8" Woofer Recommendation (UK)

[bluetomgold]

I'm looking for an inexpensive driver to use in a smallish sealed box 2-way speaker project.

I know what I'm looking for but was wondering if anyone has experience with cheap drivers available in the UK. I have access to a CPC account.

Here's what I want:

- 8" Midbass Driver,
- Paper cone (preferably raw/untreated paper but reasonably thick and stiff)
- Foam Surround (preferably not too thick - nice and compliant)

The main attributes I'm ideally looking for are a low Q, high efficiency and smooth midrange response that rolls off quickly somewhere between 1 and 2 khz.

If anyone has any ideas I'd be happy to hear them!

[sreten]

Hi,

you could check out the new cheapo chinese drivers in Maplins.

I think 8" drivers start at £14.

As far as I know foam surrounds are not good for smooth midrange,
though they are good for dynamic bass - and the opposite applies
to rubber / pvc surrounds - good midrange termination but limits bass.

(though the above is a generalisation, may not apply to cheap drivers)

/sreten.

[Mutley666]

You could try "West London Electric", they have some cheap kevlar and PP coned drives.
There appear to be no FR plots available, but there is a pdf containing the T/S specs available on the www.skytronic.com website.

Try this link and have a look at the PP cone and Kevlar cone drivers, they realy are cheap;

West London Electric

[bluetomgold]

They certainly are cheap. Look like the same drivers CPC sell, also available in the US as MCM (I think). I was specifically looking for a paper cone and a foam surround though.

I'd be interested to try something with an old fashioned ('60s Acoustic Research style) treated cloth surround but as far as I can tell there's nothing like that produced any more. Unless anyone knows otherwise...

Sreten - what you say regarding foam vs rubber is pretty much right, I think. What I meant though, was those were the attributes I desired from a foam-edged, paper driver - bass speed/agility are (hopefully) a given. In other words - as smooth a midrange as is possible from a driver of this type...

Anyway, what I really want is a simple, lightweight driver with good basic mechanical properties which (if required) I can then modify by hand with damping and doping etc. I want to experiment, and I'd rather have (mostly) organic materials as a starting point.

[sreten]

The 10L box tuning frequency is 28Hz - seriously overdamped tuning.

/sreten.

[sreten]

Hi, sorry replied to the wrong post,

please delete this and the above post,

/sreten.