What properties make a good driver for TL enclosures?

[Puggie]

I'm looking to build some tall relatively slim cabinets (something 'she who must be obeyed' finds acceptable) for home HiFi. I'll be looking at drivers no bigger than about 6" diameter and to get a good bass response I'm thinking of Transmission Line designs. I'm currently building a 2 way with 8" and tweet in 20l ported cabinets but these are 'too wide and ugly'.

So What makes a good driver for TL designs, I'm happy to spend some reasonable money on the drivers (Seas Excell sort of money) providing they will do the business. what should I be looking for in driver though. What sort of specs and T/S parameters etc?

 

[Nuuk]

Puggie, have a look at the IPL site.

Ivan Leslie is one of the experts on TL design and even if you don't want to buy one of his kits, you can get an idea of what sort of drivers he uses. He is also very helpful if you need some advice.

 

[Puggie]

I've had a couple of sets of drivers of Ivan, nice guy to deal with.

Bill.

 

[Nuuk]

Another idea Bill, would be to use a Jordan driver in one of those slim TL designs. I'm sure no SOH could compalin about such curte little speakers!

You can see what I mean here .

 

[simon5]

You could get the new Extremis 6 driver from Adire Audio.
Flat to around 20-25 Hz in-room depending on the Alignment.

Each Extremis 6 is worth 89$ each.

Good luck, and change your wife!

 

[Puggie]

Can't get the Extremis in the UK (Adire don't seem to care about us on this side of the pond), and I would have to hear one first, I've not been overwhelmed by Adires other products (mainly their XBL^2 subs). If it does what its claimed then it would be a good speaker for the money.

I'm currently looking at the C-quenze units by Audio Technology as I have run these in the car and been very impressed with them. I can specify whatever parameters I want so I would like a ball-park figures to start modeling things in MJK's worksheets.

And the wife has too many good points to give her the boot just yet while she is not happy with the speakers I will just have to keep making different designs and building them until she is happy, see I can convince her its her fault I'm spending all this money so she can't have a go at me about it, genius.

 

[suprf1y]

I'm just getting back into the hobby, but when I built mine, it seemed that the general consensus was to look for a driver with suitably low fs, relatively large cone area, and ideally a Qts in the .4 - .5 range. Apparently that is no longer the case. It looks like any good quality driver is acceptable now.
Like I said, I've been out for a while. If I'm wrong, please point me in the right direction.

 

[Sly-1]

I have built a set of Transmission line Speakers for my system that measure 21.8 cm wide by 249 cm deep and 104.5 cm tall. I made a 2-way speaker using the Vifa MG18WK09-08 driver. It has an Fs of 34 Hz. I paired that up with the Vifa DX25TG05-04 extended range tweeter. This is my first TL design and I have to admit That I am very happy with the reults. I designed it with the ports coming out the top of the speaker to reflect the sound off the walls and these speakers are at their best 6" or less from the wall. The bass is impressive, tight and accurate, and I almost do not need a subwoofer with these. The construction for this design is also very simple. since it is only a single fold TL. I attached a section of the cabinet from my cad model to show the guts. I do not have the equipment to test or measure the speakers performance though so I can't back up the results with numbers. But I built the set for less than $400.00. I realize that you don't want to use a driver more than 6" in diameter but if you want decent bass the drivers Fs should be below 40 Hz. Maybe Scan-Speak Revelators would be a good option, depending on your budget.