Roll Call for High Efficiency 12"ers w spooky mid-range for 2.1 or 2.2 build
Looking for modern version of Altec 414 or Western Electric variants (high effecincy and great mid-range). Ideal range would be from 80Hz to at least 1000khz.
Want 3D snappy midbass and magical midrange. Is that asking too much?
Looking for modern version of Altec 414 or Western Electric variants (high effecincy and great mid-range). Ideal range would be from 80Hz to at least 1000khz.
Want 3D snappy midbass and magical midrange. Is that asking too much?
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Not really. 😉 Some AlNiCo guitar drivers are basically pre-Korean War Lansing/Altec/Jensen drivers spec-wise once coupled to the matching impedance amps of the day, hence the high Qt motors for modern amps.
Spooky midrange from a 12 in a 2.1/ 2.2 system. Isn’t the 12” the woofer. Sooky midrange usually requires a smaller driver and no XO in the midrange (160-2.6kHz), and just above that is where the ear is most sensitive, so maybe even higher.
dave
dave
A little smaller but I have wondered how an Eton 11-581 would work in a 2 way with a Fountek Pro 5i or nice dome?
I once heard spooky good midrange out of a Beta 12LTA in a 3-way design. It was like a Quad ESL57, but more dynamic.
However the crossover was complex and difficult. But if it can be done with the Beta 12LTA then there ought to be another great 12" out there.
There has been some discussion of such over in the full-range forum.
However the crossover was complex and difficult. But if it can be done with the Beta 12LTA then there ought to be another great 12" out there.
There has been some discussion of such over in the full-range forum.
Yes.
12" mid's with magical midrange a'la WE don't tend to have much midbass at all, and it doesn't tend to have enough Mms for that fast-attack with a bit of "heft" to it.
You can get something a bit more "stat" like with something like the Beyma Liberty 8 that will do the freq. range you want, OR you could use something like this driver to get that snappy midbass result (with a 200 Hz shallow high-pass) AND use something more WE-sounding like an open baffle Jensen Falcon 12 (16 ohm) to get something a bit more magical above 200 Hz (and use a little over 3mH copper foil in series with it).
With two 18" woofers below the LTA, a dome tweeter above it, and excellent crossover work, they were some of the cleanest speakers I've ever heard. It all depends on how you use them. They shouldn't be used above 6K.
Crossed at 5KHz. EnABLed with pretreatments, phase plugs. Each mod helped. Still quite ringy.
dave
dave
On open baffle it was as clean as I've ever heard, very pure. Perhaps it's better suited to OB than a box.
Doing a 12" midrange isn't going to be easy, no matter the driver. IME the sweet spot of a midrange driver is smaller than 12. Like 8-10" for PA. 5-8" for home use.
thats pretty high for a 12". unless one wants beaming and breakup it shouldnt be crossed higher than 1.3khz. (cheap d220ti and jbl pt waveguide will fix that)
also is there any evidence that this EnABled thing does anything? magic markers and light paper glued to a big cone. it cant imagin it is more than placebo 🙂
The Beta LTA is a "fullrange" driver, which is what you might want as a midrange. Many smaller woofers can serve well as midrange drivers, but once you get up to a 12" cone, you'll want it to be built for extended response. You need to know where to get out of it, in the case of the LTA that can be as high as 6 kHz if you take heroic measures. Lower is you don't. 🙂 IME that is going to be the same for any 12 inch cone used as a midrange. At some point it's going to fall apart and sound bad. You need to know where that point is and how to keep it from being audible.
As for EnAble, that has been discussed at length elsewhere, so let not do that here.
As for EnAble, that has been discussed at length elsewhere, so let not do that here.
Currently being “spooked” on a regular basis by these Sonido SWR250 16 Ohm field coils.
Driven by my DIY F2J monoblocks fed by a DCB1 with Jensen iron on the outputs for a 6dB boost.
Signals handled by First Watt B5.
Bottom end is Acoustic Elegance Dipole 15 driven by Hypex.
To me 150-3000Hz is “meat and potatoes” and always needs to be tasty.
There will be some playing around with the very top and bottom ends to see if adding a tweeter or additional woofer brings anything to the game.
Driven by my DIY F2J monoblocks fed by a DCB1 with Jensen iron on the outputs for a 6dB boost.
Signals handled by First Watt B5.
Bottom end is Acoustic Elegance Dipole 15 driven by Hypex.
To me 150-3000Hz is “meat and potatoes” and always needs to be tasty.
There will be some playing around with the very top and bottom ends to see if adding a tweeter or additional woofer brings anything to the game.
Attachments
Yes. Buit not measurements … there are measures that show differences but they are hard to interpret.
A number of double blind tests, largely ignored (not well documented), mostly informal, clearly show the improvements if you have the system and hearing acuity, and are listening for the right things (took me an entire afternoon of back & forth for my listening to aero in on the changes. Subtle in many senses, but startling in the gestalt with a very good recording.
dave