Maybe not better units available for diy, at least not Hifi (non pro) style .
Take a look at the developments with the new Kef uni Q coaxial dedicated midrange unit on the new R range. It is a work of art, their drivers have really come on and sound significantly better these days.
The cone, surround and even the angled basket on the R range mid/trebledriver act like a smoothly formed waveguide on the new Kef mid. I bet a few Diyers would like to take a look at those. I understand they have high quality motor systems too.
They even claim they have all but killed the metal cone resonance.
I guess the market will catch up soon, if it isn't all patented.
Take a look at the developments with the new Kef uni Q coaxial dedicated midrange unit on the new R range. It is a work of art, their drivers have really come on and sound significantly better these days.
The cone, surround and even the angled basket on the R range mid/trebledriver act like a smoothly formed waveguide on the new Kef mid. I bet a few Diyers would like to take a look at those. I understand they have high quality motor systems too.
They even claim they have all but killed the metal cone resonance.
I guess the market will catch up soon, if it isn't all patented.
Tannoy did have a model, small and affordable, that used a 6.5" coaxial, if I am not wrong.
Does anyone know what coaxial drivers do they use?
Does anyone know what coaxial drivers do they use?
This one looks interesting and readily available:
Speaker Exchange | KEF 8″ Q900 Coaxial Driver
Same for this:
Speaker Exchange | KEF Q100 Midrange/HF 6″ Dual Concentric Driver
Dan
Speaker Exchange | KEF 8″ Q900 Coaxial Driver
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Same for this:
Speaker Exchange | KEF Q100 Midrange/HF 6″ Dual Concentric Driver
Dan
Tannoy make their own coaxials since 1948 and call them DualConcentric.
They own the rights to that term, hence all others are coaxials.
Tannoy made a few 6-6.5" dualconcentric drivers, namely model numbers 1662, 1666, 1669, 1673 and 1676. None of these were ever sold to the diy market.
Here you can find out which speaker models used those drivers:
http://www.hilberink.nl/tannoy/jpvanson/speakers.pdf
Interesting, they do not sell them seperately in the UK. These are for the budget Q range, they have impressively hefty motor systems for budget drivers. The little Q100 is an excellent sounding budget speaker and that uses 1st order crossovers with metal cone drive units!
Slightly over bright in the upper treble for my tastes but very good indeed, a diy'er could improve on this with a higher order crossover.
Q900 is surprisingly capable speaker too, considering it's big budget cabinets it isn't overly boxy sounding. That is a 2 inch treble unit in the Q900.
The R range is more capable, maybe you will be able to get hold of the dedicated mid driver for that in a few months?
or it is available already?
Thanks for that. Not read that before. The quality of some of the budget designs coming out now (at least for me) makes a bit of a nonsense of some diy work (not learning or the fun of it), that is if the aim is to save money. If the aim is to better the performance of regular box speakers with very similar diy boxes.
Of course you can build better braced boxes or add more extensive damping and improve the crossovers on existing designs like this.
Diy comes into its own when you want something really different, like open baffle, omni, large waveguide designs, affordable ESL's, good tube amp's with decent output transformers that do not cost the earth etc.
I cringe when I see people come on diy audio websites with lists of cost no object drive units (which often will not work together) and want help building a super speaker, as if it is that easy. Nine times out of ten I bet they would be horrified how much better a speaker like Q900 will sound.
You have to wonder how they got that big tweeter to perform so well above 10kHz. It's taken 3/4" tweeters to do that from what I've measured. I don't put much weight in that b/c it's just not particularly audible, but it exemplified a great use of material/geometry. Impressive.
If that's their low line stuff, their top line must be a thing of beauty.
Dan
If that's their low line stuff, their top line must be a thing of beauty.
Dan
I am a fan of big tweeter diaphragms. Most music rolls off in the low treble anyway. To my thinking it is better to go for low crossover and lower distortion where the ear is more sensitive and music has its most energy. Super tweeters are largely irrelevant.
Pluto which uses a fullrange 2 inch as a treble unit (carefully controlled with equalization) produces lovely treble.
Marketing men insist on selling the concept of inherent goodness in tweeters that extend far beyond human hearing or any musical content or indeed the capacity of most formats!
Perhaps Meridian (using 85mm tweeter) and Kef will lead the march to larger treble units again!*
*Okay, I know this isn't going to happen.
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