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RE "Making decisions can be tough!"
Yes, but limiting your search to 1-2 brands for example reduces the work load a lot. Personnaly i don't like to limit myself too much at the beginning of a driver search, though don't have time to look at a ton of them.
On a first round for a woofer, its easy to weed out a number of them. I don't approach this in a sentimental way or with love of the brand. Instead, for me its more like a business/technical decision:
Price matters, if i can't afford it, its out;
Availability is also an obvious one, can't buy what isn't there, out;
In vented box, e.g. Qts too low (say .16-.20 or so) little deep bass, or Qts too high (say .40+) huge box or bumpy bass, both out;
Frequency spectrum covered and amplitude response, if its insufficient (fomer) or looks like a roller coaster (latter), its out; In some cases dispersion may be more important or not, depending on hi-fi vs SR cab;
Impedance may or may not be an issue, needs to be seen depending on driver type; power capacity is usually not a problem for me since i don't need 120-130 db to be happy in life, some do;
If the crossover has to correct a whole lot of things on a driver, i'm of the opinion this might not be the right driver to begin with? Instead of buying it and then try to make it work as you want it to, like many do, i go the other way around by establishing first what i want driver to do, then look for those drivers that meet this, JBL or other. etc...
Doesn't take long that quite a few loudspeakers are deleted.Try to keep a couple of them and then do a more refined comparison of the finalists in view of the specific application in mind. The process isn't rocket science, funnel principle.
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Hi Gavin,
I have tried/built many 2-way boxes (+ sub) and you can achieve excellent results with some work.
There are many 12" woofers to choose from. I have not had the chance to experiment with the unobtanium JW300PG woofers in the 4349, the 2213Nd-1 in the 4319 or the 1200Fe.
From the older woofers I concur with above that the 2206 is an excellent choice. They are easy to equalise and sound very good, even compared to 2216Nd. 2262 is more or less the same but with an Nd magnet. However, I find the 2206 easier to equalise in a smaller cabinet. Don't know why really.
If you have the space other woofers that sound excellent IMHO are the LE1400H, LE1400Nd, LE14H-3 and 1400PRO. I use the latter in several constructions. They do not provide deep bass but I would argue that mids are very close to 2216 at a fraction of the cost.
Even with a 2206 you cannot go wrong. Just get a good pair as many of them have lived a hard life in the PA/Disco swamp.
Regarding choice of drivers there is no comparison between the 2430K (D2) and Di220. D2 will beat Di220Ti by a mile in any configuration. And bear in mind that Di220Ti is a 1" driver and the D2 is a large format 1,5" exit driver. I have given up on 1" drivers as second hand large format drivers can be had at reasonable prices and D2 is very competitive priced nowadays. There difference is very noticeable, especially in a 2-way were you you need to meet the woofer downwards of 1kHz. 1" driver typically don't go that low without protesting.
I'm not that experienced in the newer non JBL 1" wave guides but I would stay clear of older horns as the development has been spectacular when it comes to horn design the last 10 years. The newer wave guides sounds rather like a big dome but with the resolution and dynamics of a compression driver. With some DSP and a proper diaphragm they extend easily to 20kHz. Unless you favour the old vintage "horn" sound.
There are probably many 1" and 1,5" wave guides that can do the job but having used the M2 wave guide and the wave guide used in VTX F12/F15 in many setups I can confirm that a 2206 (or other as per above) paired with a D2 on any of the above wave guides will get you very far into M2 territory.
I have a few systems with that setup and a few with 1400PRO.
My 2 cents
//Rob
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2 Attachment(s)
Hello guys!
Thank you so much for your reply, it helps a lot! Now I decided to go for 2206+D2 set up.
his is my v.1 design in 3D render:Attachment 88555
I've heard the M2 once and I was blown away, the imaging and soundstage of that speaker is phenomenal, I think the design of that waveguide takes most of the credit for this. Since that waveguide is probably patented and is very hard to manufactured, I'll go for convention horn design instead (exponential, tractrix or hyperbolic). I wonder how D2 will sound with convectional horn, is this an viable option?
Meanwhile, do you have any suggestions for the amplifiers that pair with this speaker? I'll use active crossover and two power amp and squeeze them inside the enclosure. Thanks!!
