42 replies to this topic

[268669♫]

Hi Everyone,

Looking for nice cheap 3 inch wideband midrange that is made for IB. Looked at the Fountek Fr range but not really ideal for fee air with QTS around .5. Looking for something around the high .6 low .7 range

Ant

[Damon]

The Fountek's sure look attractive at the 'list price' but another factor is that shipping on them costs so much.

An affordable locally sourced alternative is the Hertz HL 70, which at $199 RRP seems pretty good value. I've not heard these but the matching HSK165 6.5-inch 2-way set is very nice so there's no reason not to think these would be any different.

http://www.hertzaudi...cat=1&numprod=4


Specs:

http://www.hertzaudi...Energy_HL70.pdf

Edited by Damon, 28 February 2012 - 07:48 AM.

[Fury♫]

How low do you want it to play?
Are you going to be using a high frequency driver above it?
You're going to find that any 3" wide range used IB is going to be extremely excursion limited in the lower end.
QTS won't matter as much if you don't need the driver to go down below ~500hz or so.

Have you tried the Faital drivers yet?

[268669♫]

Thanks for the recommendation Damon, will have a look at them.

Thanks Danny, your a legend, I had totaly forgot I had those. I put them on the shelf when they arrived to test out in the horns but since taking the horns out I've totally forgot about them. Will give them a go. They may be a bit small though.

Was hoping for them to play from 250hz - 6.5khz+. I have the SB29 tweets for top end and the SB17 mids for bottom end. I know the faitals wont play that low but was hoping to find a larger 3 inch cone that would.

The HAT L3 looks good and the L3SE even better but very pricey for what I want.

I still have the SEAS excel 5.5 inch midrange but the break up at 8khz is a bit nasty and they are still too big to mount in the A-pillar. Was hoping these would sell for around 300 and fund the purchase of some nice widebanders. Wouldn't mind a set of the H audio drivers.

Ant

[Fury♫]

I've compared the HAT L3 to the Faital 3FE20.
The main differences are the Faital is less damped, hence has much better top end extension (albeit more breakup too - around 14khz), and much more efficient.
However, it does not play as low as the L3.
Either way both are quite limited in their lower end by excursion.
If you can fit it, the Scanspeak 10F is a fantastic midrange, and the low qts means it will work in a very small sealed enclosure.

Are you planning on mounting on the a-pillar, or in the corner of the a-pillar and dash?
If in the corner, you can use the dash / windscreen to help load the driver, improving bottom end resopnse...

[268669♫]

It will be in the corner using dash windscreen and a-pillar for loading/waveguide, vented straight outside to the engine bay as there is a big hole just under the windscreen each side of the dash. Dont want to use enclosure.

Here is the hole.
http://i1119.photobu...ad/IMG_0661.jpg
http://i1119.photobu...ad/IMG_0663.jpg

Ant

[muzzy66]

Focal 3w2 be - I think they have,a high Q from memory, but not a nice a driver as the fountek imo.

[Fury♫]

Man I wish I had the balls to do that to my car
Please notify me if you ever decide to get rid of the beatle

I'd be stuffing that hole quite heavily with dacron, making it semi-aperidoc, and using a Scan 10F.... but that's just me

[268669♫]

I've actually got 4 of the Scanspeak aperiodic vents and could us them for proper AP. One would be plenty big enough for each speaker, but i think it would still be too much playing and fiddling around.

I just wanted easy so will probably give the faitals a go and see how they sound, if its nice I will go with them for while and just enjoy the music.

Ant

[AJ (LOUDA1)]

Have you had a look at the sb acoustics 4"?

(null)

[syd-monster]

http://www.madisound...e-4-full-range/

Ant, put them were I suggested, sealed and step up to a 4", in particular the attached.

Like how i "suggest".

[268669♫]

Thanks Chris, I wondered when you were going to pop in, I was also looking at the enabled drivers from planet 10 and in particular the FF85 as it is a 3 inch mid that he has treated and works well. I was hoping to mount how you suggested but using a PVC vent to the holes I already have rather than cutting more steel. What you think?

Ant

[syd-monster]

Yep...i think we need a "planning" session.

An enabeled Fostek would be good too. However, out of the box the Mark Audio gets my tick. Better still, if you get the paper/grey cone version of the Alpair7 and have it eNabled then your talking proper driver, even if you don't use it in the car then you know its a perfect refernce full ranger for home. If not, i'll buy them off you at no loss to you.

[ryzaa]

If you want to give something different a try:
http://www.parts-exp...tnumber=296-220

However those Mark Audio drivers are very good, but the whole eNabled thing has always looked on paper to me as another piece of Psychoacoustics...

Other popular ones to consider would be the Fountek FR88 which has been previously mentioned, the 3 inch Fostex drivers appear on paper to suit your requirements, or for a cheaper alternative, the tangband bamboo cones and some of their other ones get a pretty good wrap.

[Luke352]

If you can fit a 4" driver check these out. http://creativesound...p?model=VWR126X I've seen the distrotion and freq response graphs, very impressive. Same goes for there new LD25X XBL tweeter, you can see it's good just looking at the plots in the report by Jeff Bagby, but when he starts talking about the best he's ever seen you know it's a real gem.