All
I am working with a well known speaker maker (don’t want to name him for privacy reason) and for sake of my own research want to get everyone’s opinion on driver choices. Speaker will be a TMWW.
First in terms of sound I like: One of my fav listening sessions was a Dynaudio C2 and Bryston combo:
1. It felt tad bit warm while still having a lot of punch (nothing muddled about it)
2. Vocals (Diana Krall, John Mayer etc) had a level of cleanliness to it
3. Guitar (gipsy kings, Jesse cook) sounded airy without being lean
4. Speakers filled a relatively large room (3000 cuft - 16’x20’,10’) even at modest volume and sitting on my sofa (10 ft away from speakers), I felt engulfed by the sound. Key was even at moderate volume.
5. It may be related to my first point above but I felt the combo was forgiving of average source (eg high quality Spotify streaming, which isn’t that high quality after all).
Drivers choices are:
1. Tweeter : satori TW29BN or Scanspeak D2908/7140
2. Woofer: Satori MW19P 7.5” or Scanspeak Illuminator 18WU 7”
3. Midrange : this is where I haven’t thus far been able to shortlist down to a couple. Looking at various options from Acuton, Satori, Audio Technology & Scanspeak
Speaker is likely to be about 41” high, 9” wide and 15” deep.
I am working with a well known speaker maker (don’t want to name him for privacy reason) and for sake of my own research want to get everyone’s opinion on driver choices. Speaker will be a TMWW.
First in terms of sound I like: One of my fav listening sessions was a Dynaudio C2 and Bryston combo:
1. It felt tad bit warm while still having a lot of punch (nothing muddled about it)
2. Vocals (Diana Krall, John Mayer etc) had a level of cleanliness to it
3. Guitar (gipsy kings, Jesse cook) sounded airy without being lean
4. Speakers filled a relatively large room (3000 cuft - 16’x20’,10’) even at modest volume and sitting on my sofa (10 ft away from speakers), I felt engulfed by the sound. Key was even at moderate volume.
5. It may be related to my first point above but I felt the combo was forgiving of average source (eg high quality Spotify streaming, which isn’t that high quality after all).
Drivers choices are:
1. Tweeter : satori TW29BN or Scanspeak D2908/7140
2. Woofer: Satori MW19P 7.5” or Scanspeak Illuminator 18WU 7”
3. Midrange : this is where I haven’t thus far been able to shortlist down to a couple. Looking at various options from Acuton, Satori, Audio Technology & Scanspeak
Speaker is likely to be about 41” high, 9” wide and 15” deep.
I ordered the Tempesta Mk2 from Selah Audio but they won't show up at my doors until a couple of weeks later so I couldn't say how they sound yet. (7" Illuminator, Accuton C51, RAAL)
They have Beryllium, too (Epico) but I know not which brand that might be.
Since you said TMWW my C51 wouldn't cross low enough and you would need at least a C90 and then maybe the Illuminator would be a bit of overkill. (For a low woofer/midrange crossover point.)
They have Beryllium, too (Epico) but I know not which brand that might be.
Since you said TMWW my C51 wouldn't cross low enough and you would need at least a C90 and then maybe the Illuminator would be a bit of overkill. (For a low woofer/midrange crossover point.)
I was very impressed by a prelim 3 way made for a friend using all Satori drivers, TW29, MR16 and 2 WO24 in a sealed 60 litre cabinet.
hificompass' measurements shows the WO24 to have lower distortion than Scanspeak's offering.
Do consider the MR16 & WO24 as a good mid/bass combo and add your own tweeter to taste.
hificompass' measurements shows the WO24 to have lower distortion than Scanspeak's offering.
Do consider the MR16 & WO24 as a good mid/bass combo and add your own tweeter to taste.
It really doesn't matter much what drivers you will be using as long as they are standard quality products from a reputable manufacturer meeting specs needed for a particular design.
I have heard great things about WO24P.
Jim Salk uses it in Song 3 Encore.
Because it is 9.5” driver, speaker ends up being wider than I prefer it to be. Ideally would want it to be around 9” wide. But I am seriously thinking about Song Encore.
That will depend on the crossovers, but have a look at this voice coil test and you'll see that the Scanspeak 18wu's are exceptionally low distortion too: http://www.audiocomponents.nl/download/scan-speak/18WU-4747T00 - Voice Coil 2010-4.pdf
That's not to say that I dispute your recommendation of the Satori drivers. I'm extremely impressed with them.
I'm using the Satori MW19P-4 in my center speaker. It's a super driver, but not a real woofer!
Works great with a sub, but not as a stand alone woofer in my oppinion.
I would go for something like SB23MFCL45-4 (maybe 2) for the woofer (if you want to keep the narrow look)and then either MW19P or MW16P as mid and the SB tweeter in a waveguide
Works great with a sub, but not as a stand alone woofer in my oppinion.
I would go for something like SB23MFCL45-4 (maybe 2) for the woofer (if you want to keep the narrow look)and then either MW19P or MW16P as mid and the SB tweeter in a waveguide
Well one's a 24cm woofer the other's a 18cm midwoofer though,
And if you thought 18WU was impressive... seen Scanspeak ellipticor's measurements? Mindblowing...
And if you thought 18WU was impressive... seen Scanspeak ellipticor's measurements? Mindblowing...
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Something else to keep in mind:
He does every distortion test the same, 94dB @ 1 metre, which skews the results towards larger drivers.
In real life, a tiny desktop driver isn't expected to cover the same audience as a big pro woofer, but Dickason's tests make no accommodation for this. In some extreme examples, he blandly presents measurements that have been taken of drivers operating well past Xmax.
e.g. in this review:
Test Bench: Tymphany GBS-135F25AL02-04 5.25-Inch Woofer | audioXpress
1) he models the driver as exceeding Xmax with 6 volts (figure 4).
2) for the distortion tests (figure 15), he "set the SPL to 94 dB at 1 m (7.58 V)"
I had to go over that review a couple of time to realise why the measured distortion was so high.
Ditto in this review:
Test Bench: Peerless by Tymphany Full-Range 5” PLS-65F25AL01-08 | audioXpress
...he pushes a 2.5" driver past Xmax, and records a 13% distortion spike without any comment.
The Seas L26RFX/P used to be a very low distortion option. They are also pistonic up to 1Khz by all accounts. They will miss out on the bottom octave and do have only 7mm xmax, but I've found satisfying performance in 23' x 18' listening room (12' ceiling height).
An option is to double the L26 (series) to half the xmax demands for the same SPL. However you'd need 120L cabinet (sealed) at a minimum.
An option is to double the L26 (series) to half the xmax demands for the same SPL. However you'd need 120L cabinet (sealed) at a minimum.
He also tests those at much higher SPL for the distortion measurements. Which makes them difficult to compare. Vance did this because he claimed the epique are pro drivers? Really odd.
You're right, I just re-read that. He tested them at 104db.
That seems very strange considering that they're clearly marketed as hi-fi drivers and not pro drivers. A suspicious person would think that Vance is biased against Dayton Audio and attempting to make them look worse, but they performed so well that it didn't happen. I'm curious if he's explained his reasoning for this.
Great, thanks Brandon. Now there's another driver that looks good to use in a project. Like I need another of those. /sarc.
Seriously, I didn't know about it and if it's as good as the Ellipticor it will be excellent. Not cheaply priced, but not unreasonable either, even after shipping and taxes to Oz.
The tested one was actually the 5", but I'd expect the 8" one to do well too. Not sure which one you were looking at.
Thanks for the clarification. Having not seen the VC test, I just assumed it was the 8", which would be what I'd want.
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