New versions

[badman]

Hi pjanda:

The burros look great, but great is relative. I'd love to see a version with a fancied up motor, any thoughts on when we might expect such a beastie? Seems to me you could add a copper pole sleeve and extended pole and increase the magnet size (to compensate for the larger gap geometry) and top-plate through-hole fairly easily, and have yourself a real monster of a driver. I'd pay double for those changes.

[pjanda1]

Badman,

I'm actually working with someone else on a motor that is more than fancied up. We've got a few problems to solve, mainly related to cost, not design. I hate to talk too much about it until it becomes an actual product, but hopefully I'll have news in the next couple of months.

As far as the other changes, some are easy, some not so much. I'm actually going to start a thread about a shorting ring, so you may want to chip in. Increasing the magnet size is more of a problem. Given the quantities I must work in, most of my parts, and in fact, all of the parts in the current motor, are off the shelf. Right now, we can't go bigger and keep the 1" voice coil. And, increasing the voice coil size limits high frequency response more than I would like. Despite it's light weight, this is a stiff cone! The minute I start having to buy a large minimum order of parts, it gets very difficult to keep the price down to anything reasonable.

If the current R&D project doesn't pan out, I might be willing to explore more options. I would like to get something higher-end in the line. WBAL isn't so much designed to make $$, as it is designed to break even and give me access to speakers I like! I will always be interested in new toys.

Paul

[DougL]

Have you thought about a field coil Motor?
I have no Idea how hard it would be, but if you could market it for under $500 per pair you would still be the least expensive Field coil that I am aware of.

Doug