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15" replacement suggestions.

#21
locolobo85 said:
My amp is 150W at 4ohms and the replacement speaker was 350W-4ohm.

Isn't the safe bet to have more amp than speaker? Or, at minimum a closer match. That way the inexpensive speaker becomes the weak link.
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Here's an analogy.
I live in hurricane country. I need to put a new roof on my house. I can get a roof that's designed to withstand 100MPH winds. Or, I can spend a bit more and get a roof that'll withstand 250MPH winds but if I do that ,it will cause problems when the wind is blowing at 30 MPH.

Locolobo85, please realize I'm not picking on you. It just seems that these misrepresentations get worse every day. It's like at some point in history, everyone realized that the earth is not flat, therefore it isn't argued daily. That just doesn't seem to be the case with the amp/speaker power relationship myths.
 
#22
locolobo85 said:
That way the inexpensive speaker becomes the weak link. Pushing the amp too far causing it to clip will eventually ruin the expensive side of the equation.
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Forgot to add a comment on this earlier. Seems to me that you think breifly clipping an amp will quickly damage it. Whilst clipping amps isn't recommended, good quality gear will put up with quite a bit of abuse before it fails. Not suggesting you do abuse gear, but generally, it's not real delicate.

Golden rule: if you turn it up and it sounds bad (distorts), turn it down until you can't hear the distortion and everything will be fine for a long time. If thats not loud enough, then you need to investigate what to change. If it is loud enough, smile and play on.
 
#23
It seems that my main confusion was not understanding the relationship between the amps output and speakers handling ability. I drew the incorrect conclusion that the speakers power handling was in some way related to the drain on the amp.

After doing a little more homework, it appears that that relationship is based entirely on impedance and sensitivity of the speakers. Whereas, less impedance and sensitivity would cause more of drain on the amp and thus produce increased clipping. Definitely not a problem in my application.

Is that correct?

If so, I'm throwing that Basslite back in the cabinet and enjoying the slightly better tone and reduced strain on my back. ;)

I didn't think y'all were picking at me, just pointing out my misunderstanding which I actually appreciate. Life is a constant learning experience.
 
#24
locolobo85 said:
It seems that my main confusion was not understanding the relationship between the amps output and speakers handling ability. I drew the incorrect conclusion that the speakers power handling was in some way related to the drain on the amp.

After doing a little more homework, it appears that that relationship is based entirely on impedance and sensitivity of the speakers. Whereas, less impedance and sensitivity would cause more of drain on the amp and thus produce increased clipping. Definitely not a problem in my application.

Is that correct?

If so, I'm throwing that Basslite back in the cabinet and enjoying the slightly better tone and reduced strain on my back. ;)

I didn't think y'all were picking at me, just pointing out my misunderstanding which I actually appreciate. Life is a constant learning experience.
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Cool! Sounds like that's a good idea. Like I said before, I keep seeing this "Myth That Won't Die" appearing time and time again on this forum. As a matter of fact, I just got off the phone with a service rep at a major manufacturer who basically gave me the old under powering routine.

BTW, I think a lot of fuss keeps being made over the "fact" that you can't put a speaker in a cab in which it wasn't designed for. Judging from some reactions, you would scientifically have to match everything exactly and the stars and moon must be perfectly aligned to do it successfully.
Through the years, I've swapped JBLs with EVs and Peaveys in the same cabinets. Yes, I got different results but can't say that any one sounded horrible. Fact is, if you're designing a speaker cabinet, you do need the proper data to optimally tune the cabinet but as you have experienced, you can swap woofers with sometimes excellent results.

I'm glad the Basslite sounds good to you and saves you weight as well.
 
#25
lbwdog said:
BTW, I think a lot of fuss keeps being made over the "fact" that you can't put a speaker in a cab in which it wasn't designed for. Judging from some reactions, you would scientifically have to match everything exactly and the stars and moon must be perfectly aligned to do it successfully.
Through the years, I've swapped JBLs with EVs and Peaveys in the same cabinets. Yes, I got different results but can't say that any one sounded horrible. Fact is, if you're designing a speaker cabinet, you do need the proper data to optimally tune the cabinet but as you have experienced, you can swap woofers with sometimes excellent results.

I'm glad the Basslite sounds good to you and saves you weight as well.
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Absolutely, but a number of the common old EV and JBLs had similarish specs. It will work best when optimised, but with such a low power amp driving it, it will likely be fine.

I was going to suggest loc get the Em cab sheets and see how closely his cab matches. If you want more performance out of it later, you could make or have made the right cab.
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#26
The ideal cabinet size for most of these speaker are not ideal from a mass production standpoint. An article I read suggests that there is some conflict between the "making music" and "listening to music/movies" crowds. Basically that the audiophiles are looking for the absolute best way for a speaker to reproduce a recorded signal. On the otherhand, the folks making music don't have to fuss as much over cabinet sizes because, in the end, the cabinet size does little more than color the tone.

Sorry we highjacked the thread, but thank for the info.

I'll still stick with the Basslite 2515 recommendation as a fairly solid replacement for under $100.
 
#27
locolobo85 said:
The ideal cabinet size for most of these speaker are not ideal from a mass production standpoint.
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That is quite often true. but there are some drivers that work exceptionally well in the correct cab that's of modest size. But if you're paying your money, do you want what's best for you, or what's best from the manufacturer's POV?
locolobo85 said:
An article I read suggests that there is some conflict between the "making music" and "listening to music/movies" crowds. Basically that the audiophiles are looking for the absolute best way for a speaker to reproduce a recorded signal. On the otherhand, the folks making music don't have to fuss as much over cabinet sizes because, in the end, the cabinet size does little more than color the tone.
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Nope. I design and build both and there are no basic conflicting or differing requirements in most cases, except things like power handling and max SPL. On a fundamental, end certainly an engineering level, they're equivalent.

Go an octave above the box tuning frequency and box size isn't that important. In the bottom octave, where especially for bass guitar (whether live or on CD) selecting to correct driver, enclosure and tuning can make the difference between excellent and mediocre or even downright poor performance. To my mind the speaker (+enclosure) should allow as much of the bass (+you and your style + FX etc) through without stamping it's signature on it. Some people like cabs with a strong inherent tonality, eg SVT's, and that's fine. I feel they muffle the differences between basses into a generic sound.

Guitar speakers are often designed to add a tonality, but I don't find that it works well most of the time for BG.
 
#29
I have finally found the original speaker's TS parameters (Celestion S15-250 Sidewinder). I've spent the whole afternoon trying to find a matching speaker but no luck so far. Do you know which of the TS parameters are more important? I think it's going to be impossible to find an exact match.
Just for info, these are the TS parameters of theCelestion S15-250 Sidewinder:

Piston dia D ; 0.33m

Dynamic mass Mmt ; 57.0g

Total Q, Qts ; 0.27

Mechanical Q, Qms ; 9.08

Electrical Q, Qes ; 0.28

Resonance Fs ; 40Hz

Equivalent Volume Vas ; 296 litre

Motor Product Bl ; 18.1 Tm

Compliance Cms ; 0.29 mm/N

Mechanical Resistance Rms ; 1.55 kg/s

DC Resistance Re ; 6.5

Sensitivity ; 101dB (1W@1m)

Power rating ; 200W RMS

75oz ceramic magnet

Edgewound Aluminium voice coil, 2.5" diameter

45-5000Hz useful frequency response.

Suggested alignment ; 100 litre vented box tuned at 55Hz


Any help will be welcome.

CHEERS!
 

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