I'm blown away by ATC's dome midrange and the Dynaudio Esotar tweeters and wonder how both would sound paired with a great set of 8" woofers in a floorstander.
Do any 3 kits exists that either use these or come close in sound?
High costs are understood/ expected.
Do any 3 kits exists that either use these or come close in sound?
High costs are understood/ expected.
ATC mid dome has not been available to DIY for years and years.
There is the Volt. Have a look at the Open Source Monkey Coffin. Not sealed.
There is the Volt. Have a look at the Open Source Monkey Coffin. Not sealed.
Interesting. Thought I read they might still supply them in bulk but apparently not.
This thread mentions a 3" dome mid Neumann built after ATC stopped supplying them. Need to do some research on those.
Also wonder how the Volts compare, given that they cost more than the SM75-150...
PMC build their own 3" mid dome.
Dynaudio stopped supplying drivers to diyers about 20 years ago. To get a replacement for a driver you already own you must send in the one to be replaced.
Dynaudio stopped supplying drivers to diyers about 20 years ago. To get a replacement for a driver you already own you must send in the one to be replaced.
On the whole things look a wee bit bleak for the OP with both ATC and Dynaudio being unavailable.
Leaves only the Volt mid and possibly a Morel to replace the suggested/desired Dynaudio tweet as Morel and Dynaudio appear to be related.
Although I'm not sure what exactly their relationship is.
Leaves only the Volt mid and possibly a Morel to replace the suggested/desired Dynaudio tweet as Morel and Dynaudio appear to be related.
Although I'm not sure what exactly their relationship is.
Is the Bliesma M74 considered as an option? https://hificompass.com/en/reviews/bliesma-m74a-6-m74b-6-m74p-6-and-m74s-6
@profiguy is a big fan of the old Vifa D75 / Scanspeak 920010 and has a lot of experience with mid domes.
I asked him once to document one of his speakers, cause I'd like to use this driver one day.
There are also the new Bliesmas and if you want a kit, well, Troels recently published one with the SB Acoustics dome. http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/SBA-7MD.htm
But TBH, I don't think the latter will really sound similar to the ATC. Not much does.
I asked him once to document one of his speakers, cause I'd like to use this driver one day.
There are also the new Bliesmas and if you want a kit, well, Troels recently published one with the SB Acoustics dome. http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/SBA-7MD.htm
But TBH, I don't think the latter will really sound similar to the ATC. Not much does.
No.
From the PMC site:"Most manufacturers only use dome diaphragms for their high frequency drive units, as there is a significant cost and complexity involved with designing and manufacturing larger dome midrange drivers. However, at PMC we realised that the potential benefits that a large, soft dome midrange drive unit can bring are worth the increased complexity and challenges for development, so we use our own designed soft dome midrange drive units in all of our 3-way products, even going as far as to manufacture our famous PMC75 drive unit entirely in-house."
Parts express also have the Tang Band 3” dome on back order.
https://www.parts-express.com/Tang-Band-75-1558SH-3-Fabric-Dome-Midrange-264-856
I have the Morel EM1308 and it is really easy to work with having a natural 2nd order roll off both ends of the frequency spectrum and it has a very clear and natural sound, not fatiguing at all. However it has to be used with a 2nd order above 650hz, better still 750hz. The ATC at 400hz is a different beast all together.
The Scanspeak and also the new(ish) SB MD60 are really filler domes from 800-4khz.
https://www.parts-express.com/Tang-Band-75-1558SH-3-Fabric-Dome-Midrange-264-856
I have the Morel EM1308 and it is really easy to work with having a natural 2nd order roll off both ends of the frequency spectrum and it has a very clear and natural sound, not fatiguing at all. However it has to be used with a 2nd order above 650hz, better still 750hz. The ATC at 400hz is a different beast all together.
The Scanspeak and also the new(ish) SB MD60 are really filler domes from 800-4khz.
I read this but then looked at the photo of the PMC driver and compared it with a photo of the Volt driver. Made me wonder about the origin of the parts and/or their design and what the relationship with Volt might be. Manufacture might mean assembly in house with parts largely obtained from elsewhere. Possibly mildly tweaked from the off-the-shelf Volt design. I don't know one way or the other just speculating given the drivers look the same and I would have expected a redesign to look different and improved in some aspects (e.g. the K&H/Neumann driver when ATC stopped supplying). Not that it matters much other than possibly long term support.
Top of my list for a 3" dome would be the one from Neumann which measures close to the ATC but in a more compact package. I don't know if you can order one as a replacement part. I can see no advertised part number and price on the Senheisser web site. The chap in the linked thread above didn't say where he got his from or for how much. Anyone know one way or the other?
From a practical perspective, the Morel domes are the easiest to implement crossover wise and are very well behaved on top, allowing for first order filters in some cases. The EM1308 is a slightly refined version of the MDM55 and CAM558. I prefer these due to a smaller faceplate, allowing for tighter driver spacing. I usually cross them at 4k with a Morel CAT378 tweeter and about 800-1000 2nd order down low depending on spl requirements. Despite their appearance, these mids will pair up well with alot of "faster" drivers, yet have a slightly laid back deceptive sound due to FR dip when mounted on narrow baffles (due to baffle step and diffraction ripple).
That really leaves the Scanspeak D7608 as the readily available 3" dome. With a lot of careful implementation this driver can be amazing. Not a good choice for first time builders and despite an open back design, not good for dipole designs. The morels are much more forgiving to use, but they tend to be fragile when pushed harder at lower crossover points, mainly because they don't complain much up to the point of melting down.
That really leaves the Scanspeak D7608 as the readily available 3" dome. With a lot of careful implementation this driver can be amazing. Not a good choice for first time builders and despite an open back design, not good for dipole designs. The morels are much more forgiving to use, but they tend to be fragile when pushed harder at lower crossover points, mainly because they don't complain much up to the point of melting down.
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Good luck with that. Sennheiser and Neumann are hard to get parts from. Neumann doesn't like to sell parts to the general public based on my experiences. Trying to get parts for repairing mics has been a challenge and many times the capsules aren't available separately to the average diy person. Trying to repair some smaller Neumann monitors proved impossible due to lack of separate PCB components from them. They only offered complete PCBs and only if they did the work.
The SB MD60-N has issues around the lower end. The back chamber is likely the culprit. I'm willing to bet this driver would benefit from a wider and slightly larger back chamber. The weirdness around the 900-1000 hz area looks like its caused by internal reflections in the back tube. It would be a nice driver if it didn't have that issue, but still limited by a lower xmax.
I'm working on a detailed write-up on the SS D7608. Not a forgiving driver. There are a lot of little details you need to address if you want to make it sing, especially if higher spls are expected from it.
Not sure why you would look on the Sennheiser site to find a Neumann spare part.
Neumann monitors (formerly Klein&Hummel) simply cancelled their top of the range model which used the ATC mid. I think they use the ScanSpeak D7608 in a waveguide in their remaining 3way monitor.
As far as I know PMC never did use the Volt. They started out using the ATC and when they cut off supply designed and manufactured their own.
It is quite a beast and weighs more than even ATC's S version of the dome.
PMC does however use Volt Radial woofers, the only difference to the ones you can buy is that PMC dopes the cones.