TangBand W8-1772

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Hello, a guy here in Italy spoke me about TangBand W8-1772 full range speaker. He told that it sounds very well at a non to great price. He suggests me to use a bass reflex enclosure, the Fostex' one plan for FE206. What do you think about all this: quality of TangBand and bass reflex enclosure?
Thanks to all of you
Ziocalepino
 
Sounds just like Lowther to me, in every way that I personally dislike.
Maybe I just have tin ears? I could never use, even if price was $0.

My friend owns a pair of these and has tried every type of cabinet:
Open baffle, sealed box, relex, double reflex, horn, Karlson. There is
just no fix, I don't know why he bothers to keep trying. Where do
the good reviews come from? Do reviews write without hearing it?

I feel this whizzer cone to be an unfortunate size. Small 1" whizzers
and big 4" whizzers (Beta12LTA) with or without phase plug do not
fatigue my ears. Play this or any 2inch whizzer, I will quickly leave
the room. Slightly off axis is OK, everywhere else is too "silibant?".
Not exactly, but something sort of like that. Don't have right word
to describe. Its in the vocal range somewhere...

There is an unintentional added sound, not a natural part of music.
A blindfolded man can clearly identify this size of whizzer in use.

The quality of the craftsmanship is fine, I don't believe that to be
the problem. Its a very nice looking, even well made. If anything
that sounds so awful could be forgiven just cause its well made?
 
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Hi,
value for money is quite OK with Tangband (having said that, I don´t know what they cost in Bella Italia). As to them sounding "harsh"...you have that with 8" drivers that are not strangled to sound "soft". Don´t have them shout into your ears, aim them at a point 1m in front of you. Good bonus effect: the Sweet Spot will be wide enough for your gilfriend sharing the music.

Pit
 
Hello, a guy here in Italy spoke me about TangBand W8-1772 full range speaker. He told that it sounds very well at a non to great price. He suggests me to use a bass reflex enclosure, the Fostex' one plan for FE206. What do you think about all this: quality of TangBand and bass reflex enclosure?
Thanks to all of you
Ziocalepino

The 1772 works fine in a BR. I recommend ~40L net with a 3"x4" port. This will give an F10 in the 30's. I know that the 1808 gets a lot more play here, but it requires a MUCH bigger BR, so much so that I recommend that it be used in a MLTL rather than a BR. The 1808 is better for an OB, but why waste an 8"er on an OB?

As to sibilance on axis, most FR drivers are top heavy on axis. At 15* off axis the 1772 is wonderful. It is the only FR driver I have found that goes above 10kHz at 15*.

Bob
 
Sounds just like Lowther to me, in every way that I personally dislike.
Maybe I just have tin ears? I could never use, even if price was $0.

My friend owns a pair of these and has tried every type of cabinet:
Open baffle, sealed box, relex, double reflex, horn, Karlson. There is
just no fix, I don't know why he bothers to keep trying. Where do
the good reviews come from? Do reviews write without hearing it?

I feel this whizzer cone to be an unfortunate size. Small 1" whizzers
and big 4" whizzers (Beta12LTA) with or without phase plug do not
fatigue my ears. Play this or any 2inch whizzer, I will quickly leave
the room. Slightly off axis is OK, everywhere else is too "silibant?".
Not exactly, but something sort of like that. Don't have right word
to describe. Its in the vocal range somewhere...

There is an unintentional added sound, not a natural part of music.
A blindfolded man can clearly identify this size of whizzer in use.

The quality of the craftsmanship is fine, I don't believe that to be
the problem. Its a very nice looking, even well made. If anything
that sounds so awful could be forgiven just cause its well made?

I hope your friend was smart enough to correct the rising response of this driver? If not, no wonder it sounded harsh...

And this driver is miles above any Lowther driver, which I sometimes wonder what the "developers" were thinking when they developed drivers like the EX3... 🙄
 
>>> The 1808 is better for an OB, but why waste an 8"er on an OB?

Every driver on those baffles can be considered wasteful. Along with that tube amp, tube cd player and all that excess wire. But it's fun! Simon & Garfunkel have been playing in my listening room for days as i sketch on my new drafting table into the night.

The B20 in the lower right corner also sounds good on OB... but not as good as the TB. Every 8" driver I've simmed, regardless of specs, seems to make it to 200hz on OB (Fostex, TB, Dayton, Eminence, B20, etc...) with a natural roll off that matches up nicely with an H-frame or OB woofer like the Alpha 15s in the pic. 8" drivers with high Qts (1 or higher) sim out to around 100hz and drop quickly after that. The TB 1808s do 'tone' right but are not perfect. They are lively and punchy sounding with detail galore without sounding strident or harsh to me. I can live with them happily in many different types of cabinets... even all by themselves. The 1772s must be good but for me were less flexible in terms of what i was capable of making for them. Bob is right that the 1808 requires a much larger br box (or BIB for that matter) than the 1772. If you are not opposed to adding a circuit to flatten their curve the 1772 is a better choice if you want a smaller cabinet. Having said that the 1808 sounds really nice in a small sealed cab without any circuit... at the expense of low bass. Add a sub and you will be very happy imo.

It might be a while before i get back to 'box' speakers... but i'm certain i will eventually.
 

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My point is that while a given 8" driver may well sound very nice on an OB, the low frequency roll-off is a function of the baffle size, not a function of the driver size. ANY sized driver will roll off at exactly the same frequency (assuming that the driver will reach that frequency). As good as the 1772/1808 may be, a 3-4in driver is going to have a better top end. Use an 8" driver in a cabinet that will allow it to get some bass.

Bob
 
I think I've about settled on using my 1808s on a different open baffle and roll them off to woofers at about 100 - 200 Hz, despite all that waste of displacement. Now I'm thinking about the top end, whether to try to add a supertweeter above around 12 - 15 KHz or just leave well enough alone. Unless I stumble across a really good supertweeter at a reasonable price I'll probably just try to optimize what I get from the TBs. I plan to try putting a Zobel on and see if that smooths out the top end further. The TB plot of frequency response shows quite a bit of output up to 20 KHz, of course that would be on axis. Any idea where that output tails off above there? One other thought I had was to put some sort of diffuser in front of the speaker rather than using a Zobel, hopefully preserving more of the high end output but make the beaming less problematic.
 
After posting above, I went back to listen to what I have so far some more. I put more amp power in to drive the woofers and crossed them over higher, and it sounds better. I think some of the "harshness" I was hearing earlier is more that the balance favored the treble so much it was a bit irritating, plus listening too close to on axis. I also had convinced myself I hear a little more "sparkle" at the very top with my Pioneers (which have a supertweeter), but as I know I can't hear above 15K, I'm probably hearing either distortion or imaginary stuff. I think once I add some balance to my naked 1808s by putting them on a larger, better baffle I'll be pretty happy with them. Even with my current suboptimized setup they sound pretty darn good. If I know me, at some point I'll probably try a Zobel just for grins though.
 
RS, you can´t hear above 15K? You bloody well can, and enjoy it all the time. The sidebands these frequencies produce go waaay down into midrange...and it´s they who make some wonderful singers much better than the plastic dollies on modern recordings.
 
I take your point, and I actually had considered that aspect a bit, but most good supertweeters that accurately reproduce that range plus the crossover would end up moving the cost up significantly. I suspect I'd end up making something worse while trying to add that tiny bit of added realism. After thinking it over, once I get the Tang Bands into a good open baffle I'll probably focus back on getting my turntable back into action.
 
Been planning to put my 1808s on a large open baffle, and realizing just how big these will be to get down to 100 Hz. I have the room, but a sealed box sure would save some space. I'm probably going ahead with the open baffle, but just curious if anyone has been down this road and gone back to sealed boxes after playing with open baffles for a while? Anyone use the same speaker in both configurations with comments on differences in the sound? Even in the basement (my man-cave & music junk storage zone), my wife is gonna hate these.
 
Hello. I am too interested to try the Tang Bang. I had the chance to hear the 1772 model and I liked a lot, specially the micro details. My idea is to use woofer for the bass under 200 Hz. And use the TB in open baffle. Which one, the 1772 or the 1882 ?. The 1882 has that beautiful midrange and detailed as the 1772 ? Thanks in advance
 
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