Atohm LD 150 CR04 driver
Hi, Here is my mini review of ATOHM LD 150 CR04 driver, Price is 240euro/piece, Review of this driver is only a reference to SB 15NRXC30-08 that is very popular and have a lot of measurements on net.
ATOHM LD 150 CR04: The suspension is very stiff !!! aprox 2.5 times stiffer than of SB; The resonance is measured only through high resistance resistor connected in series, that made a very clear SPL peak of 76hz in free air (it is very high resonance compared to usual 100cm2 driver) in a 9.7 liter box the resonance was 94hz that resulted the VAS is 5.3 lit !!! Driver was not burned very long, but anyway it is stiff. The QTS was not measured but it is higher than 0.6. The building quality is excellent. The company does not specify what type of cone material (alliage specifique), but by feelings it is a type of plastic that is very stiff compared with other, the edge of cone can be bended so it is not metal.
Measurements: Note!!!! Read data of ATOHM LD 150 CR04 only as reference to SB 15NRXC30-08 that both were measured in same box and conditions :
SPL Note Atohm spl was recessed by 3db because it has higher sensitivity than SB by 3db for the same voltage input. This was done for better comparison.
Distortion in percent of Atohm LD 150 CR04 (missing f5 component)
Distortion in percent of SB 15NRXC30-08 (missing f5 component)
CSD of Atohm with a notch filter 6.3khz 12db q=4 taking the peak off for making the opportunity to see full csd window below useful 3khz (that is not possible with peak present)
CSD of SB with a notch filter 8khz 12db q=2 taking the peak off for making the opportunity to see full csd window below useful 3khz (that is not possible with peak present)
My subjective impression: Don’t expect this expensive driver not to color the sound; It has some color: I feel a little bit of plastic sound (yes I know about placebo and prejudice, because I already think that the cone is like plastic, have no idea what is the reason but steel fell like this) but it does not sound boring like other plastic cone that have blurred attach; by contras it accentuate some hits type sound like: clap hands, finger snap, some drums kicks; it also accentuate growling sound, horn sound. Sometimes this coloration is pleasant, hearing big horn sound I want to up volume to maximum and enjoy the power. Please ignore the implementation as a source of the main coloration; I can easy make flat response with DSP or equal it to SB acoustics with rational crossover point ….. no matter, the sound of both have colorations and they sound very different. My recommendation don’t buy this driver until you hear it; You can listen to commercial speakers of the same brand Atohm gt1 where this driver is implemented and then make decision. To me it has a bit more resolution then SB, more attention on voices, mids and attacks, but SB sound warmer more relaxed. If price where no object I would chose Atohm but it is 5 !!! times more expensive then SB so Atohm is low value driver, even more some would prefer the sound of SB over Atohm. You can listen to Atohm gt 1 through youtube reviews +headphones, it is not a serious listening but it will give some idea of how it sound.
Hi, Here is my mini review of ATOHM LD 150 CR04 driver, Price is 240euro/piece, Review of this driver is only a reference to SB 15NRXC30-08 that is very popular and have a lot of measurements on net.
ATOHM LD 150 CR04: The suspension is very stiff !!! aprox 2.5 times stiffer than of SB; The resonance is measured only through high resistance resistor connected in series, that made a very clear SPL peak of 76hz in free air (it is very high resonance compared to usual 100cm2 driver) in a 9.7 liter box the resonance was 94hz that resulted the VAS is 5.3 lit !!! Driver was not burned very long, but anyway it is stiff. The QTS was not measured but it is higher than 0.6. The building quality is excellent. The company does not specify what type of cone material (alliage specifique), but by feelings it is a type of plastic that is very stiff compared with other, the edge of cone can be bended so it is not metal.
Measurements: Note!!!! Read data of ATOHM LD 150 CR04 only as reference to SB 15NRXC30-08 that both were measured in same box and conditions :
SPL Note Atohm spl was recessed by 3db because it has higher sensitivity than SB by 3db for the same voltage input. This was done for better comparison.
Distortion in percent of Atohm LD 150 CR04 (missing f5 component)
Distortion in percent of SB 15NRXC30-08 (missing f5 component)
CSD of Atohm with a notch filter 6.3khz 12db q=4 taking the peak off for making the opportunity to see full csd window below useful 3khz (that is not possible with peak present)
CSD of SB with a notch filter 8khz 12db q=2 taking the peak off for making the opportunity to see full csd window below useful 3khz (that is not possible with peak present)
My subjective impression: Don’t expect this expensive driver not to color the sound; It has some color: I feel a little bit of plastic sound (yes I know about placebo and prejudice, because I already think that the cone is like plastic, have no idea what is the reason but steel fell like this) but it does not sound boring like other plastic cone that have blurred attach; by contras it accentuate some hits type sound like: clap hands, finger snap, some drums kicks; it also accentuate growling sound, horn sound. Sometimes this coloration is pleasant, hearing big horn sound I want to up volume to maximum and enjoy the power. Please ignore the implementation as a source of the main coloration; I can easy make flat response with DSP or equal it to SB acoustics with rational crossover point ….. no matter, the sound of both have colorations and they sound very different. My recommendation don’t buy this driver until you hear it; You can listen to commercial speakers of the same brand Atohm gt1 where this driver is implemented and then make decision. To me it has a bit more resolution then SB, more attention on voices, mids and attacks, but SB sound warmer more relaxed. If price where no object I would chose Atohm but it is 5 !!! times more expensive then SB so Atohm is low value driver, even more some would prefer the sound of SB over Atohm. You can listen to Atohm gt 1 through youtube reviews +headphones, it is not a serious listening but it will give some idea of how it sound.
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Thanks[emoji6]
The answer on your question is in the "Features/comments" section.
They show back side of the twetter without a sticker which you see on the picture 3.
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At last SB have made wonderful woofer in the SB line!
SB Acoustics SB34NRXL75-8 | HiFiCompass
At last SB have made wonderful woofer in the SB line!
Excellent to 40 Hz! 
..not so great below that.
-on the other hand it "scales" exceedingly well with input level.
You could "squeeze-out" really low distortion within >40 Hz with some mechanical cancellation canceling-out even-order distortion, and do so at pretty much ANY (mostly reasonable) OUTPUT LEVEL.
..not so great below that.
-on the other hand it "scales" exceedingly well with input level.
You could "squeeze-out" really low distortion within >40 Hz with some mechanical cancellation canceling-out even-order distortion, and do so at pretty much ANY (mostly reasonable) OUTPUT LEVEL.
Any ideas what might be the source of the significant peak in H2 around 800 Hz?
Otherwise, this driver looks very good! It seems to have high sensitivity for an "8 Ohm" driver. This would be an awesome woofer if used in a 3-way "monkey coffin" type speaker.
I think it comes from surround-edgecone resonance. It can be seen from "20mm frequency response" and "Impedance" graphs
I think it is excellent down to 20 Hz!
It is getting clear from comparing SB34NRXL75-8 with its 12" competitors and taking in account the price too.
-on a comparative basis it's still excellent.
I was just hoping for *lower distortion below 40 Hz. (..which is very unusual.)On an absolute basis (below 40 Hz), it's not excellent.
(..I'd still say it's very good though, just not so good as excellent.)*I should probably qualify that: I was hoping for odd-order distortion to be lower, in particularly I like to see 2nd above 3rd by more than 5db.
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Test Bench: The 18HW1070 18” Pro Sound Woofer from FaitalPRO | audioXpress
-This is largely the spider: compliance is the major distortion factor substantively BELOW FS. It's a ridiculously "stiff" suspension.
It is of course a VERY different driver.
-This is largely the spider: compliance is the major distortion factor substantively BELOW FS. It's a ridiculously "stiff" suspension.
It is of course a VERY different driver.