These four speakers are easily, in my opinion, the best in stand-mounted(well the Kharmas aren't) two way mini monitor I've have yet to hear...
1. Raidho D1
2. Magician mini II
3. Khama mini exquisite
4. Evolution acoustics mmmico1
I would like to combine the best elements of these in an attempt at a cost no object dyi mini monitor, assuming I have some time this summer. I'm considering using a custom accustom bass midrange incorporating some of the technology found in all of these. The holes made in the accustom drivers by Kharma and then weighted to reduce ringing, for example.
1. Raidho D1
2. Magician mini II
3. Khama mini exquisite
4. Evolution acoustics mmmico1
I would like to combine the best elements of these in an attempt at a cost no object dyi mini monitor, assuming I have some time this summer. I'm considering using a custom accustom bass midrange incorporating some of the technology found in all of these. The holes made in the accustom drivers by Kharma and then weighted to reduce ringing, for example.
Really stupid question. Did you hear any of the speakers in your toplist? Not to be posh, i heard quite some "high end" systems. If you go "cost no object" i would be inclined to at least put some of the cost in hearing some of them. And what you like about them. From your list i only liked the Kharma mini (well done for as far a ceramic coned speaker can go!). I remember a "high end" seance complete with dead silent listeners of an Wilson Audio Alexandria XLF in a big threated room at a very exclusive high end dealer. They played a piece of piano. HORRIBLE
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Yah I did and I'm aware of their flaws (I.e. Mini tweeter from Scanspeak is a bit bright) and I am not a Wilson fanboy by any means in fact I think they're abit overrated, just my opinion though. There are certain things that I would like to capture from each the, the midrange magic from the Kharma and Magico mini, the almost full range bass response, realism and the tweeter performance from the ea mmicro1 and the raidho d1.
Apologies for raining on your parade. I might have been a bit harsh. My prelimanary attempt at an ultimate minimonitor would be:
TB titanium 4 inch:
Tang Band W4-1337SD 4" Titanium Driver | 264-848
Dayton AMT:
Dayton Audio AMT Mini-8 Air Motion Transformer Tweeter | 275-095
AMT as helper tweeter 5 > kHz, where even Batman would not hear the combfiltering.... Imho it goes like this: paper and softdome, don't need steep x-overs, sounds very natural, but lacks detail. Ceramics, metal woofers and tweeters. Lots of detail, sadly the higher order x-over kills the impuls / phase response. In other words piano on a humble 3 or 4 inch fullrange speaker might sound better than the "megabucks" space age materials speaker. I am sure i will be corrected by people who are more in the know. But this is what i hear, might as well be the phenolics kicking in ymmv.
TB titanium 4 inch:
Tang Band W4-1337SD 4" Titanium Driver | 264-848
Dayton AMT:
Dayton Audio AMT Mini-8 Air Motion Transformer Tweeter | 275-095
AMT as helper tweeter 5 > kHz, where even Batman would not hear the combfiltering.... Imho it goes like this: paper and softdome, don't need steep x-overs, sounds very natural, but lacks detail. Ceramics, metal woofers and tweeters. Lots of detail, sadly the higher order x-over kills the impuls / phase response. In other words piano on a humble 3 or 4 inch fullrange speaker might sound better than the "megabucks" space age materials speaker. I am sure i will be corrected by people who are more in the know. But this is what i hear, might as well be the phenolics kicking in ymmv.
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lol, but still it might be a good starting point, if you're into exotic materials. I have seen people go grey haired over x-overing ceramic units....At least the overall power response of a 4 inch + AMT would be reasonably ok. 7 inch and 1 inch dome dunno.
More to the point, what would the topic starter like to know? And is his listening room more mini,mini,monitor or 7 inch monitor. (whatever monitor may mean).
More to the point, what would the topic starter like to know? And is his listening room more mini,mini,monitor or 7 inch monitor. (whatever monitor may mean).
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I'm sorry but I can't live with the bass that combo would provide, only reason I could consider a mini monitor is because of midrange magic, also looking on accuton website, they do custom work, I would probably get a very pricey diamond foam carbon foam ceramic foam carbon foam diamond with holes lasered through and weighted to minimize the ringing prob
It all comes down to your skills and experience as a designer and builder. You can buy the most expensive, highest performing drivers in the world and build a horrible loudspeaker. You can also buy average or even low cost drivers and build amazing speaker.
Expensive/high performance drivers only give you an opportunity and often easier crossover design possibility.
Based on the initial question, I would suggest to build someones design that's been well documented and established.
TB is a high performance smallish midwoofer. If I am not mostaken it's used in the Statement design. Dayton AMT is not a high performance driver. I'd stay away from it.
Expensive/high performance drivers only give you an opportunity and often easier crossover design possibility.
Based on the initial question, I would suggest to build someones design that's been well documented and established.
TB is a high performance smallish midwoofer. If I am not mostaken it's used in the Statement design. Dayton AMT is not a high performance driver. I'd stay away from it.
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Yah but they got some probs namely in the ringing depart, they perform excellently and r very linear but the ringing is what causes the wave phenomenon in the frequency response graph
Well I have some very smart friends in the crossover design and cabinet design department, if all else fails I could use an Avalon-like enclosure
Duh but these r some of the worse in terms of ringing, they would be very flat but the frequency response spikes when they ring, otherwise they would be fairly linear
they are not the worse in terms of ringing. Ringing or cone break up is fairly high up and under normal circumstances would be filtered out. There's nothing unusual there.
Two variables required to make a good speaker: (1) Performance of the drivers, are the ceiling or potential that you can achieve with (2) performance of the designer.
Most if not all performance of the drivers can be seen simply from measurements of individual drivers.
You want a light cone for ultimate resolution, but in order to reduce flexing (which causes distortion) you want it rigid. Not many elements can be used here, and the price can exponentially get high and high. The diamond is probably the best (used in the Raidho). Ceramic (used by Accuton) is probably the best in term of (1) Performance per cost, or (2) Rigidity per weight.
Distortion test results are your best friends here when they are available. John Krutke has several independent measurement examples of some drivers.
Fs (resonance frequency) is the ceiling of bass performance. It is the weakest link in mini monitor performance. If you want all good virtues of above monitors, you have to get an Fs equal to the lowest of the four.
Midrange "magic" can be (1) perfect execution of the crossover (2) second order distortion.
All good speaker designers know what to do with EVERY technical variables, but then there is subjective performance that requires good ears or listening skill.
..might be kind of interesting to do a very large stand-mount 2 way based on Paul W's Raptor.. but with an identical 2nd horn-loaded mid-tweet in the rear out of phase (dipolar) and using these mid-bass drivers instead of the Excel 10" from Seas:
http://www.expolinear.de/images/stories/expolinear grlich tt 245 g.pdf
Podszus-Görlich TT245G - AUDIO CONSTRUCTOR -
Paul's Raptors:
http://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php?35812-The-Raptor-a-10-quot-MTM
..not cheap, and not small though.
..and of course all piano-black (except for the shiny midbass drivers).
http://www.expolinear.de/images/stories/expolinear grlich tt 245 g.pdf
Podszus-Görlich TT245G - AUDIO CONSTRUCTOR -
Paul's Raptors:
http://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php?35812-The-Raptor-a-10-quot-MTM
..not cheap, and not small though.
..and of course all piano-black (except for the shiny midbass drivers).
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You don't need expensive drive units to get good sound. A good sounding speakers is very much dependent on the sum if its whole, very good sound is available from treated paper for eg. Focus on xover and design, cabinet construction and of course drive units to fit the desired bandwidth. Best to listen and voice drivers when choosing , unless it has changed over the years the coloration on the accuton type drivers were unacceptable to me , very unnatural sounding.
A few however.. 
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