Hey all. I am trying to select a replacement tweeter compression driver to be suitable for use with my existing 2-way crossover and woofer. I will be adding an L-pad (or resistor network) to match sensitivities.
My crossover is 2.5KHz @ 12 db/oct and my woofer is 15" rated at 150W and about 98 db 1W/m. I've heard of a rule of thumb that the power rating of the tweeter should be about 1/5 of that of the woofer. So this would suggest a 30W tweeter.
Most compression drivers I've been looking at are about 107 db 1W/m, so in order to equalize the sensitivities the L-pad will consume a larger portion of the system power. I gather -10 db is 1/2 of the power.
For a pair of speakers there is considerable difference in price between a 30+ watt tweeter and, say a 15W or 20W tweeter. Question: can I safely use a lower powered tweeter in this application? What are your thoughts?
Thanks in advance.
R
My crossover is 2.5KHz @ 12 db/oct and my woofer is 15" rated at 150W and about 98 db 1W/m. I've heard of a rule of thumb that the power rating of the tweeter should be about 1/5 of that of the woofer. So this would suggest a 30W tweeter.
Most compression drivers I've been looking at are about 107 db 1W/m, so in order to equalize the sensitivities the L-pad will consume a larger portion of the system power. I gather -10 db is 1/2 of the power.
For a pair of speakers there is considerable difference in price between a 30+ watt tweeter and, say a 15W or 20W tweeter. Question: can I safely use a lower powered tweeter in this application? What are your thoughts?
Thanks in advance.
R
If you have one that has failed and your system uses two, replace them both and if the new ones are more sensitive, turn your treble control down accordingly.
You get what you pay for in transducers.
You get what you pay for in transducers.
Not sure exactly what the relationship is with speaker power and SPL in terms of dB at a fixed distance. 10x power to double the volume, is that 3db? I'll leave that for the members to comment.
I did some pink noise source voltage analysis in LT Spice and answered my own question. [Correction my crossover is 2KHz.] Assuming 8 ohms for both speakers, using a system input of 150W, the woofer sees an average 114W, and the tweeter sees an average 35W. With an L-pad set 1/2 way the tweeter sees around 12W. So a 20W tweeter with an L-pad should be more than sufficient driving full power, which most likely will never happen in my basement anyway. 😉
I did some pink noise source voltage analysis in LT Spice and answered my own question. [Correction my crossover is 2KHz.] Assuming 8 ohms for both speakers, using a system input of 150W, the woofer sees an average 114W, and the tweeter sees an average 35W. With an L-pad set 1/2 way the tweeter sees around 12W. So a 20W tweeter with an L-pad should be more than sufficient driving full power, which most likely will never happen in my basement anyway. 😉
... to double percieved psychoacoustic volume!
+3 dB doubles the power
+6 dB doubles voltage (and subsequently also current, thus 4* power) and doubles spl.
Why do you have to replace the tweeter? Power overload? If so you should get a higher power (or sensitivity + L-pad) tweeter.
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Probably just needed a bit of TLC/tweaking: https://medias.audiofanzine.com/images/normal/celestion-hf-50-398883.jpg
Oh well.....anyway, the woofer is normally ~6 dB louder than the tweeter, so this 93 dB one I recommend as a replacement for an NLA Altec horn tweeter for the biflex series: https://www.parts-express.com/pedocs/specs/277-084--morel-cat-378-spec-sheet.pdf
Oh well.....anyway, the woofer is normally ~6 dB louder than the tweeter, so this 93 dB one I recommend as a replacement for an NLA Altec horn tweeter for the biflex series: https://www.parts-express.com/pedocs/specs/277-084--morel-cat-378-spec-sheet.pdf