Hi Guys,
DVV Making a tweeter, any tweeter, go down to 1.4 kHz is, at best, very doubtful.........Have you ever designed a speaker in which you asked the tweeter to go down to 1.4 kHz AND be linear in the 15-20 kHz?Just want to throw in a couple of thoughts on tweeters below 1.4k.
Quite a few come to mind actually. Most are ribbons or eletrostats. Carver, Bohlander Grabner, Apogee, Martin Logan plus a host of guys I have forgotten.
The next pile of drivers you could add to the list would be full range drivers. The obvious ones, Lowthers and Fostex but don't forget about those little Jordan drivers.
DVV, you bring up a good point about linearity. It's really tough to do. Of those I mentioned I'd bet only one or two are barely close to flat out into the 15-20k range.
Ribbons and electrostats done well are stunning. They are extremely difficult to match to a conventional paper, low-e woofer though. The crossover point and slopes get a little tricky.
Full rangers ...... well.... are something special. So special that I've dis-assembled my big tri-amped rig with an activce crossover (basically a fully active three way system) pushing the kilo-watt range in favor of .... well barely 10 watts.
Guess what, it's active too (using my AR EC-3 active crossover). I'm driving a pair of Lowthers with a 2a3 (2.5 wpc) down to 100Hz then my subs are a pair of 15" Goodmans driven by (gulp) a pair a Antique Sound Labs Wave 8's (8wpc). You guys have no idea what you are missing ..... honest.
Kevin P - Doing an active system is much more complicated and requires a tremendous amount of technical skill to do it right. Yes and no. True, you need to know and understand speaker design but the active part is easily solved with an active crossover. There are plenty good vintage ones on the market to be had. I sort of collect them. I have a Sony TA-4300 (3 way), Pioneer SF-750 (3 way), Audio Research EC-3 (tubed 2 or 3 way), a couple of prosound opamp based (2-3 ways)(yuck), a cheap Pyramid opamp based (2-3 way)(gak) and belive it or not a BSR (2 or 3 way)(gag).
All of the active crossovers I mentioned allow crossover point adjustment (externally) and have active gain controls. This makes life (and speaker design) SO much easier. It takes all of the guesswork out of the equasion. With adjustable everything you just flick a switch or turn a dial then sit back and see if it sounds right. I may take a bit of fiddling at first to find the right levels and XO points but after it's dialed in, you are set.
This is an excellent way to go active. You can chose less expensive amps that perform well in a given frequency range. Say you have a cheap amp that has stunning and powerful bass that is say 200wpc, use it as your woofer amp. Then roll in another amp that does a great job with the mids but is a little weak on treble or bass. Same goes for the tweeter amp. The possiblities are limitless.
Now DVV, this isn't quite as active as integrating the amps into the speakers but it's pretty darned close.
As for the sound of active, it's stunning. If you have speakers with passive crossovers and you think you have good dynamics, try bypassing the crossovers and using an active crossover with multiple amps. You'll have a heart attack.
Is it a viable approach for a guy on a budget.....nope. Is it better than most everything you'll hear (if it's done
right)
Absolutely.
Results......Improved clarity, dynamics, soundstage, imaging, you name it,
everything improves
exponentially.
Oh, and Dejan, my wife is STILL looking for you........ better not open any boxes that are ticking
