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New 15" Scanspeak Ellipticor

Ilkless

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20201117152538_Scan-Speak-Ellipticor-38we-3BakWeb.jpg


https://audioxpress.com/news/scan-speak-announces-new-large-size-ellipticor-woofer-38we-8582t00

Took me by surprise. Scanspeak just used their flagship tech on a large-format woofer. The motor design looks funky, as does the frame and fancy elliptical voice coil and former, but in a post-Purifi world (super-optimised surround, complex voice coil winding) it does tend to make me wonder if that is enough. Keep in mind that the Purifi is not as much of a value proposition as it seems on first blush because the Purifi passive radiator is almost compulsory with the PTT6.5. Add that cost and we are well into Accuton/Illuminator/Ellipticor territory.
 

NTomokawa

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Oh yeah. As with horsepower, the correct amount of bass is always more.

Like in a acrylic case.
A full acrylic cabinet probably has atrocious sonic properties, but you might get away with a small, thick acrylic window in an MDF cabinet.
But yes, that is indeed quite beautifully designed for a component that (most likely) won't be visually appreciated...
 

ctrl

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The motor design looks funky, as does the frame and fancy elliptical voice coil and former, but in a post-Purifi world (super-optimised surround, complex voice coil winding) it does tend to make me wonder if that is enough.

The two companies pursue very different strategies with these two model series.

Purifi's chassis is revolutionary in terms of the overall concept - very low HD, high linear excursion Xmax, high power handling.

In the case of the Ellipticor series, the revolutionary is quite obvious, elliptical shaped voice coil, magnet gap and dust cap, but also the damping of the chassis cone and surround.

The review of the 21WE/4542T00 (German Hobby Hifi 2019 No 5) I know shows very good measurements. The asymmetrical shape of the voice coil and dust cap, seems to suppress harmonic distortions of odd order extremely well.

In this review HD2@90dB is from 50Hz-9kHz at or below 0.32%. But the outstanding thing is that HD3 and HD5 are below 0.01% at 90dB in the frequency range 250-1600Hz, which is more than -80dB attenuation of the odd order HD.

For an 8.5'' chassis these are sensationally low HD3 and HD5 values - the concept seems to be, a bit more HD2, but extremely low HD3 and HD5 (significantly lower than what I would expect from an 8'' Purifi woofer in this frequency range).
Unfortunately, the price for the chassis is painfully high.
 
OP
Ilkless

Ilkless

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The two companies pursue very different strategies with these two model series.

Purifi's chassis is revolutionary in terms of the overall concept - very low HD, high linear excursion Xmax, high power handling.

In the case of the Ellipticor series, the revolutionary is quite obvious, elliptical shaped voice coil, magnet gap and dust cap, but also the damping of the chassis cone and surround.

The review of the 21WE/4542T00 (German Hobby Hifi 2019 No 5) I know shows very good measurements. The asymmetrical shape of the voice coil and dust cap, seems to suppress harmonic distortions of odd order extremely well.

In this review HD2@90dB is from 50Hz-9kHz at or below 0.32%. But the outstanding thing is that HD3 and HD5 are below 0.01% at 90dB in the frequency range 250-1600Hz, which is more than -80dB attenuation of the odd order HD.

For an 8.5'' chassis these are sensationally low HD3 and HD5 values - the concept seems to be, a bit more HD2, but extremely low HD3 and HD5 (significantly lower than what I would expect from an 8'' Purifi woofer in this frequency range).
Unfortunately, the price for the chassis is painfully high.

Considering the Purifi passive radiator(s) is pretty much compulsory because it is very finicky about port design (per both Dennis Murphy, Hificompass and I'm sure more people), the price difference between Ellipticor and Purifi is actually not that big, especially if you aren't paying the group order prices for the Purifi. Alan had to use dual PRs in his Sountiva. Hificompass also used dual PRs in their DIY design after trying very hard to make a port setup work. I'm not as hot on the Purifi as I initially was because I realised it is best bought as a package of the PTT6.5 + one or two PRs per channel. And it adds up to pretty much Illuminator or Skaaning or Ellipticor money even the PTT6.5 by itself is cheaper.

I can appreciate the Scanspeak approach, but the Purifi complex optimised surround (which is very rational and based on maintaining a constant Sd with excursion) just seems a bit more advanced than going elliptical.
 

andreasmaaan

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The 6.5” model was measured by Voice Coil. 3HD at ~94dB closer to 0.1% than 0.01%, but still quite low. Motor performance didn’t seem to me to be quite as impressive as their other top models (but still good).

Love the retro graphic design, (although not sure it’s the right angle from a marketing perspective tbh):

1605709983596.jpeg
 

sigbergaudio

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Ilkless

Ilkless

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The 6.5” model was measured by Voice Coil. 3HD at ~94dB closer to 0.1% than 0.01%, but still quite low. Motor performance didn’t seem to me to be quite as impressive as their other top models (but still good).

Love the retro graphic design, (although not sure it’s the right angle from a marketing perspective tbh):

That H2 rise and peak-dip combination around 1kHz. Surround resonance? So many modern high-compliance, high-excursion midwoofer surrounds have it.
 

sigbergaudio

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Ouch. I really don't like the looks, that oval dust cap bugs me. Good for me...

Yes, the price is super reasonable, but that dust cap.. :D
 

sigbergaudio

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Time for a new flagship Sigberg? ;)

Hehe! We have some ideas on that subject actually. :D But I think this driver will be a bit too expensive to be viable. :) There are cheaper ways to achieve the same.
 

Omar Cumming

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I am surprised to see a driver in this mega price range uses a treated paper cone instead of some unobtanium material.

Presumably these guys know what they are doing.

Cheers
 

ctrl

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The 6.5” model was measured by Voice Coil. 3HD at ~94dB closer to 0.1% than 0.01%, but still quite low. Motor performance didn’t seem to me to be quite as impressive as their other top models (but still good).
It's good, but not very impressive. I would have expected less odd order HD.

It is a great pity that VoiceCoil does not provide half-space frequency response measurements. The shown frequency response measurements on a 8''x15'' baffle are almost useless (unless you use in your project exactly a 8''x15'' baffle ;)).
 
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