TPL-150H vs 'Great Hiel'

[jman11964]

Both look like they'll stretch to 1kH cross.

Does anyone have direct experience of them both - is there much to choose between them?

I'm more inclined to go with the Beyma (and leave the cup in place) with an 8" midbass, active.

Am I right to guess (since Beyma don't answer my mails) that the response plots on the Beyma site were made with the recommended second order high pass in place?

Local UK supplier tried to claim not but I'm not sure I believe them.

(Preferred bass would be Seas 8" BTW, sealed)

[cuibono]

No direct experience, sorry, but I have examined both in detail previously. They are probably both very nice choices. My only caution is that due to their large vertical size, there will be a change in tonality when you stand versus sit (treble recedes off axis). People have reported hearing this, and I consider it an unacceptable compromise for such expensive drivers...

[pk]

Originally Posted by jman11964

Both look like they'll stretch to 1kH cross.

Does anyone have direct experience of them both - is there much to choose between them?

I'm more inclined to go with the Beyma (and leave the cup in place) with an 8" midbass, active.

Am I right to guess (since Beyma don't answer my mails) that the response plots on the Beyma site were made with the recommended second order high pass in place?

Local UK supplier tried to claim not but I'm not sure I believe them.

(Preferred bass would be Seas 8" BTW, sealed)

Hi jman11964,

I have not heard the Heil's, but I do have the Beyma TPL-150H's. The measurements I have seen (besides the ones posted by Beyma) indicate that the TPL-150H's begin to roll off around 1300-1500 Hz. Besides the horizontal CD 80 degree pattern control only works down to 12-1300 Hz. So, they should probably not be used below 1400-1500 Hz. All that being said, they are the best tweeters I have had for sure! They sound very clean, detalied yet still very natural - much better than the compression drivers I have tried so far.

Best regards
Peter

[SETorbust]

Any reason not to also consider the Raal (anyone compared it to the RAAlL)

[musical noise]

Originally Posted by SETorbust

Any reason not to also consider the Raal (anyone compared it to the RAAlL)

Well, besides looking similar they don't have much in common. Their operating principles are different, just do a search for "heil air motion transformer" to see how the Beyma works in comparison to the freestanding ribbon of the RAAL.

The RAAL is meant to be crossed above 2.5khz and is intended for Hi-Fi use which speaks to its power handling capabilities whereas the Beyma is a pro unit meant to be crossed at near 1khz under high power levels.

[googlyone]

Hi,
I have similar experience to Peter - have the Beyma TPL-150H.

Their frequency response flatness and clarity is worlds apart from the dome and compression driver tweeters I have used, and I have used a lot of them!).

I would not push to 1KHz crossover - and if you are looking at an 8 inch midbass you should not need to either provided you choose the right one .

I cross them at 1700Hz, which I consider about as low as I would want to be driving these. Though I note that a design consideration for me is that at times these are driven pretty hard, and I really wanted to keep power off them.

I have attached the "first cut" measurement I made of these drivers - I was gob-smacked when they measured as shown. (I note that room and enclosure effects on other measurements do show artefacts, but the exemplary frequency response reflects what you should expect of these drivers).

So: These drivers do roll off below 1KHz. They are tweeters though.

Note: I made my own horns for these as I got hold of the TPL150 drivers, sans horns. Beyma is not really represented in Australia, so I couldn't get hold of the beyma horns, though the horns I made are as close as nevermind to the Beyma units.

Referring Cuibono's comment about this type of tweeter having a change in tonality as you stand up: nothing of th sort occurs. Refer vertical dispersion - it does not have ripple.

[jman11964]

Originally Posted by googlyone

I would not push to 1KHz crossover - and if you are looking at an 8 inch midbass you should not need to either provided you choose the right one .

It seemed to me to match the 30degree dispersion around there. Its true that most could go nearer to 2kHz I guess.

The plt looks very much like the non-horn variant per Beyma - did you measure before addint the horn? Did you measure with a capacitor or any other external components?

[studiotech]

Originally Posted by jman11964

It seemed to me to match the 30degree dispersion around there. Its true that most could go nearer to 2kHz I guess.

The plt looks very much like the non-horn variant per Beyma - did you measure before addint the horn? Did you measure with a capacitor or any other external components?

I too would not go ANY lower than about 1.5KHz. We ended up at 1.8KHz, 48dB slope for the studio mains project.

Greg

[googlyone]

Re measurements I made on the TPL150H.

I did measure with and without the horns. Without came out very similar to the beyma published curve, there is several dB of drop off at the low end without the horn.

I might have used a capacitor in the measurement (there is in my installed system) but if I did it would have been BIG with respect to the 1KHz roll-off, and not affected that measurement.