For the last 3 months or so I've been pondering on how to replace my Genelec 8050 with diy 3-way tops. Why I call them "tops"? Because this...
They sit on top of 200l subs, which I made for realistic levels of sub-bass. With room gain these go up to 120dB in room at 23Hz, so they're fairly beastly.
There are two ways I could go with these passive box "tops".
1. Sealed 3-way with hifi drivers - 9.5" Satori bass, 12MU Scanspeak mid, SB dimple-dome tweeter (there's friggin gazillion of them).
CONS: Won't go as loud, finding a decent mid with enough headroom is PITA, boring design, sensitivity is pretty meh at 90dB/w
PROS: All drivers are known to sound good, sealed might mean less time domain trouble, all drivers match each other in sensitivity
2. Ported pro driver 3-way - 12" pro paper bass (18sound prolly), BMS 4590 compression coax with an appropriate horn
CONS: pro compression drivers might sound bad, bass box is ported, which might or might not introduce time domain crud, need to pad down compression driver sensitivity, good pro small mid drivers are also rare
PROS: Will go crazy loud, mids and tweets form a point source, exciting design, won't need much power
Any comments? What's your experience with pro audio drivers? Particularly compression horns. I know about Geddes work regarding HOM's, but I won't probably be able to fashion a foam plug for my setup.
They sit on top of 200l subs, which I made for realistic levels of sub-bass. With room gain these go up to 120dB in room at 23Hz, so they're fairly beastly.
There are two ways I could go with these passive box "tops".
1. Sealed 3-way with hifi drivers - 9.5" Satori bass, 12MU Scanspeak mid, SB dimple-dome tweeter (there's friggin gazillion of them).
CONS: Won't go as loud, finding a decent mid with enough headroom is PITA, boring design, sensitivity is pretty meh at 90dB/w
PROS: All drivers are known to sound good, sealed might mean less time domain trouble, all drivers match each other in sensitivity
2. Ported pro driver 3-way - 12" pro paper bass (18sound prolly), BMS 4590 compression coax with an appropriate horn
CONS: pro compression drivers might sound bad, bass box is ported, which might or might not introduce time domain crud, need to pad down compression driver sensitivity, good pro small mid drivers are also rare
PROS: Will go crazy loud, mids and tweets form a point source, exciting design, won't need much power
Any comments? What's your experience with pro audio drivers? Particularly compression horns. I know about Geddes work regarding HOM's, but I won't probably be able to fashion a foam plug for my setup.
