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In the Forum: Audio Discussions
In the Thread: Natural Remedies for Sick Speakers?
Post Subject: Gray matter is not so greyPosted by haralanov on: 8/24/2010
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 Paul S wrote:
I remembered a host of "old" drivers from my past (not old at the time...) that, if memory serves, sounded rather muffled and slow, with humped response

Yes, Paul, that's exactly the way they sound in their original condition. Most of them are totally unlistenable. I don't think you will "find" an old driver with satisfying enough sound.

 Paul S wrote:
Where does one find data sheets (response and impedance curves, efficiency ratings, etc.) for this stuff, to at least be able to separate the wheat from the chaff ahead of time?

Nowhere... You must recognize the good drivers by just looking at their construction. I know it's not easy, but unfortunately that's the only way if you don't have a chance to listen to them.

 Paul S wrote:
It seems overwhelming to just round up stuff and install everything if it is not necessary.

You must define exactly what type of sound you want to get from your extended midrange driver and then to look at available options.

 Paul S wrote:
I also went back to look at the pictures you posted, and those drivers look rather like some of the old radio speakers, most of which I remember as soft, with a decidedly humped response.

That's why I do not use original drivers. My drivers might look like the old radio drivers, but their sound is very different compared to the old radio speaker crap. There is only visual similarity, but the principles and ideas are actually quite diffrent.

 Paul S wrote:
Also, many of these drivers only rate 5 Watts, and/or they are at or under 4 Ohms, and most are closer to 90 dB than 98 dB.

That is correct. But if they are reworked and used properly, they could sound really loud without burning the voice coil.

 Paul S wrote:
But even the 4" drivers of that time did not really go all that high, or they did not do it well, as I recall, so even with a 4" mid there would remain the need for a real tweeter.

If the voice coil and the way it's energy is transmitted to the cone is done properly, there will be extremely good high frequencies with much better tonal and dynamic potential compared to one of the "best" tweeters offered by the industry but only to 12-13kHz. Above that the transients loose their "speed" because of the cone mass, no matter the driver could measure almost linear up to 16-17 or just hypothetical to 30kHz. The tweeters are used not because the widerange drivers don't have enough HF extension, but because their upper HFs are not good enough. So a real tweeter is needed, because it has much better dispersion, its small cone has different and much more interesting tone at HF and it has extremely delicate and nuanced sound that no widerange driver is ever dreamed about.



 Paul S wrote:
Looking at the "ragged tweeter" you shared, I am curious how you keep the cone/coil centered in the gap.  You say the cone is now 55mm.  What size did it start out?

The original size was 80mm if I remember correctly. It is centered by two pairs of double fibers which are streched at slightly different vertical planes and everything is centered and balanced almost perfectly. It's voice coil does not have electrical phase shift up to 82kHz and because of that it has very fast and in the same time very natural sound (aka the Sound). The key is that my tweeter do not have back chamber and reflective surfaces behind it's cone - it gives an extremely open and delicate sound with tons of refinement that according to my listening experience no other tweeter on this planet could offer. And as a bonus - it could be integrated very easy to any good MF driver.

 Paul S wrote:
Now that I have thought about it, I can also recall the noisy frames on many of those drivers.  I guess that's something else to deal with...

Yep, most of the old drivers have extremely ringy steel frames, which response horribly when you knock at them. I personally use thick wooden frames because of multiple sonic reasons.

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