Makes the difference or not?!

[Alexnick]

There are so many types of speakers over the net, they all claim to be the best!

Tweeters plasma, diamond, ceramics,ribbon,etc.
Woofers treated paper, metal, kevlar,etc.
Midrange poly, metal (almost the same type of materials as woofers).

I'm asking myself does it worth?(....paying the money)

For example the diamond tweeter Accuton D20-6(2800$) does it sound 2639$ better than the ceramic C12-6(161$)?
How much difference does it make compared to an usual 35$ Seas?
Does it really make you feel the Audiophile Heaven?

How much does it worth to pay to be at the middle of the two extremes?

Which are considered "the real jewels" (I mean "golden" best buys)
of (raw) drivers?

Thanks!

[BobEllis]

Here are a couple places to look - both independent testers seem to show that there is not much correlation between price and performance.

www.zaphaudio.com - Just showed that several expensive ribbons are outperformed by a cheap seas dome, and his best performer is the 27TBFC/G, around $30. Also tested various woofers with equally intersting results

http://206.13.113.199/ncdiyaudio/mark/index.htm Mark has also done extensive testing on a number of drivers. The results are similar, although testing methods differ.

One comment about their distortion tests - they are done at relatively high levels. While these levels are much higher than anyone should listen continuously, they are still well within the dynamic range of much music at normal average levels.

[Alexnick]

Any other "jewels"?

[Godzilla]

There are many great drivers out there. I don't totally agree with what Mark's website concludes... but IMO some great brands are:

Vifa
Seas
Morel
Fostex
Tang Band
Jordan

There are many ways to build a great loudspeaker. Some drivers prefer to be used in certain ways to maximize performance.

Peace,
Godzilla

[B4]

Great question Alexnick.

This is my experience with everything I purchase in life.

1.The cheapest is the worst

2.The most expensive is marketing .

3. The best value for the money is right in the middle of the pack. I would rather have an Acura TL then the cheap 200 Mercedes (pay through the nose on every repair) Benz, just to have a car that says Mercedes. Because most people believe that cost reflects on quality, companies raise prices to attract customers. Nothing is 100% true all of the time, but I think it works most of the time.

Don't listen to anybody who claims that anything is the best. It is a very subjective thing which is best for each individual. There is a point of diminishing returns in every industry, that you must eventually pay through the nose to get a 1% jump in performance, eventually you are paying for the name.


I just go to retail stores and listen to various speakers. When I find a sound I like, I look for those drivers.

What do distortion tests show. Give me a tube amp any day and they have more distortion then Solid State. At the end of the day it's the sound that counts not graphs or specs. specs are mostly BS anyway.

[Alexnick]

B4, it's true that "the best" doesn't exist!
Also, choosing a speaker/raw driver is a subjective thing.

But, I want to have an idea, to find out which raw drivers are
considered "golden buys" by the forum users(and other people too)!

[B4]

Alexnick, I will share with you a few things that I have noticed.

I have been out of the game for some years and am getting back into it. I have noticed that the two most popular drivers being used right now (by amateurs and Professionals) are Seas and ScanSpeak for the high end. Peerless is very popular for the budget minded people. If you want to go crazy and forget about cost versus quality get the Audio Technology drivers, but don't expect it to sound 3 times as good as the others.

The new Seas Nextel line looks good on paper with a very smooth response. I trust Seas because I have never seen and specs that look as bad as the magnesium line. It just goes to show you how honest Seas is. Others have a similar response but they hide it until you get it home. I think that the new Seas line is the best value for the money right now. There are many others that I did not mention because I am only going by popularity, which would probably mean that the mentioned drivers are a good product, or most of us are wrong. When you think about what goes into making a speaker you have to wonder how the hell they can ask for so much money. It probably does not cost more then 30 dollars to make a speaker for Gods sake and I am being generous.

Since diamonds can be man made, how do they justify $2800 for the tweeter. They may be mistaken in thinking that women are into speakers. Hell, the blade for my table saw has more carbide then their tweeter and it only cost me $150 bucks. Notice that they don't call it a carbide tweeter but a diamond tweeter. Can you imagine the marketing department saying " You can have our carbide tweeter for only $2800 dollars". They would not sell many if they did that would they? I don't know the exact process they use for their so called diamond tweeter but I am sure that it's not some polished VVVSI clear 1 inch polished stone from De Beers. If is was, Liz Taylor would be lining up to get it. Give me a simple silk dome and I'm happy.

I hope this helps, it's my opinion though. I don't know your preferences to sound or your experience with crossovers (that's where the real skill is). I stand by what I said before many times "it's not the drivers but the crossover that has the biggest impact on sound quality". Unless you have test equipment get some smooth speaker response usually found with poly or paper variants, which are my favorites anyway.

[Geek]

I tend to purchase with my ears. I have heard the $3K ribbon and the $30 soft dome. The dome sounds more musical to me.

Go to all sorts of hi-fi stores and so some listening tests with commercial speakers, as you'll at least be able to break your preference down to type of tweeter (ribbon, dome, piezo, etc.), then decide from a category of tweeter for your project

[Curmudgeon]

A little awkward to navigate, and a bit out of date, but nonetheless excellent.

http://ldsg.snippets.org/index.php3

The Index button at the bottom of the page takes you where you want to go.

These are really value judgements only you can make. Years ago I designed a high end (not all agreed ) and used the Scanspeak 13M 8636?? (The coated Kevlar one) mid, because it was "good enough" even though an Eton was clearly better, but also too expensive.

A friend and I are building speakers with performance that we could never afford to buy... The ATI 4" with its performance seems almost a bargain in that context. Another design used a heavy coned Seas MP14, to deliberately smooth over the effects of inexpensive electronics upstream...

Other considerations, non-sonic; used near CRT's, so need shielding? Fill large space, need ability to play at high volume? Low output amplifier so need high efficiency?

The better the drivers, especially the mid and tweet, the more attention should be paid to the quality of the crossover components to get the full benefit.

[Alexnick]

hi,

I want to continue this topic because I didn't find many suggestions!
So let's say you were going to build a 3 way hi-end speaker with cheap drivers. Which are those cheap drivers that would yield a bargain speaker that could compare to very expensive comercial designs(more than 1k$)?