EVs, Still a Viable Choice?

[Count Bassie]

In this day of super-speaker technology and design, what's the latest buzz on the old-school, standby Electro-Voice drivers? There are the EVMs, SROs, Force, etc...

I'm looking at an Acoustic 106 cab, 215, with a choice of speaker: EV (waiting to find out which), Carvin PS-15s, or Eminence Delta 15s.
I'm leaning toward EVs, esp if they're the EVM frame 15B or 15L...
Thanks for your time and knowledge!

 

[bholder]

Darn, I was all ready to get preachy about electric vehicles. Nevermind. Carry on.

 

[Wasnex]

In this day of super-speaker technology and design, what's the latest buzz on the old-school, standby Electro-Voice drivers? There are the EVMs, SROs, Force, etc...

I'm looking at an Acoustic 106 cab, 215, with a choice of speaker: EV (waiting to find out which), Carvin PS-15s, or Eminence Delta 15s.
I'm leaning toward EVs, esp if they're the EVM frame 15B or 15L...
Thanks for your time and knowledge!

As long as you don't expect EVMs to handle power like a modern high-power driver, IMHO they are still viable. FYI, The EV TL606 loaded with an EVM15 was only rated for 100W per the plans. See attached.

FYI the Delta 15A may have a 400W power rating, but depending on the tuning of the cab, it may be excursion limited to as low as 100W. See attached.

It would be best to model the cab with the TS parameters for the drivers to see if any of them will actually work well with the volume and port dimensions. Also, there's not really much benefit in putting modern high-power drivers in the cab as the ports are too small to handle a lot of power.

Good luck!

 

[BasturdBlaster]

If the carvin ps15 is cast, that'd be my choice

 

[Bill Whitehurst]

If they are happy with the port tuning of the 106, you don't need them to handle a lot of power and you don't require light weight,
then sure.
If you plan to drive that 106 with a 150B, then they are more than enough and will give you lots of sound per watt.
Definately a good thing if you have limited power.

 

[agedhorse]

The EVM 15L (or even the B) is a great speaker IF you don't need more than say 150 watts RMS per driver (for bass applications). It has a unique mid voicing that nothing else has IMO. We used these extensively at Mesa back in the day. Don't believe the power rating, that's highly predicated on some exacting conditions that really do not apply to MI use. The only difference between the 200 watt series 2 and 400 watt proline is a different consolidation adhesive/coating on the voice coil, the majority of the difference is how the ratings are derived numerically.

An interesting that also has the unique voicing is the Force 15, it's a little lower power (not much in practice) but has a smaller motor which reduces the dryness or stiffness (especially in a sealed cabinet). I do not recall if the standard EVM kits will fit the Force basket, if not then getting even aftermarket recone kits may be a challenge.

Speaking of recone kits, there are some awful aftermarket kits available for the EVM and JBL D/K/E series drivers. The cone/coil weights and the paper composition (thickness/stiffness) is critical to the tone. With the JBL aluminum dust caps, most of the aftermarket caps do not fit like the original Duralum parts which mount directly to the top of the bobbin. This too changes the tone a lot IMO.

 

[Jim C]

I don't know anything about the tuning of a Acoustic 106 cabinet.
I have a TL606 that I built in the 80's.
It's had an EVM, 3015 (non-LF0) and ironically a cast frame Carvin 400 watt, 4 Ohm driver.

I bought the Carvin as I assumed the 4 Ohm / 400 Watt rating would sound great and be really loud. It was 35 years ago and I didn't know any better.
In reality, the EVM sounded great but the Eminence 3015 sounds really good and plays much louder.

 

[Count Bassie]

Nice info here, thanks all around. @agedhorse , that's good to hear, that the 100w number isn't written in stone.
I'll be using the head pulled from a 90s Trace Elliot combo to drive the cab. It's an SM300, 7-band series head that I'll be putting a plywood sleeve around in a minute here.

I'll just have to look into the tuning of the cab.

 

[StereoPlayer]

I use EV's for many, many years. In the Tl606 1x15 cabs. I called them cubes. Lots of times using only one cab I'm clubs.

The rock! I would try them in your cab as is. YMMV

 

[agedhorse]

I don't know anything about the tuning of a Acoustic 106 cabinet.
I have a TL606 that I built in the 80's.
It's had an EVM, 3015 (non-LF0) and ironically a cast frame Carvin 400 watt, 4 Ohm driver.

I bought the Carvin as I assumed the 4 Ohm / 400 Watt rating would sound great and be really loud. It was 35 years ago and I didn't know any better.
In reality, the EVM sounded great but the Eminence 3015 sounds really good and plays much louder.

The only real drawbacks KappaLite 3015 to the EVM-15L is that the real world sensitivity of the EVM is about 2dB higher and the midrange is a little more "musical" (for lack of a better term), but the EVM-15L doesn't have quite the LF extension nor the power handling. It's a tradeoff.

 

[pfschim]

I'd say the EVM 15L's or B's are definitely viable today.
I use a 180w Fender Studio Bass head into an early '80's Fender Fullerton 1x15 cab loaded with an EV 15L and it sounds wonderful. The amp wattage and the cab are pretty well matched so that probably helps.

 

[arbiterusa]

The fretless tone I used to get out of my Boogie bass cabs with 15Ls was incredible. Then I remember how damn heavy they were.

 

[40Hz]

I always liked the sound of EV SROs and used cabs that had them back in the day. If you put them in a cab designed for them, and keep your volume level and power at reasonable levels I still think there’s a certain sonic magic to be found in SROs.

The EVM15-Ls were also excellent speakers. I started getting those after I started pushing more wattage than the SROs could safely handle.

 

[leonard]

What's the real difference between EVM-15L and EVM-15B? I never could figure that out back in the day.

 

[bbh]

I always liked the sound of EV SROs and used cabs that had them back in the day. If you put them in a cab designed for them, and keep your volume level and power at reasonable levels I still think there’s a certain sonic magic to be found in SROs.

The EVM15-Ls were also excellent speakers. I started getting those after I started pushing more wattage than the SROs could safely handle.

I preferred JBL’s to SRO’s. At least that’s how I remember it from the 70’s era.

 

[chris_b]

I used EV's for nearly 20 years, from 1985, in MM, Dynacord and Mesa cabs. I loved them, but never again. Those Mesa RR cabs ruined my back. Neo all the way for me these days.

 

[Count Bassie]

What's the real difference between EVM-15L and EVM-15B? I never could figure that out back in the day.

The L has ridges in the cone and gives a more present hi-freq response.
The B has a smooth cone, less hi-freq content.

 

[40Hz]

I preferred JBL’s to SRO’s. At least that’s how I remember it from the 70’s era.

The JBLs were really good too.

Held up far better than SROs at any rate.

I switched over to mainly JBLs (and later Cerwin-Vega) in the mid 70s. Both hot the job done and brought the sound, so I was happy.

 

[Jim C]

For me, another lowish power speaker that sounds awesome is the Altec 421A.
I put a pair in an old Peavey 2x15 cabinet in the late 70's and still use the cabinet for rehearsal to this day.
Really nice tone with a tube amp as well as all tube pre / power amp.

 

[Super Bass]

Speaking of recone kits, there are some awful aftermarket kits available for the EVM and JBL D/K/E series drivers. The cone/coil weights and the paper composition (thickness/stiffness) is critical to the tone. With the JBL aluminum dust caps, most of the aftermarket caps do not fit like the original Duralum parts which mount directly to the top of the bobbin. This too changes the tone a lot IMO.

Can you recommend a recone kit for a JBL K140?