Which 8" full range or coaxial for $150/less?

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
I like the idea, but that would need crossover work done and this isn't something I'm capable of designing on my own. If I did go that direction, then the "Overnight Sensations" combined with a midwoofer would be something I look into, provided it has good off axis response. Which I'm not sure if it does.

The crossover should be easy. With that range, you can use a simple first order crossover, i.e. single inductor and single capacitor. You can start with some online calculators and tune it to your taste, but most of the time they work without much messing.

Here's one to start with.
 
Thanks everyone, for the help. I hate it when other people don't "close" a thread by letting others know what they decided on.
So to let you know, my concerns about midbass capability and overall SPL vs. cost won out and I ended up buying some $600 retail (but much lower street) 8" coaxial Pioneer S-IW851-LR. Got 'em for $130 shipped NIB.

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=250-720

Just need to figure out what enclosure size & port tune, and this will be heading over to my friends house in a few weeks for testing.
I'll prolly go with 1 cu.ft. tuned to 40hz in light of not having any parameters to go on.
 

Attachments

  • S-IW851-LR.jpg
    S-IW851-LR.jpg
    6.8 KB · Views: 371
Thanks again everyone, for the help. Just wanted to update with the final results.
It sounds amazing!!!!
Far better than I was expecting. And it sounds good almost everywhere in the room, despite the mounting location challenges!

-------------------------------------

Here are the home theater custom speakers I designed, purchased parts for and built. I installed it all this Christmas Eve at my Cousins house.

The before picture. He is used to a Sony "home theater in a box" type setup with tiny cube like speakers.
Ughh.
0_Before.jpg


So I designed custom fit speakers to fit into the cabinet cubby holes, since his wife wouldn't let speakers
be placed anywhere else. Because the speakers are mounted so far down, below ear level, it took a lot of
planning to find speakers that would sound good off-axis within the budget. I decided on TAD inspired Pioneer
piston tweeter mounted 8" coaxials for the main speakers. Doing away with any center channel since there wasn't
room and it wasn't really needed. We use "phantom center" on the AVR to compensate.
Then I didn't have much room for the subwoofer, so I decided on a small, ported, high-xmax 12" TC Sounds Epic
subwoofer tuned to 24hz with a 300 watt digital amp. It worked perfectly!

Here are the build pics.

8" coaxial speaker cabinets.
IMG_3609.jpg


IMG_3606.jpg


The Sony cube speaker sitting on top of the finished 8" coaxial cabinet for size comparison.
Note the rounded edges on all the cabinets I built.
IMG_3871.jpg


The subwoofer build.
IMG_3536.jpg


The first sub, a used 12" Eminence Lab 12 sounded awesome but died during testing.
IMG_3539.jpg


Fiberglass batting to reduce high bass reflections.
IMG_3540.jpg


And the old Sony sub next to the new, finished 12" ported sub for size comparison.
IMG_3872.jpg


Installed pics.
IMG_3876.jpg


IMG_3877.jpg


Once again, the "before" pic.
0_Before.jpg

And now the "new" pic, complete with accoustic transparency cloth grill covering.
IMG_3882.jpg


My camera had a hard time capturing the pics without making the cloth look dirty.
It's not, the cloth is absolutely beautiful when viewed in person! More "white" looking than it is in the pic.
IMG_3885.jpg
 
Hey everyone, so my Cousin's have been really happy with the system for the last thirteen months. And have decided to remodel the entertainment system to fit a larger TV and allow me to upgrade the speakers.

Unfortunately, the constraints are still similar in that I need speakers that work well - vertical off axis.
But at least now, everything will be centered in the room!

The new subwoofer will be a Bill Fitzmaurice TubaHT (THT) horn subwoofer. It'll stand tall in the cabinet area and be hidden behind drywall. This sub is clean up to 80hz and gets a bit wonky above that.

Subwoofer is usually about 3db "hot" because these folks aren't audiophiles and c'mon, we all like our movies to shake things around a bit. :)

My new speaker cabinet dimensions available to me are 35h x 10w x 10d. This gives me about 1.2 cu.ft. of internal volume to work with.

I can either re-use the existing Pioneer speakers. Comments on those from my Cousins have been "sound great, but lack bass". So, I'm hoping to find a better speaker setup that has more bass for POP music.

Any suggestions?

Here is a pic of the newly proposed entertainment center.
Each square represents ~6".
Their ears will be about 37" above ground, about 12' from the speakers.
The speakers will be about 54" above ground.
Unfortunately, the wife has mandated the speakers be built into psuedo columns.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.