Sweet little $15 Woofer/Midbass

[discreteouts]

Hello fellow DIYers, Just wanted to offer a heads up on some sweet midbasses over at Parts Express. They ran these as a buyout before and I bought four of them. That was a long time ago, and I was suprised to see them back. Though I have had no project materialize from them yet, I have messed with them enough to know they are a great deal at $15(US) in quantities of 4 or more, $25ea if buying fewer than 4. Carbon fiber cones highlite these drivers. Originally used, or at least made for, Alesis' Active M1 MII Studio Monitors . Here is the PE link if anyone is interested . BTW I just ordered six more for myself, bringing my total to ten. I need more drivers like I need another hole in my head, at least according to my GF.

[critofur]

Have you measured one yet? I ordered 4 myself. I was guessing that they might have some nasty breakup similar to metal cones as Carbon Fiber has a very high Q.

I was thinking that they have decent bass output for their size and decent power handling, so, even without seeing the FR graph I could still guess that they would be good drivers for small "2.5" way speakers .

I'd be pleasantly surprised if they had a smooth top end, but since Alesis used them with an 8th order active crossover, I wouldn't count on them being good with lower order high crossover points without seeing some measured response graphs...

I wish Parts Express would stop having woofers for sale without the FR graphs I posted a request on their forum asking, I'll go see if I got any replies now...

[MisterTwister]

does this woofer have vented pole piece? if not, dustcap has to go
these seem to be muuch better deal.
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=299-818
they have nice vented frame and .17mH inductance.

[critofur]

Originally posted by MisterTwister
does this woofer have vented pole piece? if not, dustcap has to go
these seem to be muuch better deal.
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=299-818
they have nice vented frame and .17mH inductance.

Well, that one doesn't have a vented pole piece either, does it? And you're not going to want to "cut the dust cap" off of a one piece aluminum cone :P (there's no dust cap to cut off...) That does look like a very nice deal (cheap!). I like frames like that where there's going to be very little blockage / reflection of the back wave. However, I tend to not like metal cones / metal dome tweeters. I do think a metal cone is for the lower freq. drivers if you're going 3-way.

I would very much like to see FR graphs for both of these drivers.

I'm one of those people that believes in making the "mains" as good as possible, but the the only purpose of surrounds is for effects/directional cues so they could be far inferior without comprimising the system as a whole, so - this deal looks interesting for the surrounds: http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshow...number=269-326

[troystg]

Originally posted by critofur
.....
I'm one of those people that believes in making the "mains" as good as possible, but the the only purpose of surrounds is for effects/directional cues so they could be far inferior without comprimising the system as a whole, so - this deal looks interesting for the surrounds: http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshow...number=269-326 .....

I actually bought some of those and was surprised at the construction.

Not bad at all for the price, but be aware that all components (xo and drivers) are glued in place so it is not an easy task to take them off of that mounting plate. If you were thinking of doing that...

[critofur]

Originally posted by troystg



I actually bought some of those and was surprised at the construction.

Not bad at all for the price, but be aware that all components (xo and drivers) are glued in place so it is not an easy task to take them off of that mounting plate. If you were thinking of doing that...

How about using them as in-wall speakers?

Did you listen to yours yet?

I was thinking I'd stick them as is on a small box for surround speakers.

edit: Oh ~ would it be convenient for you to post some more detailed pictures of them for us? And, how do the crossovers look? I imagine they use very cheap components? (thin wire inductors and small electrolytic caps?)

[troystg]

Moving pics from camera to PC now...

[MisterTwister]

It doesn't have vented pole piece but it has open basket at least it appears so from this angle.

I have those 5x7 speakers and tore them apart already
And took some measurements too. In stock form they had quite flat response at 60 off axis. Maybe I'll post some pictures later.
Crossover is just ferrite core inductor and capacitor.

[troystg]

Pic 1

[troystg]

Pic 2

I have not listened to them, I bought them to put in junk boxes as garage speakers..

Needless to say they are still sitting in drawer on the shelf...