Do coaxial woofers perform as well as dedicated woofers?

[tcaster]

I'd like to bypass the hf compression driver in my P Audio 15" coaxials for use in bass bins and would like to hear any comments on the performance of coaxial woofer section compared to a dedicated woofer.Will the inactive compression driver compromise the sound?Thanks much.

[bigfishe]

Should work just fine.

[nac134]

I agree. Coaxial woofers are pretty normal - its the high frequency part of a coaxial driver than tends to be unconventional.

[paulspencer]

They tend to use a dustcap which aims to let the HF through. Dustcaps do have an impact on the sound at mid and high frequencies, and it may not be ideal. Hard to say. In some cases, removing it could be an improvement. For a true woofer, I see no issue at all. For a midwoofer or midrange, minor issues are possible.

[bigfishe]

I have the Paudio too and just played them as subs to reinforce my Fruglehorns.
Not to bad at all but such a shame not to use the highs of the Paudio.

[phase_accurate]

You can do this of course. But if it is done for more than just a temporary solution it is a waste of money IMO - since you are not using the most expensive part of that driver.

When you are talking of a "bass bin" do you mean an ordinary reflex box or a front-loaded horn ? In the latter case some damage due to the high SPLs might occur to the HF diaphragm if you don't pay attention.

Regards

Charles

[CLS]

It depends on the applications, I guess.

Using it as a midbass, it'd be good, or maybe excellent. For low bass, it's probably not.

Look up the Xmax and fs of those coaxials, even 15" ones, you'll see why.

[bigfishe]

Great mid bass all the way up.

[tcaster]

Thanks for the replies.I'm just tinkering for fun here.
I'm using the PAudio CXA15s with a SE6l6 tube amp in Karlson cabinets and I also have it set up so I can switch off the hf drivers in the P Audios, bypass the power amp and then also run the system active xo, tri amped (3 Bryston 2Bs) with Eminence midranges and AMTs.
For my novice level experience it works quite well. I was wondering if I was getting the best quality bass with the Karlson enclosures. It seems at times to be tighter bass coming out of my KEF 105.4s as a reference.
I'm talking about low to medium volumes here. I thought maybe a dedicated woofer with the three way might be a future way to go but if the PAudio woofers are close enough to as good as it will get in the Karlson enclosures I'll stick with them and enjoy the versatility.
I've also tried augmenting low end of the Karlsons with two small 8" powered subs and that works well also. The Karlsons all alone with just the coaxials and tube amp are a great sound unto themselves.

[freddi]

the coaxial's crossover can affect the subjective impression of "bass". A Karlson 15" enclosure's bass tautness can be affected by poorly braced wings and rear panel. At the minimum there should be a strut from the rear shelf to the rear panel - since you've grill cloth this is more difficult to access than a K15 without cloth where one can simply reach through the internal port. The wings can benefit from jammed 3/4" dowel rods to the front shelf area. Also the first few inches of the front aperture can affect bass tautness so you might narrow that area of the aperture temporarily with layers of electrical tape or extend that area's depth a bit beyond the wing thickness with posterboard and tape. There's also some effects possible by experimenting with the rear lowpass gap's area and that's done with known good quality recording tracks of say acoustic bass and drumkit. A Karlson enclosure will dynamically outperform many horn and reflex.