Can SB SATORI MW13P-8 be used as a full range driver?
- Thread starter Mleod
- Start date
Not really, it's a small midbass rather than a full-range / wideband unit. Reasonably extended bandwidth but the usual peak at the top end that most midbass units have these days (although oddly not the larger Satori MW16P, which is my personal favourite 6in midbass unit). The MW13P is done by 10KHz, and in practical terms I wouldn't want to take it higher than about 4KHz.
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Theoretically, but I wouldn't recommend it. The MW16P is one of the finest 6in midbass drivers on the market, arguably top in terms of having a very wide linear bandwidth, but it's still a midbass driver and wasn't meant to be used wideband per se. The object behind it having a very wide bandwidth was to allow a little more choice in terms of crossover frequencies and to make it easier to implement lower-order filters (which have less phase-shift) without needing a bunch of extra notch filters to suppress unwanted breakup modes in the stop-band. The cone profile is not optimised for use as a single-driver; the polar response / dispersion narrows quickly at higher frequencies -not a major issue for a multiway speaker, but not so good for a wideband driver, since it will only be usable over a very narrow listening axis, outside of which the HF rapidly falls away.
The Satori MW16P is excellent; I've used them a few times now and other than preferring a higher Vas (although for compact systems you can at least use multiples to get some air-movement, albeit with the usual trade-offs) there isn't much to criticise. There's a minor issue at 1.2KHz; you can see it in a 2nd harmonic spike also, probably reflection off the surround rather than a cone mode. No big deal. The motor design is exceptional; lots of copper, well-shaped so good air-flow. I like. 
Thanks for the impressions / experiences you have brought, but if they are not intrusive like to know if these sensors are characterized by their real tonal neutrality and lack of tonal colors, as unfortunately many others who on paper are beautiful and then listening to suffer from "special effects" like "little duck" and so on. Thanks again.