help designing my 2.5-way

[edjosh23]

For a while now I've been toying with many ideas for a reference speaker. I'm not going to go over all my ideas but I will go over what I want out of them.

Well first off, my budget is going to be around $600 which is somewhat flexable.

Well I want a 2.5way system.

The tweeter and a single woofer in front. The other woofer ws mounted in the back sharing either a vented or passive radiator enclosure. The back woofer will be active baffle step correction

Here is what I want:

I want a total efficiency of atleast 91db. I'd love as much as possible. No less than 91db.

the woofers will extend down to 30hz or below and up to atleast 1.5k for the tweeter.

tweeters- I'd love to try a different tweeter technology for example the vifa xt or an LCY ribbon.

8ohms

so if the two woofers are 8ohm each I will design a series xo with probably the xt.

Why a 2way and not a 3-way? Well, I'm scared of crossover design. All of my projects have been full range or full range with helper tweeters.

Couple questions:

Why do people not use Aurum Cantus woofers?

For bass like this is there an xmax that is too low?

I have a long list of woofers starting from 8" up to 12" that may work, but I would appriciate it if you could inform me of any specific woofers that you have tried that might be good for this application.

Thanks,

Josh

[flaevor]

I have a friend who uses these http://www.monacor.de/int/en/produkt...4&spr=EN&typ=u

with great success in a floor standing bass reflex 2-way design. He crosses it over to one of these:

http://www.monacor.de/int/en/produkt...0&spr=EN&typ=u

he also uses 2 of them in his reference system. Might be worth looking at.

[edjosh23]

Those woofers look great, but I can't find any pricing.

I used MathCad to check and see if some the of T/S parameters matched up. They all matched up except efficiency. Do you know by any chance if they are really 90db efficient? Matchcad has been wrong on efficiency many times, but usually it seems to be pretty accurate. It calculated 86.5db

I haven't heard much on Monacor, can you tell me anything about their company or what they are equal to in sound quality and price.

Thanks,

Josh

[flaevor]

I don't know what the pricing is, but I could find out. That same friend of mine has worked with other brands from DST as well as Eton etc., and for whatever reason he seems to stick with the Monacor stuff right now. I'll mail him and get the details and let you know. I can say, that the speakers he's built using this driver are very impressive.

[flaevor]

Okay I talked to my friend and he said that 90 dB isn't going to happen, at least not with deep bass, but you will be able to tune for real deep bass for an 8" if you aren't going for the highest possible dB.

In reference to the quality he says that he has yet to have any real problems with them. They're a far east product with their own quality control in Germany.

He wouldn't recommend them for tubes though.

He didn't give me a price.

Dan

[edjosh23]

thanks flaevor for your help. I'm gonna ask Dave about the Monacor drivers and see what he has to say about them, hopefully he has heard of them.

I search the forum and found many theads, on introducing me to the Peerless HDS205 which looks nice too.

I also ready a thread saying that a person's monacor drivers were way different from the factory T/S parameters.

and I was actually able to find a thread about the SPH-200kE, which you posted in flaevor. It said that it was a great driver and that it could be crossed up to 2khz and that crossover was easy.

I'm gonna do some more searching on the forum and try and see if I can get a price.

Thanks,

Josh

[planet10]

Originally posted by edjosh23
[B]thanks flaevor for your help. I'm gonna ask Dave about the Monacor drivers and see what he has to say about them, hopefully he has heard of them.

They are a HUGE german supplier making a trillion different drivers. It is a for certain that the best in their range are decent. But you will likely need to get someone in Europe to buy them for you and ship them (which might screw up the economics a bit -- keep in mind that with typical European pricing, guys are buying Euro-made drivers in the US, shipping them back across the Atlantic & saving money)

dave

[Variac]

I would suggest not abandoning your efforts to have 91dB plus efficiency. My speakers are quite efficient, and it really opens up a lot of options that lower efficiency speks can't use. Also, they tend to have a "lively" sound which is very appealing...

[edjosh23]

Well the only other drivers that I've been really considering are the Hi-Vi M12 (93db efficient) but I'm afraid it might not be usable at 1khz. The others were the Aurum Cantus. All of their drivers are about 90+db efficient, but I haven't found many DIYers using their drivers and I can't figure out why. The other driver I've been considering is the Morel hybrids and unfortunately the HU series which I really like, their 9" is 89db efficient, which I could go with, but I really want more efficient drivers. Also the Vifa MG series is efficent.

Can you guys tell me why people don't seem to purchase Aurum Cantus woofers?

Thanks,

Josh