Profi drivers in High End audio cabinets - for the ultimate performance

[Bojan Hajdinjak]

DIY lovers often search some miraculous drivers for their loudspeaker projects.

In mine opinion, for the reference quality it’s hardly to find appropriate chassis on the commercial market (amateur (hifi, high end,..) loudspeaker drivers). With professional drivers in the other hand, we have often problems with synergy for High End audio applications. Do you ever think, that some profi driver manufacturers (like Eminence, Adam Hall, Renkus, …) produce some excellent parts for High End applications… I

n addition, do you sometimes modify some profi chassis? In mine opinion, it’s simply to modify some profi drivers for home extreme audio applications and made some cabinets far superior than with standard (commercial market) well-known drivers.

Maybe, the secret of the ultimate sound (High End loudspeakers) is in modifications of some drivers for profi applications or to find synergy between some profi and some amateur drivers.

[markp]

Pro drivers are great for spl but not for the average listening room. Pro drivers don't go low enough in a reasonable cabinet for the home user.

[sreten]

Simply put professional drivers are optimised for levels totally
inappropriate for domestic use, and the best domestic drivers
are simply the best for the intended purpose.
(though some situations may require a number of drivers)

Do you think all the designers are idiots and lack your insight ?

sreten.

[till]

there is one market were speakers have to be small to fit in the tower-shaped trendy enclosures, have to look expensive - and be not too expensive.

there is the other market were speakers are allowed to be as large as needed for optimal performance, look is not important but performance in the one or the other direction....

what drivers are used in the rushmore?


may i be allowed to suggest to read post#2 in thread "speaker companies" posted by Nelson Pass?

what drivers are these? home hifi market??

[till]

Pro drivers don't go low enough in a reasonable cabinet for the home user.

for me its low enough, and size is reasonable as i´m able to move them. And my kids are not able to knock them over.

Simply put professional drivers are optimised for levels totally
inappropriate for domestic use

you sayd that ... (hehe !)

[Mark25]

THIS professional speaker manufacturer makes drive units which offer outstanding performance (without modification) in a domestic environment IMO.

[Mudge]

Indeed, the larger PMC speakers (which are either pro-monitors or awesome hi-fi speakers depending on who you talk to) use Volt bass units.

[BrianGT]

Originally posted by till
what drivers are used in the rushmore?

The rushmore is quite an interesting looking speaker. My guess on the drivers is: Raven R2 tweeter, PHL 6.5" mid (1160 maybe?), PHL 10" woofer (3430 maybe?), and an unknown 15" woofer (Polydax/Audax?)

The PHL drivers are just guesses based on the datasheet saying that they the bass unit is 97 dB/Watt efficient, and the rest are at least 98dB/Watt. They might even be custom made drivers, or from a different vendor.

It is quite an interesting combination, along with the active crossover setup. I would love to try an active 4-way system some day, and am considering doing an active 3-way system as a future project.

I had been considering doing a less efficient 3-way using the Raven R2, Seas M15CH001 and Focal 10W6411, while not pro drivers, look like an interesting collection of drivers.

--
Brian

[Bojan Hajdinjak]

It's go low enough and it's in reasonable cabinets

I dont think all the manufacturers are idiots, but think the High End audio market is too commercial for that (our) kind of listeners

[phase_accurate]

IIRC it was NP himself mentioning that that he uses a Raven tweeter and PHL drivers for the Rushmore.

Refering to PMC: I was able to listen to a fully active setup of their largest monitors at a recent meeting of the local AES section. Sound was very smooth, relaxed and clean (but imaging is definitely better with my Mangers) and a pleasure to listen to. The sound quality stayed the same when volume was turned up and one immediately had the feeling that it would stay that way at insane levels.

Regarding pro-drivers in general: Although most won't go very low (there are always some tricks one could try however) many of them offer veeeeery low THD at domestic listening levels. The JBL 2206 and 2226 for instance achieve 1 % THD around 110 dB. And they also use that fashionable glass-fiber/paper composite as used in some Scanspeak drivers, and it was JBL who used it first AFAIK.


Regards

Charles