Any Peerless 830884 2-way designs out there?

[peter_m]

A while back Zaph had shown interest in the Peerless 830884 for a possible 2-way design but never mentioned it again. At one point Jon Marsh mentioned it might not be ideal to cross it over any higher then 300 or 400 hz (he was talking about a 3-way)... so from that I assume it's a no go for a 2-way.

Anyone have an opinion or seen designs with the Peerless 830884? Any other Peerless 8" that might be interesting?

Can it deliver as much as Zaph's ER18 design in terms of overall quality with some added low frequency or will it be compromise?

Peter

[SQconstable]

I'd like to know this as well!

[Jed]

I haven't seen a pure 2-way, just a 2.5 way which you can find in a search. I believe a bunch of folks have been turned off by the 884 because of Jon's measurements of this driver a year or so ago. It has a pretty flappy cone.

This is a driver I've been wanting to take a look at for some time. They've been sitting around Casa de Juan for a while, but just now have had the gear up and running and some time to test.




Here's the SPL plot, also measured on the Arvo test baffle, at 5 dB/div.



Does that bit of a dip at 1 kHz mean anything? Here's the nearfield plot, again at 5 dB/div.



This is not what I was hoping for- what appears to be what I call an "out of phase cone flap" down around 900 Hz. Note that the RS225 has that, but at around 1500 Hz. The RS180 has it, too, at around 2500 Hz.

Here's the FR and HD2 plot, at 10 dB/div.



Fairly decent, but climbing in the upper end. Not as good as it's little Bro, though.

Here's the FR and HD3 plot, at 10 dB/div.




Well, the midrange nonlinear distortion is pretty good for swept tone, though not SOTA; but that notch at 900 Hz bothers me- for me, it's pretty much a deal breaker. Reminds me of the little Carbon Fiber MCM 6-1/2, which has a notch at the same frequency. If I'm going to be true to my school, I have to say, no cigar.

[fjhuerta]

http://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php4?t=25871&highlight=830884

[peter_m]

Is it just a slight problem or is it a major fault you are talking about? Does the ER-18 show such a problem?

[Jed]

The 830883 tested better in Jon's tests. He didn't test the ER18 and I'm not sure if Zaph did any nearfield testing of the ER18 for us to compare to Jon's measurments- not that either would condone that anyway since their measurement conditions and systems are completely different (Jon- Praxis, John- Soundeasy).

[fjhuerta]

Is it just a slight problem or is it a major fault you are talking about? Does the ER-18 show such a problem?

For me it was a minor problem - I cannot hear it reliably. It cannot match the Dayton Reference drivers, though - they simply sounds a lot more accurate.

[Jed]

Yeah the RS are pretty hard to beat, period.

[Reet]

Hi Peter,
I just thought I'd add that Zaph had measured the 830884, and the measurements are in his tidbits section. He did not measure any dip at 1kHz that would be described as cone flap.

If you do settle on this driver or any Peerless HDS driver, make sure you tell Solen to give you two of the same batch, as they do have a few of the pre-Tymphany and post-Tymphany drivers, where they have changed the cone material slightly (visual differences, I cannot comment of which is better, but I am for the most part confident that both John Marsh and Zaph measured the old DST driver.

[Jed]

Nice looking speaker you have there Reet. Now that you have lived with these speakers how do you like the sound?

[Reet]

Well actually I am still waiting for the second driver, so I don't want to make any definite decisions on the sound until I have two speakers in front of me, but I will say my initial impressions are very good. Of course you can see that it is a good driver from the distortion/frequency plots. It has better bass than your average 6.5", a cone breakup that is fairly easy to control, and high enough in frequency that this is one of the few 8" drivers that can be used in a two way configuration.

The one thing I have found astounding about my design is the off-axis performance. There really isn't a definitive sweet spot, it sounds great no matter where you are.