Recommendations for high efficiency speakers

[iceman94]

I never did Philmont, and I still regret that

Eagle Scout FTW

[JBLoudG20]

Meriden, CT? You are next door to me.

[iceman94]

Yup. Although I've been working in Evanston for the summer.

BTW, deja vu

[JBLoudG20]

Yup. Although I've been working in Evanston for the summer.

BTW, deja vu

Oops

[recstar24]

welcome audiodwebe! I am glad you found this site. There is a plethora of information here that is very helpful. But hopefully you have some thick skin;)

Yes, I should get some info from audioasylum, there high effieciency board is pretty active. Jacob, don't take offense, it's just I think the speakers that the guys here have are waaaayyyyy beyond what I can have, afford, or even be able to drive with only 3 watts max. I believe that is what audiodwebe was referring to. He's a good guy, and the proud new owner of the zana that I used to own:p

[iceman94]

np

[iceman94]

[Augsburger]

Ryan, keep in mind whether you go single driver Cain & Cain or Horn shop, room placement is critical. In a sense you need the room dynamics to assist the single drivers in delivering the full range of music. You mentioned something I thought somewhere about not being able to place the new speakers in the corners of your listening area, well for the C&Cs and HSops that corner placement is important so bear this in mind.

The audio asylum site is full of good ideas as well as these\/\/\/. Should help you spend a month of evenings lurking around.

FullRangeDriver.com

http://melhuish.org/audio/index.htm

[aerius]

Just remembered this one while browsing DIYaudio. GedLee Nathan 10 in kit form will come in at $1300, plus what it costs to bribe someone to build it up for you if you can't build it yourself. I've never seen nor heard them, but the designer, Dr. Earl Geddes, really knows his stuff so I'd expect them to be darn good.

[recstar24]

I think I may be getting close...

Hammer Dynamics

Some pretty good reviews on fullrangedriver forum, audiocircle, audioasylum, DIYparadise, etc. Basically we are dealing with a custom made 12" driver for the bass and mids, crossed over at 10 khz to a tweeter with a 1st order crossover. A 12" driver not only would have good sensitivity but this particular driver is also slated to have a very smooth impedance nominal at 8 ohms. A 12" driver should really have some nice kick as well. It comes in kit form for $650, so I will need to see if I can get someone to build the cabs for me.

[hungrych]

This probably isn't that helpful, but I loved my Galante Rhapsodies (which were actually coaxial I guess) when I had them, which were 96db. Though I've never heard actual single driver speakers, they had all the good characteristics that I've seen associated with them.

2 reviews:

Rappin' About The Galante Audio Rhapsody by Steven R. Rochlin

Rhapsody in Maple - Galante Audio Rhapsody Loudspeaker Follow-Up by Ian White

I sold them cause I just didn't have the space on my desk to get the most out of them, so I'm not sure how much bass you'll get or if you'd need a sub to fill them out, but you could probably find a pair for 800 or 900 bucks on agon.

Just thought you might want to check em out if you get a chance.

[recstar24]

Thanks for the rec, yeah I think coaxial is a good option. I appreciate the headsup.

[recstar24]

Update: I've narrowed it down to two options - hornshoppe horns or vintage klipsch heresy's. The horns have a small footprint and their rear loaded horn design meant to be placed closed to walls or corners fits well in my room setup. apparently in certain rooms the bass can actually be too much which is scary to think coming from a SD - my kind of speaker;) The heresy's are vintage klipsch, I would love the cornwalls but they are too big. The heresy's are also meant to be placed close to walls or corners, and the 3 walls of reinforcement a nice big sound can be achieved. Still on the lookout for used horns, but I do have an audition set up in about a month from a local person on audiocircle. I have a set of klipschs waiting for me to pick up cheap but I am still waiting on driver pics.

[deepak]

The vintage Klipsch are very rocking speakers.

I'm pretty sure my friend has cranked his past 110 dB for prolonged periods of time at parties and nothing has happened to them.

[recstar24]

Got an offer on some hornshoppe horns, very good price...but the drivers have been modified with that enAble process or whatever you call it. Looks like some ghetto hack, haven't done too much research though on the process.

[recstar24]

Well, I am pretty much sold on the used horns that I was offered, price is pretty good considering. Jury still out on the enABLed process that the drivers have on them, but by all accounts, the manufacturer of the horns himself has stated that it doesn't appear to ruin or necessarily change the sound sig drastically (paging aerius...)

[n_maher]

(paging aerius...)

tits

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i have a hot fake girlfriend

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hope that helped,

aerius

[Augsburger]

Your good............

[recstar24]

Your good............

Oh, to add to what you said earlier - I should be able to rearrange my set-up to get at least one of the horners fully corner loaded, and the other back against a wall.

Current set-up - rack and rig set-up in corner, butted up against side walls, horns would be off to the sides, against their respective back walls for some acoustic gain and bass assistance.

Right speaker location

Left Speaker Location

Other side of the room away from the listening rig. Someone on audiocircle suggested placing the TV on the far wall, shifting over the couch and loveseat, and opening up those two wonderful corners, each to the side of the TV area. That would be perfect, but knowing my wife she will veto the bill when it passes through congress to her desk.

This is the other side of the listening area opposite where the rig is located. I could swap the location of the bookshelf and rig, and put them in those corners. The only problem is that door jamming up against the right corner is a bathroom door, so I would have to make sure no one using the bathroom slams the door into the right speaker. That does look kind of ghetto though, but technically it could work.

I will try the set-up shown in the 1st pic 1st, then try moving the rack over to the right on the wall, and loading the left speaker into the corner where the rig was located, and the right speaker to the right. You will get the most acoustic gain and lower bass cutoff by fully corner loading both speakers, but even corner loading one will reap some benefits, as sounds below the 200 hz are pretty much omni-directional, and the listener would hear the bass as being "equal" from each speaker, even though one is only corner loaded.

[Hopstretch]

That's an innovative bass trap!

[guzziguy]

Yes, the fan blows the bass towards the vacuum, which sucks it in.

[recstar24]

That's an innovative bass trap!

Har har - don't be silly when it comes to room acoustics, I mean business;)

The more I think I about it, the more I probably should avoid that set-up of the right speaker loaded into the corner wedged right beside the door. Not very effective me thinks...

[recstar24]

i would avoid speakers that need to be corner located unless the room is really well suited to it.

Valid point - in my research, I believe single driver speakers, to have any resemblance of bass or full bodied tone, while still remaining sensitive, need to be either one of two things.

1) Big fracken horns that takes up massive amounts of space

2) corner loaded horns

I have listened to various single drivers in bass reflex, transmission line, sealed loading, and they all have the same sound characteristics - thin, lack of weight in bass, upper midrange shout.

The smaller drivers do the midrange right and don't beam the highs, but you don't get the excursion down low while being high sensitive. The bigger drivers can kick you in the face but then the highs beam and the midrange shouts as the frequency increases, then you need a whizzer to help the dispersion of the highs, and I don't want to go the whizzer route again.

I think the only way to get the lower excursion needed for bass while remaining high sensitivity throughout the lower bands is to corner load. The corner and wall reinforcement acts as an extension of the mouth of the horn. The rear horn loading prevents the horn colorations for mixing with the driver output. Bass is omni-directional so it will find its way to me somehow some way. I have some wall reinforcement as is, and with a little tweaking, I can get one good corner and a good wall, maybe if I am lucky I can get 2 corners.

All I know is it might be worth it to try something that I haven't tried before, and who knows it may work or it may not. But I should be able to sell them pretty easily as horns go really fast on the gon, and they rarely come up for sale.

If all else fails, I will just get some cornwalls and damn it if my wife complains.

[Augsburger]

Valid point - in my research, I believe single driver

If all else fails, I will just get some cornwalls and damn it if my wife complains.

Ha! Good luck on that one, mister.

How many nights can you take sleeping on the couch?

[Hopstretch]

How many nights can you take sleeping on the couch?

No biggie. He can just move into one of the speakers.