Peerless 10" drivers - what to build?

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aspringv

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#1
Hello all,

I normally spend most of my time in the amps part of Diyaudio, but I've succumbed to temptation and bought a pair of older Peerless drivers for a bit of a song and now I need to build something with them.

The drivers are SWR 51 147 NX
or
Cat # 839533
or
These guys here

I'd originally thought it through about as far as "2 x sealed box... Maybe a cubic foot? Mini dsp EQ or linkwitz transform, and a 300W amp I have here" and then I did a bit more reading around here and there's lots of stuff about passive radiators and suchlike for these drivers.

Anyway, I've a smallish room, modest output needs, and I'd just like to get a useful and clean sound out of these drivers without spending a mint.

Any suggestions? I'm handy with tools and should have access to a full workshop in a few weeks, so I'm not really constrained in terms of complexity of build, so happy to hear some weirder suggestions!

Thanks in advance. 🙂
 
#3
And a pic of the driver model.

I've read a few things here around passive radiators for that particular driver, and thats not an option for me here, so there's one constraint...
 

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#5
Sorry I'm not familiar w/'Abby clones', so perhaps that disqualifies me to comment, but here's MHO anyway --

Given a 'smallish room, modest output needs' and a 300W amp, it's pretty much "the sky's the limit" as I see it -- there aren't many cabinet options that will come up short, and plenty of higher efficiency choices that will just have to be attenuated. So, build something simple, easy, and QUICK -- and if by some miracle it can't keep up, THEN undertake a more complex, higher efficiency project.

Meanwhile, enjoy -- the Audio God's are in your favor.

Regards,
-Rick
 
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#6
Hi Rick,
Thanks for the input; much appreciated. The Abby's are a nice build that I've enjoyed listening to. I made mine out of ply, so a set of moderate sized sealed subs would be a nice complimemt.

So! You propose a wise way forward, and I can knock out a nice set of boxes fairly quickly I'd say!
 
#7
aspringv said:
Hmm! OK, time to do some reading about how to design a horn for a specific driver I guess!

They'll eventually be for matching to a set of Abby clones I made at one stage, so horn subs for a horn speaker seems fair enough. 🙂
Click to expand...

I wouldn't bother. Nigel's a fan of those old W-bins, and they do have their applications. Namely, high-efficiency in the 80-200Hz range. You'd have to scale it up a LOT to get any useful low-frequency extension.

Given you've got some Peerless XLS drivers, I'd be looking at smallish sealed boxes, or passive radiators. They want to be tuned nice and low, so bass-reflex ports are often difficult to fit.

Chris
 
#9
chris661 said:
I wouldn't bother. Nigel's a fan of those old W-bins, and they do have their applications. Namely, high-efficiency in the 80-200Hz range. You'd have to scale it up a LOT to get any useful low-frequency extension.

Given you've got some Peerless XLS drivers, I'd be looking at smallish sealed boxes, or passive radiators. They want to be tuned nice and low, so bass-reflex ports are often difficult to fit.

Chris
Click to expand...

The w bins work very well full range.
Mine certainly does. Depends a lot on the speaker you use too.
I use mine for music and TV and the sound is excellent. Sounds like the people on TV are in the room with you.
 
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#10
- not sure if I picked the right Peerless but here's a sim of SWR308 vs B&C 12pe32 in a little horn cabinet (0.83 scale Klipsch "Belle")

the high moving mass, high Le and low fs of this particular driver despite strong motor seem to make it inappropriate for wide range horn use (I think)

KEY1mzx.jpg
 
#11
nigelwright7557 said:
The w bins work very well full range.
Mine certainly does. Depends a lot on the speaker you use too.
I use mine for music and TV and the sound is excellent. Sounds like the people on TV are in the room with you.
Click to expand...

Having heard folded horns run full-range, I must disagree with you.
We can put it down to a difference in opinion, though - our PA systems are very different, too.

Chris
 
#12
These are super nice drivers. I have the 12" as a sub, in a vented design. Need a long and wide slot-port.
Tryed it closed with an Linkwitz Transform ..... need lots of power and does not provide enough output. Go for vented :up:

E.g. 25 liter tuned at 25 Hz, and crossed at 80 Hz. 500W peak will give you 106 db@25Hz ... not bad at all.
 
#13
Wow! Thanks everyone! I've just got a workshop day booked for next week, and these guys will be on the list to do.

I think i'm leaning towards the sealed option... I've two drivers after all, a 'spare' 300W stereo amp, and relatively modest volume needs, so I suspect that the sealed option will sound a bit better.

Time to build a linkwitz transform and get cracking on building the boxes! Thanks again all.
 
#15
...I have almost no idea how to read that sheet. :dunce:

I think I'm understanding which are the actual driver measurements (although happy to have them pointed out!), so I guess I'll have a play with some of the modelling software and try and get an understanding of what I can achieve.
 
#16
aspringv said:
...I have almost no idea how to read that sheet. :dunce:

I think I'm understanding which are the actual driver measurements (although happy to have them pointed out!), so I guess I'll have a play with some of the modelling software and try and get an understanding of what I can achieve.
Click to expand...

Looks like there are two options shown.

Left is a T-TQWT (Tapped Tapered Quarter Wave Tube), which is a tapered pipe that folds once with one side of the driver firing into the closed end, and the other firing at the open end. You could fold it once, resulting in a tall, slim enclosure. Bjorno's designs are very good. Take note of the recommended crossover filters.

Right is a Linkwitz Transform on a sealed box.

The T-TQWT will have much more output, at the expense of a larger cabinet.
The other disadvantage is that a sealed box can produce very low frequencies, albeit only quietly. The driver can easily be damaged if you drive a resonant cabinet (including the T-TQWT) below the bottom tuning frequency.

Chris
 
#17
Gotcha! Now that makes much more sense - I was looking at a sealed box size there of ~93ltrs and wondering how -that- was going to work.

I'll dig through all the math there again - that's a nice little tutorial for me in the end as to how you guys here in speaker land do what you do.

Definitely going the sealed option then - -3db at 32hz is fine for me, and i've a 300W amp ready to go, and a pair of drivers, so I'd anticipate more than enough volume to scare the neighbours. 🙂

Thanks again all!
 
#18
I have a pair of 830500 (12 inch XLS) in 40 liter sealed boxes and I have always been underwhelmed by them. Even with an EQ to boost the low end, they are either way too anemic or operating close to their xmax

They are still in the shed as i am keen to try them in a ported box before i get rid of them
 
#19
^ Just had a look at the specs. Unless you're expecting huge volume at 20 Hz, I can't see how something like a MLTL wouldn't get you very far. Not much difference to a standard vented, so easier to package than some other alignments. That low of a qts tends to find it in pretty small boxes otherwise.
 
#20
Well, if ~343 L net doesn't scare him away, an 18 Hz DTS concept sims >115 db/m/1 pi/250 W above ~16 Hz, rising to ~125 dB/50 Hz even with lossy Le, so theoretically will 'kick like mule' and near/at a corner could be a real eye opener/house wrecker.

Put both drivers in series at ~395 L net for another ~6 dB across the board.........

So much for 'small'. 😀

GM
 
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