Betsy drivers are REALLY good

[Randy in Caintuck]

Since recently completing my latest speaker building project with Betsy drivers in an "MTM" configuration, I have been listening to these speakers for several hours each night spinning almost every CD in my collection.

I have also had a chance to compare the Betsys to my other open baffle speakers that use Visaton B200 drivers. The way I have both speakers set up gives me the option of running them with one or two full-range drivers and with or without the high frequency drivers.

While the Visaton drivers are certainly a bit more detailed, the Betsy drivers are every bit as "musical" ..... and are a lot "kinder" to any CD that is a little thin sounding or hot on the top end (and goodness knows that there are plenty of those) .....

While I like the added dynamics the MTM setup provides, I find myself listening more to a single driver per side with the Fountek ribbon crossed over at a very high frequency. The sound stage is huge ..... deep and wide and very coherent.



After listening for another month or two, I will probably end up cutting off the top part of the baffle above the ribbon and just running a single Betsy per side.
The baffles are slightly tilted back and I am sure that the image will float very nicely above the shorter baffles.

As I mentioned on the Recommended Components page of my website, I don't know of a better bargain in the world of loudspeakers than the Betsy drivers. I have heard (and owned) a lot of speakers over the years and for sheer musicality they are hard to beat. With the music I primarily listen to (folk, Celtic, acoustic blues and jazz and vocals) these speakers are just about perfect.

Love those Betsy drivers .....

Randy

[mikje]

I'm very tempted to try this, even though I told myself I'll do no more "budget" speakers. I have my eye on a pair of Jeff Bagby's Tritons or Contimuums, but...
How did you determine the baffle width, did you flush mount any of the drivers, and is the only crossover/filter/BSC circuit a small cap on the tweeter? I know virtually nothing about open baffle speakers other than they have a pretty impressive following. I figure I might as well try some to see if I like them.
Any other advice?
Thanks,
Mike

[tinitus]

Originally Posted by Randy in Caintuck

After listening for another month or two, I will probably end up cutting off the top part of the baffle above the ribbon and just running a single Betsy per side.

oh no please try it the 2.5way first
just a simple inductor in series with the low driver, thats all
both drivers should ideally have been below ribbon, but who cares if it works

or else, maybe it would be possible to cut out a piece of the baffle, and rearrange the drivers

Originally Posted by Randy in Caintuck

The baffles are slightly tilted back and I am sure that the image will float very nicely above the shorter baffles.

rubbish ofcourse, but a good joke

but you can always try to disconnect the upper driver, and see what happens, before you regret the cut

[Randy in Caintuck]

Originally Posted by mikje

I'm very tempted to try this, even though I told myself I'll do no more "budget" speakers. I have my eye on a pair of Jeff Bagby's Tritons or Contimuums, but...
How did you determine the baffle width, did you flush mount any of the drivers, and is the only crossover/filter/BSC circuit a small cap on the tweeter? I know virtually nothing about open baffle speakers other than they have a pretty impressive following. I figure I might as well try some to see if I like them.
Any other advice?
Thanks,
Mike

Hi Mike,

I just chose the baffle width "by the seat of my pants" at 16". This width has worked pretty well with other open baffle projects I have done with 8" drivers.

Yep ..... there is just a single cap on the ribbon. I have a bunch of capacitors of different values and tried several different crossover points. The ribbon is 7 ohm and the Betsy drivers are 5.9. I ended up using a 1.5 uF cap which crossd the ribbon over at about 15K. While this might sound a bit high to some folks, it is doing exactly what I want it to do ..... add some sparkle to the very high frequencies. To my ears, the Betsy drivers do just fine on every frequency except the very top end.

I am running some Hawthorne Audio Augie 15" open baffle drivers to take care of the low end.

Sounds good to me .....

Best wishes,

Randy

[Randy in Caintuck]

Originally Posted by tinitus

rubbish ofcourse, but a good joke

but you can always try to disconnect the upper driver, and see what happens, before you regret the cut

Howdy tinitus,

I do have the baffles set up so that I can run one or both Betsy drivers with or without the ribbon and have spent quite a bit of time listening to all of the combinations. I could make an argument for any of the combos, but the final decision will be based on what floats my boat with the music that I listen to most.

Truthfully, the main reason I built the Betsy baffles was to have a pair of OB speakers that sound a lot different than the Visaton baffles ..... and they do for a fact. I am well pleased with both speakers .....

Happy listening,

Randy

[tinitus]

howdy, Randy...okee dokee

still, you ought to try rolling off the lower driver with 6db filter, and only let the upper Betsy run fullrange

[adason]

something I have done a while ago with great success
Audio Pages: System two - update
I like Betsy too...

[Randy in Caintuck]

Interesting suggestion ..... something I have not tried before .....

I might just have to give the 2.5 way a shot before breaking out the chain saw to butcher the baffles .....

Never too old to learn,

Randy

BTW ..... adason, nice room. Thanks for sharing

[GM]

Originally Posted by tinitus

oh no please try it the 2.5way first
just a simple inductor in series with the low driver, thats all...........

both drivers should ideally have been below ribbon

+1, though can't say I agree with the latter since of more importance IME is positioning the bass driver[s] at ceiling height 3rds or 5ths if the ceiling/floor are in parallel.

GM

[GM]

Originally Posted by adason

something I have done a while ago with great success
Audio Pages: System two - update
I like Betsy too...

Reminds me of the BOFU with piezo horn MTM OB I cobbled together as a proof of concept I posted about ages ago when the BOFU craze was just starting, though mine was a tapered flat baffle floorstander after Carver and I butted the BOFUs together and nestled the square flanged horn in the lee of the junction to minimize c-t-c spacing due to the high HF XO point.

The low passed lower BOFU was the whizzerless 'woofer' version that I added some mass to both damp it/lower Fs a bit and did the $0.98 tweak to the whizzer along with kneading it to lower its Q.

The results were far better than a then < $100 total cost speaker had a right to be, but times being what they were/are for me, I never built another one and the baffle is now part of a house wall repair.

GM