splinter tc-9's / other 15's for dipole

[dwk]

I'm still in the thought process / prototype eval stage, but I think I may be looking at a dipole woof setup where I really only have room for 1 driver. The typical 2x12 H-frame as seen here won't work. This suggests a single long-ish throw 15. Upper xover freq is still a bit up in the air, but it will certainly be 100 or below, so unusual extension isn't needed. Application is music-only in a small room, so a single 15 'should be' adequate (he said optimistically)

The Avalance 15 will probably be gone before I get through the eval/decision process (if they aren't already). The next 'reasonable' price 15 that looks good is the TC-9 (Rl-p) from soundsplinter. With all the TC fans here, does anyone have any direct experience with these in general, and dipole specifically?

The 'cheapie' idea would be to use a couple of the Dayton IB 15's as stopgap drivers, but it's not clear to me how well these work in dipole situations - ie spider venting etc. The Titanic looks good in this regard, but as the TC-9s are only a bit more expensive the Titanic doesn't look that attractive.

Any thoughts or ideas welcome.

[ThomasW]

The TC9 is unknown to us. We've only played with the 12" TC2+.

The PE IB15"s aren't a very impressive driver compared to the other offerings you're talking about.

The AE-IB15" is a nice driver. If you buy 4 they're $100ea. IB sub builders bought dozens of these and everyone is quite happy with the performance. JohnJ basically custom builds these to order. I bet he could/would add a phase plug if you wanted one.

[dwk]

The TC9 is unknown to us. We've only played with the 12" TC2+.

That's what I was afraid of, given the scarcity of hits when I searched. If I go this route, I'm in Denver so I can play show and tell....

The PE IB15"s aren't a very impressive driver compared to the other offerings you're talking about.

Yeah, but they're cheap :-)

The AE-IB15" is a nice driver. If you buy 4 they're $100ea.

If I could figure out a way to use 4, then this would be a no-brainer. Needing only two makes it tough, though. It's either pay $200 ea, or get 4 and sell 2. I'm slightly concerned as to whether the 15mm would be enough - I'm hoping to have a better idea when I get the 2nd side of my prototype running with my NHT 1259's - with only one side running, I bottomed the NHT pretty easily.

Thanks for the info. No easy decisions, unfortunately.