Aperion Audio raw drivers now for sale?

KEtheredge87

While looking up some speakers I bought before I learned how to roll my own, I noticed Aperion Audio is now selling their drivers directly for the DIY market. The frequency response graphs all look overly optimistic...like they were exported with 1/3 octave band smoothing. At least there are also T/S parameters. I kinda wonder if anyone here might recognize the OEM based on the design or frame?

https://www.aperionaudio.com/collections/diy-parts

dcibel

Awfully high inductance on the few that I clicked on. High inductance can be a factor in the lack of rising response in the breakup region that you usually see, and in a commercial speaker, means a cheaper crossover inductor.

The frames are "off-the-shelf" parts that many manufacturers use.

KEtheredge87

Good observation... I didn't pay much attention to the impedance scale at first glance. I guess higher impedance would essentially limit the usable bandwidth of the driver? Damping out the breakup region might be a silver lining there on a commercial application? Just trying to understand why a designer might purposely opt for that kind of impedance behavior... I'm used to looking at the usual DIY drivers where minimal impedance rise out to 20K is the desired behavior.

dcibel

KEtheredge87 said:

Just trying to understand why a designer might purposely opt for that kind of impedance behavior... I'm used to looking at the usual DIY drivers where minimal impedance rise out to 20K is the desired behavior.

Cost. High inductance is a result of a cheap motor, side effects are a subdued high end response and as a result of the driver's built-in inductance, a smaller inductor is required in the crossover. A good example of this would be this old Energy speaker investigation by Zaph:

http://www.zaphaudio.com/C500.html

jr@mac

Similar behavior is seen in some well-regarded DIY drivers, as well. However, for the most part, it indicates bread and butter motor technology. The Dynavox/Dynaudio/HiVi and a lot of Morel drivers use this approach to flatten the top end. Trade off is, of course, generally higher distortion in the midrange. 

They look decent otherwise, although fairly spendy as far as that goes.