General Speaker Advice and Recommendations

Corundum is an interesting material to use. Basically synthetic saphire/ruby. Are there any other 'gem' tweeter materials besides this and diamond?

This SB acoustics aluminum dome looks pretty cool too. Low THD down to 1KHz.

 

Weird. Is that on their forums somewhere?

 

@Hrodulf Slightly off-topic here, but I had been eyeing a pair of ATC SCM-40 for sale nearby and saw you mention this in a LS50 thread:

I've always been intrigued by building speakers from a kit (I lack the expertise to design one from scratch), but the amount of options out there is pretty overwhelming. Do you have any recommendations for closed speaker kits in the $1-2K range? I'd go open baffle but my listening room is likely too small at just 15m².

 

Either is fine, though I'd prefer not to go smaller than a 10" LF driver, which rules out most monitors (8" would be OK if the bass response is really good). After getting used to 12in drivers I have no desire to go back to 5-6.5" bass, or trying to integrate a sub for that matter. Been there done that.

 

Come to think of it, i wonder why there isn't more sapphire tweeters? It's already used widely for watches and should be far easier to produce than diamond tweeters which are available.

 

That's actually a question and answer for a completely different tweeter which some automated system shoved on the page.

 

What’s the feeling on Beryllium tweeters? I know they tend to be expensive as hell, but are they worth it? Supposedly they are lighter but stiffer than other materials?

 

Thanks for the suggestions! Looks like the first two are designed for pairing with a sub, hence the shallow bass extension. I bet they kick ass though. I'll investigate further.

My big driver preference could very well be sensitivity-related, there's some something more satisfying and visceral about bass coming from a driver that scarcely has to lift a finger to shake the room. As far as extension is concerned I am getting a pretty flat response down to 35Hz at my listening position, at which point it drops off pretty sharply.

It could just be a matter of coherence as well. When I was running a 2.1 setup with a 10" sub I was getting the same extension, it just sounded disjointed and muddy. The bass I'm getting from two 12" drivers is much cleaner (wish I still had the sub around so I could run some CSD's to compare).

 

After seeing @westermac 's JBL battlestation in the other thread, (very nice!) I was reminded of a pair of JBLs I had on extended loan back around 1992 or 1993 that I wish I could remember the model number. Maybe some of you guys can help me out.

The JBLs were used and I'm suspecting they were from late 80's. This is what I remember about them:
-3 way
-About the size of a large bookshelf speaker, but was probably considered a floor stander. I'm guessing it was < 30 inches tall.
-I can't remember if the woofer was a 10 or 12 inch. I'm leaning towards it being a 12
-The tweeter was a metal dome. I remember it was faceted, like it was made of little triangles or something like that. I think it was surrounded by a ring of pretty dense foam, almost like sorbothane but still foam.
- The model number started with an "L". I know that's of almost no help. It might have been an "L-xxx" or maybe it was an LX model.
- I remember thinking the speakers were pretty heavy for their size.
- At the store I managed, they were trade ins. I didn't take the trade, but I remember one of the guys saying they were kinda expensive for a modern, non-pro JBL model.

I found a picture of an L-120 but it didn't look like that. But maybe there were many iterations of some of those long running models.

I thought they sounded really good. I was already into Magneplanars by then and didn't need another speaker, but those JBLs actually imaged pretty well and were nice and punchy without being sloppy. If I came across another pair (and knew the model #) I might consider buying a pair.

 

Maybe the JBL 120ti?

 

Thanks Winders. I found a picture on ebay. That tweeter looks like what I remember but the rest of it doesn't look quite right. The ones I had were in black, although choice of finish was likely an option. I also remember that the woofer was paper, but it was treated with something to make it look shiny and probably more rigid. The pic I saw of the 120ti looked like raw untreated paper.

Hey at least that probably narrows it down to something in that same series. Thanks for the suggestion.