If you buy them at wholesale price from Electus rather than retail at Jaycar, then they are sorta okay-ish for the money. At least the carbon fibre and to a lesser extent the poly coned drivers. There are way better drivers available for *way* more money though.
I have used them in the past and I think they are ok if you are just starting out in building speakers. One thing that almost always happens though is that cheap speakers are often put in flimsy boxes and driven by crummy amplifiers etc and so they sound pretty crook. However, if you build a really stout box with thick panels and plenty of bracing, and power it with a nice amp and clean signal source, and dare I say it, a 10 band graphic equaliser (~$100) then you will possibly be surprised at just how good it can sound for not too much money.
After having played with all that kind of stuff I now have a little pair of Wharfedales that sound way better, but I still have ReSponse subs.
I have used them in the past and I think they are ok if you are just starting out in building speakers. One thing that almost always happens though is that cheap speakers are often put in flimsy boxes and driven by crummy amplifiers etc and so they sound pretty crook. However, if you build a really stout box with thick panels and plenty of bracing, and power it with a nice amp and clean signal source, and dare I say it, a 10 band graphic equaliser (~$100) then you will possibly be surprised at just how good it can sound for not too much money.
After having played with all that kind of stuff I now have a little pair of Wharfedales that sound way better, but I still have ReSponse subs.
Thanks Circlotron,
I brought a pair of the 6.5 inch woofers (Polycone) 80Watt @ $59.95 each a month ago as replacements and they don't sound to bad. I brought them at good old Jaycar, can you please tell me were is the best place in Melbourne to Buy good quality speakers at a decent price.
As for the REsponse's I will let them bed in for a few months and see how they sound then.
I brought a pair of the 6.5 inch woofers (Polycone) 80Watt @ $59.95 each a month ago as replacements and they don't sound to bad. I brought them at good old Jaycar, can you please tell me were is the best place in Melbourne to Buy good quality speakers at a decent price.
As for the REsponse's I will let them bed in for a few months and see how they sound then.
re jaycar
Many of the drivers they sell under that name are Asian copies of such as Vifa and Peerless, and as such represent fairly good value.
The thing is that in a three way for instance the Responce woofer is good enough but for the best performance Vifa or Peerles should be used for midrange and tweeter.
Some of the car subwoofers also make excelent compact subwoofers with performance comparable with such as the B&W ASW500.
As another contributer , "Ciclotron" commented, if you buy some Jaycar speakers and one of their stock passive crossovers and stick then in a poorly designed box and use a crappy amplifier, and expect to get a good result, then you will be dissapointed.
Many speaker systems that are raved about in the hi fi press use components of similar quality that are put together in such a way as to get the best out of them.
In the end a well engineered system with average drivers beats a poorly engineered one with excelent ones.
Many of the drivers they sell under that name are Asian copies of such as Vifa and Peerless, and as such represent fairly good value.
The thing is that in a three way for instance the Responce woofer is good enough but for the best performance Vifa or Peerles should be used for midrange and tweeter.
Some of the car subwoofers also make excelent compact subwoofers with performance comparable with such as the B&W ASW500.
As another contributer , "Ciclotron" commented, if you buy some Jaycar speakers and one of their stock passive crossovers and stick then in a poorly designed box and use a crappy amplifier, and expect to get a good result, then you will be dissapointed.
Many speaker systems that are raved about in the hi fi press use components of similar quality that are put together in such a way as to get the best out of them.
In the end a well engineered system with average drivers beats a poorly engineered one with excelent ones.
I bought a pair of ex-demo Jaycar JC-50 boxes, when they were discontinued, about 5 years ago. They sound good to me, I think the woofers and the tweeters are response and I think the midrange was vifa but I could be wrong.
The thing I don't like about these boxes is they are too bright, though this is not the fault of the drivers themselves.
I can tell you that these boxes are also very tough and forgiving towards abuse.
(don't ask what happened!)
...Steve
The thing I don't like about these boxes is they are too bright, though this is not the fault of the drivers themselves.
I can tell you that these boxes are also very tough and forgiving towards abuse.
(don't ask what happened!) ...Steve
Re: re jaycar
???? please show me one that is a copy of a Vifa or Peerless ???
aside from that, the 8" Carbon is a nice driver, the 12" carbon is great for low end duties too.
the problem is that as a whole the response drivers require a bit more control in the x-o area than most people give them, certainly more than Jaycar do in any of their kits (say text book yuk!!)
none of the Jaycar Response drivers are 'bad', but at the price there is always a Vifa or Peerless that is better.
try emailing WES Components to see where the Melbourne outlet might be. or maybe even deal direct with them, they are very good at deliveries !!!! my orders always arrive next day !!!
http://www.wescomponents.com/
for the Vifa etc speaker section in the catalog go to http://www.wagner.net.au/Catalogue/wagner0024.html
or there-abouts
rcw said:
???? please show me one that is a copy of a Vifa or Peerless ???
aside from that, the 8" Carbon is a nice driver, the 12" carbon is great for low end duties too.
the problem is that as a whole the response drivers require a bit more control in the x-o area than most people give them, certainly more than Jaycar do in any of their kits (say text book yuk!!)
none of the Jaycar Response drivers are 'bad', but at the price there is always a Vifa or Peerless that is better.
try emailing WES Components to see where the Melbourne outlet might be. or maybe even deal direct with them, they are very good at deliveries !!!! my orders always arrive next day !!!
http://www.wescomponents.com/
for the Vifa etc speaker section in the catalog go to http://www.wagner.net.au/Catalogue/wagner0024.html
or there-abouts
JC-50
used 10" 120w polycone, jaycar 2" dome mid, Vifa D19 tweeter
someone actually spent a little time on the x-o of that speaker, cos it had impedance compensation (zoble?) and a resonance trap of some sort.
Would have been hard pressed to cross that 2" dome much lower than about 600Hz.. right in the middle of the vocals !!!! It does sound quite nice in the right circumstances though. It wouldn't surprise me if it was exactly the same as the one PE sells.
(now if you want to compare drivers, try looking at some of the Jaycar and the older Dayton drivers, very similar !!!)
The D19 plastic dome was never the best of tweeters though (imo)
used 10" 120w polycone, jaycar 2" dome mid, Vifa D19 tweeter
someone actually spent a little time on the x-o of that speaker, cos it had impedance compensation (zoble?) and a resonance trap of some sort.
Would have been hard pressed to cross that 2" dome much lower than about 600Hz.. right in the middle of the vocals !!!! It does sound quite nice in the right circumstances though. It wouldn't surprise me if it was exactly the same as the one PE sells.
(now if you want to compare drivers, try looking at some of the Jaycar and the older Dayton drivers, very similar !!!)
The D19 plastic dome was never the best of tweeters though (imo)
I always passed up on the D19s. I don't like how they sound; poor demo xover perhaps? It's probably because of the (bad) manufacturer's response graph that's stuck in my head.
The 5" CW2101/CW2102 from JE have good potential, especially if matched with good tweeters.
6" CW2135 looks a lot like what PE sells.
I'm very happy with my Kevlar CS2230 woofers!
I'd only consider 12" CS2228 and 15" CS2350 when it comes to their subwoofers... If they can be had for lower than their respective retail prices.
JE has got to improve its drivers lineup
The 5" CW2101/CW2102 from JE have good potential, especially if matched with good tweeters.
6" CW2135 looks a lot like what PE sells.
I'm very happy with my Kevlar CS2230 woofers!
I'd only consider 12" CS2228 and 15" CS2350 when it comes to their subwoofers... If they can be had for lower than their respective retail prices.
JE has got to improve its drivers lineup
f4ier said:
That graph had me puzzled for ages and could not work out how it could be called a tweeter but the manufacturer's graph is wrong and the starting point is a few octaves too low.... Fs of 1700Hz and by the graph, Fs of 500Hz and the driver is starting to roll off on the top end around 1700Hz.
For a similar price the Vifa TC fabric tweeters are nicer but I have used some D19's in a computer speaker and work well there.
This is roughly what the graph should look like.... roughly.
Attachments
re venom
I use the 15 inch version of the "Venom" driver in a 205 litre Qb5 alignment, as part of a three way bi amped system.
This has a f3=25 Hz. and each is powered by a 100Watt amplifier.
The pair have an output of 109db. for a 5mm. excursion, and as far as I can tell thd in the 5-8% range.
Not bad for $100 driver, although I would not drive tham any harder than this as in even loud domestic situations there is rarely a cone excursion of more than a millimeter.
I use the 15 inch version of the "Venom" driver in a 205 litre Qb5 alignment, as part of a three way bi amped system.
This has a f3=25 Hz. and each is powered by a 100Watt amplifier.
The pair have an output of 109db. for a 5mm. excursion, and as far as I can tell thd in the 5-8% range.
Not bad for $100 driver, although I would not drive tham any harder than this as in even loud domestic situations there is rarely a cone excursion of more than a millimeter.
Gents,
This seems to be an old thread but it's the only one that talks about the Jaycar JC-50 speakers, so here's hoping that someone responds. I'm a techo and have built several amps over the years but this was my first pair of speakers. I purchased them in 1999 and was sort of happy with them mainly because I'd spent the money so they had to be good - I didn't want to dent my pride. After a while I decided that they were rubbish. Very poor base and sounding fairly thin but of course I didn't want to admit it. Then I discovered that my Pioneer amp had a "Loudness" control. Wow - What a difference! Good punchy base and quite acceptable. But they are meant to sound good when driven with a flat response amp but they didn't. My only explanation was that the loudness control compensated in a rather rough way for the bad response of the speakers. Both speakers by the way, perform the same.
Just recently, I built the Silicon Chip/Altronics Ultra Low distortion amp. This is a straight thru amp with no loudness or tone controls. And yes the speakers were rubbish. So I decided it was time to upgrade. So I ended up with a pair of Paradigm Monitor 11 speakers (good price from Eastman Hi-Fi I might add). I tried them with both amps and yes, the JC-50's are crap. So what to do?
Well, I wasn't going to throw them out! So I've decided to investigate further..
Firstly, am I the only one who's experienced this?
I've removed the woofer in one box and got to the x-over board out. I was hoping to find the obvious like a capacitor that's wrong or maybe even an error in the board layout. At this stage, I can only accept that the inductor values are correct. Everything looked okay. But then I had a closer look at the original article in "Electronics Australia" December 1998 edition. It gave the values for the components in the x-over. Again, I'm no speaker design engineer so can only go on what the original designer came up with and he would know a lot more about speaker design than me. But a closer look at the article said that the low pass was at 600Hz and the high pass was at 5kHz. Looking further, I found in a 1999 Jaycar catalog info on how to design x-overs. From that info, I just can't see how the JC-50 designers came up with the capacitor and inductor values they have in the design. I'll be doing some further testing now and see if I can improve the x-over. I'll tackle the base driver first because it only has one inductor and one capacitor involved. The mid and high drivers are a little more involved.
I'm really keep to hear any comments on my task. I recon these speakers will be okay if I can solve this dilemma.
Regards
Talbit
This seems to be an old thread but it's the only one that talks about the Jaycar JC-50 speakers, so here's hoping that someone responds. I'm a techo and have built several amps over the years but this was my first pair of speakers. I purchased them in 1999 and was sort of happy with them mainly because I'd spent the money so they had to be good - I didn't want to dent my pride. After a while I decided that they were rubbish. Very poor base and sounding fairly thin but of course I didn't want to admit it. Then I discovered that my Pioneer amp had a "Loudness" control. Wow - What a difference! Good punchy base and quite acceptable. But they are meant to sound good when driven with a flat response amp but they didn't. My only explanation was that the loudness control compensated in a rather rough way for the bad response of the speakers. Both speakers by the way, perform the same.
Just recently, I built the Silicon Chip/Altronics Ultra Low distortion amp. This is a straight thru amp with no loudness or tone controls. And yes the speakers were rubbish. So I decided it was time to upgrade. So I ended up with a pair of Paradigm Monitor 11 speakers (good price from Eastman Hi-Fi I might add). I tried them with both amps and yes, the JC-50's are crap. So what to do?
Well, I wasn't going to throw them out! So I've decided to investigate further..
Firstly, am I the only one who's experienced this?
I've removed the woofer in one box and got to the x-over board out. I was hoping to find the obvious like a capacitor that's wrong or maybe even an error in the board layout. At this stage, I can only accept that the inductor values are correct. Everything looked okay. But then I had a closer look at the original article in "Electronics Australia" December 1998 edition. It gave the values for the components in the x-over. Again, I'm no speaker design engineer so can only go on what the original designer came up with and he would know a lot more about speaker design than me. But a closer look at the article said that the low pass was at 600Hz and the high pass was at 5kHz. Looking further, I found in a 1999 Jaycar catalog info on how to design x-overs. From that info, I just can't see how the JC-50 designers came up with the capacitor and inductor values they have in the design. I'll be doing some further testing now and see if I can improve the x-over. I'll tackle the base driver first because it only has one inductor and one capacitor involved. The mid and high drivers are a little more involved.
I'm really keep to hear any comments on my task. I recon these speakers will be okay if I can solve this dilemma.
Regards
Talbit
Re: Jaycar JC-50 Speakers
Some years ago I purchased second hand a pair of JC-50 speaker drivers with crossovers, and fitted them into a set of old Realistic speaker boxes. Like Talbit, I also found they sounded way too bright and lacked bass response. To cut a long story short, a very simple crossover network transformed these into something special. I mean REALLY good! Here it is: A 2.7mH low resistance inductor in series with the woofer, a 4.4 uF polypropylene cap in series with the mid, and a 2 uF polypropylene cap in series with the tweeter. (Don't worry if the values seem odd, you won't believe the transformation in sound compared with the overdesigned, overcomplex originals.)
Some years ago I purchased second hand a pair of JC-50 speaker drivers with crossovers, and fitted them into a set of old Realistic speaker boxes. Like Talbit, I also found they sounded way too bright and lacked bass response. To cut a long story short, a very simple crossover network transformed these into something special. I mean REALLY good! Here it is: A 2.7mH low resistance inductor in series with the woofer, a 4.4 uF polypropylene cap in series with the mid, and a 2 uF polypropylene cap in series with the tweeter. (Don't worry if the values seem odd, you won't believe the transformation in sound compared with the overdesigned, overcomplex originals.)
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi,
It's been a while since I've posted on the site.
A friend of mine wants to upgrade his speaker system and has expressed interest in Jaycar's Response speaker driver units. (There is a Jaycar store close to where I live). The units we're looking at for a possible three-way system are the Titanium tweeter, CT2007, a six-inch mid-range CW2194 and the 12" woofer CW2199. The problem is that there does not seem to be any information available regarding crossover networks or possible enclosure dimensions for these or any other Response units.
I'm wondering if anyone has built a three-way system using the above, or similar drivers, and whether they've been happy with the results - and, if so, would they be prepared to divulge details about the crossover network components and the materials, dimensions etc associated with the enclosures.
Many thanks for any replies.
Regards,
John Marchington
It's been a while since I've posted on the site.
A friend of mine wants to upgrade his speaker system and has expressed interest in Jaycar's Response speaker driver units. (There is a Jaycar store close to where I live). The units we're looking at for a possible three-way system are the Titanium tweeter, CT2007, a six-inch mid-range CW2194 and the 12" woofer CW2199. The problem is that there does not seem to be any information available regarding crossover networks or possible enclosure dimensions for these or any other Response units.
I'm wondering if anyone has built a three-way system using the above, or similar drivers, and whether they've been happy with the results - and, if so, would they be prepared to divulge details about the crossover network components and the materials, dimensions etc associated with the enclosures.
Many thanks for any replies.
Regards,
John Marchington
I've tested the CW2194 (link below) and it is a good woofer but the motor design is simple so the upper midrange and treble performance are very average. Crossing it to a 1" tweeter is asking too much of it. They are more suited to being the woofer in a smaller 3-way system than the mid in a larger 3-way. Two of them per side crossed to a 3" cone midrange around 600-700Hz and a 1" tweeter around 2-3kHz would work really well.
Timothy Feleppa's Pages: Speaker Measurements - Woofers 5" to 8"
All the response branded tweeters Jaycar offered in the past were rather poorly designed, with unusually high resonant frequencies, rough frequency response and horrible consistency between units. I wouldn't be confident that their current offerings are any better.
No experience with the 12" woofer other than a friend put 4 of them in his car on 1500W for a laugh about a decade ago - seemed to survive a fair amount of abuse. I can't imagine you'd want to use them any higher than about 150-200Hz.
If the aim is to make 'party bins' or garage speakers then trying to piece something half listenable together from Jaycar parts might work out ok for minimal spend.
If the goal is more respectable quality (beating commercial $500 towers) then I think forget Jaycar stuff and follow a pre-existing design that uses budget conscious drivers which are available in the US: Dayton Audio, Peerless/Tymphany/Vifa etc. Those drivers can be sourced through theloudspeakerkit.com and wagneronline.com.au at not unreasonable prices, or just buy directly from a US dealer like parts-express
If on a budget, and not confident enough to design my crossover, I'd probably build this as a vented floorstander:
Zaph|Audio - Bargain Aluminum MTM
The 7" DA175 woofers are $65 each through loudspeaker kit
There are minimal number and no stupidly large/expensive crossover components so that saves a lot of cost
The SEAS 27TBFC/G tweeter is somewhat harder to obtain in Australia and expensive. Perhaps you could get a pair delivered from Madisound for around $180-200AUD. It is worth using this expensive tweeter because Zaph-Audio's design allows significant savings in the use of the cost effective woofers and crossover.
Overall I think this would be a lot more worthwhile than trying to build something out of Jaycar drivers, especially once you consider the cost of crossovers, cabinet materials and hardware (bolts, ports, terminals, etc), and the time to design and build.
All said and done you'd be in it for around $600-700 and have a set of speakers that sound better than anything commercial at several times that price.
Timothy Feleppa's Pages: Speaker Measurements - Woofers 5" to 8"
All the response branded tweeters Jaycar offered in the past were rather poorly designed, with unusually high resonant frequencies, rough frequency response and horrible consistency between units. I wouldn't be confident that their current offerings are any better.
No experience with the 12" woofer other than a friend put 4 of them in his car on 1500W for a laugh about a decade ago - seemed to survive a fair amount of abuse. I can't imagine you'd want to use them any higher than about 150-200Hz.
If the aim is to make 'party bins' or garage speakers then trying to piece something half listenable together from Jaycar parts might work out ok for minimal spend.
If the goal is more respectable quality (beating commercial $500 towers) then I think forget Jaycar stuff and follow a pre-existing design that uses budget conscious drivers which are available in the US: Dayton Audio, Peerless/Tymphany/Vifa etc. Those drivers can be sourced through theloudspeakerkit.com and wagneronline.com.au at not unreasonable prices, or just buy directly from a US dealer like parts-express
If on a budget, and not confident enough to design my crossover, I'd probably build this as a vented floorstander:
Zaph|Audio - Bargain Aluminum MTM
The 7" DA175 woofers are $65 each through loudspeaker kit
There are minimal number and no stupidly large/expensive crossover components so that saves a lot of cost
The SEAS 27TBFC/G tweeter is somewhat harder to obtain in Australia and expensive. Perhaps you could get a pair delivered from Madisound for around $180-200AUD. It is worth using this expensive tweeter because Zaph-Audio's design allows significant savings in the use of the cost effective woofers and crossover.
Overall I think this would be a lot more worthwhile than trying to build something out of Jaycar drivers, especially once you consider the cost of crossovers, cabinet materials and hardware (bolts, ports, terminals, etc), and the time to design and build.
All said and done you'd be in it for around $600-700 and have a set of speakers that sound better than anything commercial at several times that price.
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