Here I am again, with another ultimate concept, and this time it's even much more refined than the past concepts.
I've dived deeper in measurements and specifications of the drivers that were already on the "potential ultimate driver list" and so I scraped some off and added one, a very significant single driver.
To begin with, all the Scan-Speak Revelator and Illuminator midranges and drivers have been scraped off the list. They do have their very characteristic sound but the SB-Acoustics Satori drivers sound have pretty much the same character, though in terms of number and measurable performance, they beat the Scan-Speak drivers in every aspect. The Satori drivers have much lower distortion, better frequency response and dispersion, quicker transient response, higher sensitivity, less energy storage and much cleaner decay, especially the MW16- and -19P-4/8 models have pretty much THE cleanest decay graph on the market.
Also, I've ditched soft dome tweeters in their entirety. I've recently listened to a couple of soft domes included in, as alway, some of the best speakers in the world. There obviously are many different soft domes and they can all sound completely different, though in general I do not like them one bit in comparison with hard domes. The speakers I've heard include the Sonus Faber Homage Amati Tradition driven by middle-class McIntosh amplifiers and from-end, Wilson Audio Sasha DAW driven by top-of-the-line Dan D'Aggostino Momentum amplifiers and front-end and Kroma Audio Mimì driven by a Hegel H590. The Sonus Fabers obviously aren't the most revealing speaker though the Wilsons and Kroma's really are as revealing and transparent as soft domes are gonna get and neither of them had the transparency I would like. The Kroma's came closer but still weren't there yet.
So, about the new driver. I already knew about it and people were talking it had great potential though it was only until recently that I really looked into it. I'm talking about the Bliesma T34B-4. If you ask me this is officially the ultimate (hard) dome tweeter. When I was looking deeper into measurements of the drivers on the already existing list I also placed the beryllium Illuminator tweeter above the Revelator because of it's flatter frequency response and MUCH cleaner decay, second to the Bliesma the cleanest I've ever seen measured. Though then the Bliesma came in and it just absolutely obliterates any other dome on the market.
It has a huge 34 mm dome with a huge Sd of 10,5 cm^2 and even though it's nearly mid-dome size, it has an extraterrestrial moving mass of just 0,26 grams. To put that in perspective, the Scan-Speaks sit between 0,3 and 0,4 grams. The SB-Acoustics Satori TW29B even at 0,46. This bizarrely low moving mass combined with the extra large 34 mm voice coil gives it a transient response which is 1-1/2 times faster than that of the Scan-Speaks. Multiply that with it's 1-1/2 times larger Sd than the (un)comparable 1" domes and it's able to make a instant square movement 2-1/4 times faster than the other domes.
If that isn't even enough to put every other dome on the market to shame, the best is yet to come. If the huge Sd wasn't moving enough air yet. This thing has an unheard of, midrange territory big Xmax of 1,5 mm (3 mm peak-to-peak). This thing can move so much air that it can be crossed to under 1,5 kHz.
Another thing where that huge Sd, huge voice coil, nearly non-existent moving mass and huge Xmax come in handy is in distortion. Most ordinary domes, even the Scan-Speak beryllium ones start raising in distortion under a few kHz. This things 2> harmonic distortion do as well, but only begin to under ~2 kHz and really rise under just ~1 kHz and don't rise much higher than the 2nd harmonic at is, it stays pretty much flat to under 270 Hz.
Also the decay is THE cleanest on the market. Even the second-cleanest, the beryllium Illuminator has some big bumps under 2 kHz. In case of the Bliesma, these are not present at all. It only has a small ridge in the midrange though some other of the best tweeters like the beryllium revelatory even has this so it really isn't that bad at all. And anyway, does it even matter when all other specs are so insanely good?
What all this adds up to is that it can be crossed to under 1,5 kHz which means you could cross it to use some larger midranges or midranges that have other difficulties like the 7" magnesium Seas Excel and Eton mid woofer and Scan-Speak Ellipticor and keep a perfectly flat dispersion pattern and seamless integration.
And the result of it's insane transient response, low moving mass, low distortion, large Sd, extremely clean decay and the fact that it's beryllium is that even relative for a beryllium tweeter it will offer unparalleled speed, detail and transparency. I don't think even RAAL ribbons or Mundorf AMTs will have much to add to its performance in terms of those characteristics, which means I'll place the Bliesma as my ultimate tweeter.
So I made a concept using it. My previous concepts have all been based around ribbons or AMTs and were WMTMW configurations. Because this is a dome tweeter, that isn't necessary. If I where to actually build this some day (which I'm not for the next 10 years at a very bare minimum) it's possible I might prefer to use ceramic drivers but just because I wanted to design something with them as well and because the possibilities in crossover frequency go so hand in hand with it, for this concept I'm gonna use the Scan-Speak Ellipticor mid woofers. Together with the Satori MW16P the 18WE has THE lowest distortion of any paper driver on the market, it has Satori MR16P to Accuton C168 level transient response, second to the Satori MW16P cleanest decay that I know of and because of the way the elliptical voice coil drives the cone evenly with much less standing waves etc it sounds natural like no driver has ever done before. Even though the elliptical voice coil reduces cone breakup, surprisingly, what it struggles with is frequency response. Its off-axis response already start rolling off at ~1,5 kHz. This is why the Bliesma is such a perfect match with it. So, for midrange there'll be a single 18WE placed above the tweeter. For mid bass, there will obviously be the 21WE to go with it for the same reasons. Three of them below the tweeter for a nice big surface area to reduce distortion EVEN further (is there still even any left at all?!), enhance transient response EVEN further and of course just get that nice weighty, large and chesty mid bass. Yet keeping the vertical dispersion as good as possible because the drivers are tightly above each other instead of having an entire mid-tweeter section in-between.
As alway in an entirely sealed enclosure to enhance transient response EVEN further again and with my round design with the ridges for the midrange chamber to optimize internal acoustics. Would eventually do something about the acoustics of the mid bass enclosure as well, there's plenty of excess volume in the given dimensions.
The mid bass and midrange-tweeter will be in separate enclosure which can be tilted independently to time align the multiple mid bass drivers with the rest. And it looks beautiful in my opinion.
For bass, there will be the subwoofer towers of my previous concepts. Nothing that can be improved on those.
I've dived deeper in measurements and specifications of the drivers that were already on the "potential ultimate driver list" and so I scraped some off and added one, a very significant single driver.
To begin with, all the Scan-Speak Revelator and Illuminator midranges and drivers have been scraped off the list. They do have their very characteristic sound but the SB-Acoustics Satori drivers sound have pretty much the same character, though in terms of number and measurable performance, they beat the Scan-Speak drivers in every aspect. The Satori drivers have much lower distortion, better frequency response and dispersion, quicker transient response, higher sensitivity, less energy storage and much cleaner decay, especially the MW16- and -19P-4/8 models have pretty much THE cleanest decay graph on the market.
Also, I've ditched soft dome tweeters in their entirety. I've recently listened to a couple of soft domes included in, as alway, some of the best speakers in the world. There obviously are many different soft domes and they can all sound completely different, though in general I do not like them one bit in comparison with hard domes. The speakers I've heard include the Sonus Faber Homage Amati Tradition driven by middle-class McIntosh amplifiers and from-end, Wilson Audio Sasha DAW driven by top-of-the-line Dan D'Aggostino Momentum amplifiers and front-end and Kroma Audio Mimì driven by a Hegel H590. The Sonus Fabers obviously aren't the most revealing speaker though the Wilsons and Kroma's really are as revealing and transparent as soft domes are gonna get and neither of them had the transparency I would like. The Kroma's came closer but still weren't there yet.
So, about the new driver. I already knew about it and people were talking it had great potential though it was only until recently that I really looked into it. I'm talking about the Bliesma T34B-4. If you ask me this is officially the ultimate (hard) dome tweeter. When I was looking deeper into measurements of the drivers on the already existing list I also placed the beryllium Illuminator tweeter above the Revelator because of it's flatter frequency response and MUCH cleaner decay, second to the Bliesma the cleanest I've ever seen measured. Though then the Bliesma came in and it just absolutely obliterates any other dome on the market.
It has a huge 34 mm dome with a huge Sd of 10,5 cm^2 and even though it's nearly mid-dome size, it has an extraterrestrial moving mass of just 0,26 grams. To put that in perspective, the Scan-Speaks sit between 0,3 and 0,4 grams. The SB-Acoustics Satori TW29B even at 0,46. This bizarrely low moving mass combined with the extra large 34 mm voice coil gives it a transient response which is 1-1/2 times faster than that of the Scan-Speaks. Multiply that with it's 1-1/2 times larger Sd than the (un)comparable 1" domes and it's able to make a instant square movement 2-1/4 times faster than the other domes.
If that isn't even enough to put every other dome on the market to shame, the best is yet to come. If the huge Sd wasn't moving enough air yet. This thing has an unheard of, midrange territory big Xmax of 1,5 mm (3 mm peak-to-peak). This thing can move so much air that it can be crossed to under 1,5 kHz.
Another thing where that huge Sd, huge voice coil, nearly non-existent moving mass and huge Xmax come in handy is in distortion. Most ordinary domes, even the Scan-Speak beryllium ones start raising in distortion under a few kHz. This things 2> harmonic distortion do as well, but only begin to under ~2 kHz and really rise under just ~1 kHz and don't rise much higher than the 2nd harmonic at is, it stays pretty much flat to under 270 Hz.
Also the decay is THE cleanest on the market. Even the second-cleanest, the beryllium Illuminator has some big bumps under 2 kHz. In case of the Bliesma, these are not present at all. It only has a small ridge in the midrange though some other of the best tweeters like the beryllium revelatory even has this so it really isn't that bad at all. And anyway, does it even matter when all other specs are so insanely good?
What all this adds up to is that it can be crossed to under 1,5 kHz which means you could cross it to use some larger midranges or midranges that have other difficulties like the 7" magnesium Seas Excel and Eton mid woofer and Scan-Speak Ellipticor and keep a perfectly flat dispersion pattern and seamless integration.
And the result of it's insane transient response, low moving mass, low distortion, large Sd, extremely clean decay and the fact that it's beryllium is that even relative for a beryllium tweeter it will offer unparalleled speed, detail and transparency. I don't think even RAAL ribbons or Mundorf AMTs will have much to add to its performance in terms of those characteristics, which means I'll place the Bliesma as my ultimate tweeter.
So I made a concept using it. My previous concepts have all been based around ribbons or AMTs and were WMTMW configurations. Because this is a dome tweeter, that isn't necessary. If I where to actually build this some day (which I'm not for the next 10 years at a very bare minimum) it's possible I might prefer to use ceramic drivers but just because I wanted to design something with them as well and because the possibilities in crossover frequency go so hand in hand with it, for this concept I'm gonna use the Scan-Speak Ellipticor mid woofers. Together with the Satori MW16P the 18WE has THE lowest distortion of any paper driver on the market, it has Satori MR16P to Accuton C168 level transient response, second to the Satori MW16P cleanest decay that I know of and because of the way the elliptical voice coil drives the cone evenly with much less standing waves etc it sounds natural like no driver has ever done before. Even though the elliptical voice coil reduces cone breakup, surprisingly, what it struggles with is frequency response. Its off-axis response already start rolling off at ~1,5 kHz. This is why the Bliesma is such a perfect match with it. So, for midrange there'll be a single 18WE placed above the tweeter. For mid bass, there will obviously be the 21WE to go with it for the same reasons. Three of them below the tweeter for a nice big surface area to reduce distortion EVEN further (is there still even any left at all?!), enhance transient response EVEN further and of course just get that nice weighty, large and chesty mid bass. Yet keeping the vertical dispersion as good as possible because the drivers are tightly above each other instead of having an entire mid-tweeter section in-between.
As alway in an entirely sealed enclosure to enhance transient response EVEN further again and with my round design with the ridges for the midrange chamber to optimize internal acoustics. Would eventually do something about the acoustics of the mid bass enclosure as well, there's plenty of excess volume in the given dimensions.
The mid bass and midrange-tweeter will be in separate enclosure which can be tilted independently to time align the multiple mid bass drivers with the rest. And it looks beautiful in my opinion.
For bass, there will be the subwoofer towers of my previous concepts. Nothing that can be improved on those.
Attachments
CAUTION:
Kurosawa Koncept System - Page 10
-and no, it's not comparable to a good *ribbon tweeter (overall). ..but it does have several advantages, assuming it isn't suffering the problems seen above.
RAAL (amorphous core transformer) dipole ribbon as a dipole in the right design is pretty much the "top of the heap".
Kurosawa Koncept System - Page 10
-and no, it's not comparable to a good *ribbon tweeter (overall). ..but it does have several advantages, assuming it isn't suffering the problems seen above.
RAAL (amorphous core transformer) dipole ribbon as a dipole in the right design is pretty much the "top of the heap".
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If i were to build a fantacy loudspeaker i would start with something like wilson audio latest wamm, and i would study room acoustics and try to fully understand how room, speakers and ears interact, knowing nothing about this then a fantacy project is a waste of time. There is always the option to hire an engineer with the knowledge.
Pretty close to Focal Utopia or Kanta speakers
Focal Maestro Utopia III loudspeaker Measurements | Stereophile.com
Focal Kanta No.2 loudspeaker Measurements | Stereophile.com
I have heard Kanta 2 briefly. Very good, but I don't like how high it locates instruments and voice (midrange on top)
Focal Maestro Utopia III loudspeaker Measurements | Stereophile.com
Focal Kanta No.2 loudspeaker Measurements | Stereophile.com
I have heard Kanta 2 briefly. Very good, but I don't like how high it locates instruments and voice (midrange on top)
Have you considered MFB subs for even cleaner bass?
Furthermore I think you know the advantages (and disadvantages) of multiple drivers. My opinion remains that they significantly reduce offaxis performance.
It looks good otherwise. Nice job on the roundover edges!
The thing I like mostly about this design is that you can start by building the tweeter +midwoofer cabinet with a sub. And perhaps later with the array of 21WE woofers.
AOS has a loudspeaker kit with the bliesma tweeter and the ellipticor 18WE midwoofer. Seems like a good deal:
Scan-Speak
Though I like your design with large roundovers better. I do suggest to go active though. Minimum phase LR4 filters would do a nice job.
Furthermore I think you know the advantages (and disadvantages) of multiple drivers. My opinion remains that they significantly reduce offaxis performance.
It looks good otherwise. Nice job on the roundover edges!
The thing I like mostly about this design is that you can start by building the tweeter +midwoofer cabinet with a sub. And perhaps later with the array of 21WE woofers.
AOS has a loudspeaker kit with the bliesma tweeter and the ellipticor 18WE midwoofer. Seems like a good deal:
Scan-Speak
Though I like your design with large roundovers better. I do suggest to go active though. Minimum phase LR4 filters would do a nice job.
I know about the WAMM and how it's so special. Though for my concept I didn't go with something like that. Personally I wanted to use a non-concentric design to keep the dispersion pattern of the midrange symmetrical both horizontally and vertically to go together with that of the dome tweeter. MTM configurations cause phase incoherencies and affect dispersion. I know there's many speakers like the WAMM that use MTM configurations with dome tweeters which are very good but the have their difficulties and use those MTM configurations to meet very specific goals, which I'm not going for here.
I know, they do quite look like the Focal speakers because of the tilted mid bass and mid-tweeter sections. Though I didn't directly take inspiration from them. They are much bigger than the focal speakers. With the individual section tilted at the angles on the pictures the tweeter sits at ~104 cm from the ground. Which is perfect for my (personal) ear-height of ~107,5 cm from the ground. With the midrange on top this should make for a not overwhelmingly/too high imaging but with a nice large scale. It's perfect If you ask me.
I know the effects of multiple drivers but I wanted to use as many mid bass drivers as I could to get the largest possible Sd to play with and so reduce distortion as much as possible, enhance transient response as much as possible and to enable great dynamics. But that's why I put them next to each other in a single cabinet instead of far apart from each other an a MB-M-T-M-MB configuration. This way dispersion is affected as little as possible, especially at the frequencies (80 - 300~400 Hz) they'll be playing it won't be affected that much.
By the way. I forgot to mention but all systems I design are fully active. That's the way I do things. Active systems are simply superior to passive ones, if you ask me at least.
But the way, just noticed some new measurements of some more Accuton drivers on hificompass, including the C168-6-990 midrange which I had in mind in case I would use Accuton drivers. Though, as I already kinda knew they would be, they are very disappointing. For distortion. H2 is remarkably low, though all other harmonics are much, much higher than comparable drivers. And all distortion starts rising heavily above ~1,7 kHz, which is very bad. Especially compared to other drivers, where instead distortion usually starts getting less above 2 kHz in case of the Satori drivers for example.
Decay, it's okay, but nothing special, and there's much better in the market. The MW16P-4 for example is pretty much unbeatable.
Really the only things Accuton drivers have to offer is insane transient response and the characteristic sound of ceramic cones. Further than that they're either nothing special or quite terrible.
Next week, the need for Accuton drivers is gonna be taken entirely taken away by SB-Accoustics. Assuming not many of you are on instagram let alone following SB-Acoustics account (yes they have a instagram account) and don't have direct contact with Frank Nielsen, I have a little spoiler for you. Next week at High-End Munich SB-Acoustics will launch a couple of VERY exciting new models. Including Satori versions with Textreme cones (and domes, yes also tweeters). Textreme is a special reinforced form of carbon fiber, the same stuff Rockport Technologies uses.
What do I think these have to offer in comparison to the already existing paper cone Satoris? Well, obviously carbon fiber, especially the reinforced Textreme is extremely stiff and lightweight. This should allow for lower distortion, better controlled breakup, extra transparency, detail and transient response for smaller details in the higher midrange. For decay, well there obviously aren't any measurements out yet but Dayton Audio has already shot their shot on high-end carbon fiber cone drivers with the Epique drivers and looking at what they have been able to pull of with inverted dome carbon fiber cones they have THE best decay characteristics on the market right now. Well looking at what SB-Acoustics has already been able to pull of with the paper cone Satoris decay-wise, put a even more advanced form of inverted dome carbon fiber cone and the Satori motor design in the mix, let the geniuses at SB-Acoustics do their work and I seriously think these new carbon fiber Satoris have to potential to brake the record for THE very best decay characteristics on the market. Combine that with all other characteristics that are already so great with the current Satoris and might get even better and I think these have the potential to become THE very best hard-cone drivers on the market in general.
So then to return on the Accuton drivers. The extremely hard and stiff Textreme cones of the upcoming Satoris will be quite similar to ceramic cones in terms of sonic character. Though the Satoris will beat the living sh*t out of the Accuton drivers in every aspect. So then the Accuton drivers will be replaced by the Textreme Satoris and will be out of the game for me.
If they live up to the expectations I have SB-Acoustics should be able to pull of with the Textreme Satori drivers, and I'm 1000 % assured they will, the upcoming Textreme Satori drivers might very well be my ultimate drivers.
What's funny, is that I'm already sponsored by SB-Acoustics. The drivers for my current system they gave to me. I could ask Frank Nielsen if he could sent me a pair of the Textreme versions of the MR/W16P-4 and I think that there might very well be a chance he would do so. If these were the case, I would be extremely happy. I would already have my ultimate drivers for my current system 😀 .
I know, they do quite look like the Focal speakers because of the tilted mid bass and mid-tweeter sections. Though I didn't directly take inspiration from them. They are much bigger than the focal speakers. With the individual section tilted at the angles on the pictures the tweeter sits at ~104 cm from the ground. Which is perfect for my (personal) ear-height of ~107,5 cm from the ground. With the midrange on top this should make for a not overwhelmingly/too high imaging but with a nice large scale. It's perfect If you ask me.
I know the effects of multiple drivers but I wanted to use as many mid bass drivers as I could to get the largest possible Sd to play with and so reduce distortion as much as possible, enhance transient response as much as possible and to enable great dynamics. But that's why I put them next to each other in a single cabinet instead of far apart from each other an a MB-M-T-M-MB configuration. This way dispersion is affected as little as possible, especially at the frequencies (80 - 300~400 Hz) they'll be playing it won't be affected that much.
By the way. I forgot to mention but all systems I design are fully active. That's the way I do things. Active systems are simply superior to passive ones, if you ask me at least.
But the way, just noticed some new measurements of some more Accuton drivers on hificompass, including the C168-6-990 midrange which I had in mind in case I would use Accuton drivers. Though, as I already kinda knew they would be, they are very disappointing. For distortion. H2 is remarkably low, though all other harmonics are much, much higher than comparable drivers. And all distortion starts rising heavily above ~1,7 kHz, which is very bad. Especially compared to other drivers, where instead distortion usually starts getting less above 2 kHz in case of the Satori drivers for example.
Decay, it's okay, but nothing special, and there's much better in the market. The MW16P-4 for example is pretty much unbeatable.
Really the only things Accuton drivers have to offer is insane transient response and the characteristic sound of ceramic cones. Further than that they're either nothing special or quite terrible.
Next week, the need for Accuton drivers is gonna be taken entirely taken away by SB-Accoustics. Assuming not many of you are on instagram let alone following SB-Acoustics account (yes they have a instagram account) and don't have direct contact with Frank Nielsen, I have a little spoiler for you. Next week at High-End Munich SB-Acoustics will launch a couple of VERY exciting new models. Including Satori versions with Textreme cones (and domes, yes also tweeters). Textreme is a special reinforced form of carbon fiber, the same stuff Rockport Technologies uses.
What do I think these have to offer in comparison to the already existing paper cone Satoris? Well, obviously carbon fiber, especially the reinforced Textreme is extremely stiff and lightweight. This should allow for lower distortion, better controlled breakup, extra transparency, detail and transient response for smaller details in the higher midrange. For decay, well there obviously aren't any measurements out yet but Dayton Audio has already shot their shot on high-end carbon fiber cone drivers with the Epique drivers and looking at what they have been able to pull of with inverted dome carbon fiber cones they have THE best decay characteristics on the market right now. Well looking at what SB-Acoustics has already been able to pull of with the paper cone Satoris decay-wise, put a even more advanced form of inverted dome carbon fiber cone and the Satori motor design in the mix, let the geniuses at SB-Acoustics do their work and I seriously think these new carbon fiber Satoris have to potential to brake the record for THE very best decay characteristics on the market. Combine that with all other characteristics that are already so great with the current Satoris and might get even better and I think these have the potential to become THE very best hard-cone drivers on the market in general.
So then to return on the Accuton drivers. The extremely hard and stiff Textreme cones of the upcoming Satoris will be quite similar to ceramic cones in terms of sonic character. Though the Satoris will beat the living sh*t out of the Accuton drivers in every aspect. So then the Accuton drivers will be replaced by the Textreme Satoris and will be out of the game for me.
If they live up to the expectations I have SB-Acoustics should be able to pull of with the Textreme Satori drivers, and I'm 1000 % assured they will, the upcoming Textreme Satori drivers might very well be my ultimate drivers.
What's funny, is that I'm already sponsored by SB-Acoustics. The drivers for my current system they gave to me. I could ask Frank Nielsen if he could sent me a pair of the Textreme versions of the MR/W16P-4 and I think that there might very well be a chance he would do so. If these were the case, I would be extremely happy. I would already have my ultimate drivers for my current system 😀 .
What I have to add, if I where to actually further develop, design and build something like this (which I'm not), the mid bass and mid-tweeter sections would be able to be adjusted in angle for phase alignment, like with the Focal Utopia and Wilson Audio Sasha DAW> speakers.
hidjedewitje with large roundovers, do you mean the rounded edges of the baffles? The edges are rounded with the slopes beginning 15 cm wide by 5 cm deep. Just as big as on my other big concepts.
hidjedewitje with large roundovers, do you mean the rounded edges of the baffles? The edges are rounded with the slopes beginning 15 cm wide by 5 cm deep. Just as big as on my other big concepts.
By roundover I indeed do mean the rounded edges of the baffle. It has far more impact on transient response than using many drivers in my opinion.
The Bliesma tweets - there were reports of either a QC or freight issue with a pair on another forum. Going to assume the latter.
The Ellipticor tweets are supposed to sound very good, and so they shd.
The Accuton C168 Cell has a break up point that is relatively high. Something to consider. I havent used it myself (only the C90)
The Ellipticor tweets are supposed to sound very good, and so they shd.
The Accuton C168 Cell has a break up point that is relatively high. Something to consider. I havent used it myself (only the C90)
Note: because Transducer Labs is back.. might consider that as well (..though they also had problems with their ceramic drivers - a fatigue issue I believe). Still, they have other diaphragm materials available: the Carbon Fiber is probably the most durable.
The ellipticors are awesome when it comes to THD and CSD, but since dome itself is elliptical and not circular, it's dispersion pattern will not be axis symmetric.
I am still not sure whether the woofers also have this problems, since the woofers have a round cone, but a elliptical dustcap (which creates an optical illusion).
Though in engineering you are always making a compromise of something.
For an ultimate build, the new SB Textreme drivers with Seas graphene mid, if they make a 4" version
Are there measurements of the new Graphene drivers available?
I've been wondering how good they perform, but can't find any real world data.
The price difference with the normal excel drivers is quite significant.
Yeah Seas and SB-Acoustics have launched new driver models for the High End Munich (even though Seas wasn't at the show themselves). Since I've got direct contact with Frank Nielsen himself I already knew of them in advance 🙂. I haven't seen any measurements or anything and the drivers still have to be put on their website but I think they might just become THE very best hard-cone drivers on the market.
Looking at what they have already achieved with the "regular" paper cone Satori drivers in terms of performance in every way. And then looking at what Dayton Audio has been able to achieve with their carbon fiber cone Epique drivers. Well, the engineers at Dayton Audio of course aren't stupid by any means but the engineers at SB-Acoustics definitely are a lot better at what they do. And the Dayton Audio Epique drivers are basically just Accuton C220-6-222 and a smaller version of the C173-6-096 with carbon fiber cones. Which as we know by now, Accuton motors aren't really the best on most area's except transient response.
So if you think of it, look at what Dayton Audio has been able to pull of with carbon fiber cones, throw the Satori motors and even stronger Textreme carbon fiber cones in the mix, let the geniuses at SB-Acoustics do their work and fine-tune it and I believe they might very well be in to become the very best hard-cone drivers on the market.
Even though their specifications and measurements aren't available yet, I'm already sold on them.
Looking at what they have already achieved with the "regular" paper cone Satori drivers in terms of performance in every way. And then looking at what Dayton Audio has been able to achieve with their carbon fiber cone Epique drivers. Well, the engineers at Dayton Audio of course aren't stupid by any means but the engineers at SB-Acoustics definitely are a lot better at what they do. And the Dayton Audio Epique drivers are basically just Accuton C220-6-222 and a smaller version of the C173-6-096 with carbon fiber cones. Which as we know by now, Accuton motors aren't really the best on most area's except transient response.
So if you think of it, look at what Dayton Audio has been able to pull of with carbon fiber cones, throw the Satori motors and even stronger Textreme carbon fiber cones in the mix, let the geniuses at SB-Acoustics do their work and fine-tune it and I believe they might very well be in to become the very best hard-cone drivers on the market.
Even though their specifications and measurements aren't available yet, I'm already sold on them.
Dayton Audio .. their Epique range, very strange parameters and marketing
The 8" looks great, Accuton type motor etc. But shd have sacrificed sensitivity for bass extension imo. Still, single ended valve guys will love them
Then the smaller 5.5".. it's only avail 8ohm, so that rules out some build choices
Textreme drivers from SB. The 1st are 6.5", then we will see 7.5 and 9.5 sizes follow
The 8" looks great, Accuton type motor etc. But shd have sacrificed sensitivity for bass extension imo. Still, single ended valve guys will love them
Then the smaller 5.5".. it's only avail 8ohm, so that rules out some build choices
Textreme drivers from SB. The 1st are 6.5", then we will see 7.5 and 9.5 sizes follow
In a smaller size, maybe the price is more manageable. Hoping they do a graphene 4" mid with that fancy magnet system from 5" Nextel.