New Drivers and partnership with Creative Sound

Kevin P · « **on:** 23 Oct 2004, 12:56 am »

Ok.... be prepared for the floodgates over the next couple months.

One of the first out of the gate is the new WR125S & WR125SS which utilize the Adire Audio XBL^2 motors. Creative Sound in Canada has imported these and we are going to work together to bring out a kit based on this driver. It should be a very attractive small monitor kit with VERY impressive performance for it's size & cost.

We have the drivers for sale now (will be on web site tomorrow morning) and the kits should be available in the not too distant future.

http://www.creativesound.ca/pdf/WR125S.PDF"_blank">

http://www.diycable.com/main/images/wr125s.jpg"hspace="3" vspace="3" border="0">

mcgsxr · « **Reply #1 on:** 23 Oct 2004, 02:30 am »

yep, two of those are headed my way, thanks to CSS!

Mark in Canada

Kevin P · « **Reply #2 on:** 23 Oct 2004, 04:28 pm »

Ok... not able to finish the web work before my son's socker game. It will be up on the site on Monday.

Kevin P · « **Reply #3 on:** 23 Oct 2004, 04:42 pm »

Mark,

We are going to design the kit around the Parts Express 0.25 ft^3 box. If you want to play with the drivers now with the option of picking up the rest of the parts of the kit either build your enclosure to the same dimensions as the PE cabinet (including front baffle dimensions) or just buy a PE cabinet to start with. The finished cabinets are something like $110/pr plus shipping.

We have a custom tweeter that we are waiting on and we will have CNC cut baffles that match the PE cabinet so no woodwork will be required. In fact... we are working on it so that no soldering will be required either so the kit can be built by anyone with a screwdriver and an hour to assemble things.

Here was one of the prototypes in the PE cabinet. Note... there are speaker grills but they are just not shown in this picture.

We will be using a different tweeter than shown in the picture that will flush mount along with the 4" driver in the baffle which is 1" thick. The 4" will run full range with NO crossover parts. The top & bottom response rolls off acoustically. The tweeter will be integrated using a single cap & resistor rolling the tweeter in WAY up high. Effectively the tweeter is only going to cover the top half octave.

http://members.shaw.ca/awooley/pictures/CSS4RAWMT.JPG" border="0" />
_________________
<a

mcgsxr · « **Reply #4 on:** 23 Oct 2004, 05:25 pm »

I will be interested to flesh out the 4.5er when the rest of the kit is ready - this is my first foray into single driver fun, so I simply want to toss it into a .25 box, tuned to around 60Hz, and see what comes out.

Then, when the rest of your kit is available, hopefully I can work with CSS to buy the balance of it, should I be seeking the top 1/2 octave - who knows what these 34 year old ears still hear...

Thanks for the info, looking forward to playing around with these, and my Bolder modded Tripath Teac amp...

Mark in Canada

mcgsxr · « **Reply #5 on:** 26 Oct 2004, 05:19 pm »

For the Canadians out there, RAW accoustics (link to them off the CSS site) makes a number of enclosures for these new drivers.

Here is a link for you - looks to be the Parts Express 0.25 box, but more expensive - ahhh, the wonderful benefits of living this side of the border...

ARRGHH darn duty/taxes/import fees...

http://www.rawacoustics.ca/

On the upside, it is a complete speaker, fully built with what looks to be nice components, and hardware at an admittedly decent price.

Mark in Canada

Kevin P · « **Reply #6 on:** 26 Oct 2004, 07:09 pm »

Yes.... Al Wooley is a class guy and a great source for cabinet work.

EProvenzano · « **Reply #7 on:** 27 Oct 2004, 03:50 am »

Any plans to use the XBL^2 technology in a line source design?

Will there be a 5.5" or 6.5" mid-bass version of this driver? I see that Adire has a 6.5" driver but looks a bit different, with poly cone and dust cap. I like the new WR125S but would prefer a bigger driver. That might make a very nice midbass driver to compliment a ribbon tweeter in a line source.

Thanks,
Emilio....from Canada too

mcgsxr · « **Reply #8 on:** 27 Oct 2004, 12:48 pm »

Hey Emilio, if you visit the CSS homepage, you can see a large speaker with ribbons, the WR125S, and a few larger drivers - I believe they were used at RMAF in the DIY Cable room.

http://www.creativesound.ca/index.html

Mark in Canada

Kevin P · « **Reply #9 on:** 27 Oct 2004, 01:42 pm »

Yes.... Bob has plans to offer the line sources as kits.

On a personal level I'm not a big fan of line arrays. They are expensive, have a dispersion pattern that significantly changes their balance from seated to standing and they are much more difficult to get working right in a given room. They are typically more suited to far-field listening and most of my situations are near field. I also can never seem to get the staging/imaging to work as well as speakers that more closely approximate a point source.

But yes.... the CSS 4" works well in the line array. The benefits of the motor design are going to carry over to any application. Some more than others obviously.

We will be handling the new Extremis 6.5" which is something I've been involved in since the begining of the design phase. There will not be one that physically matches the costmetics of the CSS 4" for a couple of engineering reasons.

We will have speaker kits based upon most of the new XBL^2 drivers that will be exclusive Exodus Audio designs. All of this will occur over the next several months because the drivers are just becoming available.

The first designs to come out of this will be designs based upon the Extremis 6.5" & the CSS 4" along with a custom tweeter that we are having built. All of the Exodus Audio speaker kits will feature XBL^2 drivers and most will be designed to be cost effective and easy to build. We will utilize the PE cabinets when possible.

mcgsxr · « **Reply #10 on:** 28 Oct 2004, 04:09 pm »

My set of these arrived yesterday, courtesy of exceptional service from CSS - wow, the pics do not do them justice, these are really nice, well constructed pieces.

The cast basket is robust, and the entire unit oozes class - looking forward to playing around with these, during the chilly months up here...

mark in Canada

mcgsxr · « **Reply #11 on:** 1 Nov 2004, 07:51 pm »

I won't go into any detail until I am able to construct a valid enclosure for these, but I would like to offer up that these babies sound quite nice to me, right out of the box.

Really nice mids and highs, and the bass will likely come in, with a proper box and tuning combo.

Nice job on these, and hopefully they will be available in singles, for building my wife a 5.1 HT setup...

mark in Canada