Something I decided to try on a current project is using a 2" tang band 'full range' for a tweeter. This allows me to cross it over low and with a low slope order, so you can have your cake and eat it too- by keeping the midrange breakup well out of the passband. You also get small C-C spacing because the 2"s have smaller flanges than normal dome tweeters.
I went this route for the sake of avoiding padding in the tweeter circuit- needed something inefficient to mate with the rest of the inefficient drivers.
I went this route for the sake of avoiding padding in the tweeter circuit- needed something inefficient to mate with the rest of the inefficient drivers.
I still say that the North D25-06S is the best buy out there. Only $36 per match pair. I purchased 10 pairs of these just a few months ago and I have no regrets.
http://www.northcreekmusic.com/Drivers/NorthD25.PDF
http://www.northcreekmusic.com/WhatsNew.htm
http://www.northcreekmusic.com/Drivers/NorthD25.PDF
http://www.northcreekmusic.com/WhatsNew.htm
sfreak said:
I don't think it's a question of buying power because large European resellers charge considerably more than you do for that tweeter. For some unknown reason Hi-Vi appears to be selling that unit under cost to North American distributors. These things are heavy, bulk freight costs alone would likely amount to what Solen and Madisound pay for them.
Perhaps, due to the fact a majority of the HiVi offices are located in the US of A. Who really knows. Well, supposedly centrally based there so maybe, just maybe stocked up and send it all by land.
sfreak said:
Go figure. For all I know it could be a marketing ploy. In any case it's an unbelievable deal considering the more than acceptable quality of the unit.
GOWA said:
I don't know if people are kept away from it, there are no DIY sales statistics available, none I could find anyway. The bulk of Hi-Vi drivers are used in Swans commercial speakers or sold OEM to Totem and a few other manufacturers of high-end speakers. These drivers have been used in commercial designs for over a decade but are relatively new on the DIY market.
The K1 has to be used as specified, it's more at home when coupled with a dome mid in a 3 or 4-way design but can be used in a 2-way design with high-order Xover. Also, it is not known how exactly Hi-Vi determined its power rating. Considering built quality 30 watts appears to be overly conservative.
That K1 is strange. $10.34 CAD. Built like a brick ****house. 30watts? I have mine XO'd at 3K 2nd order and have fed them over 100 with no complaints. Nice tweeter. Iuse them in my HT. Wait, I already said that back on the first page.
Cal Weldon said:
It seems clear that Hi-Vi doesn't rate wattage the same way European manufacturers do. Even the wimpiest of European or North American tweeters are rated above 30w even though one look at them is all it takes to know their membrane would fly off way before a K1 throws its dome. Anyway that spec is nominal and means little without context. You don't build a tweeter like the K1 to be used in toy systems.
Could it be that HI-VI was first founded here in Canada and thatWillitwork said:
they still have a warehouse or else here?...
Cal Weldon said:
I've got a couple pairs that I haven't used yet. Still looking for a proper Hi-Value Mid-woofer to use with them. I guess I really need to get busy and use them. BTW: they're heavy as hell so if they don't work, it'll make an interesting doorstop!
Best Regards,
TerryO
turboyam said:
Could explain the conservative rating lol, but if they were made here they wouldn't cost $10.
I remember seeing a wanted ad for Hi-Vi on the back of Stereo Review (I think) back in the early 90's and noticed they were based in Ontario but if I recall well later I heard that it was founded by Chinese interests (from Hong Kong, sort of like ATi) who had the actual drivers made in China from the get go. Up until 1997 a lot of Hong Kong based businesses moved their corporate HQ's to Canada fearing that China would turn Hong Kong into just another communist economy like the rest of China but it's the opposite that happened (the rest of China becoming more like Hong Kong) so most of these guys went back after '97. While in Canada Hi-Vi was not yet making those improved versions of Focal and Dynaudio drivers they have become famous for. Patent issues I s'pose...
Anyway we may have lost Hi-Vi but we gained NAD. I didn't even know about that until I read a recent review in Stereophile that started with something like "Canadian budget audiophile manufacturer NAD is no stranger to these pages" Canadian? WTF? But Wiki confirmed it, Lenbrook bought NAD some years ago and moved its HQ here. Made me feel vaguely patriotic about owning so many NAD products even though I didn't have a clue 😀
TerryO said:
Lol, the K1 is currently the prettiest -and heaviest- tweeter in my collection, aluminum faceplate and all. It's a handsome unit for sure but darn I'm also still looking for the ideal companion mid-bass. I've pretty much given up using it with a low-cost driver, despite its own value I think the K1 requires a quality partner, be it just to match its looks!
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Good inexpensive tweeter
Purchased a pair of K1s and am finally getting around to measuring at least the T&S parameters to start. These are impressive drivers, and appear to be well made. The face plate on these is plastic. The lead in wires are tinsel, very nice.
However, starting off measuring the DC resistance, the difference between the two is larger than I like to see, one being 4.69 and the other being 4.82 ohms. I've been seeing matching within a few hundreths of an ohm for Vifa and SEAS lately.
Measured one and the impedance was a double peak shape similar to what is seen in some drivers with chambers. It makes it difficult if not impossible to measure the parameters. Measured the second one and saw a clean single peak of much higher amplitude as is common in most single chamber tweeters.
Here's the data for the good one:
HiVi K1 UNIT SAMPLE: PLB#1 7/25/08
1" Dome Tweeter
Rvc 4.69 ohms
Fs 1232 Hz
Qe 2.81
Qm 3.15
Qts 1.49
Zpeak 12.5 ohms
Zmin 5.31
Z10K 6.23
Lvc10K 39.7 uH
Removed the face plate on the bad one and the dome assembly is positioned with pins making it easy to work on and replace. Removed the dome and there is a fabric (wool?) pad on top of the pole piece, there is a small cavity in the pole with no rear chamber. The pad seems to be off center and might be rubbing or hitting the dome, not sure, was able to better center it just by pushing against the glue. Tried it again and the main peak was much larger but it still has a double peak, odd.
Opened the other tweeter and it's pad also looks slightly off center but otherwise seems fine. Back together measures the same.
I'll probably pull off the fabric pad on the bad one and see what happens.
Seems that one of these is defective, anyone else measured the K1? Zaph's impedance curve looks close to the good one here in both Fs and height of the peak.
Pete B.
PB2 said:
Purchased a pair of K1s and am finally getting around to measuring at least the T&S parameters to start. These are impressive drivers, and appear to be well made. The face plate on these is plastic. The lead in wires are tinsel, very nice.
However, starting off measuring the DC resistance, the difference between the two is larger than I like to see, one being 4.69 and the other being 4.82 ohms. I've been seeing matching within a few hundreths of an ohm for Vifa and SEAS lately.
Measured one and the impedance was a double peak shape similar to what is seen in some drivers with chambers. It makes it difficult if not impossible to measure the parameters. Measured the second one and saw a clean single peak of much higher amplitude as is common in most single chamber tweeters.
Here's the data for the good one:
HiVi K1 UNIT SAMPLE: PLB#1 7/25/08
1" Dome Tweeter
Rvc 4.69 ohms
Fs 1232 Hz
Qe 2.81
Qm 3.15
Qts 1.49
Zpeak 12.5 ohms
Zmin 5.31
Z10K 6.23
Lvc10K 39.7 uH
Removed the face plate on the bad one and the dome assembly is positioned with pins making it easy to work on and replace. Removed the dome and there is a fabric (wool?) pad on top of the pole piece, there is a small cavity in the pole with no rear chamber. The pad seems to be off center and might be rubbing or hitting the dome, not sure, was able to better center it just by pushing against the glue. Tried it again and the main peak was much larger but it still has a double peak, odd.
Opened the other tweeter and it's pad also looks slightly off center but otherwise seems fine. Back together measures the same.
I'll probably pull off the fabric pad on the bad one and see what happens.
Seems that one of these is defective, anyone else measured the K1? Zaph's impedance curve looks close to the good one here in both Fs and height of the peak.
Pete B.
Has anyone found a Candian source for TB W5-704D? It would make a nice match with the K1. The Silverflute W14RC25 is not as nice but it is inexpensive.Willitwork said:
Peter
peter_m said:
I have a pair of Silverflute drivers somewhere, don't remember if they're W14 or W17 though, but it may be worth investigating as a potential partner for the K1. One thing for sure the K1 used in a two-way design will require a steep-slope Xover, not sure the esoteric cone material used by Silverflute is up to it.
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