Guidance on this 3" Speaker

[Spax]

With a surround amp thats on its way to being repaired here.

My thoughts have turned to speakers, having no experience I need to turn to more knowledgable folks.

Whilst searching Ebay for 5.1 speaker sets on a tight budget I happened upon some little 3" 8 ohm 8w drivers from a company called EuroTec International PLC.

They are very cheap at £1.95 for two and whilst I fully understand the caution "You get what you pay for" I thought they might be an ideal starting point for me when it comes to speaker building to keep material costs to an absolute minimum.

I can see them sitting in some little cubes which could be discreetly hidden and used as a 5.1 system.

The details are below;


Could someone translate the data in to something a little more basic?

Thanks for your time

[Shaun]

From the graph it looks like essentially a mid-range driver. It won't give you much high frequencies (which is the one thing you can ask for in such a small speaker), and hardly any bass. You 'll need to add a tweeter, else look into drivers by Tang Band or other maker of "full-range" drivers

[Spax]

Cheers Shaun, the addition of a tweeter would de-rail the compact nature so I'll look elsewhere.

I've tried to find a supplier of Tang Band speakers in the UK but have not had much luck, Google comes up blank when searching within the Uk

Looking for Full-range drivers did lead me to some 4" Wharfedale 3038LB's with the following specs;

Thiele small parameters:

    Qms 2.84 
    Qes 0.63 
    Qts 0.52 
    Mms 5.27 
    Cms 0.59 
    Vas 1.62 
    Fs 89.98

I found a mention of them on the forums, post #68

Apparently these are the same drivers as the Wharfedale Modus Cube's;

[Shaun]

Originally posted by Spax
I found a mention of them on the forums, post #68

Great! Looks like you found just the right thread. I recognise the names of some of the "or other maker of "full-range" drivers" I was referring to.

[Andersonix]

If you really want to stick with a single driver for little money, there's also the Hi-Vi B3N and B3S (at about $12 here in US). But while these and the cheap TBs are nice in the mids and alright for surrounds, ultimately you will want some better highs past 10kHz. Also, check the Full Range section.

Parts Express has many Tang Band and Hi-Vi drivers.

[454Casull]

Wow, 1.3 ohm DCR?

[Spax]

Those Hi-Vi B3N and B3S' look lovely, the Uk supplier sells the B3N's for £9.20 each which is cheap, I'd probably use these next if my first speaker project goes well.

I had a look at Parts-Express and I really am envious of the American Hobby Market (if you know what I mean), there's nothing really comparable in the UK (certainly not bloody Maplins!)

Sadly the economy has ravaged the strength of £ Sterling which is currently equal to $1.51 so anything ordered from the States, while initially reasonably priced, will be hampered by shipping and then UK import duty

[Mr Evil]

Originally posted by Spax
...I had a look at Parts-Express and I really am envious of the American Hobby Market (if you know what I mean), there's nothing really comparable in the UK (certainly not bloody Maplins!) ...

CPC has a small selection of good stuff. Farnell has a bit too. Maplin used to sell good stuff, then they decided that DIYers were not worth catering to.

[Spax]

This is a massive coincidence Mr Evil, I was just on your website reading about the Sub-Horn-Bed (Awesome, I want one!), I then browsed to the Satellites page and saw that you had sourced some drivers from CPC, just as I clicked on the link I noticed on my email that someone had replied to this thread!

I'm checking out CPC right now and tomorrow I'll check out Farnell (it's past my bed time now lol!).