Best 18 Sound Ti-Pen 1" throat driver

[kipman725]

So looking for a pistonic driver 3 - 20 kHz on a 90x60 horn.

Horn: XT120

18 sound have a huge number of drivers with their 1.75" Ti-Pen diaphram, is the NSD1095N the best one?
Eighteen Sound - Professional loudspeakers

also has anyone any data on fan cooling compression drivers? this is going in its own tweeter enclosure so it seems like it could be a good way of reducing long term power compression.

 

[ErnieM]

I wouldn't worry about fan cooling for compression drivers operating in that range. Not a big issue for compression drivers in general.

The NSD1095N is definitely a premium option. Most modern 1" exit drivers from reputable manufacturers will perform well in that range.

 

[kipman725]

Its going in a system with the 139dB bass horn and a community M200, it's defiantly the weakest point. I was attracted to the 18sound drivers because the acoustic figure of merit for a diaphragm that size with their ceramic coating results in breakup > 20Khz and they have a nice looking small horn that is matched to it.

 

[ErnieM]

You might want to consider moving to a larger diaphragm driver to better match the low distortion of the M200. High frequency compression drivers all have a similar xmax which means diaphragm size is the main factor for maximum clean output.

A 3" diaphragm will work well. Beryllium is the best followed by the coated 18Sound drivers. Eminence also has a new textreme diaphragm that is supposed to be similar to Beryllium. Might not be available until later this year.

One of the best high output drivers available are the Mundorf Pro AMT's. The 8" with the medium or small size back chamber and fan cooled option is about as good as it gets. You do lose vertical dispersion which might be an issue but probably not if most of the audience is going to be some distance away from the stack.

 

[kipman725]

Some interesting options, budget is a bit too tight for Be drivers. But the system is modular so it would be possible to swap out the tweeter very easily. Initially its going to be in small clubs so we won't be using it full capabilities, hopefully this could bring in some income that could be use for a more powerful tweeter system. As I have a lot of depth to play with I would probably build very narrow directivity horns so I could have a cluster of tweeters or do something like the Danley layered combiner.

 

[ErnieM]

Sounds like a lot of fun.

KV2 audio uses one to three nitride coated 3" diaphragms above 2khz in their largest systems. One per side will cover a lot of ground as the multiple compression driver models are used for much larger venues.
Take a look at some of their specs for some guidance.

ES1.0 | ES | Products | KV2 Audio
VHD2.0 | VHD | Products | KV2 Audio
VHD5.0 Mid Hi | VHD5 | Products | KV2 Audio

Multiple horns will never be as coherent as a single source or proper combiners which are hard to get right.

 

[ErnieM]

So with all that said...the NSD1095N on the XT120 used above 2.5khz will definitely work for most venues as long as the horn is above crowd height.

 

[kipman725]

Thanks for those links Ernie, good to know that a single 3" comp is considered enough to cover 1000 people. On the subject I have seen a video of a SH96HO playing to a 3000 capacity crowd before (single 1.4" throat comp) loudly outdoors not distorted.

I suspect this works is that by the time you get to 3kHz in the worst case the power spectral density is -20dB from the loudest frequencies:
Spectrum of Musical Genres
So doing some quick back of envelope calculations the NS1095N is capable of 130dB "program output" at 3 kHz however this level would mean that the loudest frequencies where at 150 dB (beyond the capabilities of the rest of the system). So depending on genre the M200 is probably the weakest link... which is OK as the whole point was to use them.