15" coaxial or horn and 15" driver?

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AudioGeek

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#1
So i am on the fence. I love the sound of large drivers and their effortlessness. I am looking for opinion on which route i should go. 15" coaxial such as the GPA, Beyma 15XA38ND or 15CXA400ND, Fe. Or a traditional 2 way setup with the Beyma SM115K and maybe BC250 or Beyma CP385ND in a wood horn such as the Allwood 610F-Oak.

Cost wise both routes are pretty comparable.

Oh and do have 4x Altec H-811B horns. one set is black the other is blue. Both have the HF drivers attached. Also have a set of N-800G crossover networks. I don't necessarily need to use these but i do have them. Oh and a pair of Altec 601C duplex in really really bad condition (needs re-coning).

Part of me wants to use new components and drivers.

Currently i have a PP 6B4G amp, passive transformer pre-amp and a FE167E / 15" bass OB speakers.

I would love some direction on which way to go. I do have and idea of using laminated plywood to make the enclosures and build the horn ( if traditional 2 way) into the enclosure. So a lot of CNC work. The horn would be part of the enclosure versus being fastened on. hope that makes sense.

Budget for drivers probably around $1000 plus or minus.

Thank you for any help!!!!
 
#2
I'd go with traditional 2 way setup. If you don't like the tweeter in your coaxial, you're more or less stuck with it. I'd use Deltalite II 2515, GPA 416 or something similarly low Mms and Le.

Cheers
 
#3
I've run Altec coax and they are very nice. But a big horn with the 15 is in another league. Zvu is right.

One thing I did for awhile was the Altec 604 as bass and high in a 3-way with the big horn as mid. Worked pretty well.
 
#4
If you can go the Altec / GPA route and do a good TL cabinet it will be pretty righteous.
Some lile the single point sourse aspect., other wise a VOTT type system with multi cell is the way to go.
As alway.... just my opinion... ) But I love my VOTTS
 
#6
I’m running a modified version of Wayne Parham’s Pi 4, with the spec’d crossover and waveguide/horn, but in a larger box (6 cu ft IIRC) with Faital Pro drivers - 15PR400 & HF10AK.
The graphs on their site don’t lie; my speakers measure quite flat throughout the entire bandwidth and the CDs really are flat up to, and a bit beyond, 20kHz.
 
#7
I have been looking at the 15PR400. Looks like a great driver. How do they sound?

Between the 15PR400 and the DeltaLite 2515.

What would a good crossover point be for a 2 way? Like i said i am thinking of a built in horn for the compression driver.

much more research to be done i guess.
 
#8
Depends on what your desired average coverage angle through the XO point is, which for a 15" is normally < ~1 kHz and preferably lower, though Altec's M19 with its ~1200 Hz XO is considered by many to be its best overall performing consumer speaker, no doubt primarily due to its 416's very wide ~5 kHz upper limit, smooth roll-off.

GM
 
#9
The Faital drivers are crossed at 1300 Hz.

Prior to the 15PR400 I used the Eminence Omega Pro-15A. The Faital is much better all around, with a clearer, sweeter midrange and tighter bass. The Eminence & Faital drivers have quite similar specs (Fs, Qts, efficiency) but the Faital is a far better speaker.
 
#11
AudioGeek said:
I have been looking at the 15PR400. Looks like a great driver. How do they sound?

Between the 15PR400 and the DeltaLite 2515.

What would a good crossover point be for a 2 way? Like i said i am thinking of a built in horn for the compression driver.

much more research to be done i guess.
Click to expand...
As low as you can take the horn/tweeter without distortion. Great thing about the FaitalPro is it is so well behaved to 4k. That allows a wider range of xo orders even with a 6-800hz primary point.
 
#13
Pros and cons

Coaxials MAY be better from the point of view of presenting a virtual "point source", but only provided that the crossover is properly designed to also take into account the Z- (depth) offset between the two acoustic centres.

OTOH, coaxially-mounted horns are always compromised in that they are too small to provide proper loading; in an attempt to make matters less bad (but still not good), designers are often forced to settle for too-high crossover points between the woofer and the horn.

In other words, pick your poison. Neither solution is perfect.

In my experience, however, if you are OK with a properly dimensioned (IOW, large) horn, the benefits of the latter outweigh the disadvantage of having to forego coaxial mounting.

Marco
 
#16
marco_gea said:
Beware: that horn is an obsolete design that achieves the desired constant directivity by means of a hard diffraction slot. If used in a 2-way configuration, it will lead to at least some of the typical negatives of "horn sound".
Click to expand...

Definitely not obsolete and can be bought at many suppliers, I have used it and with the right crossover like Tony has done does not sound like a typical Horn. These speakers sound really, really good!
 
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