Nelson,Sonido - excellent drivers often overlooked.
What is your experience with these drivers? Which one have you heard and in what box? They do look interesting but not many DIYer's have use them, although those that have really like them. There are many in Russia who have used them but unfortunately the reviews are in Russian.
the measurements from EMS of their 6" and 8" is very interestingDespite that I am a dane and have a good knowledge about the european audio scene I first encountered EMS via some senior audiophiles in France. They use the LB8. Japanese audiophiles and especially, to my knowledge the seniors, are extreme but also conservative. So I was quite surprised that they drivers from EMS. I have always trusted these guys so I had no problems jumping in a set of LB8EX. Well I jumped in to a expensive set of Cube when they were not known yet. So why not EMS? Out of the box EMS sound very convincing. No shout and you don’t sit down and start to listen to how different instruments sounds like. It is not the firt thing that pops up. It is all about a tonal character that feels right. There is a couple of commercial companies who use the 5” - take a look at Closer Acoustics. A lot of full range driver manufactures has lesser marketing and EMS is no exeption. My experience with the diy market is more like agivens brand popularity is like the flvour of the season more than it is about quality, long term use, support with spareparts and price vs quality. I think that the different old brands has a loyal clientel and their sales is based on recommendations more than reviews and outgoing marketing. They have managed to create a business size and a turnover that makes them happy. If you ask them if they want to sell more they will probably say yes but they no already where the limit is before the extra turnover cost a lot more money to make it feasable…….What boxes? Well I have passes that level and I am quite happy with what i can sqeeze out of open baffle setups
http://www.emspeaker.com/fiche_LB8EXMKII.pdf
http://www.emspeaker.com/fiche_LB6EX.pdf
@youknowyou, yes indeed. Very few FR drivers goes that high. Adding the new wood phaseplug improved the response - the minus 15, 30 and 60 degrees of axis is more extended = is reduced less. Should make the driver less directional (on the paper) The old version was not as directive/beaming like so many other 8” drivers. And the typical bump in the critical speech recognition area is also not present. This allow more details in the above frequency range to be reproduced with ease………Most of the same qualities is found in the ferrit version. And if it also has the wood phaseplug I think the competition is small…
@nicoch58 - Aha so tell which point is you reference where you state 5 dB at 1k and “near” 8 dB after 2k? You can not judge a drive on rising dB. As I read the curve we have a +/- 3 dB variation in the hole band which is almost not detecable. No fequency stick out like that which is seen with many drivers. Please explain.
No one mentioned Phy-HP?
They are not fullrange but widerange though, their treble range is not the best out there and they do need a bit of taming of it’s over enthiousiastic midrange (about 4~6dB attenuation at 500Hz depending on baffle size) but I have been listening to a pair with dual 15inch woofer and air motion tweeter support on open baffle for 22 years by now without a single moment of listening fatigue, in fact they still force me to listen to more and more music for hours on end. I have had many other drivers which where pretty good to very good and there are drivers that are more detailed but none had this kind combination of easy going with dynamics as the Phy-Hp drivers. They are sensitive to amplification, they don’t like amps with vice grip like most class-D amps . Feed them with tubes or low feedback class A and they sound good on everything you throw at them, from classical to death metal, from hiphop to jazz. There absolute best feature is that it makes you want to listen to music that you don’t even like that much when heard on other loudspeakers because it reveals so much of what is going on. No matter what I tried to improve upon this I keep coming back to the Phy’s.
They do not sound good in boxes though, they need open baffle. In a box you’ll throw away 75% of it’s sound quality. But that counts for every ultra thin paper cone drivers I have had. In boxes you need thicker cones otherwise everything from inside the enclosure comes right back through the cone which sounds just horrible to me.
They are not fullrange but widerange though, their treble range is not the best out there and they do need a bit of taming of it’s over enthiousiastic midrange (about 4~6dB attenuation at 500Hz depending on baffle size) but I have been listening to a pair with dual 15inch woofer and air motion tweeter support on open baffle for 22 years by now without a single moment of listening fatigue, in fact they still force me to listen to more and more music for hours on end. I have had many other drivers which where pretty good to very good and there are drivers that are more detailed but none had this kind combination of easy going with dynamics as the Phy-Hp drivers. They are sensitive to amplification, they don’t like amps with vice grip like most class-D amps . Feed them with tubes or low feedback class A and they sound good on everything you throw at them, from classical to death metal, from hiphop to jazz. There absolute best feature is that it makes you want to listen to music that you don’t even like that much when heard on other loudspeakers because it reveals so much of what is going on. No matter what I tried to improve upon this I keep coming back to the Phy’s.
They do not sound good in boxes though, they need open baffle. In a box you’ll throw away 75% of it’s sound quality. But that counts for every ultra thin paper cone drivers I have had. In boxes you need thicker cones otherwise everything from inside the enclosure comes right back through the cone which sounds just horrible to me.
Hi,
Phy-HP are, to my knowledge, not available anymore. And yes, they really need a tweeter...
I also think that 8" is about the right size for a fullrange or widerange driver, at least on OB and with a substantial bass driver (I use an 18" FC driver) below 300Hz. I had the EMS LB8MkII for a long time, and liked it a lot. It is not a perfect driver, but very good for the money.
I moved on since then, and after many very costly comparisons I made my own drivers. Online presentation is not ready yet, but I hope I´m allowed to share a few teaser photos.
All the best
Mattes
Phy-HP are, to my knowledge, not available anymore. And yes, they really need a tweeter...
I also think that 8" is about the right size for a fullrange or widerange driver, at least on OB and with a substantial bass driver (I use an 18" FC driver) below 300Hz. I had the EMS LB8MkII for a long time, and liked it a lot. It is not a perfect driver, but very good for the money.
I moved on since then, and after many very costly comparisons I made my own drivers. Online presentation is not ready yet, but I hope I´m allowed to share a few teaser photos.
All the best
Mattes
Attachments
site is still up and says still operational: http://www.phy-hp.com/
I would contact them direct as it seems these days they mainly sell direct from site. But i know a guy in Belgium (not on diyaudio) that recently (a year ago or so) bought drivers from them and he was very happy with what he got. But call or mail them before to be sure.
I would contact them direct as it seems these days they mainly sell direct from site. But i know a guy in Belgium (not on diyaudio) that recently (a year ago or so) bought drivers from them and he was very happy with what he got. But call or mail them before to be sure.
The ones i heard were not good. We built these for the local hifi shop.
These were some of the first across teh Atlantic, so old now.
dave
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Like I said, you’ll literally
throw away 75% of their quality by putting them in boxes and they really do need a tweeter. I sure can imagine your example doesn’t sound good, I have heard a couple of some sort of the same cabinets and did not like one of them, As widerange midrange on open baffle it is a completely different story. No tweeter is completely foolish with these.
throw away 75% of their quality by putting them in boxes and they really do need a tweeter. I sure can imagine your example doesn’t sound good, I have heard a couple of some sort of the same cabinets and did not like one of them, As widerange midrange on open baffle it is a completely different story. No tweeter is completely foolish with these.