Why no love for the Aurum Cantus AC130F1?

[augerpro]

After perusing JK's site it seems the Seas Excel and Scanspeak Revelators are pretty much top of the heap. All the highend designs on this and other forums can attest to that. But they are SPENDY. The Daytons are the kings of lowcost. So what's in between? Regardless of price the Dayton woofers are still good drivers, the price just sweetens the deal. So I'd tried finding something that was better without spending 150-220 bucks per driver to do it.

The AC 130F1 seem ideal to me. Smoother FR then Dayton, Higher power handling, higher xmax, HD seems about the same to a bit better to me though I'm no expert at reading those graphs yet, decay seems superior (though again someone more knowledgable may see it diferently) and for only $47. The next step up is Peerless Exclusive 830882 at $66 which really doesn't seem to do anything better and it's more expensive.

So why don't these get mentioned often? I assume the odd flange shape is jsut a turn off to DIYer's so they aren't that popular? They seem a step up from the Dayton and the next step up is whole lot more money. JK have you heard this driver in an actual speaker? Also have you ever measured the AC 130mkII? It's the cousin of this driver but with a kevlar cone.

FYI my first project will be a Natp then I'll try some more (hopefully better) drivers until I find something I really like. At which point I'll Build MTMWW. So I was narrowing down drivers for use in these later projects.

[augerpro]

On second look Qts is kinda high, way off from manufacturer's specs. hmmmm
Maybe the Peerless 830882 or Seas CA15RLY (or maybe L15) deserve another look...

Anyone ever see diy designs with any of these three drivers?

[Jed]

There are a number of drivers that don't get a lot of press. The Aurum Cantus seems to be a nice driver, too bad they don't give us the good stuff they reserve for their finished speaker lines.

[augerpro]

Well maybe I'll just get a pair of each and build some little MT bookshelf. Seems the only way to know for sure.

[Jim Holtz]

After perusing JK's site it seems the Seas Excel and Scanspeak Revelators are pretty much top of the heap. All the highend designs on this and other forums can attest to that. But they are SPENDY. The Daytons are the kings of lowcost. So what's in between? Regardless of price the Dayton woofers are still good drivers, the price just sweetens the deal. So I'd tried finding something that was better without spending 150-220 bucks per driver to do it.

The AC 130F1 seem ideal to me. Smoother FR then Dayton, Higher power handling, higher xmax, HD seems about the same to a bit better to me though I'm no expert at reading those graphs yet, decay seems superior (though again someone more knowledgable may see it diferently) and for only $47. The next step up is Peerless Exclusive 830882 at $66 which really doesn't seem to do anything better and it's more expensive.

So why don't these get mentioned often? I assume the odd flange shape is jsut a turn off to DIYer's so they aren't that popular? They seem a step up from the Dayton and the next step up is whole lot more money. JK have you heard this driver in an actual speaker? Also have you ever measured the AC 130mkII? It's the cousin of this driver but with a kevlar cone.

FYI my first project will be a Natp then I'll try some more (hopefully better) drivers until I find something I really like. At which point I'll Build MTMWW. So I was narrowing down drivers for use in these later projects.

I have 20 of the AC130 MKII's pictured in the the linearrays in my avatar. They are an exceptionally nice driver that to my ears are extremely accurate and detailed. They have a carbon fiber/kevlar cone that is extremely stiff. They'll also handle a 2.5K crossover according to Rick Craig when I asked him about using them in a different project. They are great mids, IMHO.

Jim

[augerpro]

Thanks Jim. Love those LSAs!

Did you measure the T/S of these? What was the Qts? The 130F1s were much higher as measured by JK than the manufacturers spec.

When you decided to build those LSAs did you consider/measure/listen to the 130F1? Or Seas L18 or Peerless 830882?

[Jim Holtz]

Thanks Jim. Love those LSAs!

Did you measure the T/S of these? What was the Qts? The 130F1s were much higher as measured by JK than the manufacturers spec.

When you decided to build those LSAs did you consider/measure/listen to the 130F1? Or Seas L18 or Peerless 830882?

The Omegarrays are a custom design by Selah Audio so I don't have any of the T/S parameters other than the FR response graphs and crossover of course which is proprietary.

Rick and I searched for several months looking for the right driver before deciding on the AC130 MKII's. I'm a hard cone fan. Rick didn't care for the L15's and the new Peerless drivers weren't out. I'd have probably passed on them anyway. Again, I'm a hard cone fan and the 830882 are a fine driver but still treated paper. Very smooth but less detailed than I like. The 130F1's weren't of interest either for the same reasons.

The AC130MKII's is a fine driver that is built like a tank and has great xmax for a 5" driver. They are very clean sounding and have very natural sounding mids, IMHO.

Jim

[augerpro]

Interesting Jim. Any particular reason Rick didn't like the L15? Was it just not suitable to a LSA?

The mkII's seem very nice, but a bit more expensive then the F1's, though roughly the same as the Seas or Peerless, so I'll definatley consider them also.

Wouldn't the F1's carbon/mica polycone be considered a rigid cone? With (seemingly) the same motor, basket, adn spider they should measure similarly I would think. The break up frequency might be the deciding factor between the two.

As far as SQ, HD, IMD I'm curious just how different they would be. I guess I should buy both and see. Hmmm this bookshelf shootout is getting more expensive

[Jim Holtz]

Interesting Jim. Any particular reason Rick didn't like the L15? Was it just not suitable to a LSA?

The mkII's seem very nice, but a bit more expensive then the F1's, though roughly the same as the Seas or Peerless, so I'll definatley consider them also.

Wouldn't the F1's carbon/mica polycone be considered a rigid cone? With (seemingly) the same motor, basket, adn spider they should measure similarly I would think. The break up frequency might be the deciding factor between the two.

As far as SQ, HD, IMD I'm curious just how different they would be. I guess I should buy both and see. Hmmm this bookshelf shootout is getting more expensive

If I remember correctly, Rick didn't like something about the FR of the L15 in a linearray configuration. That was going on 3 years ago so I'm not sure if I remember correctly beyond ruling them and many other drivers out at the time.

Every driver manufacturer that I know of has some type of coating etc. on their poly cones to add stiffness. Poly is still very lossy regardless of the coating. It will be smooth and easy to work with but will lack detail and accuracy. The motor will influence distortion from that as a source but the poly cone will still not reproduce the music accurately because of the lossy nature of the cone material.

As I said, I'm a hard cone fanboy. I also am a 3-way fan so hard cone drivers work very well in this configuration.

Jim

[augerpro]

Thanks again Jim for the info. Well I'm going to move forward building four little bookshelf speakers to test these drivers out. I went to Home Depot today and put together a decent little wood working setup for abour $900. With Soundeasy, the measuring equipment, and the drivers I'm already in over $1.5k and I haven't even done anything yet 8O I love new hobbies!! :T