Thanks, that is all helpful to consider. At this point no decisions have been made, but I'm currently getting quite keen on constant directivity types of waveguides, which cause falling SPL as frequency rises. So a fair bit of attenuation would already be inevitable at least at the low end of the compression driver's frequency range, in order to equalise/flatten the response. That'd mean a much lower (if flatter) SPL, but maybe it could be made to match a woofer with little or no extra padding-down. As we talk about such things, I'm increasingly of the opinion that active multi-amping would be the way I'd go for this project.
Yes I agree that the higher FS of pro woofers is less ideal. I'd probably be going for a largish size driver (again for reasons of directivity) which would help at the lower end a bit. I suspect that could be enough for me. My intentions are music rather than home-movies, so whilst going down to 40hz or lower would be nice, I'd accept good quality down to around 50hz. Possibly even higher; were I to want very low bass and sub-bass I'd likely also want to try distributed subwoofers instead, for reasons of room reflections etc. There would also be the option of DSP for me, too. As with the compression driver, I'd not be using a big pro woofer to its full potential SPL at home, so there'd be scope to instead use its capabilities in electrically lowering frequency response. Though I'd need to think about that; partly because I might already be wanting to make use of DSP to allow a smaller box, and partly because I don't want to negate the benefits of pro drivers, by (e.g.) reducing dynamics too far.
The compression driver dome material has come up in some other threads that I read too, so is clearly something to consider when choosing for a home application. In fact choosing compression drivers seems quite difficult, since published measurements are so heavily influenced by whatever waveguide or horn was used, especially as they're typically chosen for the intended frequency range, which I intend to significantly exceed. I had thought the top end might be easier, since at some point directivity must just be down to the driver throat and phaseplug rather then the waveguide, but it is very small section of most charts; probably again beyond what is of interest in a lot of pro use.
Cheers,
Kev
Yes I agree that the higher FS of pro woofers is less ideal. I'd probably be going for a largish size driver (again for reasons of directivity) which would help at the lower end a bit. I suspect that could be enough for me. My intentions are music rather than home-movies, so whilst going down to 40hz or lower would be nice, I'd accept good quality down to around 50hz. Possibly even higher; were I to want very low bass and sub-bass I'd likely also want to try distributed subwoofers instead, for reasons of room reflections etc. There would also be the option of DSP for me, too. As with the compression driver, I'd not be using a big pro woofer to its full potential SPL at home, so there'd be scope to instead use its capabilities in electrically lowering frequency response. Though I'd need to think about that; partly because I might already be wanting to make use of DSP to allow a smaller box, and partly because I don't want to negate the benefits of pro drivers, by (e.g.) reducing dynamics too far.
The compression driver dome material has come up in some other threads that I read too, so is clearly something to consider when choosing for a home application. In fact choosing compression drivers seems quite difficult, since published measurements are so heavily influenced by whatever waveguide or horn was used, especially as they're typically chosen for the intended frequency range, which I intend to significantly exceed. I had thought the top end might be easier, since at some point directivity must just be down to the driver throat and phaseplug rather then the waveguide, but it is very small section of most charts; probably again beyond what is of interest in a lot of pro use.
Cheers,
Kev