HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

karatestu wrote: ↑Sun Dec 13, 2020 9:02 am Speaker snobs are alive and well. Just take a look at what is posted on most of the hifi forums. It makes me laugh, you aren't taken seriously unless you have bought drivers over £100 each. Snobbery winds me through the roof and one of the reasons I liked Richard so much. He doped a cheap Chinese soft dome tweeter and strengthened the face plate. Said it was almost as good as the visaton.

I'm a speaker snob.

For my very long term DIY speaker project I paid less than £100 for the tweeters.
For the woofers I'm expecting to pay rather more than £100 per pair.

The woofers will be of a type that Richard rated. And of a type that I rate.

It remains to be seen if my DIY project will ever get finished and if it does whether it will be worth the money or not...

You could also call Steve57 a speaker snob. In that the drivers in his red and black DIY'd 4 ways cost an average of rather more than £100 per pair. His speakers are World Class.

karatestu wrote: ↑Sun Dec 13, 2020 8:36 am

Firebug1 wrote: ↑Sun Dec 13, 2020 7:27 am You aren't going to use those Visaton tweeters, you already have?

Yes, I am still using the Visaton. But I will have speakers to build for my place of work with the isobaric 12 inchers once I have finished these for home. I will require another eight tweeters and not sure I want to fork out for the visaton's again. Thanks to zebbo for selling me his four for £10 . £40 is a lot easier to swallow than £400. But they might sound terrible.

Eight Visatons more... I can feel your pain...

Your mid bass drivers are cheap yet they have large magnets.

And they don't need large magnets because of what they are made off is rubbish.

Good luck with your speakers Lindsay, I hope they turn out pleasing for your ears.

I find the term "world class" to be only relevant in an objective sense. Subjectively, what somebody terms world class will be different for others.

I am on a mission I am going to see how cheaply I can make a pair of speakers that still sound good (to me). £10 for a pair of tweeters, £25 for a pair of 5' mid bass, £10 for a pair of capacitors and a bit of wire. Haven't costed a pair of terminals, bison kit, plastidip or the cabinet yet.

The cheap doped 5 inchers sound better to me than the B&W 6.5" kevlar mid bass that I have with just a single inductor for filter.

Daniel Quinn wrote: ↑Sun Dec 13, 2020 12:41 pm Your mid bass drivers are cheap yet they have large magnets.

And they don't need large magnets because of what they are made off is rubbish.

I suggest you look up neodymium.

Daniel Quinn wrote: ↑Sun Dec 13, 2020 12:41 pm Your mid bass drivers are cheap yet they have large magnets.

And they don't need large magnets because of what they are made off is rubbish.

It isn't the physical size of a magnet that is important but the strength of the magnetic field. Neodymium magnets have the strongest magnetic field so far available thus for a given field strength the magnet can be smaller.

Cheap 2nd hand speakers from thrift /2nd-hand shops will provide you with tweeters to play with.

Fretless wrote: ↑Sun Dec 13, 2020 2:42 pm Cheap 2nd hand speakers from thrift /2nd-hand shops will provide you with tweeters to play with.

Depends how cheap they are. My ocd tells me they should all be the same especially if wiring in series. Plus I like to avoid metal domes if possible.

Geoff.R.G wrote: ↑Sun Dec 13, 2020 1:42 pm

Daniel Quinn wrote: ↑Sun Dec 13, 2020 12:41 pm Your mid bass drivers are cheap yet they have large magnets.

And they don't need large magnets because of what they are made off is rubbish.

It isn't the physical size of a magnet that is important but the strength of the magnetic field. Neodymium magnets have the strongest magnetic field so far available thus for a given field strength the magnet can be smaller.

...And then there's electro magnets, that can have very strong magnetic fields.
Klangfilm used electro magnets on some of their drivers. They seem to be highly sought after, Holy Grail, speaker drivers. EG:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/speaker-klan ... 4385082830
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/speaker-klan ... 4384980528


There does seem to be some correlation between low moving mass for the magnetic field strength and how alive speaker drivers sound.

I'd need a lot more listening tests to detemine if there are any particular sonic strengths to speaker drivers with Alnico, or ferrite, or neodymium, or electro-magnets.

My understanging is that neodynium offers more magnetic strength than ferrite per kg. Whilst ferrite offers more strength per £ spent (on new magnets).

Prove of pudding is in the eating. I find however, it is best not to wrap your desions in cod theory, it may influence your listening.