Bass Driver Options

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I had been playing about with my Fostex Open Baffles and came to the same conclusion that I did with some Magnepan MMGs, they sound great but I cant really live with them so far out in the room.

I recently acquired some Klipsch Heresy IIs as something to play with. I have wanted to try for a good while, I really like the mid-treble presentation.

I would ideally like to use them in the corners or up against the rear walls but I cant get the placement right for them to really work, although having them on stands does actually help.


Klipsch Heresy II by RSdesignUK, on Flickr

Now, I seemed to have agreed to buy some Radian 850PB drivers with some 400Hz Stereolab Tractrix horn/waveguides. This comes along with some MiniDSP/MiniDigi boards too.

I already have some ~98dB Fountek JP 2.0 Ribbons which I could use as tweeters.


Now, I need a bit of advice, I want something that will go in the corners, and ideally will keep it down to 3-way for now, and a rough starting point:

Bass Driver- ???? ~60Hz - 800Hz
Mid-Range - Radian 850PB / 400Hz Stereolab 800Hz - 8kHz
Treble - Fountek JP 2.0 8kHz - ~20kHz

I was thinking of active on the bass/mid crossover then just passive between the Radian and Fountek drivers.
I will use a Decware Zen for Mid-treble and at the moment, a T-Amp for bass (not ideal) but will get me going.

Now, what to do with the bass? I don't need/want deep bass as mentioned before, its a flat so wont be annoying the neighbors below, and the Heresys actually go low enough (for me) as long as I can sort out the few bass issues from corner/rear wall placement.

Ideally I would like to have them placed in the corners or at least up against the rear walls.
I am thinking something like a 12" bass driver in a simple ported, or most likely sealed cabinet, size is not as important but ideally not a complicated design (bass horn).

High SPLs are not on the cards here, according to my phone (not accurate I know) high volumes for me are hitting 75-80dB peaks @ 1m.

Any suggestions?
 
High efficiency 12" drivers have high Fs = won't make bass

Beyma has some mid-efficiency lowish Fs 12" drivers (12BR70).
Beyma SM212 may work better for you though (high-eff, highish Fs).

People usually pair 2" CDs with 15" woofers. There must be a good reason.
 
He said 200 for the pair, not each.

How about JBL 2225H? Should be able to find them in your budget, high enough efficiency for tiny amps, and from your description you'd probably be fine with the bass response. In a mid size enclosure you could get a wide range of bass contours by playing with port length (to find what works for your corner placement and taste).
 
I have shortlisted two drivers:

Volt BM251.3
Beyma 12BR70

Both will hit around 80Hz-3dB/60Hz-6dB in a sealed box (between 20 and 30 Litres), both around 93/94dB, and both should have decent mid-range performance up to 800Hz but the Volt is twice the price of the Beyma.

Leaning towards the Volt (once again) having had good experience with two BM220.8 based speakers and a seperate recommendation on the Volt 10" BM drivers. They are around £60 over budget though (£260/pair rather than £150/pair for the Beyma's).

As mentioned in the first post, bass depth is not critical, but bass accuracy and even response is so it seems logical to me to go sealed, hence looking at less efficient drivers over the Pro/PA models to get down to <100Hz in a sealed box.

EDIT: Ordered the Volts :)
 
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I had researched the BM251.3 driver for a LONG time and had planned various projects around it, finally got round to buying a pair now!
Really not much about it on the web apart from a few praising mentions.

NExt question is, can I get away without a supertweeter on the Radian/Stereolab combo? I have read beaming will be an issue, but how is this different compared to say the beaming you get with a larger full-range-driver?
I have been using the FF225K full-range recently and found that more than fine in the treble.
Listening (critical anyway) is done on one seat so I dont need a wide sweet spot.
 
The Volt BM251.3 bass drivers have been delivered, and got a rough plan together!

I am collecting the Radian/Stereolab/MiniDSP bits in a couple of weeks (Thanks Bevan) and have ordered some flat packed cabinets from Wilmslow Audio.
They are the 'Tornado' subwoofer cabinets, that are already designed for the 10" Volt cutout, and 40 litres which is spot on for the BM251.3 tuned to around 45-50Hz:


2 by RSdesignUK, on Flickr

This will be a modular design, so I can use the bass enclosure a purely bass and cross over to my Veravox 5S cabinets as an alternative to the Radian/Stereolab combo.
 
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