make that 750 to 4.5 k but -huge with a 1st order crossover -potential Kappa dome replacement. Anyway good to dream ,pretty sure it will be as ordinary as the recent sb acoustic dome. the midrange dome seems to have almost declined instead of improved over the last 50 years. Perhaps it will take Purifi to take the 2 to 3 inch dome to new heights - I know more chance of T Rex coming back to life and living in my backyard
I think, T29CF002 is the best silk dome from SEAS. It has right balance between high and low frequency extension, very good, soft and mellow timbre. Its dome stiffer than ScanSpeak's or SB Acoustics ones, so its treble more accented and dynamic. It sounds slightly forward in the lower treble range, possibly due to the small waveguide. It lacks spacioness, atmosphere and resolution compare to SS and SBA tweeters.
I didn't give it 5 stars because:
1. Very high price for such measurement results. Its construction is not up-to-date.
2. The problems with parameters consistency. I had four pieces and it was a trouble to choose a matched pair🙂
3. It's a shame that top notch product is sold in unmatched pairs but by the piece.
Nevertheless, it has own voice and the voice is good and very natural, and I really want to try it in my coming project.
Yes, I hope too and am waiting for them.🙂
I was shown preliminary factory measurements and they seemed very nice to me.
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I'm sorry, but don't know more. If nothing unexpected happens we will see the review by the end of year.
Thanks for the comprehensive reply - I too am amazed Seas is not selling these in matched pairs and the consistency should be spot on at that price. I recall about 9 years ago a high end build using the T29CF002 and he purchased 8 and sold the ones that were not the perfect pair. I was offered a lesser matched pair but passed it was only a $100 less. I miss North Creek Audio that driver matching service they had was invaluable. I note very expensive speakers often have poor driver matching as shown in some test's inexcusable when handing over big money 😡
Now that is a shame, because it is possible to manufacture with good consistancy. My own tests of a pair of Satori TW29TXN-B were very close. The frequency response curves laid on top of each other. These were not a matched pair, just two that I bought.
I'm fully agreed, TW29TXN is cheaper but its consistancy much better compared with T29CF002. The four samples of TW29TXN I bought in September were almost identical each to other in spite the fact that they were from different factory's batches.
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You've got the other NE drivers listed a being Vifa, this one as Peerless. Might be worth changing this one to Vifa to make comparisons easier.
Apart from the weird 3rd HD peak at 700hz, this is quite an impressive driver. Pretty linear, and the directivity is really wide up to 4khz. It is also not too expensive.
I am looking at both 4ohm and 8ohm version of the NE123W and notice something interesting. The 4ohm have a moving mass of 6.3g while the 8ohm is 4.7g (lower is better). Voice coil inductance of the 4ohm is 0.04mH while the 8ohm is 0.06mH (Lower is better).Fs for the 4ohm is 156Hz and the 8ohm is 61.03Hz ... these two shouldn't affect the performance all that much if one use the driver from midrange and low treble duty.
What I do notice is the on paper, the graph in the datasheet looks like the 4ohm is a tad more linear and pushes the cone breakup to 3kHz vs 2kHz for the 8hm..
Any comments ?
What I do notice is the on paper, the graph in the datasheet looks like the 4ohm is a tad more linear and pushes the cone breakup to 3kHz vs 2kHz for the 8hm..
Any comments ?
Looks like a great driver. How do you distinguish between "review" vs "measurements" articles, and what is the HiFiCompass "mark" based upon?
Member
Joined 2003
Nice driver. Tough call between it any my Wavecor WF120 that I like so much. NE123 has lower 3rd order harmonic through the midrange, and a more extended frequency response without much of a breakup peak, but it also appears a bit limited on the low end. Still A-okay for my use if I follow my own mentality of keeping crossover around 400-450Hz range.
Maybe nitpicking, but the NE123 is listed as a 3" driver, and the WF120 is listed as 4.8" driver. They are the same size. Sd of both is 54cm^2.
Maybe nitpicking, but the NE123 is listed as a 3" driver, and the WF120 is listed as 4.8" driver. They are the same size. Sd of both is 54cm^2.
Member
Joined 2003
Review contains words and subjective opinions. Measurements are just objective data.