TAD TL-1102 vs TM-1201 or TM-1201H

[manp111]

Hi,

Does anyone have experience with the TAD 1102 or 1201 Drivers?
I am considering them for Mid-bass application. Please share your experience about these drivers.


Man

[pos]

You could also consider the TL1101 in your comparison.
It has a higher sensitivity than the TL1102, and a much smaller xmax

The MMS of the 1201 is obviously a typo: it is 60g and not 6g, as is the Re of the TM1201H (something like 10.8ohms I think, I will measure it)

I have the response and distortion graphs of the 1102 and 1201 at home, I will try to post them.
I would be interested if someone had them for the 1101.

[Hennie]

I think the TM-1201 is meant to be used as a mid. You will definitely need another bass driver below it. Perhaps good down to 300Hz or so.

[manp111]

I will consider the TL-1101H as well. Please post the graphs.

Yes, the TM-1201 is a mid driver.

[pos]

Here are the graphs from the TL1102 brochure.
Distortion is very low.

You can see a dip in the response around 700Hz. This is classic (cone resonance) and can be seen in almost any driver. I have seen other measurements of this driver that confirm this dip. In fact the fact that you can see it so clearly is the sign of a well behaved driver (similar reasoning to the on-axis dip you can see in perfectly executed OS waveguides: nothing to blur the theoretical behavior).
I don't think it is really audible, and seems quite well dampened.

The second attachment is a graph of the TAD 2251 speaker. The dip has been taken care of in the crossover.

[pos]

Here are the measurements from the TM1201H brochure.
Here you can the that the response is very flat, with no resonance, thanks to the cone material. The cone is quite heavy for a midwoofer (60g), but the motor is so powerfull that it manages to obtain a 100dB sensitivity.

Westlake uses this driver down to 200Hz in the SM-1

[manp111]

According to the graphs, it seems like the TM-1201H is better than the TL-1102 for midbass. However, this doesn't mean that the TM-1201H has better sound.

I thought that the TL-1102 is better because it has the Alnico magnet and paper cone.

Anyone listened to these drivers and would like to share the experiences?

[manp111]

I found this very interesting website that cover several important topics including driver cone material.

Mother of Tone -The Mother of Tone

[ScottG]

Originally Posted by manp111

I found this very interesting website that cover several important topics including driver cone material.

Mother of Tone -The Mother of Tone

In relation to this note that the VC is covered by dust caps in most drivers.

Also poly-graphite is an excellent cone material. (..both objectively and subjectively.)

[Hennie]

Originally Posted by manp111

Anyone listened to these drivers and would like to share the experiences?

I have not, but I also did consider the TM-1201H for midrange duty at some stage. The advice that I got from various sources in the know was that the TM-1201H surpassed the paper cone by a handy margin in terms of midrange quality.

IIRC Nelson Pass called it a "miraculous driver"