Passive Radiator things

For starters, thoughts on price performance things. I find that decent PR units can cost more than the active driver, in some cases. One that I am messing with is a $100 driver and the PRs come in at $65 each with 2x needed. Is nailing the targets justification enough to spend so much on "ports" or is that money better spent on optimising a dual active driver design? Such are today's pondering while perusing online shopping carts on what to pull the triggers on :)
 
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Ya, drone cones are a rip off. Reminds me of speaker cables.
Blown woofers are a great place to start but where do you find a pair of blown 15’s for your 12” actives? Or a couple 8’s for your 6.5’s?
No need to double up the same size, just go one size up.
That’s how we did it 40 years ago.
 
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Sorry for the late response, Cal. Have been trying to find the requested information for the main drivers. The last two are sourced as replacement parts and have no specs

12" 17mm 450wrms
10" 17mm 400wrms
7" unknown, around 13 to 15mm by reckoning over 150wrms
Racer, unknown, maybe more than 15mm 70wrms
 
Ya, drone cones are a rip off. Reminds me of speaker cables.
Blown woofers are a great place to start but where do you find a pair of blown 15’s for your 12” actives? Or a couple 8’s for your 6.5’s?
No need to double up the same size, just go one size up.
That’s how we did it 40 years ago.
Absolutely! I remember people making their own with just a surround kit, shoe goo, some foam core, and washers. I don’t think they were any good though because they can rock in non-pistonic ways.
 
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Surround and spider are important. Alteration of the spider can improve things if travel requires increasing.
I have played with many over the years and as always, I listen with my ears rather than analysis by machine.
Hint: Tube amps.
Same reason I am a fan of the Cornu style horn.
Everything wrong but show me a simple build that makes a little driver sound so big.
 

stv

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You want the PR(s) have around double the displacement of your woofer (depends on tuning).
Since two 6" have roughly half the cone surface of one 12" your PRs would need 4-fold xmax of your woofer, to match the max spl of your driver.
6" PRs with 78 mm xmax will be difficult to find, I suspect.
You could either accept the reduced max spl around tuning frequency, accept some compromise and use a vent or build a sealed encloseure and equalize the low end. With 12" and 17 mm xmax you have plenty of potential output anyway!

Have a look at these photos of modifying a cheap woofer to make a low-tuned PR (scroll down):
https://www.donhighend.de/?page_id=1627
 
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stv

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with about 100mm of xmax if one can be found at a really good price
I strongly doubt that you can find it, mostly for a good price!
High xmax is always much more lossy, non-linear and noisy than simply using a bigger PR.
So it's usually a good idea to chose one PR bigger than the driver (e.g. 10" or 12" PR for a 8" driver). Or install two PRs of the same dimension as the driver.
 
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I strongly doubt that you can find it, mostly for a good price!
High xmax is always much more lossy, non-linear and noisy than simply using a bigger PR.
So it's usually a good idea to chose one PR bigger than the driver (e.g. 10" or 12" PR for a 8" driver). Or install two PRs of the same dimension as the driver.
I have experienced the noisy part with a cheap high excursion brand

These are for projects where the forum has previously pointed out resonance issues with the ports. All the drivers are of the very small box type. There has to be an option better than a port or expensive PRs
 
Thanks for that, been trying to digest it. My last earthquake sub had 75mm xmax, and it was visually extravagant but had mechanical noises but.....

What do you personally think about a PR driver around 6" with about 100mm of xmax if one can be found at a really good price?
Xmax is defined as one way travel, 200mm (~8") of peak to peak travel on a 6" driver won't be found at any price.

The Earthquake SLAPS (Symmetrically Loaded Passive System) PR's are all rated incorrectly, their rated "Xmax" is peak to peak, not one way.
Still an impressive amount of excursion, but from what I've read, they require more weight to achieve desired Fb than their TS parameters or the tuning charts predict, stiffer than their rated Vas (Volume of Air Spring) would indicate.

Difficult ($$) to make Vas large (lower stiffness, loose suspension), linear at different drive levels, support the required weight and still move pistonically at high excursion.