Replacement Driver advice needed

[duke2004]

I own a shop assembled cabinet made by "Modular" with an EV OEM Series 3400 15B driver, 8 ohm, 400 watts with crossover and 5" Pyle Driver.
Cabinet is 18x17x25, thus 4.25 cu. ft and weighs about 52 lbs. loaded. The box is open on the bottom about 3" x 22"

Love the cabinet but need to reduce weight. (will be part of a rig with two 12" Bergantinos.) Seems like the Eminence KappaLite 3015 will do the trick. Is there any reason to choose the 3015LF ? It costs more, weighs another pound and probably wants a larger box than the non-LF.

Another question: i will need to unsolder the EV and solder in the new drivers leads. I own light-duty 60/40 rosin core. Is this solder appropriate for this application?

Thanks for any input.

 

[B-string]

Someone will correct me if I am wrong (without any doubt ) If you have a mid driver why not use the LF? I believe you have the cab volume for it. The solder is good for the job at hand, don't use more than a 60 watt iron though.

 

[B-string]

anybody?

Sorry only nobody answered

 

[Rick Auricchio]

Have you weighed the drivers? You realize that most of the weight is the cabinet itself.

With driver weights in hand, you can then decide whether replacements will make enough difference to be worth the trouble.

If the weight difference is substantial, then the next question will be the cabinet tuning vs. the T/S parameters for the new drivers.

If your 15" driver is this one Link Removed then it weighs about 21lbs.

The 3015 weighs 7.9lbs; the 3015LF weighs 8.6lbs so that's a decent saving.

But you must measure the exact interior dimensions of the cabinet. Exclude any space taken up by bracing. Then measure the port: the dimensions of the opening, and the depth of it. Only then can the current cab tuning be determined.

Wrong tuning can destroy a driver.

 

[lbwdog]

Sorry only nobody answered

LOL! Maybe you're on "Ignore"?

The simple answer is: If it's a well designed crossover, and the 5" reproduces mids satisfactorily, The LF might be a good choice.
It also depends on the crossover frequency.

If it's crossed at a high frequency, the 3015 could be a better choice as many reports say it does mids better than the LF.

 

[B-string]

LOL! Maybe you're on "Ignore"?
{snip}

And I though that was reserved for the wife at bedtime?

 

[lbwdog]

O.P., I'm having trouble digesting the dimensions you stated. If the "bottom opening" (port?) is 3"x22", that means the cab is 25" wide. That would leave either the 18" or 17" dimension as height. So subtracting the port height of 3 inches from either of these, doesn't leave room to mount a 15" driver. Got any pics? Are those internal or external measurements?

 

[duke2004]

Thanks for the replies. Duh! yes of course, i should have measured interior dimensions. The inside of the box is actually 17" x 21.5" x 14.5" and bottom opening is 17" x 2.5".

Dont know where the crossover point is, though i did weigh the EV driver and its above 19 lbs, so going to 7 -9 lbs will be worth the effort for me..so long as the cabinet works. I guess its not looking good for the 3015LF option.

 

[lbwdog]

Is that a combo? Sure looks like an awful lot of stuffing for a ported cab. Sealed cabs are usually "stuffed" whereas ported should have the walls lined.

 

[Rick Auricchio]

You'll have to measure how far in the port goes (its depth from the front of the baffle board).

Figuring out the current crossover point will require you to post a detailed photo of the crossover board. And all component values you can read.

 

[duke2004]

not sure about that insulation. should i remove some/all? kind of defeats the porting. the bottom slots go all the way to the back...the coaxial 5" visible along with a crossover detail

 

[billfitzmaurice]

The fiberglass should go, a ported box should be lined with an inch of damping, not stuffed. And that's not a crossover, it's a first order high pass filter, which is almost useless. The midrange should be isolated in its own separate sub-enclosure. Check out the fEarful threads to see how it should be done.

 

[duke2004]

Ha, looks like the "pros" at AudioPro in Watertown built me quite an odd duck. So, if i dont care about the two-way aspect, is there disaster in replacing the driver with the eminence 3015 / 3015LF ?

 

[lbwdog]

Based on the internal dimensions you posted, your cab is 3.067 cu ft gross. Eminence recommends 3.6-6.8 cu ft for the LF, and 1.8-5.1 for the 3015. http://eminence.com/neodymium.asp

So the 3015 would be a better match for the size box you have. In the end, how it sounds will be determined by the tuning, which is dependent on the "port". Is the port just a slot cut into the baffle board, or does it have a shelf (barrier) that extends back into the cab?

The other unknown here is the 5" driver. Is it suitable for good mid-range reproduction? If so, it would need a good crossover, at a frequency that would be complimentary to the driver's freq response.
A lot of guys are using the 3015 alone in their cabs, and are pleased with the results. Or, if you want to spend more money, and make a project out of it, you could get a 6" driver, and build one of the fEarful crossovers. This would allow the 6" to handle mids and highs starting around 500Hz.
fEarful Wiki: http://www.talkbass.com/wiki/index.php/Fearful™_12/6_&_15/6

If it were my cab, I'd ditch the HP filter and the 5" driver, seal the 5" hole, and use it like that.