What should I do with these?

[BlindHawk]

One of my employees just walked into my office and gave me 2 Pioneer TL-1601a woofers. Here is a link to them.
My question is, I know these are made for P/A systems or concert speakers, but, what other uses could I devise to use them for? (ie: HT sub) Anyone have any suggestions?

[phase_accurate]

These look like TAD drivers. Although you could use some tricks to build subs with these there are better suited drivers for that purpose. Apart from that, using these fine drivers as subs only wouldn't take advantage of their full potential:

http://www.strauss-elektroakustik.co...s/1_ttmf_2.jpg

Regards

Charles

[Deagle50ae]

i wish somebody would drop $1,200 on my desk too.
I'd sell them and treat to wife to make up for the diy clutter around the house.

[planet10]

Beauty... the start of a nice 2 or 3-way system with horns on the top (or Audax P17s if you can find some)

dave

[cyclotronguy]

TAD 1601a's aren't they some sort of religious icon?

Cyclotronguy

[GordonW]

Yep, they are almost religious in nature, to some people.

Those drivers were designed by the late Bart Locanthi, former Chief Engineer of JBL during the late 1950s, '60s and early '70s. He's better known as the inventor of the diffraction-slat-plate lens (looks like a "venetian blind" over the front of the midrange horn on many JBL studio monitor speakers), among numerous other innovations.

Locanthi went to Pioneer during the mid '70s; his first contributions there were the HPM series speakers... the famous HPM100, HPM200 and HPM1500 were the first generation of these. The driver technology created for this speaker series, led directly to the formation of TAD as a seperate high-end speaker manufacturing division of Pioneer, in the late '70s.

So, yeah, it's kinda like getting the Holy Grail dropped in your lap.

Regards,
Gordon.

[GordonW]

Thought these might be useful... Thiele-Small specs for the TL1601:

Fs = 28 Hz
Vas = 358 liters
Qes = .316
Qms = 3.78
Sd = 881 sq. cm
Xmax = 8mm
Le = .28mh
Power = 150 watts
Re = 6.8 ohms
OD = 15.125"
Mms = 98 grams
Bl = 19.27
Qts = .2916
Sens @ 2.83V = 97.38 dB
Sens @ 1W = 96.65 dB

So, yes, they could make a decent subwoofer... with about as much output as the venerable JBL 2235H (same X-max and Sd, effectively). However, they would need a bit of boost on the low end (such as a 6th order assisted alignment), with the resonance being at 28 Hz (instead of 20 Hz for the JBL 2235)... something like an EBS-aligned ported box with a tuning frequency in the mid-low 20-something Hz range, with appropriate boost above or at the box tuning frequency, should do it... should be able to get bass to or below 30 Hz, easy.

Regards,
Gordon.

[planet10]

Originally posted by GordonW
Bart Locanthi

IIRC he is also the author you see referenced in many a horn paper or TL paper.

dave

[GordonW]

Originally posted by planet10


IIRC he is also the author you see referenced in many a horn paper or TL paper.

dave

Yep, along with his people over at JBL, he pretty much invented the constant-directivity ("baby cheeks" horn), along with the diffraction lens and the slot-lens horn tweeter (the JBL 077).

One of those truly big men in the speaker industry, and one of the least known to the general public...

Regards,
Gordon.

[BlindHawk]

I had no clue these were that good. And I'm guessing the guy that gave them to me didn't either. Thanks for all the replies and info. Now I am stuck with the task of deciding what to do with them. I am due to make a new set of HT speakers in the very near future, but other then putting these in a sub, I don't see how I can incorporate them. And from what I am getting, it would be a mild waste to stick them in a sub box. Does anyone know of any links with projects using these woofers? Again, thanks for the replies guys!