Kappalite coaxials!!

[DukeLeJeune]

Eminence just introduced three coaxial Kappalite models: A 10, a 12, and a 15 (all in 8 ohms).

You can find them on this page, with Eminences's other Neo magnet woofers:

Neodymium Series | Eminence Speaker

To say that I find their specs and curves intriguing would be a huge understatement. And I doubt that I'm the only manufacturer whose wheels are a-turnin'.

And when the day comes that Eminence has off-the-shelf crossovers for their Kappalite coaxials, DIY bass cabs will take a frightening leap forward.

 

[Mike Arnopol]

I just looked. Super cool!!! The ten looked so-so to me, but the 12 looks amazing! I can't see where the driver mounts. Obviously the graph is just the woofer. Is there a built-in hf driver?

 

[DukeLeJeune]

P.S. - Don't anybody tell Mike Arnopol about these!

Edit: DANGIT!!

 

[fast slapper]

I saw these yesterday as well. Not immediately obvious how the driver mounts. Probably screw on adapter.

 

[DukeLeJeune]

Yes, they (edit: the compression drivers) would be screw-ons.

The thermal power handling ratings of the Kappalite coaxials are 400 watts instead of the 450 watts of their conventional counterparts, presumably reflecting the slight loss of cooling efficiency.

I looked for them yesterday on Eminence's website but they hadn't shown up yet. So I think you were among the first to see the actual data sheets.

Eminence introduced some other very cool stuff at NAMM, which hadn't shown up yet on their site last time I looked.

 

[ctmullins]

Wow! Sign me up!

 

[pie_man_25]

I don't understand what you guys aren't seeing, there are screw holes in the pictures of the front of the speaker.

 

[ctmullins]

Looks like the same method used by the Beta coaxials- the center of the magnet structure is threaded, and your choice of HF driver screws right in. No adapter needed.

Very clever!

 

[Bass_Pounder]

I don't understand what you guys aren't seeing, there are screw holes in the pictures of the front of the speaker.

Not regular "mounting holes"

Looking for where/how the high freq driver attaches.

 

[pie_man_25]

Not regular "mounting holes"

Looking for where/how the high freq driver attaches.

Tracking. Yeah, it's not like the beta models, where the middle of the motor is conspicuously threaded.

 

[JKos]

So the HF radiates through the dust cap?

- John

 

[pie_man_25]

So the HF radiates through the dust cap?

- John

It does the same for the coaxial betas. You screw an HF driver into the back of the driver, and the dust cap is apparently open or thin enough to let the sound out without much colouration.

 

[fast slapper]

Eminence introduced some other very cool stuff at NAMM, which hadn't shown up yet on their site last time I looked.

How cool we talking? Been waiting to see if they had anything new this year.

 

[Passinwind]

Eminence just introduced three coaxial Kappalite models: A 10, a 12, and a 15 (all in 8 ohms).

You can find them on this page, with Eminences's other Neo magnet woofers:

Neodymium Series | Eminence Speaker

To say that I find their specs and curves intriguing would be a huge understatement. And I doubt that I'm the only manufacturer whose wheels are a-turnin'.

And when the day comes that Eminence has off-the-shelf crossovers for their Kappalite coaxials, DIY bass cabs will take a frightening leap forward.

Send me your first prototype build! Especially if one with the ten pans out.

 

[DukeLeJeune]

So the HF radiates through the dust cap?

There is a short horn underneath the dustcap, looks like a roughly 80 degree conical. This is an area where tradeoffs must be juggled. Here is my best understanding of what those tradeoffs are:

- If the compression driver exits into the apex of the cone (with no horn), that is arguably the "purest" approach from the standpoint of pattern matching, but the cone motion modulates the output of the compression driver and clarity is reduces as cone excursion increases. This has been my experience with the big Tannoy home audio speakers which use this configuration - they sound great at low and medium volume, but lose clarity at high volume.

- If you use a large separate horn for the compression driver, that protects its output against modulation by the woofer cone, but causes a large reflection of the top end of the woofer's output off the backside of the horn, back into the speaker cone. This causes some nasty dippage in the top end of the cone's response, along with a reduction of clarity in that region because you have multiple very early arrival times.

- Eminence takes what looks to me like a "middle of the road" approach, with a small horn that doesn't screw up the cone's top end but still big enough to significantly reduce modulation by the cone. There is no "perfect" coaxial, but this is the first time I have EVER seen a coaxial that looked as good as any of these three. These all look highly useable to me for electric bass, and the 3012CX is just amazingly smooth and would probably work great in a PA or other general-purpose cab, or even in home audio. (For the record, I have found Eminence's published curves to be totally trustworthy.)

In my opinion, for bass guitar in particular, you want good output from your cone in the 1.5 to 2 kHz region. Most coaxials have a lot of dippage in that region. All of these new Kappalite coaxials are welcome exceptions.

 

[agedhorse]

Any idea what the cutoff frequency of the horn flair?

 

[DukeLeJeune]

How cool we talking? Been waiting to see if they had anything new this year.

There's a 21" 2500 watt woofer with a 6" voice coil that has 21 mm of linear excursion one-way, a 6 ohm impedance and parameters that don't require EQ for good bottom end. Neo motor, forty-something pounds. The only other woofer in its general power handling + excursion class that I am aware of is a B&C that has a 1 ohm voice coil, and requires EQ to bring up the bottom end. I have included a pair of these 21" Eminence woofers in my bid on a custom studio speaker project.

Two 18" woofers, one neo and one ceramic, with extremely long linear excursion (15 mm for the neo, 14 mm for the ceramic).

Two 1" throat compression drivers, one of which is a small screw-on with a Mylar diaphragm.

A crossover for the 3012HO + NSD 2005 compression driver + WG10 waveguide horn (a REALLY sweet PA horn).

And finally, four new guitar speakers specially engineered to shut down the guitarist's amp if he tries to turn it up to eleven. Okay I made up some of that.

 

[fast slapper]

Very cool indeed. About time they went after the Italians. Thanks!

Guitar amps should be limited to 1x8". Would make the world a better place.

 

[JimChjones]

Guitar amps should be limited to 1x8". Would make the world a better place.

And 5 watts. A mate gigs with a pair of 5W Blackstars. Says its great, he can turn everything up to 11 and still have a sensible stage volume.

 

[DukeLeJeune]

Any idea what the cutoff frequency of the horn flair?

It's not quite conical, I can see now that there is some gentle curvature to it, but its geometry looks to me like it's on the "constant directivity" end of the spectrum. Looks sort of like a larger version of the APT-50, minus the mounting flange. It's considerably bigger than the one in the Beta CX series. Diameter looks close to 3", so I would guess that pattern control starts to degrade in the 2.2 kHz ballpark.