I'm thinking about building a pair of 1x12" cabs in the new year, ideally at the more compact end of things. For the sake of portability I'm looking at drivers which will work in around 40 litres (that's about 1.4 cubic feet), perhaps even slightly less.
At present I have a 2x12" cab loaded with B&C 12HPL64 drivers. This is light and sounds pretty good, but many of the places I play are small and could happily work with a single 12". The obvious option would be to re-house the B&Cs in 1x12" cabinets, but they're 4-ohm drivers so I would have to mess around with a series cable if they were in separate cabs. They are -3dB at just below 80Hz in my 2x12" and don't have a mid-bass bump. On paper it looks like this may be thin sounding, but in practice I've never felt that I lack lows with them. They're very smooth through the mids but perhaps a little polite sounding (EQ can fix that though). Tonally, I seem to enjoy speakers with that upper-mid presence peak that comes from breakup modes and I don't need or want highs in the tweeter range. My bands tend to be not very Rock, so I rarely have to contend with 4x12" equipped guitarists or heavy hitting drummers!
Looking at other options for 12" drivers that work in a ~40l box, I've identified a few contenders. I've been using WinISD to look at the low end but would welcome more subjective opinions on how they sound, especially from those who have tried them.
Firstly I looked at several neo drivers. The Eminence Basslite S2012 and Deltalite 2515 are both possible options, they give a small mid-bass bump in this volume but it's not outrageous. The 3012HO might be good but stretches the budget a little. The Faital 12PR300 could be promising too, but is perhaps a little flatter than I'm looking for.
I then looked at a few cheaper ceramic drivers. In a small box like this, it seems that some of them could work well and the extra kilo of weight per box might not be a deal breaker. The Eminence Beta 12 and the Fane 12-200 both gave fairly similar plots in WinISD to the neo drivers I looked at. The Beyma SM212 looks excellent in terms of Xmax and power handling but again lacks that rising mid-response that I'd prefer.
Several of these drivers model well in a sealed box too, and it might be interesting to make up some port plugs and try them both ways. I'm not absolutely settled on 12s, but they seem a good fit for the size of box I'm looking for. I'm in the UK, so US brands like Eminence can be comparatively expensive but some the European brands are more affordable. I'd be interested in any thoughts on the drivers above for a compact 1x12", and any other suggestions of drivers which have worked well.
At present I have a 2x12" cab loaded with B&C 12HPL64 drivers. This is light and sounds pretty good, but many of the places I play are small and could happily work with a single 12". The obvious option would be to re-house the B&Cs in 1x12" cabinets, but they're 4-ohm drivers so I would have to mess around with a series cable if they were in separate cabs. They are -3dB at just below 80Hz in my 2x12" and don't have a mid-bass bump. On paper it looks like this may be thin sounding, but in practice I've never felt that I lack lows with them. They're very smooth through the mids but perhaps a little polite sounding (EQ can fix that though). Tonally, I seem to enjoy speakers with that upper-mid presence peak that comes from breakup modes and I don't need or want highs in the tweeter range. My bands tend to be not very Rock, so I rarely have to contend with 4x12" equipped guitarists or heavy hitting drummers!
Looking at other options for 12" drivers that work in a ~40l box, I've identified a few contenders. I've been using WinISD to look at the low end but would welcome more subjective opinions on how they sound, especially from those who have tried them.
Firstly I looked at several neo drivers. The Eminence Basslite S2012 and Deltalite 2515 are both possible options, they give a small mid-bass bump in this volume but it's not outrageous. The 3012HO might be good but stretches the budget a little. The Faital 12PR300 could be promising too, but is perhaps a little flatter than I'm looking for.
I then looked at a few cheaper ceramic drivers. In a small box like this, it seems that some of them could work well and the extra kilo of weight per box might not be a deal breaker. The Eminence Beta 12 and the Fane 12-200 both gave fairly similar plots in WinISD to the neo drivers I looked at. The Beyma SM212 looks excellent in terms of Xmax and power handling but again lacks that rising mid-response that I'd prefer.
Several of these drivers model well in a sealed box too, and it might be interesting to make up some port plugs and try them both ways. I'm not absolutely settled on 12s, but they seem a good fit for the size of box I'm looking for. I'm in the UK, so US brands like Eminence can be comparatively expensive but some the European brands are more affordable. I'd be interested in any thoughts on the drivers above for a compact 1x12", and any other suggestions of drivers which have worked well.
