Tweeter comparison Sea Millenium and Hiq OW or Morel Supreme?

[fredness]

I have heard the Seas Excel Millenium tweeter and it sounds very good. Has anyone compared it directly to the Hiquphon or Morel Supreme? I rarely have the time to sit directly in front of my speakers so I am attracted to the good off axis response of the OW1. Then again the Morel tweeter might sound best with a Morel mid.

I am a newbie/hack whatever you call it. I plan to have someone design a ported 3 way with the Seas CA18 7" bass, Morel MDM55 2" mid. They 3 way design is supposed to have good dispersion. I understand that a 7" won't provide thundering bass, that is not a priority. I know phase and matching still need to be addressed. I'll leave that to whoever I pay to design the assembly. I am hoping to do this once well rather than undertaking multiple projects.

Thanks for your time.

[Jhovis]

Have you looked at the MBOW1 3-way? It uses the Hiquphon OW1. You may not need to have one designed. Go to murphyblaster.com

[David Gatti]

The OW! will more likely have a better response above 10k due to it's smaller diameter and lighter mass. Since you're using a dome mid probably going to 5k or so, the OW1 seems like the best choice.

On the other hand, the larger Supreme and Millenium will have a better power handling capability and would suit lower crossover freqs or 6dB slopes.
David Gatti
www.gattiweb.com

[Goldenboy]

I can give you a better idea in a few weeks. I've owned the OW1 before, and I'm going to be using the Millenium in a design shortly. I really liked the OW1 btw.

[Jhovis]

I forgot to mention in my previous post that I currently own the OW1 in the standard 2-way MBOW1 speakers. I really like the tweeters and I think they are too high end for the GR mid driver used in the design. The MBOW1s are more suited for jazz, classical and vocals. They aren't hardcore R-n-R speakers. Since I like these tweets and they are so expensive, I'm thinking of building something else with them. I'm considering the MBOW1 3-way unless I find something else a little more high end. My problem is I know my limitations and I'm no designer. I have to use a proven design.

Originally posted by Jhovis
Have you looked at the MBOW1 3-way? It uses the Hiquphon OW1. You may not need to have one designed. Go to murphyblaster.com

[Snickers-is]

I visited Seas two weeks ago to see the new drivers. I talked to one of the R&D guys, who I know as a very skilled engineer. He is already working on a construction with the new Excel 18cm paper driver with the highest excursion 7" in Seas' history, 14mm p-p x-max, and one of the brand new Excel tweeters.

Design:
The driwers has a really cool design. The woofer has a laqered diaphragm that has the same colour and surface as the chassis and the surround. The colour is dark grey with a slightly warm tone. The phase plug is aluminium coloured. The tweeter has a smoothed ring around the dome, similar to the cu-ring in the original millenium, but smoothed and in the same colour as the phase plug on the woofer. The tweeter front plate is in the same colour as the woofer chassis.

The tweeter has a hexadym magnet system like the millenium.

The engineer had put together a small monitor based on theese two drivers, assisted by a 3. order passive XO. The sound was extremely realistic. It had something you do not find in 99% of commercial speakers. I am not sure if he is still working on the construction, but I missed a heavier compensation for baffel step. That was vissible on the SPL-curves also. It had a slight roloff around 500-1000Hz, bot not more than 1dB or so.

If I was considering a construction like the one you describe I would definately check this out.

The driver parameters can be found here:
http://www.seas.no/CES%2005%20news_2.pdf

[fredness]

I see not Excel Paper drivers on their website. Do you remember any part numbers or release dates?

I posted another question recently looking for something as good as the W18EX but which does not sound as thin. I am running a Pioneer VSX-1014TX which has 110w x 7ch MOSFET. I know the speakers only put out what goes in but won't be buying seperates in the near future. I was thinking of the CA18RLY but a paper based Excel certainly has promise.

The feedback so far has been that the Hiquphon OW1 is a great match for the Morel MDM-55 2" dome mid. Rick Craig has a lot of experience with them at selahaudio.com.

Thanks, for the reply!

[Snickers-is]

If you follow the link in my previous posting you will find all the newest Seas drivers. (among them the 18cm excel paper woofer and the new excel tweeters). At the moment they are not to be found among the other drivers, but only in that PDF document.

This tweeter really lead my taughts into very good ribbon tweeters. Totally free of the coloured sound of the ScSp Revelators.

I think there would not be any problem to voice the speakers a little bit towards the lower midrange to avoid the slim sound. Slim sounding speakers must not be misunderstood as neutral or having low distortion. That is one of the biggest jokes in audio industry. Similar to the "small drivers = fast bass"-joke.

[5th element]

Originally posted by Snickers-is
I think there would not be any problem to voice the speakers a little bit towards the lower midrange to avoid the slim sound. Slim sounding speakers must not be misunderstood as neutral or having low distortion. That is one of the biggest jokes in audio industry. Similar to the "small drivers = fast bass"-joke.

Indeed if you play around with a parametric equaliser you can make a thin speaker sound warm and a warm speaker sound thin. Its all about the tonal balance of the system. Yes low distortion speakers tend to sound cleaner which could make you assume thinner but you can have a warm sounding low distortion speaker.

I cant wait to see what the new seas drivers are like also. But I bet they have quite high prices too!

[fredness]

The W18NX001 looks pretty good in terms of numbers but there is some breakup at 3k just like the magnesium cone. Must be pretty stiff paper or the Nextel coating. http://www.nextelcoatings.co.uk/nextel.htm