You can get good dispersion out of a large tweeter if you have DSP...God - how I wish they would do something similar with small domes <20mm and large domes ~~3"(fully usable 500-5000Hz). And then maybe truncated faceplates for close CTC - dreaming
Not to hack your conversation, but I am starting to dive into the whole active XO / dsp world.
Can your run through the software and hardware you use, what you have considered but did not get and how you like what you have now ??
Thanks
All I meant was this (see attached). The felt will act as an acoustic low-pass which will strongly attenuate the high frequencies being radiated around the dome. Those are the ones that combine destructively off-axis and cause beaming at the listening position. At lower frequencies, ideally, the felt minimally attenuates so you don't have excess power loss or added distortion.
The opening is so that you have a small radiating point that is relatively much greater in magnitude compared to elsewhere on the dome. This means you have what acts as a much smaller tweeter at high frequencies. Putting the felt across the entire tweeter will do nothing but low-pass the sound output, with no benefit to dispersion.
In theory, anyway... the reason why I said you need DSP for this is because it would be a pain to EQ the tweeter passband with fixed passive components, or even analog op-amp filter sections.
Attachments
reminds me a bit of the tweeters baffle absorption which Audio Physic is doing.
Active and/or DSP can do things passive can't, and especially when we talk room correction.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Active and/or DSP can do things passive can't, and especially when we talk room correction.
I've always loved the aesthetics of these drivers too. Lets face it that matters too!
On paper it's an excellent driver but I haven't had the opportunity to use it. It's very popular with other peoples designs and it's easy to design with and easy to enjoy. Has lots of xmax and goes deep in boxes that aren't insanely large. If you don't need a high SPL system for a small room go for it.
I was actually a bit surprised myself. As I mentioned, what stood out was the diffraction, very coherent as you moved in all directions. Well balanced, relaxed yet detailed and for what it is worth "musical"
This is what usually happens with a nice constant directivity design. You have to go quite far off axis for the performance to suffer and when you do go that far out the change in off axis is very smooth.
I think because SEAS magnesium cones are cast. Then again why not cast ribs into the design? Either way SEAS sat on their butts and did nothing for decade. In fact they've still done nothing with their new Excel drivers. The magnesium cones are exactly the same, save for the graphene coating, which is only useful as a corrosion barrier.
SB have done ribs and we've all see what they do for the HD performance. YG have done ribs and KEF have too. They are very effective at controlling things.
Strange with a w/t crossover at 65Hz. Should be a lot higher to give some body to the midbass and to cancel floorbounce you would think. Clearly they have different goals.
As YG like to tout off axis response as a major design point I'm guessing they wanted to cross low as a way of maintaining coherency when sitting close to the speakers. Although 150Hz is unlikely to cause major issues. 300Hz on the other hand would.
Seas' website says: "SEAS is the only loudspeaker company in the world to offer high purity, die-cast and machined magnesium cones."
So you're right - they could just cast in the ribs and do the necessary machining afterwards. What a waste...
Oh they machine too! SEAS really need to get their act together. These ridiculously priced new Excel and Prestige drivers aren't cutting it in my opinion. Too much money for not enough product.
It's a nicely-finished implementation, not new under the sun.
Everyone should read the stuff here at least once (and the other pages on the same site): Felt Rings verses Felt Blocks for Baffle Diffraction Reduction
cell phones and computers are starting to become closer and closer.
Speaker drivers are a different beast, cause it's an electromechanical device, that cant rely on processing speed or graphical features. It's bound by natures forces and laws at an absolute fundamental level - compared to computers.
Again - I dont care if a design of a speaker driver is old - if it works and it fit's it's specific purpose. If it's just old - then it might be worn - and that is a totally different problem
The measurements of Seas W15CY001 woofer from my old data archive (2013):
Seas W15CY001 (E0015) | HiFiCompass
Seas W15CY001 (E0015) | HiFiCompass
Man, it's so sad that the usability of these magnesium drivers is crippled by having such a limited bandwidth below the effects of the breakup. SB really hit it out of the park with the ribbed cones.
If you are looking for a SB based three way with 2nd order slopes then the Shadzi/Bagby Ceramicos get pretty close.
Using two 8” SB23CAC woofers, a SB15CAC mid and the SB26CDC tweeter, they have 2nd order crossovers and virtually no equalisation all in a 2cuft sealed enclosure. Was well reviewed at InDUYana 2018 coming 3rd in the open category.
Jim Holtz travellers also use the SB15CAC is a 3way.
Last edited: