Best Compression Drivers today 2022?

Jump to Latest
#742
Cask05 said:
That's unfortunate that you've chosen to not hear a good setup with something like K-402s, etc. I think you would immediately change your mind.
Click to expand...
Hey Chris,
I have not 'chosen' to exclude the K-402s. Those have simply not been on my radar and I evolved my horn experimentation from a different angle, more like TAD and Altec side. My general experience with modern CD or 'shallow' horns (call them as you like) has not been great. Very early on I came to the realization that the choices in horns/driver combos are few and far in between. These things don't grow on trees either but after this discussion I feel I should give the K402 a listen. I hope I get a chance to hear them in may at the show.
best
 
#743
grataku said:
but after this discussion I feel I should give the K402 a listen. I hope I get a chance to hear them in may at the show.
Click to expand...
I think that's a good outcome of the discussion, if nothing else. Thanks.

Be careful of listening at trade shows, however. I've found that often times, the setups aren't terribly good. Asking to see the in-room measurements for the room/loudspeaker might be a way of better understanding of how well they've been set up.

You might have noticed that I put a lot of emphasis on the room acoustics and how well they've been dialed in. I guess it isn't difficult to see that as the acoustic performance levels generally keep increasing over time, the more the room and dial-ins become important to sound quality. When I started out with first gen. Jubilees in December 2007 in my listening room, there was before me an extremely long path toward realizing their real potential that basically culminated in April 2019 in terms of a lot of added domain knowledge and insights. That's why I have become very sensitive to showroom dial-ins. It's also why I try to share my experiences--to help others avoid that extremely long learning curve.

Chris
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: moray james and Audiodidakt
#744
to return to the original subject of the thread . the new Faital HF1460 with carbon diagram seems the one to beat in mesure , the respons , distorsions and watefall are hard to believe .. wondering if someone had listen to them ?
20230102085629_Figure8-Faital-Pro-HF1460-Compression-Driver.jpg


20230102085832_Figure12-Faital-Pro-HF1460-Compression-Driver.jpg

20230102085856_Figure13-Faital-Pro-HF1460-Compression-Driver.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lynn Olson and compaddict
#745
Hi Snickers-is,

Snickers-is said:
At high frequencies we typically get a lot of rotating modes in the phase plug which leads to large changes in the wavefront shape. When the wavelengths are tiny, these changes are significant and the horn can not propagate these distorted wavefronts and reshape them as intended. This results in lack of high end energy, consistency and dispersion.
Click to expand...
Could you please provide a reference supporting your claim?

Kindest regards,

M
 
#746
juanitox said:
to return to the original subject of the thread . the new Faital HF1460 with carbon diagram seems the one to beat in mesure , the respons , distorsions and watefall are hard to believe .. wondering if someone had listen to them ?
Click to expand...
The 1.4 mouth has stopped me from trying. Is yet another size I have no horn flare for and frankly the Faital or Eminence horns do not impress me much. Since no one has made dome twitters, I am speculating but this material may perform best between 500-1500Hz. Not sure how similar this is to the material I have seen used in cones.
 
#749
Lynn Olson said:
Pano, which compression drivers do you like on your multicells? Serious question here, no joking around.
Click to expand...
Thanks for asking. My experience with multis and drivers isn't too extensive, but I have owned and/or listened to the metal 1505, wooden replica 1505, 1005, tar filled 1005, 803, 203. Here is a list of drivers I remember ranked in order of preference.
  1. Westrex 2080 Alnico
  2. BMS 4592 Nd
  3. Altec 288 Alnico
  4. Altec 288 ferrite
  5. Altec 291 Ferrite
  6. Altec 290 Alnico with phenolic diaphragm
  7. Radian 4735 ferrite
The 288 and 291 sound similar, Alnico nicer than ferrite. The BMS is remarkably clean and can be crossed fairly low without trouble. The 290 is good in the midrange, but the phenolic 'phram, doesn't go above 5kHz (7kHz is claimed) so a tweeter is obligatory. The old Radian is "OK" but never really made me happy.
The Westrex 2080 is said to the the British equivalent of the USA 288, but it does not look or sound like the 288 to me. It looks more like the WE 555 and sounds like heaven. I don't know what it is about this driver, but I've never used anything as good, nothing else as right sounding.

This summer I'd like to try the TexTreme Eminence drivers in place of the BMS, I hope that will happen. However I'm not sure if they will survive my lower crossover point. Eminence recommend a high pass at 800Hz second order. I'm currently at 499Hz 4th order Linkwitz-Riley, which puts almost 2X the power into the driver in the 500-650Hz range. I'll have to carefully measure how much voltage I'm sending out in that range.
 
#750
mefistofelez said:
Hi Snickers-is,


Could you please provide a reference supporting your claim?

Kindest regards,

M
Click to expand...

Sure:

1681157890863.png


But why do you need me to "support my claim", I thought this was sufficiently common knowledge at this point?
EDIT: On page 674, this topic is described in detail. One can also find this type of distortion thorougly examined by Mr @jackocleebrown in this video where he talks about how the AXI2050 came to life:

 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: superlian and mefistofelez
#753
Hi Snickers-is,

Snickers-is said:
But why do you need me to "support my claim", I thought this was sufficiently common knowledge at this point?
Click to expand...
thank you for the reference. My friend has, in fact, the book, so I will borrow it.

Well, perhaps it is a common knowledge, but I have not seen it anywhere, e.g., Hendrickson paper, Geddes' patent.

Kindest regards,

M
 
Last edited:
#754
I can recommend that book, but it is kind of a heavy one in more than one way. But it lead me to develop this 460x400mm horn:

Horizontal:
Horizontal.png


Vertical:
Vertical.png

It is powered by a 18s 1480Be, and it is clear by the simulations that what happens around 14-16k is related to the wavefront coming out of the phase plug.

I therefore started work on a compression driver that solves this issue. It is a carbon ring radiator with a 3D printed phase plug.
 
  • Like
Reactions: superlian
#760
Yes, the book is actually too heavy to keep in your lap for more than fifteen minutes, and hand-holding is out of the question for more than a couple of minutes. It has to go on a book table in order to read it without wrist fatigue.

If it was printed as TWO books they would still be pretty big, and not trade paperbacks by any means.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom