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Horn-Loaded Speakers
Topic: I had a dream...

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Posted by horny on 08-02-2008
For those seeking some decent compression drivers that don`t cost fortune, I can suggest to try the Eighteen Sound ND1460A compression driver. It has aluminum dome and polyester suspension and 1,4 inch exit throat. Does it sound like S2 ? Probably not, but I have tried lots of B&C (ND950 was especially nontransparent, others were harsh), RCF, Beyma and P-Audio, all typicall PA drivers, but seems to me of all those only ND 1460 A was suitable for home systems. I am using it in a 60 cm round tractrix horn along with Eighteen Sound 8M400 8" midrange (also excellent) in a 95 cm round tractrix horn (unfortunately without compression chamber), crossover cca 800 Hz. I used to have a B&C DE 32 bullet tweeter in between (above 8 khz) but stopped using it since 1,4 incher sounds better even in the highrange. Intend to use another 30 cm horn with the second set of ND1460A, new crossover points: 800, 3000 and later (hopefully) 12000 Hz with a Lazy ribbon tweeter. ND2060A is actually the same driver, but with 2" adapter. Those used to vintage gear might find it laughable, but recommended to all the others.

Cheers!

horny

http://www.eighteensound.it/index.aspx?mainMenu=view_product&pid=253

http://www.eighteensound.it/index.aspx?mainMenu=view_product&pid=229

Horn.JPG 

Posted by Romy the Cat on 08-03-2008

 horny wrote:
Those used to vintage gear might find it laughable…

Well, do not be under impression that vintage drivers are an assurance of some kind of quality. They are not; in fact in most of the case the opposite is true. I always proclaim – it is only God knows why the horn-loaded drivers suddenly sound in the way they sometimes do…

I never used this Eighteen Sound driver but in my past I had a “dream” about a perfect driver. It was not the real dream but rather a notion that I can go somewhere, at some kind eBay or junkyard; buy some kind of ugly and unknown driver that suddenly would throw the “perfect sound”. Since then I realized that this sweat hallucination although not improbable but not necessary helpful. I still feel that any contemporary driver might be perfectly fine or might be not – it is not upon the driver only but also upon the system designer’s intentions and references. The desire of the system designer to work with a given driver is very important…

Still, talking about the quality of sound from compression drivers I feel it is necessary to have a common denominator – sort of a scale where the all drivers would be projected – I call it the Compression Drivers Equivalency Scale. For me in the very middle of this Equivalency is the JBL-2440 - good mix of goodies, problems and results that makes it a reliable base for Equivalency…

Rgs, Romy the Cat

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