Good midrange driver?

[Jason Schultz]

Can anyone reccommend a good midrange driver to use from about 350Hz to about 3.5 KHZ, effeciency around 88 dB. oh and easy to cross over
(does anyone still build 3 ways?)

Jason

[drf]

Have you checked out the Jaycar stuff? How much do you want to spend? are you o.k with online shopping?

[Jason Schultz]

Yes and I've checked their stuff and nothing they have looks much good. what i mean by good is a flat response with decent xmax and no nasty resonant peaks in area above 2khz. I suppose i would spend around max $100 au for a good driver. . I have shopped online before and bought drivers imported from US by an oz company. I am quite happy with that

[BoomieMCT]

How about the Dayton RS-125-8? If the efficiency is too low maybe you can use the 4 ohm version. I've also had good experience with the Tang Band W4-1320.

[mayhem13]

Peerless XT19-Under a hundred dollars U.S. and 87db-close enough?

[denizen23]

The Vifa PL14-WJ09-04 is a very good 88db driver and easy to cross-over.
Also checkout the even smoother PL11-MH09-08 @ 87db.
Yes some do still build three-ways.

[mdrake]

Madisound has some nice mids on their site. The MMGW is a really sounding midrange panel but it could be hard to implement in a three way. There is also the NEO-8 which is a really nice driver but you will have to attenuate it with a resister as the it is 94db. Here is a link
Also the NEO 10 is supposed to be available to DIY in late 2008.

Matt

[mgboy]

Is the TB W5-704 an okay match?

[mdrake]

GR-Research is another mid-woofer you could look at. I have their sub and I am NOT all to excited about it but their mids might be better. The value factor is high.

Matt

[DasBot]

There are about 50 drivers that will fit the bill. Tell us more about the project as a whole.

[Jason Schultz]

thanks everyone for your input i'm slowly working my way through your suggestions. To DS 21 Can you please explain the directivity issue of crossing a mid to tweeter. and how do others deal with this.

My system as it is at present is a 200mm woofer (SEAS BASIC) with a sensitvity of 91dB as published in a 28 litre enclosure tuned to 34 Hz .
the baffle is 23.5 cm wide. I'm not sure what tweeter i will use but I Think it will be a vifa D27 TG 35-8. Not all drivers are readily available in Australia.

[Jason Schultz]

For those who are interested I have decided (when i get round to it) to use/buy a pair of Peerless SDS 5 1/4 " midwoofers.cat No. 830887.
they have an amazingly flat FR from 150 Hz to 4K.are 88.5dB 1w/1M,
have 3.5mm one way Xmax,and pwr handling around 85W.and aren't overly expensive.I'll probably use a seaeld box with Q-.7.

[looneybomber]

Jason Schultz wrote:

To DS 21 Can you please explain the directivity issue of crossing a mid to tweeter. and how do others deal with this.

I second that. I don't think I understand what you're saying DS-21. The directivity of the tweeter or do you mean midrange?

[BoomieMCT]

I'll take a shot at this. Drivers will "beam" when the width of the cone approaches the wavelength of the frequency being reproduced. Becuase of this if you have a midbass and a tweeter that make a nice flat FR across the crossover region on-axis it might not be flat off axis because the midbass will start beaming before the tweeter. The two ways to deal with it is to control the directivity of the tweeter to match that of the midbass OR cross over low enough that the crossover point is below where the midbass will beam.

Is this basically it?

[looneybomber]

Yeah, I understand all of that, which is why I was confused about his remark about the tweeter. The tweeter should be fine, but the mid could be problematic and thus why I asked if he meant mid instead.

[Jason Schultz]

Yeah thanks boomie and looney.
I havn't done the math yet but I would have thought 3.5Khz would have produced an ok off-axis response using a 5.5 inch mid. Actually I'm just looking at the 30Deg off axis response for this driver now and its remakably good. only 2db down at 3000 Hz. I might try to cross it at 3 instead of 3.5 KHZ. I could have gone for a 4 inch mid which could be crossed higher without beaming but I would prefer to have a little more radiating surface area (5.5 inch) so the driver doesn't use up too much xmax while playing loud operating in the 300 hz area.
I will most likely use a 2nd order Bessell or LR for this Woofer to Mid XO so the mid will still be producing some sound a little lower than 300 Hz

[looneybomber]

Jason: A little beaming may not be all that bad depending on how the mid is used and how you primarily listen to your music/movies. In some applications, it could even be a necessity, but that's typically in a pro-audio application at large venue's.

[A9X]

Jason Schultz wrote:

Not all drivers are readily available in Australia.

True, but there is the internet and mail.

I have some NIB/NOS Vifa P13-8 that I was going to use in a set of Lynn Olson's ME2's a while back before I discovered high eff drivers.

[Tristanc1]

CSS(creative sound solutions in Canada) has some new mid's that look interesting, with an intro pricing of $140/pair. Might also want to look at their other 4" full ranges, supposed to be pretty good http://www.creativesound.ca