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Which 15s for a 2x15 sealed cab

#22
all the cheaper stamp steel drivers have been listed. delta 15a beta 15a
the new bp 1525. which really is a spin on the same cheap delta15lfa. they are affordable speakers designed for small sealed monitor wedges. which is why they work well for sealed bass applications. if your willing to spend 30 more dollars for a high quality cast frame speaker. the good old legend cb 158 is where you go. And the 98 db of sensitivity is worth the money compared to the 96 db offered by the betas or bp. likewise yes the legends don't offer as much high end. so then you spend your money
on the delta pro 15a a higher quality cast frame driver similar to the 158 but it has wayyyy more sensitivity and more high end.
 
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#24
Woofers with an Qts around 0.4-0.5 just to get an cabinet Qtc around >0.7 should work fine.
Lowish driver Qts 0.3-04 yields in a rather lean low response but also tight (pulse) response cause Qtc is a system damping criteria.
Lowish cabinet (system) Qtc can be liked, or even not, it depends.
Unfortunatelly there aen't very much drivers that fit well in sealed cabinets system damping (Qtc) wise.
I'd keep a closer look at MI designed drivers rather then true pro audio drivers.
 
#25
arbitrary said:
I'm curiouser and curiouser looking to build a sealed 2x15; I'll most likely throw in a mid driver, but no tweeter. Think dirty sludgy stoner doom low tuning type stuff with alotta overdrive, with the occasional random funk gig. What do yous guys recommend?


I'm certainly open to other recommendations as well.

thanks
Click to expand...

Do you have the woodworking skills to build cabinets, sealed or not? It's possible to build a box with a circular saw, a couple of sawhorses and a square. It's a lot easier to build a cabinet with a table saw and a stacked dado head, though.

For a successful outcome, there's some other stuff involved, too. Like being able to look at driver specs and figuring out how big the box should be, and so on.

It might be useful to take a look at the number of sealed 1-15 or 2-15 cabinets offered over the years by commercial manufacturers. That alone might provide some useful guidance.

My 2 pesos.
 
#27
BoughtTheFarm said:
Do you have the woodworking skills to build cabinets, sealed or not? It's possible to build a box with a circular saw, a couple of sawhorses and a square. It's a lot easier to build a cabinet with a table saw and a stacked dado head, though.
Click to expand...

Need something for cutting a big hole too. Sawzall/jigsaw route sucks if you want a nice smooth hole. I got a super cheap store brand trim router ($25ish?) for a project. It survived the project and I threw it in a box. I thought I could make a jig for that and maybe get a nice 15" hole cut. So I found the router, and low and behold, it had a fence/circle cutting jig. Made a beautiful 15" hole with very little sanding afterwards. Now it's survived a 2nd project and paid for itself twice.
 
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#28
Thanks for the responses everyone. A lot of solid info here. I'm not sure I'll have the time to make this myself with baby#2 due any day now. Most likely I'll have someone build it for me, maybe LDS or someone local. Not sure yet.
The most solid options at this point seem to be the Legend 1525, Delta 15LFA or the legend CB158. Ideally, I'd like to get as low freq response as possible (even though it's sealed; I'll also most likely ad a midrange driver) and as efficient as possible.

Any other options I'm missing?
 
#31
punchclock said:
Eminence specs and literature recommend vented for the Kappa-Pros. They don't even give specs for sealed.
They really sound good? What cab?
Click to expand...

I had them in two 2x15 HEX cabinets (Locally made by the fellas in Eagle Twin - used by Scott Shriner in Weezer), a 410x215 made by Electric Amps USA and now in 2 2x15's made by Monument (another local maker) - although these are front ported.
 
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#32
Korladis said:
The Ampeg B-25B cab was sealed, right?

What current speakers work in that? Might model a cab based on that one, adjusting the dimensions slightly for the speakers you're using.
Click to expand...

Nope-the B25B has ports. The B25 cab is sealed. That version is for guitar.

I have a couple modern Eminence speakers in mine that sound pretty good-they are Ampeg/Eminence speakers from the B15E/B15R cabs.
 
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#33
punchclock said:
Eminence specs and literature recommend vented for the Kappa-Pros. They don't even give specs for sealed.
Click to expand...
That's because they were designed for ported cabs. Sure, they'll work in a sealed cab. You can put pickles on a pizza too. That doesn't mean it will taste good. But I suppose some people might think so.
Every Eminence driver has cab designs for them posted on the Eminence site. If there's no sealed cab option shown it's for a reason.
 
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#34
Rick James said:
That's because they were designed for ported cabs. Sure, they'll work in a sealed cab. You can put pickles on a pizza too. That doesn't mean it will taste good. But I suppose some people might think so.
Every Eminence driver has cab designs for them posted on the Eminence site. If there's no sealed cab option shown it's for a reason.
Click to expand...
They will make sound, yes.

Whether people like those sounds... well...
 
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#37
efficiency and bandwidth are often misunderstood and both are dirrectly related.

EBP is a good indicator of suitable drivers for sealed or ported.

It's a rule of thumb often misunderstood. EBP of 50 and lower is said for sealed. actually it means 50 and lower is only suited for sealed. likewise 50 to 100 is recommended for vented.

No 100 or higher is for vented only.

drivers that range 50 to 100 can go in sealed or ported.

And drivers in the 100 range do just fine in sealed. People act like high quality drivers in 150 to 200 dollar range automatically sound horrible or something in a sealed box...no

system Q is always the primary concern in vented or ported and the primary mistake made with system Q is making the box to small. this factor will have a major effect on audible sound. too small of box produces slurring and boomy sound from high q. a box to large doesn't effect sound quality as much it effects power handling.

likewise drivers with high EBP near 100 usually require a larger box. power handling is the trade off not sound quality.

likewise a driver with a EBP of 50 will do fine in a vented box again the efficiency and bandwidth only effects the power handling. not sound quality unless driver is placed in a box with poor Q Again same thing vented or sealed boxes will have poor Q in too small of a box.

the faital pro driver has a fs in the low 30s it's bandwidth and efficiency are excellent candidate for a sealed box. again it just requires a larger box.

usually drivers with correct bandwidth for sealed are very muddy drivers. So many many drivers with much better high end and bandwidth in the 100 EBP will do absolutely fine in a sealed box as long as the system Q of .7

Your assumptions that drivers magically sound horrible if EBP is not in range is incorrect.
 
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#40
Actually, I have a bit of a question here. I have a Traynor YS-15, with what I imagine is a CB-158 in it. It honestly sounds amazing for bass, though I think it's a bit big internally for "ideal" with that driver (about 2.5 or so cubic feet gross internal volume, sealed). I'm about to pursue some pretty big career changes, and won't be pursuing music much in the near future. That said, I'd still like to play into a rig with some mojo, hence why I got the cabinet. Anyways, I'd like to pop in another driver that could do well in this kind of cab with both bass (up to the 300 watts my PF500 would put out), and guitar (with a Valve Junior). Now, I wouldn't be using this thing full throttle with the PF-500 very often if at all, and if somebody offers me enough I might not even have the PF-500, might get a smaller 200 watt one or a PF-350, or even a PF-50T after a few paycheques.

Anyways, would a Delta 15a have a bit more high-end to work for guitar (acoustic and electric), but still have decent power handling for bass? My other idea was honestly to get a really cheap 15" driver, and replace the cone on it with a much lighter one to help with high-end - but that's an immense crapshoot, though I've found parts that could work.
 

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