What is your favorite 5''

Gowa

What is your 5''-5.5'' driver and why? 

dcibel

Currently it's the Seas W15 Excel. Apart from having a lowish sensitivity, it has a pure piston behavior over most of the frequency band, and the breakup is a single resonant peak which is easy to notch out. The motor as well has been tested to have pretty much zero change in inductance over the entire range of excursion, so it's essentially an overhung motor with underhung properties.

It may soon be replaced as my favourite by the Wavecor WF152, however the Wavecor's are still on the shelf, so I can't speak for how awesome they are just yet.

Gowa

What did you use the W15 in? It is smaller than WF152.

dcibel

It is a bit smaller than the WF152. I bought a pair of NHT XDS some years back when they were being cleared out, and designed my own crossover for them. That XDS was a helluva speaker.

jhollander

Aurum Cantus AC130F1 for midrange clarity.  I've heard it in the continuum several times and in a couple of other builds (Eric?) and I think one time open baffle at MWAF.

Huh, guess you could classify it as a poly cone...

Gowa

Aurum Cantus cones are very rigid sandwich. I heard the AC130F1 and liked the mids allot.

S7910

As odd as it may seem ... https://www.parts-express.com/goldwood-gw-s525-8-5-1-4-poly-cone-woofer-8-ohm--290-302

I like the midrange clarity and the sheer amount of abuse it can take SPL wise without bottoming out or distorting.

jr@mac

My favorite over all has been the SB I used in the Vermillions build. 

rjj45

Haven't heard anything that wowed me.  Interested in the Wavecor 5" and the new Rival 5".

D1PP1N

jr2@mac said:

My favorite over all has been the SB I used in the Vermillions build. 

This was my favorite small 2-way I've heard. 

Gowa

jr@mac said:

My favorite over all has been the SB I used in the Vermillions build. 

Can you elaborate? 

Gowa

S7910 said:

As odd as it may seem ... https://www.parts-express.com/goldwood-gw-s525-8-5-1-4-poly-cone-woofer-8-ohm--290-302

I like the midrange clarity and the sheer amount of abuse it can take SPL wise without bottoming out or distorting.

How did you deal with the 5 db drop at 1 k?

jr@mac

I'm not really comfortable elaborating, actually. Subjective reviews of my own work is something I try not to do very often - but the driver, once I tamed an annoying peak around 1K, just didn't do anything wrong. Excellent extension, low distortion well past the handoff to the tweeter, and just overall a nice, easy tonality that I have not heard out of very many designs at any cost. 

ani_101

I will elaborate, other than the rad sanding job in shaping the baffle, it had a really easy going sound to it with good bass for a small speaker - it was jut plain fun and engaging to listen to. 

I was looking to emulate it for a long time and it was coming together nicely in the shape of the penguins, the XO sounded just right - and then the translam cracked... 

Gowa

jr@mac said:

I'm not really comfortable elaborating, actually. Subjective reviews of my own work is something I try not to do very often - but the driver, once I tamed an annoying peak around 1K, just didn't do anything wrong. Excellent extension, low distortion well past the handoff to the tweeter, and just overall a nice, easy tonality that I have not heard out of very many designs at any cost. 

Thanks jr. I was looking for impressions of the driver. I'm not familiar with the design. Which SB model number?
Rival has a number of real 5'' drivers and I'm trying to get a read. Their Kevlar is being reformulated and they have one that uses a cone similar to SEAS U16RCY/P. Rival uses a large 39 mm voice coil in their 5'' drivers while many others use 26 mm.

dcibel

Gowa said:

jr@mac said:

I'm not really comfortable elaborating, actually. Subjective reviews of my own work is something I try not to do very often - but the driver, once I tamed an annoying peak around 1K, just didn't do anything wrong. Excellent extension, low distortion well past the handoff to the tweeter, and just overall a nice, easy tonality that I have not heard out of very many designs at any cost. 

Thanks jr. I was looking for impressions of the driver. I'm not familiar with the design. Which SB model number?
Rival has a number of real 5'' drivers and I'm trying to get a read. Their Kevlar is being reformulated and they have one that uses a cone similar to SEAS U16RCY/P. Rival uses a large 39 mm voice coil in their 5'' drivers while many others use 26 mm.

I'd be interested in the Woven poly cone like Seas U... not that I need any more drivers but that's a poly cone that both performs well and isn't hard on the eyes either.

Wolf

The Seas U series are all just wonderful sounding drivers. Great bass, smooth/easy mids, and virtually no breakup to worry about.

I'd also be interested in a woven poly Rival.

Gowa

Wolf said:

The Seas U series are all just wonderful sounding drivers. Great bass, smooth/easy mids, and virtually no breakup to worry about.

I'd also be interested in a woven poly Rival.

I have to admit that I too am interested in that. They have a white one and a black one. I don't have any specs because they are reformulating their 5'' drivers. Hopefully they meet their schedule of February. I should also say that I'm jumping the gun a little. As I've mentioned before, They don't release some drivers to the public. With that said, they know that I want to carry at least one of their 5'' drivers. I'm leaning towards their Kevlar one.

PWRRYD

That sounds interesting to me as well.

Gowa

PWRRYD said:

That sounds interesting to me as well.

Woven poly?

PWRRYD

Sorry yes, woven poly.  I should have stated that.

Gowa

OK, we're starting to pin this down. Now the question is a 5'' midrange or mid-woofer. I'm viewing a mid-woofer as 50 Hz and below and a mid to be 60 Hz +..

PWRRYD

I would be very interested if it is optimized as a real midrange.  There are plenty of 5-6" mid-woofers already available.  A lower moving mass would be nice and no need for gobbs of x-max (under hung) when crossed above 300+ Hz.  4 ohm would be ok too since I don't have any amps that can't handle 4 ohms, especially through the midrange.  But 8 ohms is fine too.

Gowa

Rival has a number of 4.5'' mids that I've had my eye on for a while. But we'll leave that for another post. Those come in Beryllium, Titanium, Alu/Ceramic and a Carbon weave hybrid.

ani_101

if midrange, higher sensitivity is also preferred. 4.5 mid range is also good....

kennyk

I can use a real mid.

Gowa

4.5'' drivers have the same issue as the 5-5.5''. Many manufacturers are producing them as mid-woofers with low fs. 

rjj45

I am also interested in a high value, SOTA pure midrange. 4.5" ok too. Thinking about a Rival MTMWW maybe.

Gowa

I'm a price sensitive kinda guy. So, that is a big concern for RAD I don't think RAD would stock any of Rival's real hi-end stuff. It's just too much of a gamble.

Beryllium

rjj45

My sweet spot at this time is about $100 for a mid, with a stretch to $160 or so for 
 exceptional driver(s). Not comfortable with the $300 range... As a merchant you always need to understand your customer's preferences.

Actually, I am hoping that PE brings back the Esoteric 140 with some tweaks.

jr@mac

As far as I know - and of course I am not "in the loop" on these things - the Esoteric 140 has been re-released with some slight changes. On sale for $100 right now, too.