Good midrange for medium sensitivity 3-way

[alspe]

What are your suggestions for midrange driver for 3-way speaker that's going to be medium sensitive? Like 12" woofer sealed, midrange/fullrange + maybe little dome above 6-10 kHz?

If woofer is 90 dB and crossed around where baffle step is (400-500 Hz), midrange could be 86 dB/W?

Experiences of dome midranges?

What I had in my mind... :

http://www.scan-speak.dk/datasheet/pdf/d7608-920010.pdf

http://www.scan-speak.dk/datasheet/pdf/10f-8424g00.pdf

H1304-08 MCA12RC

[454Casull]

Passive or active?

The higher the sensitivity, the better, but don't sacrifice linear or nonlinear distortion performance.

If you're looking at the Discovery drivers you can probably afford to go active...

[alspe]

Originally Posted by 454Casull

Passive or active?

The higher the sensitivity, the better, but don't sacrifice linear or nonlinear distortion performance.

Passive.

[jerome69]

With a 12" 90dB, go to a 6/7" cross near 300Hz
Your suggested drivers don't have enough area...

CA18RNX H1215-08 CA18RNX
HDS-P830990 http://tymphany.com/files/HDS-P830990%20Rev2_0.pdf
etc. you have a large choice. Better to use the same series of speaker 12" + 6" ?

A pro midrange ?
Overview
etc.

Originally Posted by alspe

What are your suggestions for midrange driver for 3-way speaker that's going to be medium sensitive? Like 12" woofer sealed, midrange/fullrange + maybe little dome above 6-10 kHz?

If woofer is 90 dB and crossed around where baffle step is (400-500 Hz), midrange could be 86 dB/W?

Experiences of dome midranges?

What I had in my mind... :

http://www.scan-speak.dk/datasheet/pdf/d7608-920010.pdf

http://www.scan-speak.dk/datasheet/pdf/10f-8424g00.pdf

H1304-08 MCA12RC

[alspe]

Why 7" for true midrange? If I'm looking for nice response from mid for 400- ~6000 Hz.

What are benefits when using too efficient driver that is damped down for matching SPL?

[jerome69]

For me true midrange is 8" (150-1500Hz)
The problem is non linear distortion from too small area. The too small speaker will start yelling at high level. The 12" can produce very high level at 400Hz.

You can achieve 400-6000Hz with the scan speak 10F or a fullrange but you will cover midrange treble. A very large bandwidth for the 3", better to use it 800-6000Hz. You can use it in the range 400-6000, it can work but i think it is far from the optimum.

Too efficient driver = less distortion = very simple crossover

[planet10]

Don't discount the new FF85wk. I have the scanspeak here, my gut is that it is not as good as the Fostex (haven't given the scan a serious run yet thou), and at over twice the price...

dave

[John Bsuch]

I am in the middle of designing a 12" three way in two versions.

One using the Peerless 830669 12" in a sealed alignment:

http://www.tymphany.com/files/SLS-P830667%20Rev1_0.pdf

The other using the Eminence Kappalite in a ported alignment:

Speaker Detail | Eminence Speaker

After rummaging around the parts bins and the internet, decided to try 2 midrange solutions.

First choice that can work well with either woofer or alignment is the Eminence Alpha 6A:

Speaker Detail | Eminence Speaker

Second choice is the Parts Express RS52:

Dayton Audio RS52AN-8 2" Dome Midrange

On top, for now I am using the Seas 27TDFC:

SEAS Prestige 27TDFC (H1189) Textile Dome: Madisound Speaker Store

I consider all of these drivers to be great "bang for the buck" items that are fairly flexible and easy to work with.

I think the Eminence Alpha 6A is a sleeper. It sounds really good. As dynamic as any midrange available at the price. It has enough area to be dynamic, is easy to work with, slightly rising smooth response just like Eminence shows in the product info sheet, can handle a lot of power, good Xmax, excellent build quality and very consistent. It requires a 1/2 liter stuff sub enclosure.

I have test enclosures built and am in the crossover design - implementation stage. BTW, the RS52 is a great midrange too, IF you can cross it above about 650, 2nd order electrical or higher. No sub enclosure and both of the above woofers are good enough up to 1K to make the RS52 a viable option. The Peerless is a better match as it is flat to 1.75K. The Emi is fairly flat out to about 1.5K.

As time goes on I will mix and match to see what works best with what. The TDFC can work well down to under 2K with proper crossover and that provides a lot of design flexibility.

It will be interesting to see which way things go ALSPE's project decisions and progress.

[454Casull]

I don't think you can select any one driver without selecting the other drivers at the same time.

What are your goals and what are your constraints?

[454Casull]

Originally Posted by John Bsuch

I think the Eminence Alpha 6A is a sleeper. It sounds really good. As dynamic as any midrange available at the price. It has enough area to be dynamic, is easy to work with, slightly rising smooth response just like Eminence shows in the product info sheet, can handle a lot of power, good Xmax, excellent build quality and very consistent. It requires a 1/2 liter stuff sub enclosure.

I have a pair of Alpha-6C which are bereft of their dust caps - I am hoping this will fix some of the response irregularities higher up. Also, the motor performance (or geometry of the speaker) does not seem to be ideal as there are many hiccups in the impedance which usually indicate that something is not right.

Still, it wouldn't be worth it to rip apart the soft parts and put a copper sleeve on the pole - the driver is only $40 at most...

OP - sorry to go off topic there.