The battle of midranges: Accuton C173-6-090 vs. Volt VM752

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Hi
I've used the ATC SM75-150 and 150s for many years - these drivers are excellent. Difficult to implement though with a passive crossover - but it can be done. A couple of years ago I decided to try and make something hopefully better by using the C173-6-090. BIG mistake - after two years of trying many different crossover versions I could not get them to sound how I like it. Eventually one of them blew up and so dug out the ATC's. Wow I'd forgotten how good they were. I'd used the Accuton's mids with their 11" bass drivers. S280-18-282N. Also another BIG mistake - All four also blew up when playing with the ATC. Replaced with my old Volt B2500.1 drivers. Again much better and far better power handling. Now I'm back to where I started some 12 years ago:-
Seas Crescendo
SM75-150S-8
2x Volt B2500.1

If you like to play loud don't use Accuton. The Accuton bass drivers sound good though but the mid hurts my ears.
 
Hi
I've used the ATC SM75-150 and 150s for many years - these drivers are excellent. Difficult to implement though with a passive crossover - but it can be done. A couple of years ago I decided to try and make something hopefully better by using the C173-6-090. BIG mistake - after two years of trying many different crossover versions I could not get them to sound how I like it. Eventually one of them blew up and so dug out the ATC's. Wow I'd forgotten how good they were. I'd used the Accuton's mids with their 11" bass drivers. S280-18-282N. Also another BIG mistake - All four also blew up when playing with the ATC. Replaced with my old Volt B2500.1 drivers. Again much better and far better power handling. Now I'm back to where I started some 12 years ago:-
Seas Crescendo
SM75-150S-8
2x Volt B2500.1

If you like to play loud don't use Accuton. The Accuton bass drivers sound good though but the mid hurts my ears.

Not to be rude but that simply sounds like you didn't know what you were doing.
 
It hurts when you play loud i.e. distortion. The ATC does not. Alright if you don't play loud. Unfortunately I do, so things blow up. The ATC's have never blown up in 15years.
The Accuton bass drivers make a horrible sound when you get close to their limits. (Notes actually start to change tone - weird)
 
The C173-6-090 can play to obscene levels before distortion starts to become a problem. They are already high sensitivity drivers to start with, have large voice coils and healthy amounts of xmax.

If properly crossed over they will never run into linear excursion issues. The high sensitivity, large voice coil and large magnet assembly will give low power compression and high power handling.

If you managed to blow one, due to thermal failure, then you must have a huge room to fill or be suffering from hearing loss. In fact this comment goes for the S280-18-282N drivers too. They are high sensitivity too so will require considerably less power than the volt bass drivers, but only have 6mm of xmax. If you managed to blow these from too much power then you've either got a massive room or are suffering from hearing loss. You could also be using them inappropriately. Ie the bass drivers need a sub and high pass, or the midrange drivers need a higher xover.
 
Yes your right - recently blew my ears up as well - now have to play even louder. Seriously though the ATC's do sound better to me. The Accutons are good don't get me wrong - but the upper midrange sweetness and open sound with low distortion at high levels is where the ATC wins.
Wish you could still buy the S version
The Accuton bass drivers blew because the voice coils burnt out when I was playing at stupidly high volume. Don't really know why the Accuton mid blew -not convinced they were over driven - maybe just a faulty unit. Crossover at 250Hz and 2.5kHz so should not really cause them a problem
 
Hi
Yes the Accutons and Volts are similar sensitivity. In practice the Volt is slightly louder (8ohm version). Sound at low to medium levels is also very similar - some of the best bass drivers I've heard. The Accuton noticeable distorts when you play loud. The Volts obviously also distort at some point - but it's nicer distortion - if there is such a thing.
 
S280-18-282N: 88 dB, DC-resistance= 18.5 ohm, accuton never writes nominal ohm on their site

Volt B2500.1: 88 dB, 8 ohm

Yeah but for an equivalent SPL the accuton will need less than half the power of the volt to reach that same SPL. The 6 ohm version of the S280 = 93dB. At high SPLs this is hugely significant as a 3dB difference in efficiency = half or twice the power requirement.

The Accuton is basically 4dB more sensitive than the Volt. Give the Volt 500 watts and the Accuton would need a little under 200 watts to reach the same level.

For that reason I'd be very surprised if the Accuton would fail from thermal failure unless it was defective.

Hi
Yes the Accutons and Volts are similar sensitivity. In practice the Volt is slightly louder (8ohm version). Sound at low to medium levels is also very similar - some of the best bass drivers I've heard. The Accuton noticeable distorts when you play loud. The Volts obviously also distort at some point - but it's nicer distortion - if there is such a thing.

It sounds like you're basically pushing any driver you use beyond its linear limits. Some drivers behave far more elegantly than others when you do this. Clearly your requirements demand drivers that are more capable than what you have.

Interestingly the Accuton actually has higher sensitivity, greater surface area and higher linear xmax. On paper it's ability to produce high SPLs is certainly better than the Volts and it also needs significantly less power whilst doing so.

If the Accuton's aren't capable enough for your needs then the Volts most definitely wont be either.

This is off topic but I'd say you need to step up to a 12" driver with high linear excursion, such as the TD12X from AE. Either that or put a high pass on your bass drivers and add lots of subs.
 
Really late to this conversation -but a lot of German friends tell me the Accuton are nowhere near as rugged as ATC or Volt -at normal volumes they sound very nice -but exactly as described they do make a funny change in pitch and basically fail -anyway I think it is the difference is in materials -what happens when you drop a china plate -then drop one made of metal or Carbon. Anyway I was hoping the comparison was with midrange sound as in does the Volt or Accuton sound better ? It is awfully expensive to purchase 2 pairs of each to find out
cheers
 
I blew my scan speak 12mu8731while playing choir music...

Crossover were 300-3400hz. 24db on both ends.

Not deaf at all but I cooked the voice coil still.

Moves to horn midrange. Never looked back....

To me
1 horn 4" mid
2 atc or volt dome
3 any paper or ceramic cone pretending...

Ymmv
 
Clarification:
When I say 4" mid, I mean a 4" diaphragm compression driver (currently a Radian 950PB)

thanks any chance you can tell me what horn you were using with the 950b? and you then what use another horn as a super tweeter or just the 950b?I have stayed away from Horns -I always remember Klipsch demo's where they would play anything and i mean anything other than human voice -drums were wow ! but can you play Mary Black -finally -yeah **** ! that shouty coloured down a tunnel sound was just so obvious to me
I will be using a DEQX for crossover
cheers
 
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