Lambda Acoustics or equivalent woofer

[mbcouple]

I am building a set of towers using phl 1240's and raven r2's in an mtm configuration. I would like to add a Lambda Acoustics driver for nice clean bass extension. I understand that nick is near impossible to get ahold of these days. Does anyone have a recomendation of either how to get ahold of nick, or a comperable woofer? I am thinking of sealing the top mtm, and then crossing the woofer in the 300hz range.
Thanks
Hans

[thylantyr]

Prior to Lambda Acoustics, I was seeking a woofer that
would offer great sound quality up to 500hz, maybe even
up to 1khz. /hehe

The only candidates seemed to be larger TAD, Focal and JBL.
For a lower cost solution, I'm not sure. Maybe seek a woofer
with low inductance that uses 'shorting rings'. Buy one and
audition it.

People who have compared TAD to Lambda say it's a close
race. TAD MSRP is about $600 - $1000 each. /ouch

The Focal is also expensive.

The JBL 15" models more like a midbass driver, you would
have to port it to get a better bottom end.

Worse case, maybe use a Tempest and play around with
the crossover settings. Maybe try to design for an 80hz
crossover range on your MTM and cross over to the Tempest
or equivalent. It's a lower cost solution. The money saved
can be used to upgrade your setup to fully active with
seperate amplification. One amp for the MTM and another
for the woofer with an electronic crossover to tune the system
better.

In all cases above you probably still need a seperate subwoofer,
it depends on how much abuse your main woofer takes. Too much
low end will modulate the upper frequencies so if you crossover
the woofer higher you have to think about this variable.

I would probably considering porting it to minimize excursion
near tuning to less then effect of the modulation

The Lambda TD15 w/faraday motor seems perfect for this
job, but those drivers are becoming rare now.

John@Stryke Audio posted two messages that may help.

thylantyr,

Nick has mentioned the possibility of selling the Lambda name. At this point I don't think it's very beneficial for me. I need to make my own name building woofers. I'm confident in the motor design I have come up with as it is not a typical design. It features two large faradays, one on the pole, one inside the magnets. The woofer will use a carbon fibre cone with copper wire woven through it and a bright copper phase plug. Think Lambda TD in terms of performance and high end response, but with more visual appeal.

John

This new woofer might be what you want


Hi Guys,

The website is a mess because two new sites are in the works. www.aespeakers.com is the site for the new woofers I'm manufacturing here. www.acoustic-elegance is the site for the new high end home theater stuff. Unforutunately they aren't finished yet either, but the AE Speakers site is being worked on.

There was no point putting any more work into the Stryke site when it won't exist after August.

John

[mbcouple]

Thay new stryke sounds like the ticket. I called John and left a message. Did he indicate to you when he thought this driver would be available? It sounds like the perfect pairing for seas drivers with a copper phase plug. I might have to copper plate my raven front plate to match.
Thanks
Hans

[thylantyr]

Originally posted by mbcouple
Thay new stryke sounds like the ticket. I called John and left a message. Did he indicate to you when he thought this driver would be available? It sounds like the perfect pairing for seas drivers with a copper phase plug. I might have to copper plate my raven front plate to match.
Thanks
Hans

I don't know any more than that. If you can find out more
details, please post

[robertwb70]

have you looked at adire audios XBL woofers?

[thylantyr]

Originally posted by robertwb70
have you looked at adire audios XBL woofers?

The Tumult ?

It's optimized for sub duty

They claim low inductance, 2.1 mH per voice coil, 2 Ohms nominal
per coil.

Parallel coils for 1 ohm load to reduce the inductance? /hehe
1 ohm stable amplifier that sounds good up to 500hz ?

I never tried this woofer and don't know how it would sound
up to 300hz - 500hz. Add it to your list of candidates.

I don't remember the Lambda TD specs, but I thought inductance
was under 0.3 mH ....

[AudioFreak]

IIRC, the top of the line Lambda series had approx. 2mH inductance standard or approx. 0.3mH inductance with the hifi upgrade. Sorry I can't remember the actual series.

[robertwb70]

the tumult is the biggest one-not the only one-Adire has 6,10,12 and other 15 inch woofers with XBL also

[Branwell]

Hans,

I did a speaker that was an WWMTM using the 12” Peerless XLS woofers, the PHL 1340 for the mid and the Morel 110 tweeters.
The system was active with a Behringer DCX2496 crossover. The points where at 120hz and 2700hz with 24db LR slopes.
Active 3 way project - Morel 110/PHL1340/Peerless XLS

Almost at the same time, I put together a standard three way, WMT, using the 15” Eminence Kappa Pro 15LF-2 bass driver, the PHL 1120 midrange and the Morel 110 tweeter. The crossover is the same Behringer set at 375hz and 3200hz at 24db per octave with LR slopes.
3 way project - Morel 110 - PHL 1120 - Eminence Kappa Pro 15LF-2

The only area the WWMTM beat the WMT was in the quantity of deep bass. Having 4 12” XLS drivers tuned to provide solid in room response to 20hz did provide a lot of energy in that area. That said, the WMT is set to be flat in my room to about 35hz and for 99% of the music I listen to including rock, reggae, various forms of guitar etc, I don’t notice the bass rolling off below 35hz.

Getting to sound quality……the WMT easily outperforms the WWMTM.
Bass midrange drivers simply don’t perform as well in the midrange as pure midrange drivers and being able to lift the crossover frequency above 3K also makes life easer on the tweeter.

If you are planning to crossover at 300hz, I would urge you to conceder a pure midrange driver.

As to woofers them selves, the Eminence Kappa Pro 15LF-2 bass drivers, while not going all that low ( don’t expect an F3 much lower then 35hz in room ), do have surprisingly good quality bass reproduction and also sound good crossed over as high as 500hz. This is all good considering the price.

Just some food for thought…

Branwell

[thylantyr]

Originally posted by AudioFreak
IIRC, the top of the line Lambda series had approx. 2mH inductance standard or approx. 0.3mH inductance with the hifi upgrade. Sorry I can't remember the actual series.

I found some data for reference.

LE MOTOR (no faraday ring)
FARADAY MOTOR (single faraday ring)
APOLLO MOTOR (triple faraday ring)

With faraday ring, inductance is 0.3mH

Apollo motor is;

The Apollo upgrade is simply the ultimate Lambda driver! The already super advanced motor design is taken a major step further with the use of additional dual Aluminum Faraday Rings that sit on the *outside* of the voice coil working in conjunction with the large copper ring inside the voice coil. There are very precious few companies using a single Faraday ring, here is a driver with 3 large ones!

These additional dual rings give 2 important functions;

They raise the "real" thermal power handling of the driver. For instance the upper ring is solid billet aircraft aluminum 6" in diameter that wicks the heat from the voice coil into the large cast aluminum basket giving tremendous thermal reserve.

Both rings act to further lower the reactance of the woofer, forcing the voice coil to act nearly as an air core along the entire xmax travel of the woofer. This further improves the transient response and upper bass sound quality of the woofer.

This motor assembly is then fully CNC machined and assembled to a tolerance equivalent to the thickness of a human hair (0.002") These tight tolerances are needed for the extraordinary heatsinking capacity to work its best.