Raw drivers

[lutkeveld]

Steeper filter slope (higher order) also allows for a lower XO point.

[aculous]

I look at frequency response and if they have them, distortion measurements. I like the sound of paper cones so I usually try and go for a paper reinforced cone, that is a personal preference of course. The car environment is harsh so IMO you need to have something that can handle water and temperature extremes. So I usually pick drivers with tweeter, crossed no lower then 2Khz, Mid I want to extend to at least 3K if possible and flat response past 200hz. Sub covers 150hz and lower. A DSP is nice, an active electronic crossover is doable with a CC-1 or Headunit crossover (I thought you had the 80prs which is sweet but I had some annoyances with a 3-way active setup...found out a cockbox or dsp would have fixed my problems).

reason for the tweeter crossover is that I don't want to crossover to the mid in the vocal range so for me 1-2K is a bad crossover point I want to cross higher if possible. For me its all about midrange, although I have changed my way of thinking on this...I would rather run multiple 4-5" drivers then one 8" see gck's post, reasoning is to get a 8 to play high you are usually taxing it pretty bad or you have a 8" driver with a 7" magnet...that weighs 8lbs. ask me how I know. Also I remember a post by kranny awhile back that I talked about beaming, subs or low range output for me I want to keep below 200hz. Ideally under 150 or 100hz.

I think theres a big difference between pro audio drivers and a typical woofer/tweeter. Pro audio drivers you get a lot more "forward" sound in a small environment like a car but really they can be tuned to remove that characteristic also its driver to driver as to whether thats the case, I just found that its a typical characteristic of a LOT of pro audio drivers. I have had good luck with drivers that are oriented to studio monitors as opposed to stage monitors or line arrays etc. Pro audio drivers also give you higher power handling and more longevity because they are more robust but they are more expensive. And most real pro audio drivers (thats a subjective saying) are 8" and above or at least those are the typical sizes I have seen. You have line array drivers that are as small as 3-4" but usually a pro audio driver starts at 8", so mounting and space/location placement becomes an issue. You can get amazing performance from non-pro audio drivers so I feel like the extra cost and hassle may not be worth it.

Markaudio I would not recommend for car audio at all. Most of the cones are think paper and susceptible to UV rays, its in the documentation but I only saw it after a couple times running through the documentation.

SB Acoustics (I love all the drivers I have purchased from them

Tang Band

Dayton

Creative Sound Solutions (from canadia)

DIYSOUND GROUP (I lump the SEOS waveguides as well as the Anarchy woofers in there)

Aurasound

Seas

HiVi

Goldwood

Peerless ( I think a subsidiary of tymphany)

Tymphany

Pro Audio:

Beyma

Ciare

RCF

Selenium (a harmon company if I am not mistaken, JBL sub)

Eminence

B&C

FaitalPro

18 Sound

BMS (some of the best horn drivers I have seen, a lot of people run them instead of the ID compression driver in the ID horns)

Distributors:

usspeaker.com

madisound

partsexpress

creative sound solutions (css)

DIYSOUNDGROUP

G/R Research

Meniscus Audio

MCM Electronics

Solen.ca

[aculous]

I look at frequency response and if they have them, distortion measurements. I like the sound of paper cones so I usually try and go for a paper reinforced cone, that is a personal preference of course. The car environment is harsh so IMO you need to have something that can handle water and temperature extremes.

I think theres a big difference between pro audio drivers and a typical woofer/tweeter. Pro audio drivers you get a lot more "forward" sound in a small environment like a car but really its driver to driver as to whether thats the case. Most of the time they sacrifice xmax for a pro audio driver as usually you see them in multiples in a single cabinet. I have had good luck with drivers that are oriented to studio monitors as opposed to stage monitors or line arrays etc. Pro audio drivers also give you higher power handling and more longevity because they are more robust but they are more expensive. And most real pro audio drivers (thats a subjective saying) are 8" and above or at least those are the typical sizes I have seen. You have line array drivers that are as small as 3-4" but usually a pro audio driver starts at 8".

Markaudio I would not recommend for car audio at all. Most of the cones are think paper and susceptible to UV rays, its in the documentation but I only saw it after a couple times running through the documentation.

SB Acoustics (I love all the drivers I have purchased from them

Tang Band

Dayton

Creative Sound Solutions (from canadia)

DIYSOUND GROUP (I lump the SEOS waveguides as well as the Anarchy woofers in there)

Aurasound

Seas

HiVi

Goldwood

Peerless ( I think a subsidiary of tymphany)

Tymphany

Pro Audio:

Beyma

Ciare

RCF

Selenium

Eminence

B&C

FaitalPro

18 Sound

BMS (some of the best horn drivers I have seen, a lot of people run them instead of the ID compression driver in the ID horns)

Distributors:

usspeaker.com

madisound

partsexpress

creative sound solutions (css)

DIYSOUNDGROUP

G/R Research

Meniscus Audio

MCM Electronics

Solen.ca

[jcarter1885]

Try looking at zaphaudio.com, I learned alot and he test a large majority of speakers.

Location and aiming will dictate what speakers to choose as well. I love my tweeters, SB Acoustic SB29RDNC-c000-4. But they have to be ran on-axis to perform well. My SB Acoustic mids were ok but perferred my Silver Flutes over them, as mentioned above Seas are good drivers as well. I want to try some Seas ER18RNX. There are a lot of great raw drivers out there, so find some you like or fit some of your needs and just google reviews. Even though sound is subjective, there is some really good info on other forums about raw drivers.

[Rich Schenk]

Good info in here

[gckless]

Probably my biggest piece of advice: have a plan for your end goal before you buy anything if you want to stick to a budget. Know what processor you're using, what you need for that, where you're going to put the drivers, how you're going to aim them, where you're crossing, etc. It will help a lot. Much easier to change things on paper than sell and buy different stuff.

[aculous]

Probably my biggest piece of advice: have a plan for your end goal before you buy anything if you want to stick to a budget. Know what processor you're using, what you need for that, where you're going to put the drivers, how you're going to aim them, where you're crossing, etc. It will help a lot. Much easier to change things on paper than sell and buy different stuff.

I am currently in this hell. Been through three different iterations...still not happy still no build.

Reed: You know your tahoe a lot better then I knew my Magnum, very important. You may want to do a Kick + apillar setup. 3 or 4" mid and tweeter in the A pillar a larger driver like a 8" in the kick. Depends on your goals. Hit me up, I can give you some drivers to try. I have them sitting in boxes and may or may not use them. Most are mids, but I have the beymas/silverflutes (8"s) and fountek + FaitalPro + random aurasound mids and dayton/vifa/sb acoustic tweets.

[reedal]

For those who haven't seen my current build, the mids and highs end goal will be powered by two 2-channels and a 4-channel. AudioQue A/B amps. Not the best quality when compared to some of the real sound quality brands, but when you're not running the full 90-200 watts to each driver (for fear of a lot of smell and smoke ) it makes up for it. Most tweets I've seen (excluding supertweets) have an RMS of 35 or less, so running those and probably the fullrange (typically 50 or less from my brief browsing yesterday) on the four channel. And the midbass on a two channel, leaving me with potential capability of turning into 5-way active one day (sub-bass <60, 8"mid-bass 60 - ~300, 5" or 6" mid-range ~300 - ~1.5k, 3" or 4" full range 1.5k - ~6k, and tweets for 6k+.

All of this can be done using my 80prs, my cockbox, and the four amplifiers I currently have conveniently placed in the vehicle already. Obviously it will be costly, and I am preparing for the day I come to my final decision on speakers. It will in no way be for competitive purposes, but for my enjoyment in learning through practice and testing my own limits and capabilities.

I appreciate all of the information. Aculous, I will probably take you up on your offer to try some speakers and placement one day after deployment. As always, if you ever need any help I'm not too crazy far to help out a friend

Until I do have the funds and have come to a decision on the drivers that I feel would be most optimal, I will continue to make some new door pods for my SoundQubed PA's and dome tweets in the pillars, and get my fab skills up to par for the day I can make this dream come true. My wife is going to hate me....

[notorious97200]

Try looking at zaphaudio.com, I learned alot and he test a large majority of speakers.

Location and aiming will dictate what speakers to choose as well. I love my tweeters, SB Acoustic SB29RDNC-c000-4. But they have to be ran on-axis to perform well. My SB Acoustic mids were ok but perferred my Silver Flutes over them, as mentioned above Seas are good drivers as well. I want to try some Seas ER18RNX. There are a lot of great raw drivers out there, so find some you like or fit some of your needs and just google reviews. Even though sound is subjective, there is some really good info on other forums about raw drivers.

I recently bought a pair of Seas ER18RNX from madisound.com

I love them so far, even without processing. I cross them at 70 Hz from the head unit IIRC.

Their sound is warm : coming from a pair of Focal 165 KP mids, I am very happy with those Seas speakers. They do get loud enough, and the sound is beautiful. Not loud like a pro-audio driver, but well enough for my taste.They're on a Incriminator amplifier (4 x 65 w @ 4 Ohms, or 2 x 225 w). I use it bridged to a pair of passive filters (mids on the input section, and tweeters on the tweeters output section). It's not the best, but it works until the dsp install by next friday !

[lutkeveld]

but when you're not running the full 90-200 watts to each driver (for fear of a lot of smell and smoke ) it makes up for it. Most tweets I've seen (excluding supertweets) have an RMS of 35 or less, so running those and probably the fullrange (typically 50 or less from my brief browsing yesterday) on the four channel. And the midbass on a two channel, leaving me with potential capability of turning into 5-way active one day (sub-bass <60, 8"mid-bass 60 - ~300, 5" or 6" mid-range ~300 - ~1.5k, 3" or 4" full range 1.5k - ~6k, and tweets for 6k+.

Remember the power distribution of normal music. If you run a 100W signal to a 3Khz crossover only 15W would go to the tweeter.

On top of that: normal music has at least 10dB of crestfactor. Taking all that in account your little '35W tweeter' can keep up with a 2300W amp.

At least, thermal-wise that is, also assuming infinite filter slopes. Still, don't worry too much about those numbers.

Also; a 5 way is insane. Crossing two drivers is difficult as is, let alone five pieces. A sub, mid and tweeter can easily cover the whole spectrum.