Eton 8-412/C8/32: No One Likes This Woofer?

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Waboo

Waboo

Member
Joined 2016
#1
Hi all,
My very first post here. I've been away from speaker building for some time now and I'm looking for something to build.

I'm somewhat intrigued by this newish woofer from Eton for use in a sealed floor-standing 2-way. In doing internet searches for others using it, I pretty much come up empty. It looks like it would make a nice 2-way with decent bass, considering.

Any help would be appreciated.

Eton Link:
https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/approx-8-woofers/eton-8-412/c8/32-hex-symphony-ii-8-woofer/

Terry
 
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#2
Hi Terry!

I've read lots of good things about Eton on personal blogs so I asked questions like yours here and I think the consensus here has been that the Eton drivers are outclassed by ScanSpeak and Seas for the price. What other experts have said here is that the issue is in the simple motor assemblies themselves.

I personally am a huge Scanspeak fan, but have never actually heard or built with Eton drivers.

Best,


Erik
 
#4
eriksquires said:
Hi Terry!

I've read lots of good things about Eton on personal blogs so I asked questions like yours here and I think the consensus here has been that the Eton drivers are outclassed by ScanSpeak and Seas for the price. What other experts have said here is that the issue is in the simple motor assemblies themselves.

I personally am a huge Scanspeak fan, but have never actually heard or built with Eton drivers.

Best,


Erik
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I like ScanSpeak and SEAS drivers as well, and right now I'm listening to Diana Krall's Wallflower CD on my DIY 3-way towers with Scan 25W/8565, 18W/8545K and SEAS Millennium that I built around 2002 or so. Still love them.

I understand the part of Eton being outclassed by maybe motor design, but not sure about the price part. SEAS pricing has gotten out of control over the years on their Excel line. ScanSpeaks Classic line is at least still a good value.

But neither SEAS nor SS seem to have an 8" that can be used in a sealed design that theoretically should have an F3 around 40. That's pretty decent for a sealed woofer.

As long as I've been building speakers, I really haven't progressed as much as one should have, in fact, I've stagnated considerably and haven't built anything in around 8-10 years.

Still tend to gravitate towards woofers designed for sealed boxes, as my few ported projects have left me feeling like they're not quite there and I never knew exactly how to tune them properly. But my ears told me they weren't quite right. However, every sealed box speakers I have built have always sounded right.

I guess that's why I was wondering about this Eton woofer, because it's for a sealed design. Maybe not ideal for a 2-way using an 8", but Eton's literature on that woofer really seem to say it's a good one.
 
#6
Waboo said:
I'm looking for something to build.
I'm somewhat intrigued by this newish woofer from Eton for use in a sealed floor-standing 2-way.

Terry
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Although I don't doubt this Eton could be made to work out fine in a 2 way, I'd suggest you consider a true sealed box drive unit like this. No doubt a truly high quality piece of technology, with the right waveguide tweeter a candidate for :Olympic:

Acoustic Elegance Dipole10 woofer for Open Baffle Applications
 
#8
The particular TS parameters are optimized to reach deep bass without the need for active EQ. F3/F6/F10= 33/27/22 Hz in a 90 litre sealed box. That's why. A speaker with a Qtc of 1,0 including dcr of an average LP coil.
 
#11
Waboo said:
Say whuh?
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Saying the thruth. Ever looked how simple a midrange's construction is?. Why would it be so expensive to manufacture?, cuz they use carbovinyl- thetrahetyl polychlorate sandwich cones?! :spin:.
A big woofer, (the aluminum basket is the single, most expensive component), may be more expensive, and AMT or ribbon tweeters too but a simple midrange!?. Think about it 🙄
When you say the word ''Audiophile'', they simply triple the price.
 
#14
Waboo said:
I have no idea what you're referring to. So again, say whuh?

But seriously, my thread title mentions Eton....
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I'll spell it out for you a little more clearly... He is saying that Eton is ripping you off by using fancy sounding names for the materials and jacking up the price way above what a normal profit margin requires. They try to trick you into believing that their drivers are some kind of special magic using marketing mumbo-jumbo like "authentic staging" and trying to please both camps with its "nicely detailed, yet warm sounding" character.

Eton must have hired some marketing people away from the mattress business...
 
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#15
CharlieLaub said:
I'll spell it out for you a little more clearly... He is saying that Eton is ripping you off by using fancy sounding names for the materials and jacking up the price way above what a normal profit margin requires. They try to trick you into believing that their drivers are some kind of special magic using marketing mumbo-jumbo like "authentic staging" and trying to please both camps with its "nicely detailed, yet warm sounding" character.

Eton must have hired some marketing people away from the mattress business...
Click to expand...

Hmmm, what you describe sounds pretty much like SEAS Excel and SS Illuminator line. I mean, the Eton is simply a $200 woofer, which isn't outrageous by today's standards. SEAS Excel line is waaay out there, however.

Guess I've come to the conclusion that Eton isn't too many's favorite.
 
#18
#19
That's all valid points, the prices are overblown, no doubt. From their perspective it's justified, from our maybe not so. But, you can't exactly say that they are stealing from us! Did some of those people get in your home to take your hard earned 200 bucks and make you go to a store so you can buy a scan speak midrange? I don't know! Everything is well as long as there is cheaper alternatives and there is still. Don't get me wrong.
 
#20
Ohhh! the can of worms i opened!. I just did it myself. Bought a pair of Mundorf AMT23 tweeters @ $1000.00 (Canadian), a pair and i'm sorry i did it. Look at what kind of quality (well a loooooot of people say so), that's coming from Dayton. Great quality can be obtained for cheap and i like that!. Nice Audax PR170M0 and Celestion TF0615 mids that sound absolutely great, no need for a Audio Technology @ 10 times the price for basically a similar constructed driver...
 
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