A 2 way using the Tang Bang 4" bamboo driver?

[saabracer23]

Hello everyone! Does anyone know of a 2-way design or a FTF (if that is such a thing) using the 4 inch bamboo full ranges from Tang Band. It would be cool if they had a crossover diagram and maybe some reviews. I have 16 of them I used in a pair of line arrays and I am ready to play with them again. Many thanks

Dan

[ypasco]

hi !

i'm currently working on the d'appolito MTM using 2 tang Band w4-1337S and a LCY108... There are not much information about this driver on DIY forums so i give it a try.
having heard both of the W4-1320 and W4-1337 playing, the titanium one seems to be flat and goes up at 10kHz... the bamboo one has a little bump in its response at about 5kHz....

I will tell more when my filter wil be done.
In the MTM configuration, to avoid troubles with vertical lobing, the crossover frequency must be low... really low... and even with small 4'' drivers, you'll have to work between 1500Hz and 2000Hz... In my case, I have 200mm between the two TB (i cut the front plate of the LCY) and 2KHz of crossover 3rd order will result in a lob at about 30 degrees.... the right frequency should be 1500Hz (thanks to Dr D'appolito)...


yann

[saabracer23]

thanks ypasco. I am a total newbie to the diy department, I have never even built a crossover! Let me know how the progress goes and how they sound. Send me pics of all your progress (including the crossover). Do you think they could work with the same crossover? Which drivers' sound do you prefer? Why did you go with the titanium driver? lastly what is the LCY108?

Thanks again
Dan

[ypasco]

Hi !

going with the titanium driver was a choice i made when looking at the impedance curve of the driver.

the impedance curve gives a good view of mechanical coupling between the the electrical path and the mechanical behaviour of the membrane. In the case of the titanium driver, the impedance curve is very smooth with no accidents. the bamboo driver seems to have more accidents in its curves revealing a strong modal behaviour of the membrane. Those modes are strongly coupled with the acoustic radiation of the cone and should be heard as a resonnance in the acoustic radiation. (I can remember that the banboo driver needs some tweating in the filter because it has a 4db shift between 2 and 3 kHz)

another point is the work done by tangband with the short-circuit ring of the moving coil : it can be abserved whith the low "Le" of the driver and the quasi flat impedance at high frequencies : both bamboo and titanium have this and it make the filter more simple to design.

To sum up :
- a smooth impedance curve is a way to see how the driver will radiate sound.


The bamboo driver is a good choice too and i can say that i didn't see much on the new titanium one : this is the second reason why i am working with it to evaluate it.

for the tweeter : it is a ribbon driver. This driver uses a relatively big ribbon which is large and short. usually, a ribbon driver uses a long and thin ribbon and this has as consequence a directivity which presents some lobs in low frequencies. The Lcy adresses the directivity problem... (but it costs a lot : more than 150US$)

I strongly recommand to use a dome for a first project...

there is a great web site where a lot of drivers are evaluated (the bamboo is there). the adress is Zaphaudio site

i will try to give you more informations is you need some.

Yann

[saabracer23]

Thanks alot for the reply! Alot of what you said is somewhat of second language to me, but I plan to catch up soon. Would it be worth it to sell my bamboo drivers and get titanium ones? Would these mtm's be suitable for home theater or more of a stereo setup. I was hoping to make satellites since I have a few. For that price I will probably go with a dome tweeter. Do you know of any place online that can help me design a crossover and notch filter (I don't even know where to begin, but would like to build my own so I could learn). Thank again for the help.

Dan

[ypasco]

don't sell your bamboo drivers.... they are great.... and are certainely one of the most exciting loudspeaker even produced by tang band.

there is a lot to do with it and if you plan to built a two way system, they are really great.

if you have a lot of them one thing great for you is to built

three two ways for front L, R and one center using a MMT configuration (or simply MT) , and 2 or 3 rear channels with only the tang band.

it can be easy to design.

i can help if you ask me.

yann

[saabracer23]

Yes, I would definitly appreciate your help! I am as green as they come. I have 16 to play with and my goal is a home theater setup, but still want to have the best possible sound when listening to music in stereo (which I love to do). As far as a budget it would be nice to keep the tweeters around 30 bucks apiece unless think there is one more suitable for the job that costs more. Thank you so much for your offer to help.

Dan

[ypasco]

OK, i'll try to find something great for you. just give me some time : i'll try to figure out what to do the next week-end.

Do you have a way to measure the t&S parameters of your driver ?

if not, you can download a really great freeware at this place :

speaker workshop

there are some links to build the impedance bridge needed to measure the impedance curve and the parameters.

Yann

[saabracer23]

Alright thanks. What TS parameters will I need that PE won't have. The only reason I ask is because I tried to download the program and I can't figure how to get into it. It's telling me that I need to buy WinRAR. Anyway take any time you need, you are the one helping me.

Dan

[saabracer23]

hey I was just seeing if you were still there. Maybe someone coould help me with the program?

Dan