Is it worth buying cheapy 15" driver or expensive 12"?

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My friend bought a prebuilt sub, as one can expect it sounded not the best...

Other thing that 15" driver in that box costs mere 60 bucks... (165 litas in our money)

Driver itself looks not too bad, suspension is faily soft (means it has to be more or less efficient, and probably has low Fs) stamped basket, vented pole piece, big magnet, makes enough bang from 40W ampilifier.

The one in the lower pic.
http://www.e-xinghui.com/2004c16.htm

Driver comes with no parameters :( I haven't measured Vas or Qts, but measured its Fs - 25-27Hz and estimated that Fs/Qts > 50 - box is ported, and blocking the port doesnt make it sound better.

The question what can I expect from that kind of unit ? (what parameters it will have most likely?)

Is ir worth buying it or going for LAB12 (150$ or 800 litas here) ?

My aim here is more lower end extension, I know I can make LAB go to 20'ies but 15" has more Sd and will do it with more ease.

What are your experiences with cheapy drivers ?
 
There's some cheap drivers performing well, like the Dayton line... but you get what you pay for.

If you can measure the rest of the parameters, you could build probably something good with it.

For a subwoofer it's like 50% for the box and 50% for the driver. If the Fs is around 25 Hz, you can do something acceptable.
 
Looks like car audio drivers, probably with a tiny xmax, in which case you won't really get much bang for buck.

If you don't have TS parameters, you must use a sealed box, hence you give up about 6db of output. This in itself is like stepping down from a 15" to a 10" driver, all other things being equal!

If you want bang for buck, consider what amp you will need and how much excursion the driver has. The best bang for buck drivers will work with a 350w amp which will allow you to use ~20mm of xmax.

If you spend 50% as much on a cheap driver, and get 20% of the output, with a less accurate driver, then I would not call it a good buy!
 
Is ir worth buying it or going for LAB12
I would definitely say the Lab12.

For low end extension Xmax is one of the most important factors. If you look at the magnet weight of the Lab12 you'll notice that it's about two times heavier. That doesn't say it all. But it does point out that the Lab12 has a much bigger motor on a smaller cone and thus will definitely outperform the 15" big time.

Also the Lab12 is a subwoofer made for professional applications (which requires outstanding reliability and warranty) and has been optimized over time. While the 15" is just a speaker out of so many, with a manufacturer not even bothering to give the T/S-parameters (most of the times that's a bad sign).

The 15" has an bigger Sd, but if the Xmax is substantially lower it will still perform less because in the end it's about the Vd (Xmax x Sd).
Also the 15" will probably be not as stiff as the 12" since that's harder to obtain with the diametre increasing.

Btw. 60 bucks = 165 litas, while 150 bucks is 800 litas?? Logarithmically scaled money:xeye: ;)

Mvg Johan
 
Lab12 driver is probably better than that 15" woofer, but I think you can do better than this driver at that price. I'd be looking at the Atlas 12" or TC sounds 2+. Lab12 is a great driver for the horn sub it's designed for, which doesn't need a lot of excursion but needs a high thermal power handling since it's often driven by amps with 1kw of power. The excursion is a little low at 13mm xmax, although I will admit the inductance is very good for a 12" driver at under 1.5mH. The Atlas 12 on the other hand has a lower inductance (meaning better transient response) at 0.86 mH and a bigger xmax - 18mm. The Atlas also costs the same and being a 4 ohm driver rather than 6, it will make better use of amplifier power.
 
Thanks for reply guys.

I'm also considering Tempest but...

[steam realease valve open]

:mad: I'm ******* pissed off...

LAB12 costs 150$ - but no! all over europe they ask ~250 Euro for it, shipping such a beast from USA will cost too much most likely...

Tempest is 150$ too, - nope - in Sweden its ~317 Euro( 407$), cheapest I could find was 240 Euro(308$) - am I missing a point here ?

WTF is with the prices ?

Talk about logarithmically scaled money :rolleyes: ...

[steam realease valve closed]

How much will it cost to ship 40lb somewhere in europe ?
 
Hi VEC7OR,

I live in Europe and am pretty well p****ed off with the pricing of audio stuff over her too.

I have ordered an awful lot of stuff the the US though and shipping for approx 40lbs will cost you about $140 - $160 to this side of the water.

If you looking for a Eminece LAB12 you may want to have a look at the following link to BK Electronics, they are base in the UK and sell the LAB12 for £127.37 (or apprx EU180) and the shipping will probably be alot cheaper.

http://www.bkelec.com/

(Look under Professional Audio)

Good luck with the project.
 
OK its set, I'll go for LAB 12, probably its the best I could ever get here, comparing price, quality, box size (Tempest is nice but 250l box is er, BIG :eek:, sure we can use smaller box, linkwitz transform it, but I don't wan't building/buying 700W amp for it)

I've inquered eminence.nl, they said it costs 126 Euro for the LAB 12

Lab 12 wil cost you Euro 126,--
Transportcost wil be Euro 47,--

Speaker is in stock
delivery in 2 days after shipping

Thats niiiice, in couple of month I'll sell mine bandpass - my ears grown over it :rolleyes: and buy the LAB unit, it'll make a nice vented sub in 125l box, flat right to 24Hz and puttin' out 110dB not including room gain, BTW I'm scared - that thing can probably shatted windows in my room :bigeyes:
Most probably it'll be the loudest sub on teh block ;) friend of mine has Polk 10", everyone else sits around with "Multimedia PC speakers"...
 
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