Pro drivers vs hi fi drivers

[Jason Schultz]

I've been noticing some builds using hi efficiency pro drivers instead of "normal" hi fi drivers. These are kind of tempting because my amp is only 85w per channel.

I have some questions for any who can answer:
1/ Do pro drivers have a rougher frequency response than hi fi drivers ?
2/ what differences are there in pro drivers compared to Hi Fi drivers. What are the pros and cons of employing them
Jason

[noeffred]

Let's shed some light on this:
Pro drivers do not necessarily have a rougher frequency response than their Hi-Fi counterparts, although many do. They usually are more efficient because in the pro field, every single watt counts. Also, they are quite robustly built and can usually deal with quite a lot of punishment before taking serious damage.
They are work horses, tools so to speak. Many offer excellent sound, but, primarily, they are conceived to be efficient and robust. Also, they can be quite ugly whereas a Hi-Fi driver usually has a more living room friendly look.

In general, you can't say, that the hifi drivers offer better sound than their pro counterparts, as there are equally many rotten apples on each side of the fence.

There are some things you can only get from the pro sector. For instance huge bass drivers (18" upwards) are nothing uncommon, whereas I couldn't name such a big Hi-Fi driver.

You shouldn't see Hi-Fi and pro as separate classes, if you're looking into DIY. It really just depends on what features you're looking for in a driver. If it's high efficiency and robustness you're after, then a pro driver might be better suited for you.

[drf]

In my experience when putting pro drivers beside hi fi drivers there is a defninate difference in sound quality. I don't know exactely how you would describe it but I guess you could say that some of the detail (finesse maybe?) is not reproduced by pro drivers where as the agility of the hifi driver is there for the accuracy.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Jason Schultz wrote:

1/ Do pro drivers have a rougher frequency response than hi fi drivers ?

In general, yes.

2/ what differences are there in pro drivers compared to Hi Fi drivers. What are the pros and cons of employing them
Jason

Simply put, pro drivers trade off bandwidth and smooth response for sensitivity.

These are kind of tempting because my amp is only 85w per channel.

You don't need to use pro drivers to attain high sensitivity. I run line arrays for my LRC and a folded horn sub. The sound quality is second to none, and power draw never exceeds 50 watts.

[looneybomber]

Pro audio drivers are also purpose built. For example, a driver like the RS150 (6" metal cone driver) could be used as both a mid and midbass in an MTM bookshelf, however a driver like the B&C 6PEV13 (6.5" paper cone driver) is made to play >300hz. It CAN'T be used as a midbass because it only has .6mm of xmax, however it'll play in the 500-3khz range louder than would 4, RS150's.

[mgboy]

I've always found pro audio stuff to sound... harsh and gritty compared to home stuff - but I've never heard home audio go so loud. =O

[Jason Schultz]

A Belated reply . My comp has been down for the count. I suppose my aim was to find the most sensitive driver that had a smooth response and a fairly wide band width so as to maximise my amps power. It sounds to me like its a risk to try to use a given pro driver without seeing freq response or listening before buying when a smooth and agile response is my utmost goal (for a given amount of $). I beleive my Yamaha Receiver can be used into 4 ohm loads, so i could probably parallell 2, 8ohm drivers and get louder spls. getting off topic i know

[drumdude]

mgboy wrote:

I've always found pro audio stuff to sound... harsh and gritty compared to home stuff - but I've never heard home audio go so loud. =O

A week ago I would have agreed with you although I know there are exceptions to every rule. But things have changed. I got the opportunity to audition Earl Geddes Summa's on Tuesday. The complete review can be read on another board here. http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showt...29#post1553229 I'm sure it took some serious work to overcome typical pro roughness. But it seems it can be done with careful design and driver selection.

[joz]

IMO like all items from either side of the fence ,substandard items are everywhere.

I use a combination of both hi-fi and proaudio drivers both are fantastic.
Just choose your poison wisely.

Both tend to have different sounding characteristics but both can be wonderful.
Like choosing between Coke and Pepsi??

eg, I run JBL 2245's which are 18" high efficiency pro drivers with Scanspeak T-M-W Revelators atm.
But I think I'll be going over to more high efficiency drivers like those made by PHL.probably somewhere between 6-10"mids.Yes they sound different,but both are very enjoyable.

Then we'd have to think about what the music is most likely mastered with,hi-fi or pro audio gear??

[drf]

joz wrote:

Then we'd have to think about what the music is most likely mastered with,hi-fi or pro audio gear??

music is mastered using three different styles of speakers called monitors. There are nearfield, where the engineer sits about 1 metre from the speakers. Far field where the engineer sits further away and headphones. Most of the monitors are designed to have as flat of a FR as possible. They also use 1/3rd octave equalising to get the in room response adequate. This ensures that no matter where a recording is taken for playback or further mastering, it will sound (FR and levels) the same. I guess you could say they use hi-fi speakers for mastering. There once was a time when engineers wanted monitors that represented the average quality of home hi-fi, this would allow them to taylor the sound to be at its best on your average system. I personally think this was just a vain attempt to justify the existance of certain monitors inside otherwise respected studios.

I personally don't like the term "pro" to define Sound re-enforcement gear but I use it because everyone knows what we are talking about. After all there is amature and entry level gear in the Sound re-enforcment game also.

[joz]

Hi DRF,so in your opinion which gives the truest form of fidelty.
Pro or hi-fi speakers.

I suppose I ask the question because I come across the audiophile wich likes his music slightly flavoured if you know what I mean,as opposed true say true reproduction or the reproduction of the real sound.
I know the real sound is also sometimes difficult to reference without out actually being at the recording,but I hope you know what I mean.

Cheers joz

[drf]

I know what you mean ( at least I think I do). Basically hi-fi speakers will give you the truest fidelity. There are three components to the music chain. The initial performance, the recording and the reproduction. As we are only concerned here with the reproduction, we need a set of drivers that will give us the best reproduction of the recorded signal without altering the sound. For this I believe hifi drivers work better. If you are after a certain sonic alteration to the signal or you like the aggresive sound that some P.A drivers have then that is fine, it can even be a good thing, but it is not fidelity by its definition.

Having been blessed with the fortune to attend and engineer a few live concerts (e.g string quartets and the like) in some marvelous sounding buildings as well as a few local bands, I can attest to how a major difference in music can make or break a set of speakers. To give an example, resonance and an uneven FR can liven up violin and cello music but absolutely murder piano. Yet a properly implemented P.A in a theatre using Bose speakers () can bring a piano to life. This is before we even consider vocals.

[joz]

So DRF your obviously hifi driver fan by the sounds.
But some drivers do seems to crossover and blur the line between the two I suppose.
Oh yea just did a googlemap seach on your location,we're almost neigbours.

[drf]

joz wrote:

So DRF your obviously hifi driver fan by the sounds.
But some drivers do seems to crossover and blur the line between the two I suppose.
Oh yea just did a googlemap seach on your location,we're almost neigbours.

for my HT room yes, for everything else it depends on the situation. I do love a decent set of P.A bins.
There are some drivers out there that cross the line (cerwin vega have a few) but in my opinion they aren't worth the trouble unless they are really cheap. I personally think if you try to make a driver better at each end of the spectrum all you end up with is a difficult bit in the middle to deal with.

So where are you?

[joz]

Just added my location in googlemap,but I actually work in Frankston