Has any one used the Aurum Cantus AC-130MKII mid woofer? I tought it looked promising and models well in a MLTL so thought I would try it out. Finally got the cabinet built and a very rough X over just to see how it sounded last night. After a bit of a warm up my jaw dropped. No woofer costing less than $100 should sound this good. Smooth midrange, and the TL cabinet really brings out some nice deep bass. Very clean and natural sound, brilliant for acoustic music. It has blown away my metal SEAS based projects. Some one really should test this woofer.
mandoman said:
I have 20 of them in my Selah Audio line arrays. Yes, I agree that it is a fine driver that doesn't get talked about much. I expect that they'll be phased out soon. Aurum Cantus has a new motor design that is listed on their website that appears to be a real step forward in low distortion design. I think they'll continue to offer the carbon fiber/Kevlar cone however.
It's a darn nice driver.
Jim
augerpro said:
Hi Brandon,
Sorry, I don't have any response plots. My line arrays are a custom design by Selah Audio so Rick did all of the measurements and crossover development.
It's interesting that PE had them on sale and didn't have them in stock.
I think the new drivers that are replacing the MKII's will be a killer design if the motor tests as well as it looks.Jim
jholtz said:
Hi Brandon,
Sorry, I don't have any response plots. My line arrays are a custom design by Selah Audio so Rick did all of the measurements and crossover development.
It's interesting that PE had them on sale and didn't have them in stock.
Jim
Yeah that got me kinda bent when I ordered those drivers on sale and then get an email saying they are backordered. I wonder if these will be the same model being sold to get rid of old stock or one of the new revisions? Hope it's the latter.
scottericsonon said:
Zaph tested them.
http://www.zaphaudio.com/5.5test/compare.html
3rd order distortion gets kind of ugly around 1800 Hz. so you'd want to cross low for the best sound quality.
Jim
AURUM CANTUS
I am quickly becoming a fan of this company. I have two AC-200MK2 woofers that I will be matching to Vifa's DX25TG-05-04 tweeter. I also just received four AC-130F-1 drivers (5.25'') that I am waiting to use in the right project. These are the square frame ones. John "Zaph" Krutke tested this particular driver and has the results on his site. http://www.zaphaudio.com/5.5test/
They are available in round but nobody seems to carry the round ones.
These are amazing drivers. The build quality is second to none.
http://www.aurumcantus.com/aurumcantus-midwoofer/index_midwoofer.htm
I am quickly becoming a fan of this company. I have two AC-200MK2 woofers that I will be matching to Vifa's DX25TG-05-04 tweeter. I also just received four AC-130F-1 drivers (5.25'') that I am waiting to use in the right project. These are the square frame ones. John "Zaph" Krutke tested this particular driver and has the results on his site. http://www.zaphaudio.com/5.5test/
They are available in round but nobody seems to carry the round ones.
These are amazing drivers. The build quality is second to none.
http://www.aurumcantus.com/aurumcantus-midwoofer/index_midwoofer.htm
Well I now have the second speaker going and I am really impressed with these mid woofers (AC130Mk2). Imaging is excellent, with good separation between instruments and very smooth accurate sound. Still have more work to do, but these are going to seriously challenge my electrostatic. These are by far the best sounding speaker I have made. Excellent classical music/folk/jazz etc speakers which is just what I am after. I have used the North Creek D28 tweeter which is a very nice sounding dome, and it seems to integrate well with these mid woofers. The NC D28 is underappreciated IMHO (excellent sounding tweeter and build quality second to none), but unfortunately now not available to the DIY community. Gotta admit I am now a fan of Aurum Cantus because I really like their ribbon tweeters as well, and build quality of their products is excellent.
Just ordered a pair of the new model mid woofers (AC130/50CK), the Oz distributer has them in stock so could not resist. I will see if I can take some pictures when they arrive. Comments from the local distributer have been very positive about the new models and after a marathon session at the computer I think I have found a way to get an acceptable result from the MLTL cabinet with some mods. Not ruler flat to 40Hz like the old woofer, but should be OK (I hope). More later.
Just ordered a pair of the new model mid woofers (AC130/50CK), the Oz distributer has them in stock so could not resist. I will see if I can take some pictures when they arrive. Comments from the local distributer have been very positive about the new models and after a marathon session at the computer I think I have found a way to get an acceptable result from the MLTL cabinet with some mods. Not ruler flat to 40Hz like the old woofer, but should be OK (I hope). More later.
A clone of the Grand Supreme would be a fun project
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
AC130/F1
The AC130/50CK seems a bit bumpy from 1Khz to 5Khz. It has a higher power rating but a little bit lower QTS. than the AC130/ F1 which is virtually flat across the board. Just out of curiousity I hooked up one of the AC130/F1 drivers last night using a PE x-over that I use to check driver condition. The x-over is 2nd LR at 2500. The tweeter for the test was the North D25-06S. This was not a serious test in any way but I just wanted to hear the driver. My findings are what I expected. The lows are not bad for such a small driver but the mids are very nice indeed. Very clean and detailed. Vocals and acoustic guitar bu such groups as The Eagles etc. are great but modern recordings such as Keane, The Church and Sade seem to lose some of that airy quality. So as it seems I made the right choice for a good clean mid. I'm happy.
For something interesting on the AC130/F1, check out Lou's page here: http://www.lonesaguaro.com/speakers/ac/KanToo.htm
The AC130/50CK seems a bit bumpy from 1Khz to 5Khz. It has a higher power rating but a little bit lower QTS. than the AC130/ F1 which is virtually flat across the board. Just out of curiousity I hooked up one of the AC130/F1 drivers last night using a PE x-over that I use to check driver condition. The x-over is 2nd LR at 2500. The tweeter for the test was the North D25-06S. This was not a serious test in any way but I just wanted to hear the driver. My findings are what I expected. The lows are not bad for such a small driver but the mids are very nice indeed. Very clean and detailed. Vocals and acoustic guitar bu such groups as The Eagles etc. are great but modern recordings such as Keane, The Church and Sade seem to lose some of that airy quality. So as it seems I made the right choice for a good clean mid. I'm happy.
For something interesting on the AC130/F1, check out Lou's page here: http://www.lonesaguaro.com/speakers/ac/KanToo.htm
Well the AC graphs of the AC130/50CK look bumpy, but look at the scale on the graph. The bumps are only 2db so are not such a problem.
Looking at these drivers they really are quite unusual. They are really big for a 5 & 1/2", weigh more than 2kg each! The voice coil is also unusually big (50mm), most drivers of this size have 25mm voice coils, but the dust cap is still small. Result is an unusually high BL, high voice coil inductance and resulting low Qts. The high voice coil inductance is likely to lower high frequency output. Indeed, if you examine the specs of the older driver, it does appear that high frequencies are attenuated. However, most carbon fibre and kevlar drivers have some nasty breakup and AC seem to have reduced this and maybe a high voice coil inductance helps. These drivers are also unusually well ventilated. There is ventilation under the spider and a huge rear vent through the centre of the magnet. End result is a very high power handling (150watts) for a small driver and an xmax of 6mm which is also unusually big for a driver in this price range. Also there are copper shorting rings to lower distortion usually found only in pricey drivers. Then I could be talking out through my backside since I know very little about driver design, but is an interesting driver with some interesting design decisions. Don't know how they can do all this for the price.
Just wish I could do something with them so I could hear how they sound, but at the moment I can barely walk and can't lift any weight.
Looking at these drivers they really are quite unusual. They are really big for a 5 & 1/2", weigh more than 2kg each! The voice coil is also unusually big (50mm), most drivers of this size have 25mm voice coils, but the dust cap is still small. Result is an unusually high BL, high voice coil inductance and resulting low Qts. The high voice coil inductance is likely to lower high frequency output. Indeed, if you examine the specs of the older driver, it does appear that high frequencies are attenuated. However, most carbon fibre and kevlar drivers have some nasty breakup and AC seem to have reduced this and maybe a high voice coil inductance helps. These drivers are also unusually well ventilated. There is ventilation under the spider and a huge rear vent through the centre of the magnet. End result is a very high power handling (150watts) for a small driver and an xmax of 6mm which is also unusually big for a driver in this price range. Also there are copper shorting rings to lower distortion usually found only in pricey drivers. Then I could be talking out through my backside since I know very little about driver design, but is an interesting driver with some interesting design decisions. Don't know how they can do all this for the price.
Just wish I could do something with them so I could hear how they sound, but at the moment I can barely walk and can't lift any weight.
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