GoodSoundClub - Romy the Cat's Audio Site

In the Forum: Horn-Loaded Speakers
In the Thread: Good midbass is complicated, if not unobtainable.

Post Subject: The Last driver is never a first one.Posted by Romy the Cat on: 12/19/2015

noviygera wrote:
Also you say: "In reality the driver is the key"So let me ask for advice on suitable driver(s). This be my next step. Need I select a size? Or driver with certain spec? For example lets say driver "x" is good for this range and has been tried and proven. What is your recommendation on driver for this range? Or better way to look at this, HOW do you recommend to select the driver? For example, you use Fane Studio 8 in a different range with different horn but maybe this driver will also work in my application? No? ok, but what qualifies the driver? Or is it purely coincidental match? Is it the case that all 400watt treated paper pro drivers should not be even considered, etc.

noviygera, they are all good questions, I wish I were able to answer them definitively. The reality is that you never truly know how a specific driver will sound in a specific horn. It would be nice to have a compression driver but I do not think you will find a lot of them that can accommodate 60Hz. There are a few Japanese-made but I do not know how they work. They are also too expensive to buy them juts to experiment with them. If you look at direct radiators to be used as compression driver then discard T/S. Look for highest sensitivity at lower diameter, lowest exertion and lower cone mass, lowest power handling. Look at open air resonance frequency around 40-50Hz. it is very hard to find a driver like this and even if you do then it does not mean that that it work out for you. In my view you need to take one single driver that you like and to make that driver to work it's best in context of your horn. If you do so then you will learn the whole horn/driver interface and then you will be able to do whatever you want.

The best direction that I would recommend would be to get some new production of whatever you want that fit the criteria and to make a horn that works with this new production driver. Then you can look into the realm of good vintage drivers. Some of the vintage drivers are much more interesting in trim of dynamic and tone but the vintage drivers will have own problems that you will need to be equipped to deal with. Anyhow, at this point look for a driver and do not worry that it will not be a "last driver".

The Cat

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