Alternatives to the Silver Iris?

[theAnonymous1]

I recently bought a pair of 15" Silver Iris coaxial drivers, but I'm less than satisfied. While they are very good sounding drivers, the mid-bass is just too muddy for me. I think this is due to the high Qts.

What alternatives are there that have a lower Qts? How about the BETA-12CX or BETA-10CX? I can't really find any reviews on how they sound.

Anything else in the $100 per driver range?

[johninCR]

You might consider using the SI woofer as a bass augmenter with just about any fullranger on top to get the mids you are after. In one of my alignments, I use them as a 2-in-1 speaker. Fostex FE108's on top with the SI woofer for bass fill with just a 1st order filter. Then for loud listening, I flip 2 switches to cut the 108's and kick in the big coax with it's tweet using that stock XO.

[theAnonymous1]

I like the idea of a coaxial for the mid-bass/mids/highs and I already have 4 15's for bass duty. I'm just looking for another coaxial that has tighter mid-bass. It doesn't need to play very low. Flat down to 100hz is good enough for me.

How does the midrange of the BETA-12CX sound? I see the cone doesn't have any...ummmm, ring things (brain fart, can't think of what their called).

[johninCR]

Can't you lower Q by putting a resistor across the terminals? Also, are you filtering the bass frequencies away from the coax woofer? Playing low frequencies always seems to muddy up the mids to me.

[JandG]

I would cut the bass off that coax..@ 150hz or so..go active on those 4x15 " & then tweek it from there. If I had the Silver Iris I would use something line level or just complete active. Plates & something active for the fullranges & ability to bring in a tweeter of choice. JohninCR is lucky with his speaker mangement system. Extremely flexible. Vintage Alnico coax might be a good bet also as super high Qts is of not much consern if you go active bi-amp with plates or whatever. Alnico has a major tone differance to me for the good in the low mids & mids. yep I would go vintage.. or work that Iris over..

[theAnonymous1]

I have a full active setup, 6-channels. The SI's don't have the help of the 4 15's yet. I still need to finish(start) their ripole cabs.

Maybe I'll try high passing them even though I don't have a bass setup yet. I still think they will be missing that "snap" I'm looking for.

I would still like to know how the BETA-12CX would stack up against the SI.

[mashaffer]

Maybe Darrel will switch your old ones for the new 10"ers. BTW how big are your baffles? I understand that the bass gets a bit heavy if the baffle is too wide or the drivers too close to the floor.

mike

[mpmarino]

I would still like to know how the BETA-12CX would stack up against the SI.

I wouldn't recommend the 12CX for hifi .. Please note I've only used the psd2002 compression driver. Maybe it could be quite better with another tweeter.?

I have a bit more info if you'd send me an email...

[holdent]

the mid-bass is just too muddy for me. I think this is due to the high Qts.

What are your baffle dimensions and where have you located the SIs on them? Your experiences don't match mine with the SIs and I suspect you have a baffle problem not a driver Qts problem. Try a 18 x 38" baffle with the driver at 21" up from the bottom. This is where I found the best balance. As well OB speakers are sensitive to positioning - make sure they're more than 1 m out from the back wall.

For me the Hawthorne Silver Iris' produce a great open relaxed sound. They are even better with an additional 15" woofer to augment the bass. I couldn't afford Hawthorne's Augies but I very happy with the less expensive Eminence Alpha 15As.

[jrd]

( Can't you lower Q by putting a resistor across the terminals? )

John:

Do you know how to calculate the new Q with the parallel resistor?

TIA,

John