I have been playing around with designs for a small, thin kitchen system for a while now. I have a few drivers and layouts in mind and I would like everyone's opinion. If there is a large objective difference between these I would love if you'd point them out.
Here is the frequency range I would like to use the midbass units in. The green line.
Shotting for an F3 of 38-48hz. We like bass in our house.
Here is a mockup of the design in its location. This location and temporary until we get a new house. Then it will live in the new kitchen. In the new kitchen it will be far more separated. We will not get into the design details of the rest of the system here. Just focus on midbass drivers. I'll make a thread for this build once I get a more concrete idea of what I'm doing.
The narrow baffle is key since they cannot take up a ton of counter space and I want a nice spread of sound. Probably going to be 5-7" dual woofer, 3-4" mid, 3/4" tweeter. Nice spread of sound.
Box size will be between 24-50 liters. Quite a spread I know but I could easily make it taller in a MTMWW layout or not as deep to go lower in volume.
I really want to try out dual woofers here. Originally I wanted to use these Dayton 7" drivers and I still might. I feel these are more woofer than midbass though. They are cheap. They have some decent reviews. I can get them for $45 on amazon even though they are out of stock at PE. I would dual these. These are modeled in the mockup above. Aluminum, easy to clean
Next up are these currently unobtanium Peerless 5.25" SLS. I have the 8" SLS and I love them. These are 4 ohm so we are looking at series alignment. They are low sensitivity so definitely 2 of them. They would work very well ported and I could get away with a smaller and narrower enclosure. $35 a pop when PE has them, which should be soon. Poly, easy to clean.
Another unobtanium. I always wanted a set of these. Should be available soon. Are these more of large mids than they are woofers? I like the fancy motor design, they have incredible reviews. I could use one or two of them. Two would be best with a passive radiator. This, of course, is more expensive than the last two options. $90 each and another $50 for a PR. Paper, hard to clean, maybe not best for the kitchen.
I feel these are interesting driver. I know little about Wavecor. They look cheap, they seem overpriced, they apparently measure just as well as scanspeak drivers, they model well, and the distortion graphs have very low distortion right where I want to use these. Cannot validate but read multiple times that the balanced drive is the same technology used in the revelator lineup. Same price as the NE180W. Not as cool looking but if it has better dynamics I am all over it. Would need two. Could also use the 6.5". Paper, but looks super smooth so maybe easy to clean?
Definitely need two of these in series. Not sure if these can match the lower dynamics of the other choices. They sim out well enough for the bass I want. Are these more of mid range units? Aluminum, easy to clean. Pretty pricey for a 5" at $80 a pop
Pushing the limits of the baffle allotted baffle dimensions we have this Satori unit. The 6" is unavailable. Price point dictates I only use one. Defeats my purpose of trying out multiple woofers. By far the most expensive at nearly $200. Especially for a system that will not get listened to for hours like our other systems. I hear it is only slightly better than the aforementioned Peerless with the similar motor design. Which is a rip off of which?
There are a handful of Dayton drivers like the reference series I have also looked at but none of them stand out in any way as far as measurements, price, or reviews. I see no one ever mentioning them as notably special drivers like this collection I have assembled here. If nothing else, I surely do my research.
Let me know if I should be looking at some other driver. Again, midbass dynamic and an F3 of at least 48hz is the goal here. 25-50 liters.
Here is the frequency range I would like to use the midbass units in. The green line.
Shotting for an F3 of 38-48hz. We like bass in our house.
Here is a mockup of the design in its location. This location and temporary until we get a new house. Then it will live in the new kitchen. In the new kitchen it will be far more separated. We will not get into the design details of the rest of the system here. Just focus on midbass drivers. I'll make a thread for this build once I get a more concrete idea of what I'm doing.
The narrow baffle is key since they cannot take up a ton of counter space and I want a nice spread of sound. Probably going to be 5-7" dual woofer, 3-4" mid, 3/4" tweeter. Nice spread of sound.
Box size will be between 24-50 liters. Quite a spread I know but I could easily make it taller in a MTMWW layout or not as deep to go lower in volume.
I really want to try out dual woofers here. Originally I wanted to use these Dayton 7" drivers and I still might. I feel these are more woofer than midbass though. They are cheap. They have some decent reviews. I can get them for $45 on amazon even though they are out of stock at PE. I would dual these. These are modeled in the mockup above. Aluminum, easy to clean
Next up are these currently unobtanium Peerless 5.25" SLS. I have the 8" SLS and I love them. These are 4 ohm so we are looking at series alignment. They are low sensitivity so definitely 2 of them. They would work very well ported and I could get away with a smaller and narrower enclosure. $35 a pop when PE has them, which should be soon. Poly, easy to clean.
Another unobtanium. I always wanted a set of these. Should be available soon. Are these more of large mids than they are woofers? I like the fancy motor design, they have incredible reviews. I could use one or two of them. Two would be best with a passive radiator. This, of course, is more expensive than the last two options. $90 each and another $50 for a PR. Paper, hard to clean, maybe not best for the kitchen.
I feel these are interesting driver. I know little about Wavecor. They look cheap, they seem overpriced, they apparently measure just as well as scanspeak drivers, they model well, and the distortion graphs have very low distortion right where I want to use these. Cannot validate but read multiple times that the balanced drive is the same technology used in the revelator lineup. Same price as the NE180W. Not as cool looking but if it has better dynamics I am all over it. Would need two. Could also use the 6.5". Paper, but looks super smooth so maybe easy to clean?
Definitely need two of these in series. Not sure if these can match the lower dynamics of the other choices. They sim out well enough for the bass I want. Are these more of mid range units? Aluminum, easy to clean. Pretty pricey for a 5" at $80 a pop
Pushing the limits of the baffle allotted baffle dimensions we have this Satori unit. The 6" is unavailable. Price point dictates I only use one. Defeats my purpose of trying out multiple woofers. By far the most expensive at nearly $200. Especially for a system that will not get listened to for hours like our other systems. I hear it is only slightly better than the aforementioned Peerless with the similar motor design. Which is a rip off of which?
There are a handful of Dayton drivers like the reference series I have also looked at but none of them stand out in any way as far as measurements, price, or reviews. I see no one ever mentioning them as notably special drivers like this collection I have assembled here. If nothing else, I surely do my research.
Let me know if I should be looking at some other driver. Again, midbass dynamic and an F3 of at least 48hz is the goal here. 25-50 liters.
Pretty sure the SLS5 is a poly dustcap and treated or coated paper cone, as I've used them.
Using 2 in series for 8 ohms however does not increase sensitivity.
Why not the TB W5-1138 or W6-1139? Dayton DCS165?
Using 2 in series for 8 ohms however does not increase sensitivity.
Why not the TB W5-1138 or W6-1139? Dayton DCS165?
If its the same as the SLS8 then yes, it is treated paper cone. We dust it every week and the dust wipes right off (old house)
I know. But it will deal with floor (or counter) bounce better and it will give me some more cone area so I can at least see the effects of that.
I used the W5 in my bedroom design. Great driver. I just don't want to reuse it. I saw too many report of nasty motor noise from the W6. Enough for me to stay away from it. The W5 motor is also pretty noisy. Its one of the only drivers I have used that I can actually hear the motor on. Fortunately, we listen at the lowest volume levels in the bedroom so we never push the W5 hard enough to hear it.
Totally forgot about this one. I did look at this a while back for the desktop design. I couldn't use it there because I had to cross higher. Will throw it into some sims and see how it does.
Honestly, I've used the 1139 probably a dozen times, and have never had anything bad come from it. One of my favorite woofers. Opposed terminals keep the forces balanced.
The W5 I can understand that it is not as clean. The long throw and (last I knew) single sided terminals have a tendency to allow a little rocking under longer movement where the coil can scrape the gap.
The W5 I can understand that it is not as clean. The long throw and (last I knew) single sided terminals have a tendency to allow a little rocking under longer movement where the coil can scrape the gap.
I used the 5" version of this in a build. It hits just as low as it says. I could do the 7". There is absolutely no way to clean these if they get some kind of vaporized oil from the kitchen though. They are not a smooth carbon fiber. They are rough. Minimal resin. Its so thin you can actually see through it if you hold it up to the light.
Interesting. Maybe I will try it then. I think I trust you more than randoms who might not know what they are doing with drivers.
I've used it ported in 0.4-2.0 cubes. The 1.25 cube or less does very well at keeping xmax controlled. Larger and watch the volume knob.
I don't ever recommend sealed unless using boost. They really rely on the ported boxes to get their extension.
The 4th order bandpass honestly did not sound the greatest, but I had no boost on the low end to gain the extension back.
A friend had one in a long 8" open ended tube, lightly stuffed to yield a TL alignment in his van. It did okay, but struggled at moderate volume.
You will want at least a 2" diameter port per driver tuning in the 35-45Hz range. 2.5" diameter is better still. If tuning lower and in larger volume than 0.75 cubes, I recommend a 3" diameter port. All of these recs are assuming a flared port exit.
I don't ever recommend sealed unless using boost. They really rely on the ported boxes to get their extension.
The 4th order bandpass honestly did not sound the greatest, but I had no boost on the low end to gain the extension back.
A friend had one in a long 8" open ended tube, lightly stuffed to yield a TL alignment in his van. It did okay, but struggled at moderate volume.
You will want at least a 2" diameter port per driver tuning in the 35-45Hz range. 2.5" diameter is better still. If tuning lower and in larger volume than 0.75 cubes, I recommend a 3" diameter port. All of these recs are assuming a flared port exit.