What are the best options this year for dome midranges?

the industry is fooling us to the bonez ... I remember some years ago I encountered the old OEM webpage of this dome driver saying single unit price is $11 - !!!

https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/raw-drivers-3-inch-dome-midrange-9433850291.html
Can't remember exactly all details but it has low freq res good xmax flat response no ferrofluid ... and looks very similar to the dome driver in the studio monitors that Neumann uses!
 
the industry is fooling us to the bonez ... I remember some years ago I encountered the old OEM webpage of this dome driver saying single unit price is $11 - !!!

https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/raw-drivers-3-inch-dome-midrange-9433850291.html
Can't remember exactly all details but it has low freq res good xmax flat response no ferrofluid ... and looks very similar to the dome driver in the studio monitors that Neumann uses!

Are you struggling over the moderate prices for the Peerless GBS-85N (Paper membrane) ? Some years ago some similar looking one from Peerless for $11 at indiamart (still being offered there, but without price tag)? And today the genuine one for $18.46 at parts express? Nota bene: If you go for the even bigger sibling GBS-115N (Al membrane), then you will pay $31.55 at parts express. This one could indeed be a really nice, big dome midrange, by the way ...

What is the problem then? I don't feel fooled to the bonez at all by this offer, aka by this very moderate price increase when ordering from a 1st grade supplier. Or do you want to blame Neumann? If so, for what then? For the assumed use of a 20$ midrange within a top product? What would be wrong whith that if you were right with your assumption? If the driver nicely fits the tech needs? A Neumann speaker might be just a little bit more than the raw stack of hardware, and that is what you pay for. Or do I get something wrong?
 
Last edited:
FWIW That Tymphany GBS is not a dome midrange in the traditional sense, where the voice coil is terminated at the dome edge, so a 3" dome = 3" VC. This GBS driver is more of a traditional cone driver, that happens to be dome shaped. The voice coil is 1" with a spider suspension just like a "normal" cone driver.

1640048410841.png


The GBS tested with rather high 2nd order distortion, but it is a low cost driver, interesting anyway for low cost 3-way designs.
https://audioxpress.com/article/test-bench-tymphany-gbs-135f25al02-04-5-25-inch-woofer
 
Thank you for precisions about the construction and for the mercyless audioxpress link. I was not aware that it had been tested before.

So, no dome. It's domed instead. And it's doomed: At least now for me, after having seen the rarely seen lousy distortion figures. I like midranges to have sub-0.5% thd figures @ 90dB, which cruelly narrows the choice on this vast marketplace.
 
Thank you for precisions about the construction and for the mercyless audioxpress link. I was not aware that it had been tested before.

So, no dome. It's domed instead. And it's doomed: At least now for me, after having seen the rarely seen lousy distortion figures. I like midranges to have sub-0.5% thd figures @ 90dB, which cruelly narrows the choice on this vast marketplace.
Vast? Darn slim from what I can see. So, who does have the low distortion?
 
FWIW That Tymphany GBS is not a dome midrange in the traditional sense, where the voice coil is terminated at the dome edge, so a 3" dome = 3" VC. This GBS driver is more of a traditional cone driver, that happens to be dome shaped. The voice coil is 1" with a spider suspension just like a "normal" cone driver.

View attachment 1007037

The GBS tested with rather high 2nd order distortion, but it is a low cost driver, interesting anyway for low cost 3-way designs.
https://audioxpress.com/article/test-bench-tymphany-gbs-135f25al02-04-5-25-inch-woofer
This transducer is just very bad design. Suspension does not stabilize dome and coil because everything is in one plain. I've even seen a woofers on speed camera that where rocking from side to side on bigger excursion. This is bigger problem than it seems as coil will rub against the sides of the gap. I'm not even precisely sure how it affects magnetic field in the gap.
 
The problem there is still one of asymmetry. With the dimple or ring radiator style, the outside surround is of different size/shape to the inside dome that is now also acting as suspension if it is anchored in the middle. And it has been shown with ring radiators and the dimple, have higher 2nd order distortion at low frequencies.

Some type of ring radiator like what is in that wacky HiVi 3 way coaxial driver might make sense, but then the problem is a lack of surface area and movement of half roll surround is not very piston like, perhaps M roll of corrugated would be better.
1640106398795.png
 
Last edited:
I wonder if the Satori MD60 might be transformed by a meta-material absorption array (as in the KEF LS50 Meta) replacing the transmission line back piece. It appears to me that the only real drawback for it is rather high odd order HD which the array might reduce. Not sure I want to spend $173 to try the experiment, though. Perhaps I could first try adding such an array to the HiVi DMB-A as a proof of concept.
 
If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. It looks to me like that inner spider may be difficult to get glued in place, unless it’s attached to the middle ring first, then the middle ring attached. Hard to do properly when magnetized. They use double spiders with high excursion woofers too, making a recone more difficult than with a standard one. You just try not to need to.
 
If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. It looks to me like that inner spider may be difficult to get glued in place, unless it’s attached to the middle ring first, then the middle ring attached. Hard to do properly when magnetized. They use double spiders with high excursion woofers too, making a recone more difficult than with a standard one. You just try not to need to.
Patent?