New Driver from Hawthorne Audio / SAL ??

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StevenZ

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New Driver from Hawthorne Audio / SAL ??
« on: 17 Nov 2016, 09:04 pm »
Has anyone tried this driver?  Looks pretty impressive.  I contacted the manufacturer directly (since Hawthorne's website is down) and was quoted $850/pr + shipping.  Pretty pricey and almost Lowther territory. What do you guys think?   https://www.facebook.com/HawthorneAudio/photos/a.764373727019336.1073741828.764288503694525/953014628155244/?type=3&theater

Cheers,
Steven

FullRangeMan

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Re: New Driver from Hawthorne Audio / SAL ??
« Reply #1 on: 17 Nov 2016, 09:21 pm »
FS 70Hz = Poor bass
Foam surround not enthuses, cone not Hemp.
May be good to OB as suggested.
For the hi price it should be Alnico magnet.
Hey Guys,
The outstanding full range drivers from SAL are now available to order. Here is the Technical description:
The SAL08C08 is an 6.5” full range driver in a 8” basket. The basket is CNC made from 10 mm aluminium.
The unit is special designed for use in open baffle systems or in large closed cabinets.

The cone is made from a very light weighted special fibre material, with excellent audio properties.
The wizzer for high frequency reproduction is directly coupled to the voice coil. The surround is made from a flexible and stable foam material.

The magnetic design is an under hung type. Two large 140X60X20 mm ferrite ring magnet produces 1.4T in the 9 mm high magnetic gap.
The magnetic structure is optimised for maximum linearity of the flux in the entire hight of the magnetic gap, attachment 2.

The large, open weave Nomex spider reflects very little acoustic energy to the cone, and offers excellent stiffness linearity.
Also a damping ring has been added to the spider. This reduce the amount of energy reflected from the chassis to the voice coil.

A heat resistant, non conductive glass fibre coil former allows a high mechanical Q of the moving system for the voice coil.
The coil is winded with CCAW.

A stiff and stable CNC made chassis keeps the critical components in perfect alignment. Large windows in the chassis,
so air flow noise and cavity resonance are reduced to a minimum. It also has a CNC made phase plug, made of aluminium.

Thile small:
Fs 70Hz
Qms 8.5
Vas 29L
Mms 8.8 gram
Qes 0.94
Re 5.9 Ohm
Cms 0.6 mm/N
Qts 0.84
Le 0.149 @ 10KHz
SPL 93-94 dB @ 2.83Vrms
BL 5

High lights:
Excellent reproduction of music and details.
Excellent parameters for open baffle.
Very low mass cone.
Spider damper.
Large linear X max 5.5 mm.
Large magnetic structure ( 5.5 kg).
All CNC machine made parts

StevenZ

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Re: New Driver from Hawthorne Audio / SAL ??
« Reply #2 on: 17 Nov 2016, 09:37 pm »
I believe it was designed to be used in conjunction with helper woofers.  I agree, I'd like to see an alnico magnet at this price range.. but it's not a deal breaker for me.  Hemp cone... yeah that would be nice too but I'm not sure of many manufacturers that even do hemp anymore. I'm not in the market right now, but I really would like to hear these.  Just not sure they're actually worth the cost regardless of their robust looks.  I believe similar or better results could have been achieved if they used a more standard basket assembly or even non-resonant plastic like Mark Audio does.  Foam surrounds.... yeah not really a fan of those either since for this kind of money you'd want them to last a good long while.. and maybe they will given the right conditions.


FullRangeMan

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Re: New Driver from Hawthorne Audio / SAL ??
« Reply #3 on: 17 Nov 2016, 09:41 pm »
Neodymium also would be better than Ferrite which is for low cost.
Do you have photos?

StevenZ

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Re: New Driver from Hawthorne Audio / SAL ??
« Reply #4 on: 17 Nov 2016, 09:47 pm »
I do not have any other photos than in the facebook link I posted above.  However, I believe there were some actual listening impressions on the Hawthorne website before it got taken down by malware.  I hope their forum comes back up soon so I can read up about what others are hearing.

StevenZ

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Re: New Driver from Hawthorne Audio / SAL ??
« Reply #5 on: 17 Nov 2016, 09:56 pm »
Ripped from Hawthorne's FB post





FullRangeMan

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Re: New Driver from Hawthorne Audio / SAL ??
« Reply #6 on: 17 Nov 2016, 10:02 pm »
Nice basket, thanks for post.
Freq chart curve dont looks bad under 70Hz.

taloyd

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Re: New Driver from Hawthorne Audio / SAL ??
« Reply #7 on: 23 Nov 2016, 08:53 pm »
Fs is reasonable - driver can be high-efficiency, or produce bass, but not both. If the Fs was lower (and it has a VERY nice xmax figure for that high efficiency) then people would complain that it was low efficiency (more cone mass = lower efficiency (not "speed", ugh)).

Driver looks like it's built on a Skaaning/Audiotechnology basket - have never seen that outside of Skaaning/Audiotech. Very impressive, though I doubt the 10mm thickness Al means anything substantive.

Cheers,
Tal

FullRangeMan

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Re: New Driver from Hawthorne Audio / SAL ??
« Reply #8 on: 23 Nov 2016, 09:32 pm »
Fs is reasonable - driver can be high-efficiency, or produce bass, but not both. If the Fs was lower (and it has a VERY nice xmax figure for that high efficiency) then people would complain that it was low efficiency (more cone mass = lower efficiency (not "speed", ugh)).

Driver looks like it's built on a Skaaning/Audiotechnology basket - have never seen that outside of Skaaning/Audiotech. Very impressive, though I doubt the 10mm thickness Al means anything substantive.

Cheers,
Tal
Its low eficiency (SPL 93-94 dB @ 2.83Vrms)
I also would like it had efficiency near 99-100dB and hi VAS to fit in a big floorstanding BR box, but for OB use 93dB seems more useful.
I suspect this driver is hand made by Skaaning, hence the hi price.

richidoo

Re: New Driver from Hawthorne Audio / SAL ??
« Reply #9 on: 24 Nov 2016, 12:03 am »
Frequency response is pretty bumpy in upper midrange where it counts.