Any feedback on the Fountek NeoCd3.5H Horn Tweeter (Ribbon)???
In short, both the 3.0 and 3.5H have directivity control that allows for consistently linear frequency response in the OFF axis, as well as the on axis.
If you have chance to take your own polar measurements on a rotating turntable; you will see how they are different from a typical dome tweeter on a baffle.
If not, when I am back on my PC that has the measurements, I will post some hard data that might explain why they sound so favourable.
The normalised off-axis frequency line chart. ie. what the off axis looks like after the on axis is tuned to be perfectly flat with a passive or active/DSP crossover, or normalised polar map is very informative.
Haha - took last week off and went back to Atlanta.
Really, got a lot of holiday and end of year deliverables, so will not get around to measurements until January 2024.
For my purposes, I like the extra sensitivity provided by the short horn, but if it measures flatter I can use the tweeter without the horn. Time will tel....
But Chahly - Stahkist don't want speakers that look good, Stahkist wants speakers that sound good!
What the hell am I going to use this thing for? Just sitting in the garage right now, being all sexy and shit. I could put it in the Sorento, I guess. That would be fun - not much out there like SUV bass.
Amazon has a deal ($200) on a basic Onkyo stereo receiver. I've been looking at these for a while now and they have always been $250. It has just about everything I look for in a receiver these days including a nice range of inputs and 4 ohm capable amp.
There was a post a while back at diyaudio about the MCM 55-2982, a 12" paper cone woofer. The specs on the product page seem to be way off and have been for a long time. But some people have actually bought the driver and noticed a drastic change at some point. The PDF data sheet seems to actually be right. It usually goes for $44 each, or $40 if buying 4+. They are currently on sale for $35 and $32 for 4+. The diyaudio post doesn't really tell me enough about these, but $128 for four 12" drivers that might do well in an open baffle build is appealing.
You can use the CD3.5H naked, if you want to avoid the 2KHz peak caused by the baffle, as that fellow at amplabs discovered.
But the ribbon performs best, from a distortion point of view, from 3.5-4KHz up, so I would use it crossed around there.
Here's the normalized polar map of the NeoCD3.5H, with the middle of ribbon 2 3/4" down from the top edge of a baffle
9.5" W x 13 3/4" , with a 3/4" round-over on the baffle’s side edges.
So these two tweeters, despite being on different baffles, tends to exhibit similar dispersion behaviour- as you go off axis, all frequencies drop off at equal amounts.
This constant directivity behaviour could be the very reason why ribbons sound so good!
I'd like to see more ribbon tweeters compared/contrasted to dome tweeters on flat baffles, to see if my observation holds any water.
@a4eaudio said:
There was a post a while back at diyaudio about the MCM 55-2982, a 12" paper cone woofer. The specs on the product page seem to be way off and have been for a long time. But some people have actually bought the driver and noticed a drastic change at some point. The PDF data sheet seems to actually be right. It usually goes for $44 each, or $40 if buying 4+. They are currently on sale for $35 and $32 for 4+. The diyaudio post doesn't really tell me enough about these, but $128 for four 12" drivers that might do well in an open baffle build is appealing.
The listed specs aren't great for open baffle, so you'll need a lot of active manipulation of the FR, but besides that, they're probably very worth the cost. The MCM lineup always impressed me at the price point and even more so when on sale.
I always found some hit or miss success with MCM, but discovered a few gems. The 1669 and 2669 both were outstanding performers with excellent build quality, for example. I miss MCM since Newark manages their driver lineup as if they were 1/2 watt resistors.
It cut very clean, I didn't have any problem working with it other than to sand off a couple burn marks. It has nice colour too (finished with tung oil), but lacks the glistening depth of some other exotic hardwoods.
Welp I ordered the last four of their .56cu. knockdown kits. Was able to get the quantity discount then the ny2024 code on top of that.
Now to see what they replace it with. If they do
(edit) Well looks like they only had 2 in stock instead of the 4. But they still honored the quantity discount and half of the code discount amount on the invoice without me even asking. Of which an order of 2 would not have qualified for either of those discounts, so that is cool.
I see they report "Fundamental + Harmonic distortion", but the photos only show a response graph to me and no HD plot.
The Wavecor ones go above 1% on HD3 around 1.6khz so my expectations aren't that high anyway. Though looks like they are measuring at 5.1v and 6.5v so would expect it to be a bit worse than a 2.83v measurement. https://www.wavecor.com/html/wf146wa05_06.html
Comments
I really like the sound quality from my NeoCd 3.0 tweeters.
Any feedback on the Fountek NeoCd3.5H Horn Tweeter (Ribbon)???
In short, both the 3.0 and 3.5H have directivity control that allows for consistently linear frequency response in the OFF axis, as well as the on axis.
If you have chance to take your own polar measurements on a rotating turntable; you will see how they are different from a typical dome tweeter on a baffle.
If not, when I am back on my PC that has the measurements, I will post some hard data that might explain why they sound so favourable.
The normalised off-axis frequency line chart. ie. what the off axis looks like after the on axis is tuned to be perfectly flat with a passive or active/DSP crossover, or normalised polar map is very informative.
Don't keep us in suspense?
Haha - took last week off and went back to Atlanta.
Really, got a lot of holiday and end of year deliverables, so will not get around to measurements until January 2024.
For my purposes, I like the extra sensitivity provided by the short horn, but if it measures flatter I can use the tweeter without the horn. Time will tel....
What the hell am I going to use this thing for? Just sitting in the garage right now, being all sexy and shit. I could put it in the Sorento, I guess. That would be fun - not much out there like SUV bass.
Amazon has a deal ($200) on a basic Onkyo stereo receiver. I've been looking at these for a while now and they have always been $250. It has just about everything I look for in a receiver these days including a nice range of inputs and 4 ohm capable amp.
https://amazon.com/Onkyo-TX-8220-Channel-Receiver-Bluetooth/dp/B075P831VY/
Ron
There was a post a while back at diyaudio about the MCM 55-2982, a 12" paper cone woofer. The specs on the product page seem to be way off and have been for a long time. But some people have actually bought the driver and noticed a drastic change at some point. The PDF data sheet seems to actually be right. It usually goes for $44 each, or $40 if buying 4+. They are currently on sale for $35 and $32 for 4+. The diyaudio post doesn't really tell me enough about these, but $128 for four 12" drivers that might do well in an open baffle build is appealing.
Anyone have any thoughts/opinions on these? Link to Newark here.
I wonder how they'd ripole.
Steve,
You can use the CD3.5H naked, if you want to avoid the 2KHz peak caused by the baffle, as that fellow at amplabs discovered.
But the ribbon performs best, from a distortion point of view, from 3.5-4KHz up, so I would use it crossed around there.
Here's the normalized polar map of the NeoCD3.5H, with the middle of ribbon 2 3/4" down from the top edge of a baffle
9.5" W x 13 3/4" , with a 3/4" round-over on the baffle’s side edges.
From 4Khz up:
Reference:
https://www.audioexcite.com/?page_id=4178
Here's the NeoCD3.0, as used in the Statements I/II, again from 4KHz up:
This one is on a baffle 11.5” wide, approximately halfway down the baffle, again with 3/4” round overs
Reference:
https://www.speakerdesignworks.com/
So these two tweeters, despite being on different baffles, tends to exhibit similar dispersion behaviour- as you go off axis, all frequencies drop off at equal amounts.
This constant directivity behaviour could be the very reason why ribbons sound so good!
I'd like to see more ribbon tweeters compared/contrasted to dome tweeters on flat baffles, to see if my observation holds any water.
The listed specs aren't great for open baffle, so you'll need a lot of active manipulation of the FR, but besides that, they're probably very worth the cost. The MCM lineup always impressed me at the price point and even more so when on sale.
I always found some hit or miss success with MCM, but discovered a few gems. The 1669 and 2669 both were outstanding performers with excellent build quality, for example. I miss MCM since Newark manages their driver lineup as if they were 1/2 watt resistors.
Flash sale over at PE. Not much to write home about of you ask me.
PE sale on Dats3, 4x8 DSP, 15" Subwoofer kit and 2 channel plate amp.
I've made speakers and some shelves from acacia, quite nice stuff, I like it.
Dang I was hoping it'd stay a secret lol. I picked up a board for the next project.
They have that at my local Menards store but it's not on sale. Regular price is $14.99. Still not a bad price.
Is its actual thickness 5/8"?
I noticed it looks thinner than 3/4". 5/8" sounds right.
Still $14.99 here too
How did the machining go with this material dB ? I dont see any chips out in your pic , looks sharp.
It cut very clean, I didn't have any problem working with it other than to sand off a couple burn marks. It has nice colour too (finished with tung oil), but lacks the glistening depth of some other exotic hardwoods.
Kind of prefer that satin finish , honestly.
PE sales e-mail. TD20F-4 tweeters for $8.
https://manage.kmail-lists.com/subscriptions/web-view?a=V6FJTs&c=01FWPGWS7KAS1B6WRJ3SFFPXXR&k=5ffe138c7754284cc8f8b6d923c17b3e&g=V4EJJV&m=01HJKHKF3D5R4C29MYH6KPQ22Q&r=33mh8rHR
I've always heard "meh" reviews on that tweeter. Anyone know what the distortion is like?
Price drop on 6 conductor 16AWG cable for DSP applications --> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B943FX4V/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1
Excellent tinned/OFC quality and floppy/flexible jacket.
PE has some promotion on right now, up to $75 off your order.
Welp I ordered the last four of their .56cu. knockdown kits. Was able to get the quantity discount then the ny2024 code on top of that.
Now to see what they replace it with. If they do
(edit) Well looks like they only had 2 in stock instead of the 4. But they still honored the quantity discount and half of the code discount amount on the invoice without me even asking. Of which an order of 2 would not have qualified for either of those discounts, so that is cool.
Anyone notice those Arylic 5" and 6.5" on sale for half off are a dead ringer of the Wavecor units?
https://www.arylic.com/products/midbass-speakers?pr_prod_strat=pinned&pr_rec_id=a8b28c66e&pr_rec_pid=8107503419629&pr_ref_pid=8107425693933&pr_seq=uniform&variant=44047752954093
Notice the HD graphs?
I see they report "Fundamental + Harmonic distortion", but the photos only show a response graph to me and no HD plot.
The Wavecor ones go above 1% on HD3 around 1.6khz so my expectations aren't that high anyway. Though looks like they are measuring at 5.1v and 6.5v so would expect it to be a bit worse than a 2.83v measurement.
https://www.wavecor.com/html/wf146wa05_06.html
Wavecore has 4 mounting holes where the Arylics have 6.
(just observations - no criticism).