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Celestion CF0820BMB

basscooker

basscooker

Inactive
Commercial User
Apr 11, 2010
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Northern KY
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Cab fan, hobbyist
#1
Celestion CF0820BMB - Cast Chassis 8 inch Woofer



Anyone know what cabs these are in? Just curious.

Basically I didn't see anything in its specs saying it CAN'T be a bass driver... but I guess I'll see what street price is.

Haven't modeled it yet but decent xmax, Qt says ported, high end looks nice and extends past 5k. 250 watt rating feels optimistic for 8" with bass guitar but ok. Fs 50, love it or hate it.. I always just tune near fs and then move up til I like the graphs. 50-ish isn't stupid high for a bass cab.

I recently built myself a cab with 8s and love it. These Celestions seem to be far fancier than mine and it got me wondering about them. So if anyone knows what they currently come in as the OEM, that might encourage/discourage my thoughts on the next project.
TIA
 
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#2
Other than the 93dB/1W/1M sensitivity and the weight, I would think this driver might have possibilities at power levels below say 125 watts RMS at 50Hz.
 
#6
The limitation at lower frequencies and higher power will be mechanical.

As I mentioned earlier, 93dB sensitivity could be a challenge but the HF response is really pretty good.
 
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#8
basscooker said:
Ok

I made an assumption based on where I read about the speaker, and I didn't know Celestion made consumer audio drivers. Oh well. IIRC the 8s I've got now run around 93dB.
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93dB, from what I've poked around, is indeed respectable for a bass-worthy eight-incher: whether it's enough depends on what one expects from it performance-wise (and on whether or not it is to be used in multiples).
 
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#9
basscooker said:
Ok

I made an assumption based on where I read about the speaker, and I didn't know Celestion made consumer audio drivers. Oh well. IIRC the 8s I've got now run around 93dB.
Click to expand...

Yes in the 1970's and 1980's they made actual full audio speakers for home use. I have an old magazine with a picture of Rick Wakeman touting them.

Kind of a "poor man's" B&W in that era (they were not cheap but a lot cheaper than B&W's).

IIRC Celestion even made a series of studio monitors in the 1980's.

Analogeezer
 
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#10
While not listed as an available driver (they call it "Legacy") the Celestion TN0820 is a great 8" driver for bass; this is the driver RevSound uses in their 8" bass cabinet products.

Celestion TN0820 - Pressed Chassis LF Neo Driver

Not a cast frame though, pressed steel but cast frame 8" pro audio or bass drivers are very rare; last one I remember was the JBL from way back when.

The TN0820 is also not very efficient (94 dB) but I have a pair in a 2 x 8" RevSound cabinet and throwing 300 watts at it (the drivers are rated for 150 watts) it gets loud, VERY loud.

No longer sold over the counter but still available as an OEM driver I believe.

Analogeezer
 
#11
Cast frame 8” drivers are not rare, most Faital 8” drivers are cast frame, most manufacturers offer cast frame options (including Eminence).
 
#12
Analogeezer said:
While not listed as an available driver (they call it "Legacy") the Celestion TN0820 is a great 8" driver for bass; this is the driver RevSound uses in their 8" bass cabinet products.

Celestion TN0820 - Pressed Chassis LF Neo Driver

Not a cast frame though, pressed steel but cast frame 8" pro audio or bass drivers are very rare; last one I remember was the JBL from way back when.

The TN0820 is also not very efficient (94 dB) but I have a pair in a 2 x 8" RevSound cabinet and throwing 300 watts at it (the drivers are rated for 150 watts) it gets loud, VERY loud.

No longer sold over the counter but still available as an OEM driver I believe.

Analogeezer
Click to expand...
I have the Revsound 2x8 cab and it is very good for such a lightweight unit , I remember him telling me they were limited speakers or OEM .It is a little mid rangy ? but in a nice smooth way.
 
#13
Actually the MCMs I use are 20 bucks and cast frame.

I keep getting industry magazines since I was LLC for a bit I guess. Anyway the most recent issue of one had a "press release" about Celestion will be offering this driver as an off the shelf to its retailers. Since it was in a music biz rag I made an assumption that it was an MI driver sold only OEM currently. I figured maybe someone knew what sort of products whichever manufacturers design using it.

I dont even know ballpark pricing so it could be a non-starter anyway.
Thanks for your thoughts everyone.
 
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#15
dawind99 said:
No, they are not rare. In my experience for MI cabinets cast frame is not essential especially with the new cone materials available. Just mho.
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They may not be essential for MI cabinets, but it depends on the tightness of the gap and the weight of the motor. For higher performance drivers and tighter gaps, the cast frame provides better precision when the cabinet gets bounced around.
 
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#16
agedhorse said:
They may not be essential for MI cabinets, but it depends on the tightness of the gap and the weight of the motor. For higher performance drivers and tighter gaps, the cast frame provides better precision when the cabinet gets bounced around.
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I would agree with ferrite/ceramic magnets/"motors" to a point. Cast frame drivers have frequently been made with potted metal casting and stamped frame with varying steel thickness so throw it up in the air and see if it lands heads or tails:) Some stamped steel baskets are designed with ribs/ridges to increase their rigidity. This is a rabbit hole designers audiophiles, metallurgists, and everyone else with an opinion has crawled in and out of for years since Paul Klipsch addressed it 40 something years ago with some attitude when questioned regarding his use of stamped frame vs cast. At a certain level of design, attention to detail, and "level" of the driver manufacturer we can be pretty comfortable with the products available to us. In over 50 years of hard use of both I have never had a driver fail that I could say with 100% assurance it was due to the basket construction. I did blow every JBL 15" D series driver (which I absolutely loved sonically) in our FOH PA back in the day in Boston. So, 16 drivers kaput. All cast frame. I replaced them with various Celestion 15s stamped and cast and EVs (which I also highly favored except for their weight) and never blew another 15. And, our cabinets were thoroughly bounced around all over the roads and frost heaves of northern New England that I'm sure you remember.
 
#17
dawind99 said:
I did blow every JBL 15" D series driver (which I absolutely loved sonically) in our FOH PA back in the day in Boston. So, 16 drivers kaput. All cast frame. I replaced them with various Celestion 15s stamped and cast and EVs (which I also highly favored except for their weight) and never blew another 15. And, our cabinets were thoroughly bounced around all over the roads and frost heaves of northern New England that I'm sure you remember.
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Of course there was a sensitivity penalty going from the D series to just about anything else of the day. It's a period of time where the industry was learning about the trade-off between absolute sensitivity and a usable product as power levels increased with time (evolution).
 
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#19
dawind99 said:
Absolutely. Reminds me of the Gauss drivers that I first came across at Kenton Forsythe's place in Watertown, MA. You could plug them in to a wall and they wouldn't blow. Did they sound good? Not so much to me.
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IME they (Gauss) weren’t very musical for MI applications.
 
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