Just for the sake of asking... (about Bass)

[BAM]

What is the way to get the MOST bass out of one of the Parts Express buyout "NSB" 4" drivers using only the speaker's enclosure?

[7V]

A) Use loads of them
B) Make a transmission line
C) A + B above

Steve

[GM]

Depending on a variety of things it may sound anywhere from great to ****, but you will get the most LF it's capable of with a huge horn.

GM

[Bose(o)]

HORN!

[BAM]

The transmission line idea sounds like it's the most easily realized idea to me. My question is, though: The Qts of the driver is 0.34, well outside the 0.5<Qts<0.7 recommendation for a transmission line. Can something still be made to work?

[7V]

Originally posted by BAM
The transmission line idea sounds like it's the most easily realized idea to me. My question is, though: The Qts of the driver is 0.34, well outside the 0.5<Qts<0.7 recommendation for a transmission line. Can something still be made to work?

Someone else would be better to answer this one but what about a Daline (Decoupled Anti-Resonant Line)? With this design you can just build a box and add a line to it.

Steve
An example of a Daline

[GM]

A ML-TL yields more gain than a straight TL, but for either one you can add some series resistance or mass load it to get Qts up.

BTW, where are these on the PE site?

GM

[BAM]

They are under the Pioneer buyout, 4" extended range drivers #269-568 and #269-570. The frequency response is from 75 to 15,000 Hz. The difference between the #269-568 and thr #269-570 is that one has a light gray cone and the other has a black cone, but all of the T/S parameters have been verified to be identical. So it just becomes a choice between gray and black. I personally prefer the gray. The drivers themselves are super cheap. I got my four for $1.25 each, but I think there may have been a price drop. They have been described as having an "airy" midrange. Some of you may remember the "69-cent wonders" that Parts Express used to sell (4" full-range drivers originally designed to go into televisions). These are as close as Parts Excpress ahs come to topping that. You can also order these by the case. 32 drivers are $.90 each, for a total of about $32. They are extremely versatile. Their only limitation is their low power handling. 5 watts RMS, 10 watts max. I am building a pair to replace some boom box speakers that I loaned to a friend a long time ago to be powered by his stereo reciever. The reciever promptly blew them. So I am building some decent speakers to replace the plastic-box things that originally came with them. The 4" NSB (No Stinkin' Badges) drivers are capable of filling a large room at 5 watts, with only a hint of IM distortion at their loudest levels. The drivers are also video-shielded.

[7V]

Originally posted by BAM
I got my four for $1.25 each, but I think there may have been a price drop.

Wow! that's about 84 drivers for the cost of one of my Bandor 2" full-range units.

Just ask me if I'd swap.

Steve

[BAM]

Where can I find information about Dalines? That is, box size, line length, etc.

I am interested in this type of transmission line, because it does not need to have the area of the drivers, and so you can do cool things like putting the line itself into the speakers' stand.

Also, will the System IV ever see production? It would be a shame if it doesn't. I know it's probably been replaced more or less by the Nonesuch 4, but I'd imagine the sound is really different between the two models given that one is a Daline and the other is something else (probably a transmisison line from what I gather.)

Also, another question has really been bugging me about designs such as the System IV and the Nonesuch 4. With the four drivers like that, don't you get sonic oddities from comb filtering? How is this avoided?

And yeah, 84 drivers for just one bandor...$100 per driver...8 drivers in all...that's $800 in drivers. But comparing the Bandors to the NSBs are like comparing apples and oranges. The Bandors are no-holds-barred uber-quality specialty units, and the NSBs are just general little 4" full-rangers for consumer electronics devices, so I'm sure there's no comparison. There is also a Pioneer 2" driver that I've got a couple of. I've been thinking a transmission line would be a fun thing to do with those. They actually manage to do everything the Bose cube drivers SHOULD be doing, but don't. (200-20,000 Hz)