Posted by FredT [ 24.175.116.95 ] on April 14, 2005 at 21:11:14:
In Reply to: Audio Nirvana Speakers posted by FredT on March 26, 2005 at 16:40:34:
I believe we've beat this topic to death and apologize for adding even one more post, but I promised some comments after the speakers had settled in a bit, and they now have about 20 hours on them.
Two valid concerns were expressed about using the 8" driver in a 2.5 ft bass reflex enclosure: 1) These drivers are so new that no one has reliable T/S parameters, spl vs frequency measurements, or personal experience with them, and 2) If the published T/S parameters are correct then they are not a good candidate for a bass reflex enclosure. I will try to address both of these concerns.
First, they do come with a published spl vs freq graph, and it's important to know something about this graph, which I assume is correct. In simple terms, there's a subatantial rise in spl up to 1khz, after which the response is fairly flat except for the kinds of squiggles you see on the Fostex graphs. A few sample points taken directly from the published graph are: 40hz:82dB, 100hz:88dB, 200hz:91dB, 1.2khz to 14khz:100dB average. So the published
95.4dB/W(m) is an average, and it doesn't describe these drivers' sensitivity anywhere on the graph except at 800hz.
I first listened to them connected direct to the amp with no bsc, and to my ears they sounded bright and fatiguing. Then I tried several bac values and finally settled on a 1.5mF 15 ga inductor with a parallel 6 ohm resistor (mostly because those values sounded best of all the parts I already had in the bin). With the bsc, to my ears the 3dB peak at 70hz and the 2dB null at about 140hz are inconsequential. Given the fact that this alignment has no output below 60hz, the small peak at 70hz actually adds a nice warmth to the sound. Of course the bsc reduces the sensitivity above 1khz, but since the reduction is from 100dB and above, they still are sensitive enough to play loudly with my 3.5 watt Paramours and to be driven to sounding a bit congested with my 300B.
I'm not sure how to describe the overall sound except that it resembles the Fostex FE-166EE's in the Voigt pipes I built, but with more midbass punch and a bit more brightness in the 4-8khz range. The soundstage and imaging are definite strengths of these speakers and are comparable to other single driver speakers I have heard. I will need to hear them side by side with some other single driver speakers to comment in more detail.
These speakers are fun to listen to, and I plan to keep them for now and alternate with other types of speakers in the smaller listening room. They are the best match of all my speakers for my 3.5W 2A3 Paramours. I'll bring them to the June Lone Star Bottlehead meeting in Dallas, and hopefully a few members of the Great Plains Audio Community can carpool down to join us and hear what I am struggling to describe accurately.
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