personally dislike.
Maybe I just have tin ears? I could never use, even if price was $0.

My friend owns a pair of these and has tried every type of cabinet:
Open baffle, sealed box, relex, double reflex, horn, Karlson. There is
just no fix, I don't know why he bothers to keep trying. Where do
the good reviews come from? Do reviews write without hearing it?

I feel this whizzer cone to be an unfortunate size. Small 1" whizzers
and big 4" whizzers (Beta12LTA) with or without phase plug do not
fatigue my ears. Play this or any 2inch whizzer, I will quickly leave
the room. Slightly off axis is OK, everywhere else is too "silibant?".
Not exactly, but something sort of like that. Don't have right word
to describe. Its in the vocal range somewhere...

There is an unintentional added sound, not a natural part of music.
A blindfolded man can clearly identify this size of whizzer in use.

The quality of the craftsmanship is fine, I don't believe that to be
the problem. Its a very nice looking, even well made. If anything
that sounds so awful could be forgiven just cause its well made?

I hope your friend was smart enough to correct the rising response of this driver? If not, no wonder it sounded harsh...

And this driver is miles above any Lowther driver, which I sometimes wonder what the "developers" were thinking when they developed drivers like the EX3...

[Godzilla]

>>> The 1808 is better for an OB, but why waste an 8"er on an OB?

Every driver on those baffles can be considered wasteful. Along with that tube amp, tube cd player and all that excess wire. But it's fun! Simon & Garfunkel have been playing in my listening room for days as i sketch on my new drafting table into the night.

The B20 in the lower right corner also sounds good on OB... but not as good as the TB. Every 8" driver I've simmed, regardless of specs, seems to make it to 200hz on OB (Fostex, TB, Dayton, Eminence, B20, etc...) with a natural roll off that matches up nicely with an H-frame or OB woofer like the Alpha 15s in the pic. 8" drivers with high Qts (1 or higher) sim out to around 100hz and drop quickly after that. The TB 1808s do 'tone' right but are not perfect. They are lively and punchy sounding with detail galore without sounding strident or harsh to me. I can live with them happily in many different types of cabinets... even all by themselves. The 1772s must be good but for me were less flexible in terms of what i was capable of making for them. Bob is right that the 1808 requires a much larger br box (or BIB for that matter) than the 1772. If you are not opposed to adding a circuit to flatten their curve the 1772 is a better choice if you want a smaller cabinet. Having said that the 1808 sounds really nice in a small sealed cab without any circuit... at the expense of low bass. Add a sub and you will be very happy imo.

It might be a while before i get back to 'box' speakers... but i'm certain i will eventually.

[Bob Brines]

My point is that while a given 8" driver may well sound very nice on an OB, the low frequency roll-off is a function of the baffle size, not a function of the driver size. ANY sized driver will roll off at exactly the same frequency (assuming that the driver will reach that frequency). As good as the 1772/1808 may be, a 3-4in driver is going to have a better top end. Use an 8" driver in a cabinet that will allow it to get some bass.

Bob

[Racket Scientist]

I think I've about settled on using my 1808s on a different open baffle and roll them off to woofers at about 100 - 200 Hz, despite all that waste of displacement. Now I'm thinking about the top end, whether to try to add a supertweeter above around 12 - 15 KHz or just leave well enough alone. Unless I stumble across a really good supertweeter at a reasonable price I'll probably just try to optimize what I get from the TBs. I plan to try putting a Zobel on and see if that smooths out the top end further. The TB plot of frequency response shows quite a bit of output up to 20 KHz, of course that would be on axis. Any idea where that output tails off above there? One other thought I had was to put some sort of diffuser in front of the speaker rather than using a Zobel, hopefully preserving more of the high end output but make the beaming less problematic.

[Bob Brines]

What specifically about the top end are you trying to fix? If the 1808 is anything like the 1772, it will do 15kHz 30* off axis.

Bob