Ikea bowl speaker drivers

[polop1]

Hello there i am looking for a couple of decent 4 inch full range drivers for a 20cm ikea bowl set of speakers (a popular design for spherical speakers). I have previously only been using car speakers as they are cheap - but i am now tempted by the aspect of true HIFI. the speakers will be a roughly 20cm sphere, poly fluff stuffing, and driven by an amp6 basic from 41hz.
i cannot find any drivers suitable for this sealed enclosure, especially none that are cheap in the UK. any help will be appreciated

[Inductor]

I knew Ikea had a future selling speakers.
Ciare HX101

[sreten]

Hi Vi Research Drivers

Hi,

the B3N from the above, is decent value. See Zaphs site for more
info and search this site for B3N spherical speakers, a few threads.

rgds, sreten.

Zaph|Audio
FRD Consortium tools guide

[planet10]

3rd set of drivers down the page....

CHR-70 in UK

In an unusual state of being price competitive with everywhere else in the world!!

dave

[planet10]

Originally Posted by planet10

..

CHR-70 in UK

Just noted that your bowls are the medium size bowls. 3" is a better choice.

dave

[polop1]

once again budget is my enemy, from what I have read on the linked site the b3n needs corrective filters and the like aswell as costing £30 pounds delivered, and requiring a sub to make them listenable. i was hoping i could make a half decent small 2.0 system with the small bowls, i could co for the larger bowls increasing the cost but then i guess i would need a 2 way design doubling the cost of the drivers and thin introducing my phobia of crossovers once more any comments, i know you must get the "I would like things to be cheeper" thing allot

The main thing is i would like the enclosure to be basically perfect - then i can upgrade drivers and or add a sub. but if there is a set of drivers that can be implemented easily (minimal filtering) that can be purchased delivered for about £20-£30 that would not require a sub to play listenable music, as i said i would prefer using the smaller bowls as my space is limited and the large bowls cost double.

Drivers i own are some cheaper 4 inch coaxials that seem ok (car speakers) and a quite nice set of 6.5 inch components (with tweeter and crossovers) but agian from car audio. so i could use these speakers - ?

[kristleifur]

polop1 - Interesting project, but rather difficult constraints I think you might want to "cheat" a little – if you use a computer, then you can do all correction in software, plus very advanced bass boost which can give you surprisingly low bass if you're willing to listen nearfield.

This Japanese gentleman gets 30Hz bass out of 2" drivers with software EQ: Alpair 5 Review by LeanAudio of Japan | Markaudio

(I'd go for the CHR-70 and the bigger bowls, by the way. More driver area, more flexibility & leeway for experimentation, more grunt and lower bass out of the box. Worth it, if you have the extra cash at all.)

Edit: The Omnes BB 3.01 three-inch drivers have sounded REALLY good in any boxes I've put them in, and haven't required filtering IMO: http://www.spectrumaudio.de/breit/om...dioBB3.01.html

[polop1]

yes ideally i would use the chr 70's but £55+ P&P + VAT they are going to be not far off 100 pounds on thier own :/ plus larger bowls at £48 for the lot i am buying the amp, cables, paint, etc on a student budget living in london :/ £200 is not the cheap but fun sound system i am after (as well as 2 huge foot wide balls on my desk needing to be transported and at that money i could get a reasonable 2.1 system that would sound quite nice but diy makes me proud
any sources of those tang band ones you linked ?

[kristleifur]

Yeah Frugality is challenging, but it's more fun in the end. (As long as one watches out for analysis paralysis, to which I succumb so easily!)

Well spotted by the way, those are indeed manufactured by Tang Band – but for the European company Omnes Audio as type BB 3.01. (Mentioning this so that you'll be googling around for the right terms.) Sources include direct from spectrumaudio.de - here's an ordering info page: ORDER SpectrumAudio-Spezialvertrieb für Breitbandlautsprecher und mehr – here's their giant price list: Übersicht Breitbandlautsprecher

... They're also available from Strassacker: Lautsprecher - Boxen - Selbstbau and Europe-Audio: BB 3.01 - Omnes Audio 3 inch full range driver - Europe Audio

I've just noticed that the BB 3.01's are about as expensive as the CHR-70 though. Hmm ... IMO the €30-per-driver mark is the sweet spot of price vs. performance.

A a step lower in the price ladder, but still one worth taking, are the €20/per drivers. The B3N is an example, as well as the Tang-Band W3-871S, which was/is a quite popular 3" driver. It's about the same as the B3N, €20 per. As I understand it, the B3N has a clearer mid/high range, but its bass is tubby if you have it put out stuff below 100Hz. (I.e. it is debatable whether it's usable below 100Hz.) The W3-871 has the advantage that it's quite a bit more sensitive, so you don't need as strong an amplifier, plus you can squeeze quite a lot of surprisingly good deep bass out of it with digital EQing or a larger cabinet. I.e., the W3-871 series is more flexible than the B3N, especially if you want to try to go subwooferless. Here's the unshielded version, W3-871B, at €19 per: Tangband Breitbandlautsprecher W3-871B

As I'm on the subject: The BB 3.01 behaves a lot like the W3-871. More bass, clearer mids+highs, needs less correction, noticeably smoother. I'd advise making note of it and seeing if it can fit your budget.

––

Edit: Oh, I just saw that you'll be using the Amp6! Excellent choice, sir This does rather limit which drivers you can choose. I'd strongly advise against the B3N in this case – its dB/W sensitivity is simply too low. You'll definitely want to take 4 Ohm drivers, and ones w/ efficiency at least 85dB/W or higher - preferably 87-88dB/W and up. I must say, the Omnes BB 3.01 driver is really the perfect simple inexpensive driver for the Amp6!

––

Lots of info here, but know this: No matter which route exactly you'll take from here, you're going to have FAR better sound than you'll get out of any sub-200-pound 2.1 system. If not, I'll eat my hat and post it on Youtube!

[type]

You can't go wrong with the W3-871s. It's one of the smoothest 3 inchers out there (IMO). Better than the Hivi B3s/n. A better choice is the Fountek Fr88ex. I just got a pair and they are shockingly good right out of the box. I have to say, they sound better than my W3-871's.

I also just got a pair of Aura NS3's from Madisound. These are also great little drivers with more bass than the Fr88ex and the 871s.

For a smaller room any one of these would be hard to beat.