Morel drivers...

has anyone got any opinions about this make of speaker drive units?
cheers


julian

 

Julian,

Morel make some good units, particularly midrange cones that seem to be just about indestructable. Why do you ask BTW - the actual cone makes a lot less of a contribution to the sound of a speaker than you might imagine.

 

all the big names are excellent, seas, scan, vifa, peerless, morel no expception, I believe they are Israeli!!!, who'd have thought it, and have something to do with dynaudio.

 

Really? There are those who say the contribution they make is generally underestimated. Also time spent matching driver pairs (especially tweeters) can reap dividends.

 

i got sent the wilmslow audio catalogue and was thinking about having a go. they have a kit there for about 500 quid all in that uses a morel mdt32s tweeter and 2 mw144 mids. bit of a risk though as resale value will be zip if i don't like them.
cheers


julian

 

I know Alan is insistant on this and I do agree about matching pairs, but listen to the same driver in different cabinets and you start to realise just how important cabinet and crossover design really is.

Morel are fine drivers Julian. If it were me, I'd pay Wilmslow a visit and see if you can hear any of their built up kits prior to purchase.

 

The Morel fabric dome tweeters are good.

 

You can say that and give lowrider a hard time about his lack of knowlege of speaker design???


GTM

 

I would very interested to see actual the reference to your claims, Merlin. Where is the chapter and verses in textbooks or papers that drivers are not important to the sound of a speakers? Have you alter one component at a time be it drivers, crossover etc and then apply proper Art of Critical Listening. If you base your statement of your observation that two different manufacturers using appearantly similar cones sounds different is simply another anectodal opinion. How do you know they have not alter the drivers for example. Anyone of you DIYers or loudspeakers builders have more experience on this. I do wonder how important is each component to the whole package.

 

As a Harbethian, I wouldn't disagree with that statement at all. However, the logical thing to do would be to test different drivers in the same cabinet (something I believe AS has done).
Anyway, at least I understand you are not saying drivers have *no* bearing on sound. And when all is said and done, pulp is a pretty good material for bass drivers

 

I've been tempted nosing through their catalogue as well before. There was a pair of one of their cheaper floorstanders for sale of eBay recently (can't remember which I'm afraid) and I watched it to see what they went for. They did much better than I expected, and did fetch a fair proportion of their cost. So maybe not such a total disaster if you end up not liking some. The ones for sale did look very well put together mind; any bodging building them would obviously pose problems.

 

All I am saying GTM is take a drive unit and listen to it in an open baffle. Then listen in a box and tell me whether the actual type of drive unit is the dominant factor. I guess it's like anything, it's not what you use neccessarily but how you you it.

 

I agree with them Merlin, not that I am siding, but from what you have appeared to have said is that the material isn't a factor. It may be just what you are saying has not come across as you intended it too, or I have misconstrued.

I am sure everything with speakers is a factor, magnets, voice coils, cone shape, materials, boxes, xovers the whole darn lot.The relative contributions of each of them is unknown, but I am sure they all play some part. I would tend to think the cone material does have a considerable bearing on the sound. but yes, its not called a loudspeaker SYSTEM for nothing, its the sum of the parts.

I have come to the conclusion that you can't really test anything in isolation.

Scanspeak do the 8545 carbon paper unit, and one very similar in kevlar.
But other parameters are different, so simply swapping would not be 100% due to the other factors.You also may have to alter the xover. The audio plot thickens...I still do think it would give a very fair comparison tho', if you dropped them both in, and that was one reason I was interested in those wilmslows, to change kevlar with carbon.

One thing I have found is that I liked all paper and kevlar coned speakers I have heard to date. And not been that keen on metal ones, they all were to a certain extent literal, and had a slight emphasis.

I was watching those wilmslows, too, can't remember the model but they had the 8545 woofer and 9500 tweeter, scansp., they were extremely well made, I thinik your instincts are correct, the resale value of kits does tend to plummet. Sadly. They are probably as good if not better than a lot of the competition. I have heard they are not as good designwise since Shaun left. he does know his stuff. They do need to be well made tho'.

Here is an opinion, its a personal one, but I think its also true WRT everyone validating it and knowing that themselves that it bears out in reality, that 90% of audio is personal opinion, there are very few proveable statements made, and a lot of makers hot air jerking off.

edited again!!! to add, yes I see what you are saying, Merlin, other factors play a part. Yes agree in principle.
What is VERY interesting is that a certain other maker uses totally different drivers and still manages to get a very similar house sound.

 

Interesting. Let push this further. If that is the case does that means when one of the drivers in your loudspeakers goes boing and there is not need to replace it the same model driver then? The pair will sounds very similar since the actual driver are not the most important contribution to the sound characteristic of the actual loudspeakers.

I have never done this. However, I have been always interested to understand what is the actual thing that makes any pair of loudspeakers sound as they do since to my ears most of them don't sound similar.

As far as I understand that is one of the reason those BBC people wanted LS3/5a monitors. Not because they are 'very special' but they are made to sound very similar to the other studio monitors they uses. One of the reason they are very difficult to come by it nowadays is because those cones drivers are not made any more.

 

I'm sure I am just being misconstrued (no change here )

trying to put it another way, buying a speaker based purely on the drive units used would not make a great deal of sense to me. The Scanspeak 8545 is a good example. Listen to the Proac 2.5 and the Merlin VSM both of which use the famous midwoofer but sound very different indeed.

All I was saying was that a loudspeaker is the sum of it's parts, and drive units are just one of those. Of course it helps to start with the best ingredients.

 

Merlin, how did you develop such a knack for controversy?

BTW, I wholeheartly agree with you on the following.

 

I have bought bits of Wimslow, but I've never heard their full systems. Personally, I think they have far too many products in their catalogue, and go into raptures about all of them. I would rather they had 1/10 the choice, and got ther prices down. There are a few much cheaper kit suppliers. Morel stuff is good, esp tweeters. Israeli, as Data said

 

Very good point. Thanks for clarifying that up. Some one once point out how cheap they are to the actual sale price of the loudspeakers. It does makes me wonder how important they are to the actual end product sound quality.

By the way, trying not to hijack the thread. What is it that give the impression that a certain loudspeakers seems to be able to resolve more details then others? To my ears what I am refering to is the ability to reveal the minute details of the sound a singer voice. One pair of loudspeakers give a good impression of the voice but another some how allow you to hear or feel the emotion of the same voice far more easily.

 

I'm sure it helps to be an opinionated old git Dev

One thing I will say is that the ATC SCM75 seems to be an extraordinary drive unit when employed by really good speaker designers