Which speakers next?

Hello everyone,

I'd like to tap into your collective knowledge and experiences to help me decide which direction to go in with my next speaker purchase.

But before we get on to what I should buy next I feel it's important to tell you what I'm using now as reference point....

I bought my current speakers second hand and they are a kit speaker based on components sourced from Wilmslow Audio. The original owner/builder must have spent a small fortune as they are equipped with some very nice components.

The speakers are a 3-way floor standing tower design 87cm tall x 20.5cm wide and 30.5 cm deep.
They are a bass reflex ported design with a front firing reflex port at the bottom of the speaker fronts (which makes them look like a transmission line).
The drive units are:
Scanspeak D2905/9500 treble
Scanspeak 13M 8640 mid
Seas Excel W17 EX001 (6") bass

The very substantial cross overs are mounted externally and are configured for bi-wiring or Bi-amping. The capacitors and inductors are very high quality.

I find these speakers excellent in the mid to high frequencies with fantastic detail and transparency. Imaging is good, vocals sound natural and I really like the Scanspeak tweeters which do not often sound harsh.

The area where I feel my speakers are lacking is the bass region. The bass is very tight and well controlled but it doesn't go as low as I would like and I often feel that there is not enough emphasis on the lower frequencies in the speakers presentation. To this end I have ended up using the tone controls on my pre-amp to boost the bass slightly.

I'd like to make it clear that I'm not after a mega-boom bass cannon sort of sound here but I would like a speaker with a more authoritative and convincing presentation in the low frequencies.

Now I could be wrong but I can't help feeling that the 6" bass drivers I have simply can't move enough air to create the scale of sound I'm after. A friend of mine once had some huge old Leak speakers with enormous (15"?) bass drivers and whilst the treble was awful by modern standards the bass sounded really effortless. In comparison the bass on speakers with small drivers often sounds 'forced' to me.

There is so much choice available and I really don't want to make an expensive mistake so I'm hoping that the wealth of experience on this forum might be able to help me narrow my choices down a little.

Suggestions most welcome.

 

OK no takers then.

Well here is a picture to give you a better idea of what I have already.



http://postimage.org/image/guyaomf4v/

My question was probably too specific. Maybe I should be more general.

The question I'd like to ask is this:

What are the relative merits of the various commonly employed speaker designs with specific regard to quality of sound reproduction in the lower frequency ranges? For example; transmission line designs, versus single large diameter bass drivers vs multiple smaller drivers?

Thanks, Mike

 

Mike,

There are so many different designs out there and generalising doesn't do the subject justice.

With bass drivers and three way designs where the driver is freed from covering the mids I'd be inclined to go for a larger driver (>=8') since these are generally of higher sensitivity and will produce lower distortion than small drivers for the same SPL.

Conventional two-way designs require small bass/mid drivers for good performance in the crossover region but they can't play as loud or as cleanly in the bass.

There are some phase benefits in opting for a sealed box, but if you want good extension at the bottom this requires drivers designed for use in closed cabinets and those are less common these days. Porting offers potentially greater efficiency but poorer phase coherence.

Multiple smaller bass drivers can make for a slimmer cabinet which many prefer, and this is useful if you want good upper mids as one driver can cover those frequencies while the rest are bass only. The classic Mission 753 is a good example (and underrated these days).

So I guess ideally you want a large bass driver in a large sealed box allied to fine mid and HF units, possibly in their own enclosure. Planars, domes, horns, take your pick.
Horn loaded bass is probably best, but for good extension the horns are huge, and I mean huge!

That's very general indeed but the topic is a complex one.

 

Thanks Rob, an insightful reply as ever.

Your description of the ideal speaker sounds like a KEF 105 to me

I was originally attracted to a transmission line design as they seem to be famous for doing low frequency extension very well. However I've also heard opinions that they can be a bit 'slow' compared to other designs. The only transmission line design I've ever owned was a very old pair of B&W DM2's which were fairly unremarkable by modern standards so I'm not very well placed to comment on this. Do you think the 'slow' criticism is justified?

All things considered perhaps a 3-way design with a larger bass driver is the way forward as overall I like the presentation of my current speakers I just wish they had a bit more to give at the low frequencies.

I'm now considering the option of rebuilding my existing speakers (pictured above) but with new wider cabinets necessary to house a larger bass driver. Of course I'd need to get advise on suitable cabinet volume(s) and amendments to the crossovers design etc.

 

Harbeth 40.1, if you have the space for them.





http://www.harbeth.co.uk/uk/index.p...nitor40.1domestic&model=Monitor 40.1 domestic

 

Hi Labarum,

Yep, there are right up there at the top of my dream speaker wish list along with the Spendor SP 100R's.

Stunning speakers. I'm very jealous.

Space actually isn't too much of a problem for me but unfortunately financial constraints are!

So your vote would be for some big 3-way speakers with large bass drivers.

 

Don't be jealous of me. I don't own 40.1s.

I have pair of old German towers



MB Quart 980s

http://www.hifi-wiki.de/index.php/MB_Quart_980_S

Two 8" bass drivers in each speaker.

 

Interesting speakers, how do you rate them?

I'd have enough room to install a second bass driver in mine under the existing ones. Which could be another option.

Does anyone know how this would effect what would be needed in terms of crossovers?

If I had two bass drivers running 'tandem' still as a 3-way design presumably the frequencies wouldn't be altered but it would take more power to drive them?

I'm bi-amping at the moment using one amp to drive the highs and mids and the second amp to drive the woofers. The crossovers are set up this way for bi wiring or bi amping.

 

They are 27 years old. From time to time I walk into a HiFi shop, listen, and walk out again. I ain't finished with them yet. They were award winners in Germany in their day and cost about the same as Quad Electrostatics. They have an aluminium dome mid range driver - that is not common, but all the top-of-the-range Quart speakers of that period used the dome. They are sealed boxes.

They have a smaller sister with only one 8" driver which sounds rather thinner. The two bass drivers are 8 ohm and in parallel taking the pair back to 4 ohm.

There is a later version that has a more complex crossover that turns them into four ways.

I wouldn't have the confidence to mess with a design. I would get it gloriously wrong - but since you have a kit loudspeaker, have a go, but won't you mess up the enclosure loading in a big way?