I’m currently trying a little project which will be comparing various such drivers against one another in a back loaded horn cabinet (Lowther Acousta) I’m trying to get a loose pair of Einklang drivers, some similar units from Visaton & SB and some Lowthers. Why? Because I really enjoyed the Acoustas I briefly had a couple of years ago (which were at Lopwell) There’s still something very appealing to me about the way such a speaker energises a room in a way that ported or IB ones can’t/don’t. Even the Acousta’s with Pm6A’s just had this easy but solid delivery as far down as they went & I like it.
It will involve possibly including bandstop networks to curtail the excesses of the whizzer cone behaviour (as the Einklangs had) but that’s not too complicated a thing to work out.
Those Lowthers were nice. I didn’t really notice the excitable top end on the Einklangs as my room was horrible, boomy bass and seemed to suck out the treble (think that’s why I preferred the Beyma to the 2405 in the tone scouts as the beyma is a bit more lively)
I’ve got some Omega CAM speakers you’re welcome to borrow (as long as you don’t rip the drivers out of them )
They’re a hemp single driver with alnico magnet. They have an absolutely magical midrange but zero bass
It’ll depend on the TS parameters to some degree. The driver ideally wants a reasonably low Qts and a resonant frequency down below 50 Hz. I’ve a couple of other drivers I also want to try, some Pioneer PAX-20E which are a strange old thing with little electrostatic panels covering the higher frequencies and also a pair of old German field coil drivers of the right size but I don’t know if they’ll match well to the horn even with the electro magnet fully cranked up. We’ll see.
If either the SB or Visaton can be got to work nicely I might tap up a cabinet supplier in Asia to see what they could make a suitable back loaded horn for.
The other speakers I have, which have the same, easy, room filling character are some little back loaded bass horns with the tiny Fostex Fe83 drivers. They again have no right to drive a room as well as they can. It’ll just be the sound of drivers not having to move too much that I’m liking which means the distortion stays relatively low.
I’m aware of the Lils but haven’t heard any. Also of course the Fostex as well as spendy AER & Feastrex items. Initially I just want to get a feel for what the more affordable stuff can be made to do.
I definitely think there’s a sensibly priced speaker system to be got out of it. I was a bit shocked just recently to see a couple of dealers I know selling a new version of the Acousta but £11k seems a bit strong. That said, speaker pricing has gone mental the past 4-5 years.
Same seller I got my pair from although mine were an earlier ply version whereas those look like the later chipboard version (not that I necessarily know that makes them worse) @Rob998 was kind enough to collect so I owe him.
I certainly think the diaphragms on the very old Pm6A’s in that last pair I had, had a lovely soft feel & sound whereas newer examples of the driver have a much more shrill characteristic.
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