Anyone used/tested a Peerless NE149W?

[spot]

I would be curious to know the results.

[ve66art]

I'm testing this 5" woofer and It seems to be really amazing!!!
I mounted It in a six liters cabinet with a 6,5" seas passive radiator. The bass are absolutely impressive for a so small driver in a so small cabinet...really fast, deep and clean!! If the bass is ok I feel the medium range one of the best that I've ever listened....as good as revelator, and just one step down the illuminator (but I'm not so sure...). The basket shape is incredible...I think that this kind of basket (like illuminator) is the best choice for the medium range..."behind the cone there isn't a big magnet but just the cabinet air"!!! Is this perfect? No...absolutely not!!! The biggest problem is, in my opinion, the poor response linearity up the 2,5Khz, anyway, with a 18db/oct xover at 2khz this isn't a problem. Now I'm using a morel tweeter (ET448) and the sound is very very pleasent.
Regards
Paolo

[ve66art]

Good..really very very good.

[navin]

Originally Posted by ve66art

I'm testing this 5" woofer and It seems to be really amazing!!!
I mounted It in a six liters cabinet with a 6,5" seas passive radiator....The biggest problem is, in my opinion, the poor response linearity up the 2,5Khz, anyway, with a 18db/oct xover at 2khz this isn't a problem. Now I'm using a morel tweeter (ET448) and the sound is very very pleasent.

Paolo,

Did you get to try this driver in a sealed box? I was looking at using this woofer with B&G Neo 3 tweeter (and the NE265 subwoofer for the bass) but your idea of the ET448 is also great.

Talking about Morel drivers did you get the chance to compare the NE149 vs Morel's ECW 536?
http://www.morelhifi.com/products/pd...0ECW%20536.pdf

The option would be to use Peerless's NE Titanium tweeter (it has the smoothest HF response for the NE 1" tweeters).
http://www.tymphany.com/files/NE25VTT-04%20Rev3_0.pdf

[navin]

Another Neo magnet 5" Midwoofer is the Wavecor WF138WA03
WF138WA03

Companies like Wavecor and SB Acoustics have been attracting a lot of attention of late but unlike SEAS, ScanSpeak, Peerless/Vifa, Focal, etc there is very little user feedback about their products.

The SB products seem well built: just look at the size of the magnet on their 5" woofer here:
SB Acoustics :: 5" SB15NRXC30-8
The Wavecor 5" ferrite magnet is even heavier (630gms vs 540 gms for SB).
WF152BD03_04

[ve66art]

I like very much the ECW536 but I don't know if it is better than NE149W, surely it's much more expensive. I'm firmly convinced that all the speakers could works great if used in the correct way (type of enclosure, quantity and type of dump material, xover and so on). Every feature must be planed with attention and verifed with the right instruments (and not only with the ears...I use Clio by Audiomatica). For example, it's trendy and fashion to mount small woofer in a thick front pannel, well, it's right, but if the small woofer have the magnet as large as the woofer hole...well..clearly it isn't the best thing for the bass and the medium response because the woofer couldn't "breath", so is much better to use a metal thin pannel...anyway...this is just an example! About the SB, Wavecor, Vifa...well, I feel that the biggest problems of these speakers is just the price. Too low!!! Seas, Scan Speak, Morel, Accuton etc etc are absolutely the best speakers all over the world, neverthelles I'm not so sure that the price-quality ratio is good as well!!!! This is just my opinion!!!

Paolo

[navin]

Originally Posted by ve66art

I'm firmly convinced that all the speakers could works great if used in the correct way

it's trendy and fashion to mount small woofer in a thick front pannel, well, it's right, but if the small woofer have the magnet as large as the woofer hole...well..clearly it isn't the best thing for the bass and the medium response because the woofer couldn't "breath

About the SB, Wavecor, Vifa...well, I feel that the biggest problems of these speakers is just the price. Too low!!!

Agreed. The box and XO design are more important that the driver itself.

Yes the NdFeB woofers like the 149W allow more room to breathe but they are out of stock everywhere due to the extreme nature of the magnet prices.

Low price is not a problem!