8" woofer suggestions

[MunkeyQ]

Hi all. I'm doing an econowave-ish build with the parts available to me, so I've ended up with a Celestion CDX1-1745 (out of QSC HPR122i) attached to the 10" conical CD waveguide.

Very nice and detailed so far, and it appears to load down to about 2khz although since my shiny new preamp hasn't got here yet, I can't confirm this with measurements yet.

Initially, I used a Beyma woofer, but that exhibited some nasty (and audible!) effects of stored energy and cone breakup just after 1khz. Now, I've shoved a pair of cheapo cast Skytronic woofers in a random box and plonked the waveguide on top...since they go higher, it sounds much nicer despite the lack of bass.

I'm now on the hunt for a 8" woofer available in the UK which can make it to 1.8-2.0khz without getting ugly. I haven't built the cabinet yet so T/S parameters don't really matter, and a steep crossover slope and EQ is easily possible as I'm biamping with a DBX Driverack.

Looking at the Eminence Beta 8A, although I'm worried about the low Fs as I'd like to use this without a sub. My musical tastes lean towards blues, rock and metal so they don't need to go terrifically low though. Otherwise, the Audax AP210Z0 is looking nice, but I can't quite tell from the blurry PDF where the 1st breakup mode lies.

Oh, almost forgot...my budget's about £80 for the pair. Thanks for any replies or advice!

[The Space Egg Corp]

Hi

Hope the Celestion's sounding good, am toying with the idea of checking it out myself.

I know you said your budget, but for a bit more you could get a pair of 8"s from the English Volt Studio Range.

I've been running a pair of these for years, and if you invest in something that good you won't even THINK about changing them probably EVER.

If your spending about £80 each on Celestions you should really have something to match them.

The Volts go from 30 Hz - 3.5K Hz , Have HUGE magnets, bucket loads of mid detail, spades full of bass, no stupid sub system needed, which if you get the Beta you'll probably be thinking you need 5 mins later.

In the long run you'll spend less money, and have them a lloonngg time.

I can recomend a perfect cabinet volume and dimension, I don't believe the cabs I have mine in could be any better.

I have had these speakers since the early 90's, banged the hell out of them in a studio, and there still going strong.

Cheers

Simon

[The Space Egg Corp]

A few of the Eminence speakers in their range (only 3 or 4) have alluminium voice coils...the Beta is one of them...I'd say personaly...beware especialy if you like The Zep on 11 ..!

Simon

[Charles Darwin]

May be a bit closer to your budget would be IMG Stageline / Monacor SP8/150 PRO.

Should go easily past 2kHz but may be not low enough for you but it could work nicely in a transmission line of sorts.

SP-8/150PRO - Stage Line compact PA bass speaker 300Wmax 150WRMS 8Ω - Europe Audio

or from amazon.de for €49 or £42 +p&p

[MunkeyQ]

Thanks for the replies and glowing recommendation for the Volts. I'll look into them - I haven't noticed their Studio range yet, only seen the 8 inchers intended for horn-loaded midrange for some reason. Unfortunately I've got a feeling that they're going to be outside my budget though.

I've been offered a pair of RCF L8S800 for a nice price, although the high Fs is a bit offputting. Got a feeling it's designed for power handling at the expense of bandwidth. Thoughts?

Coming from a pro sound background, I've always dismissed anything with a Stage Line badge on it, probably to my loss by the sounds of it! That SP8 looks rather nice, and it is indeed closer to my budget although I'd like to stick to a sealed or reflex alignment for size reasons. Plenty of Xmax though, so with some EQ dialed in on the Driverack there should be ample bass. I think.

I do like it loud occasionally, but it doesn't take much power to get it there as my listening room is rather small, hence the use of an 8" woofer to keep the footprint down. Thanks for the tip about the alu voice coils, I didn't know that.


I managed to get the Celestions lightly used for rather cheap...only £50 for the pair, as I was originally intending to go with the cheaper CDX1-1425.

The QSC 10" WG is a bit of an oddball in that there's threaded inserts for the driver to bolt on, rather than the usual bare holes. I had to do a lot of chopping and drilling to get a bolt to go through...just a bit of advice for anyone else wanting to try it!

[The Space Egg Corp]

Hi munkeyQ

Don't get high Fs GET VOLT !
Cab dimensions perfect.

You could spend the price of a Volt in one banzi nite out !

Stay in for a couple of weekends and get them, you won't regret it.

Stage line...PAH
Made for s*** h*** clubs where everyones deaf.

I've had the Volts for 20 years which is 7300 nites.

At £100 a nite out that's £730,000

Can't believe Charles Darwin isn't backing me up on the Volts.

They are the 'Origin of the Spieces'

Simon

[MunkeyQ]

My nights out don't cost more than £25. Point taken though, Volts are seriously nice noisemakers. Cheapest I've found them for online is £180 for the pair which is unfortunately well over double my meagre budget at present time, being a student and all.

Any more thoughts on the Audax AP210Z0 (clicky link)...wondering if anyone's used it? 1st breakup mode looks avoidable with an aggressive crossover slope.

Otherwise, the Stage Line driver looks hopeful, as long as there's no pitfalls.

Thanks again for the help.

[The Space Egg Corp]

A pair of those Volts will cost you 0.61p per day for the next 365 days.

After that you can listen to them for free for the next 20 years.

And you will probably have better speakers than any one else you know.

If you bought studio monitors off the shelf you would not better them unless you spent £2-3000 in my opinion.

Simon

[Charles Darwin]

I have no problems recommending Volts as Simon knows well!
Using a pair myself and couldn't be happier, except may be with 15"s rather than 12"s but size is a consideration. Sadly…

Not a great fan of Monacor/Stageline myself but I have never heard anything but glowing reviews/opinions of this particular driver and one Volt could easily bust your budget for two drivers.
A tl for this would be roughly between 35 and 45L depending on tuning. They roll off at around 6dB/oct from Fs. Sealed boxes roll off at 12dB/oct and ported at 24dB so there would still be a good amount of bass down to the 30s.

[The Space Egg Corp]

The Audax chassis is made out of PLASTIC !

It's got power handling of 70W

Cone excursion 2.5mm

&

The magnet weighs about the same as 4 MARS BARS

Your grannys got better than that in her Amstrad system !!!!!!!!!!!

Just tryin' to help dude...

Simon