Big E speakers: Pt 2

[Chef]

from here
Big E Speakers

[nostatic]

I'm in, though a FedEx truck has my 4x6 somewhere between here and IL

[Chef]

Huh.
Missouri is between Illinois and Cali.................

[cybersnyder]

I know I can use the thread tools, but "Subbed"!

[nostatic]

Originally Posted by Chef

Huh.
Missouri is between Illinois and Cali.................

None of them are playing Coachella...

[Chef]

So that's back on?

[nostatic]

oh, That's Back On is headlining!

[Chef]

"Third Base"

[3rdcurve]

Originally Posted by nostatic

I'm in, though a FedEx truck has my 4x6 somewhere between here and IL

Very much looking forward to a comparison with the Baer!

[Balog]

Thanks Chef!

[NorCal Dog]

here we go again

[Arjank]

Mike Arnopol
It's interesting. The Faitals with a Klippel Xmax of say 6mm will run out of steam much more gracefully that an Eminence of the same. They'll smack the plate at near the same time, but the Faital will sound really good until it bottoms out. The Eminence will get farty sooner. Just my experience

Thats the same experience I had, after hitting xmax the distortion on the Eminence starts to increase rapidly.

Mike Arnopol
What I'm intrigued about is which coax driver you use. I've looked into them, but the not-crazily-priced ones here in the states don't have xmax of the Kappalite lf's and the other uber drivers. No one that I know (well---I don't know that many people) here is using the Obertons. I think they're too pricey here.
Just looked at their specs. Now I remember. At least for me---the very low QTS was a deal breaker. For what I like in a speaker for electric bass. I didn't see a 10" coax so I assume that's not what you're using.

I'm very happy because Jerry at Eminence knocked it out of the park for me with his oem designs for us.

edit---just looked at the Oberton you mentioned---I was only looking at the neo's. The ferrite 10 does look pretty nice. Just where I like the QTS.

The Obertons have a very competetive price here, but that's probably because Bulgaria is part of the European Union. They offer extreme quality for the same price as e.g. Eminence. Also, Oberton doesn't have a distributor in the US.....

You're right about the Qes(qts) of their Neo drivers, they are on the low side (except for one or two of the 18"and 15" drivers which are beasts!).
A low Qes isn't all that bad if you want punchy bass out of a small cab, one of their neo 15's only needs 60liters or so and tuned to 55hz it would really be a wolf in sheep's clothing, it won't go ultra deep but for a 4-string bassguitar it would be a good choice.
The coax I use is a neo but it doesn't have a lowish Qes.

Btw. I wouldn't use a coax driver that has an extreme xmax and use it fullrange. You'll get FM modulation distortion because the cone, that acts as part of the horn/waveguide for the highfreq-driver, is moving. Thats the reason why I use the 8" coax as a mid/high, keeps those mids tight

[VegasGutPlucker]

oh boy oh boy oh boy... !

[Mike Arnopol]

Hey Arjank

Glad to hear that you're doing a 3 way. Duke has been pretty critical of coax's for the reasons you mention. Fortunately with the Big E's so far--at least the ones for bass---- the oem driver have allowed big xmax and nice enough extension so that we don't need a midrange driver. The Faital 5" is pretty much the best of both worlds The Big E's allow better much better low end response out of the 5 which is nice.

Working on our first 3 way. 12" 3012lf with two 5's and two Ciare super tweets..

[cybersnyder]

Originally Posted by Mike Arnopol

Working on our first 3 way. 12" 3012lf with two 5's and two Ciare super tweets..

Is that the bass super cab?

[Mike Arnopol]

I hope so.Trying to make a powered version.

[nomatic]

Hey Mike,

When you get that first 8/5 cab together I would love to see
a picture!

[cybersnyder]

Originally Posted by Mike Arnopol

I hope so.Trying to make a powered version.

Oh, that's right. I forgot. Was it going to have a DSP? I may be getting another thread mixed up. That would be interesting for me, DSP or not. Most of the time I play direct with a sansamp or whatever so just using that same setup and running it into a powered cab would be nice. I considered some of the powered PA sepakers at one time, but they're mostly wedges and made out of plastic.

I'll keep an eye out for updates.

[3rdcurve]

Quick question. So the -3 db point for the 5" cabs are supposed to be in the low 40 hz range. How does that work with a speaker showing a FS of 65 Hz that plots being - 3 db well above 100 hz?

This is not an inflammatory post, just a question from a guy who thought he knew more about speaker specs than he apparently does. I get that the vortex can amplify the output, but wouldn't the - 3 db point of the box follow closely with that of the drivers?

[Mike Arnopol]

No---I'm sure you know a lot about speakers.

These just do some weird things. I might be a few hz off, but it was definitely 45 hz or below.We get usable response below fs. The speaker sees very different loading than with other cab types.

The interesting thing is that the first incarnation of the 45 (before any were shipped) the -3db point was a bit over 50hz. And I was getting a small hump from 150 to 280hz. We changed a few aspects of the vortex (don't know what else to call it) and the hump disappeared---and we had better bass extension.

With the 5" based cabs the low end feels more like the super 15 cabs=---not in volume, but low end character. Big sounding B string, but much tighter than the super 15's. Much better low end control.

With the 6's and up---you have the same lows as the 5's but have more of a sense of a functional fundamental underneath. It's subtle, but very noticeable.