Tube DIY Asylum Do It Yourself (DIY) paradise for tube and SET project builders.

---

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Tube DIY Asylum ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

RE: Dirty truth about many speakers

Posted by Russ57 (A) on January 24, 2015 at 22:11:24

In Reply to: KEF LS50 & Tube Amps posted by sony6060 on January 24, 2015 at 15:04:15:

Disclaimer, I don't know enough to make this post but I'll try and point you in the right direction.

Take a look around at places that sell all the big name drivers (not finished speakers but raw drivers).

You will be hard pressed to find anything rated as low, in db/watt at 1 meter, as many popular consumer speakers.

Gee, why is that? How does adding a crossover, cabinet, and some more drivers suddenly make a big decrease in db/watt rating? Well if done right it doesn't. But today we want more out of smaller. So speaker companies are playing games.

They reduce the output of a driver where it is happy operating at to make it seem to have a flat response when forced to play outside it's optimum range. Take a smallish driver forced to play lower bass. The cone has to move so far that the voice coil is now partially outside the influence of the magnet. In short part of the voice coil is just burning amp wattage, and creating heat, while doing nothing else. Driver impedance goes to hell. The cone might not even have the ability to acoustically load with the air any more.

But hey, what do they care. It is small and sexy and the wife approves. Plus you have tons of solid state amp watts to waste. Here is to hoping your ears can't tell the difference. After all most of these brands are the most popular, so they have to be good, and it is more likely your ears are deffective.

Figure music is ten octaves from 20 to 20khz. Truthfully it is a hard act for most drivers to reproduce three octaves, nice and flat, and with constant impedance.

Work backwards...20khz to 10 khz is one octave....10 to 5kz is two....5k to 2.5kz is three. That means the tweeter should be crossed around 2.5khz. Midrange should go from around 2.5kz to 312.5 hertz. Woofer should go from 312.5 to 39 hertz. A subwoofer is needed below that.

An uber dollar full range might play down to 125 hertz, and with enough work 5-10khz, but you still need a woofer and a tweeter.....and probably a subwoofer.

Having heard the difference....I don't think a 500-1,000 watts is a ridiculous amount of power for low bass....and you just can't get that at a reasonable price from tubes.

And before I get jumped on....they are certainly drivers out there capable of extended range that makes a two-way a viable option. Most are vintage, costly, and don't really play 20-20khz.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

VH Audio

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---