Big Peerless woofer midrange performace

[sidewaystothesun]

I'm interested in building a classic 2-way direct radiating closed box system with reasonably high output capability.

I know that an 8" woofer is the usual way to go for this. However, while looking at the Madisound website, I found that a 10inch Peerless woofer (830668) actually looked more promising than the 8 inch unit from the same series. Also the 12" version doesn't look that bad either (830669).

Has anybody used these woofers in a 2-way system? If so, did you get good results?

I just thought I'd ask before buying and finding out for myself.

[John Bsuch]

I have used the 830669 in various 2 way designs and it is killer. It does require a big box (4 cu ft heavily stuffed) to reach on down into the mid 30's. And it is as good in the midrange as the published specs suggest. You will get a lot of grief from some that a 12" can't possibly provide good midrange... but if properly used it can amaze and be the equal of many big name dedecated mid range drivers.

John

[sdclc126]

What tweeter(s) mate well with this woofer, and at what crossover point(s)?

[Paul W]

I recently used the 830669 in a 4-way and was pleasantly surprised by how smooth it was up to 1k. Might be fairly good with a compression driver and a large horn or WG to match directivity at XO.

I also have a couple of 10" Seas poly cone P25REX-DD that go even higher than the SLS.

[John Bsuch]

The Seas 10" A26RE4 coupled with a Seas 27TDFC is a very good combo... Supper easy... NO crossover on the 10" and a cap ... small coil and resistor on the tweeter to get the best and a Cap and resistor alone is a very workable alternative. Either set up properly executed will embarras many commercial designs. Set the 10" in a 1.9 cu ft stuffed box. As simple as it gets. I also have used this 10 with the Scan Speak Revelator (Cap and resistor) and that is a good combo... but the Revelator is very expensive. And the Revelator does require a resonance trap to sound it's best. The TDFC has ferro fluid... so a trap is not required. You don't give up that much with the TDFC ... it is a giant killer.

As for the Peerless 669... you can mate it with the TDFC... but you need to work the crossover to get it right. I now use the discontinued Scan Speak D3800. The SB Accoustics is another good possibility (SB29RDC-C0004) with the 669. Again ... crossover is key ... A first on the woofer and second order on the tweeter with a 3rd order accoustic target at about 1,650 or so.

Just a bit more info to throw into the mix.

John

[sidewaystothesun]

John,

This is fun. Let's start a new trend to bring back big simple woofer 2-way systems. It's what I was listening to when I was a kid in the 1960s, and it did me no harm (or maybe it did and I don't know it).

They are deeply unfashionable today; but when you think about it, if you are going to listen to boxes, and you want wide bandwidth with decent output capability, this has to be the right answer.

[MisterTwister]

if you are going to use 12" 830669. you'll need a waveguide and macho tweeter with low fs, such as this( SB Acoustics SB29RDCN-C000-4 Neo Magnet, Ring Dome from Madisound )
and crossover around 600-800hz. actually it is still too high for this woofer, unless you'll do cone treatments.

[tinitus]

Originally Posted by sdclc126

What tweeter(s) mate well with this woofer, and at what crossover point(s)?

Maybe try TB W2-800SL
Also consider a waveguide
I suppose you know that Madisound sells a special Seas 10", an update of the famous 2way Dynaco, but relatively expencive

[DcibeL]

Yes, you'll need a very low crossover point for a 2-way with a 10" or 12" driver to work well. Without a very low crossover point, beaming will certainly be an issue.

Running a woofer full range, and crossover the tweeter is never a good idea IMO.

Tinitus, do you have any third party measurements of that TB driver? It looks like a nice driver, however I don't trust TB's frequency response graph, and a distortion measurement could tell a lot of it's usability. My biggest concern is the impedance bump around 2k, I've seen a lot of drivers where a bump like this results in a dip in the FR, and 2K is not a very good place for that if it does exist.

[raypalmer]

For a tweeter I'd consider this bg planar, it's not exactly conventional but would make a very nice little pairing methinks, and it certainly crosses low enough.