Cabasse 55ND

[Endless Lasers]

Hi,

The Cabasse 55ND comes out quite good for those who heared one.

Why is it that there are so little designs for this driver.

I am so curreous what the design was of the box,
like open baffle, closed, vented, volume ?!?!?!?

any thoughts or experiances?

[ThomasW]

Why is it that there are so little designs for this driver.

Don't have a clue other than they're hard to find, expensive, and have 4.2mm of Xmax

[Endless Lasers]

Don't have a clue other than they're hard to find, expensive, and have 4.2mm of Xmax

Yes, Cabasse stoped production of the 55ND and 55NDS after they made the 55ND46 which is used in the Saturn 55. Therefore it is almost impossible to find some.

I don't know which one was first, the 55ND or the 55NDS. ops:
I do know that pictures of the internal, the frequency response and T/S parameters of the 55ND and 55NDS are mixed and mistaken.

The frequency response of the 55NDS is displayed on the 55ND.
the 55NDS does have an Fr of 35Hz, the 55ND can have an Fr of 23,5 but as it had the frequency resonse drawing of the 55NDS there has been lots of discussion about it.

Also the gap of 10mm and coil hight of 20mm gives a certain Xmax of 10mm on the 55NDS. There have been nummbers of an Xmax of 42mm(55ND) but i can understand people think this is unbelivable big and must be read as 4,2mm.

[Jed]

Who sells these drivers?

[Dennis H]

Also the gap of 10mm and coil hight of 20mm gives a certain Xmax of 10mm on the 55NDS.

Xmax is usually expressed as 1-way travel so that would be 5mm using that (crude) measurement. Dumax and Klippel use different criteria.

[Endless Lasers]

Xmax is usually expressed as 1-way travel so that would be 5mm using that (crude) measurement. Dumax and Klippel use different criteria.

OK, I thought that Xmax was the top-top value.

You made me curreaus, what would be the Xmax using an uncrude measurement.

[Dennis H]

OK, I thought that Xmax was the top-top value.

You made me curreaus, what would be the Xmax using an uncrude measurement.

Dumax and Klippel measure actual electrical and mechanical properties of the driver as a function of how far off center the cone is. Dumax uses Bl (motor strength) and Kms (suspension stiffness.) I'm not sure what Klippel does but it's similar. Anyway, they define Xmax as the smallest displacement that causes one of the things they are measuring to deviate by a certain percentage from being linear, implying there will be a lot of distortion at that displacement. Kevin Haskins is our resident Dumax and Klippel guru so maybe he will see this thread and comment.

[JRT]

Hi,

The Cabasse 55ND comes out quite good for those who heared one.

Why is it that there are so little designs for this driver.

I am so curreous what the design was of the box,
like open baffle, closed, vented, volume ?!?!?!?

any thoughts or experiances?

Before spending money on the Cabasse 55ND, you ought to consider using an array of smaller drivers. For example, take a look at using six Dayton RS225S-8 (or RS225-4) 8" woofers in a 2x3 array, or nine in a 3x3 array. The smaller diaphrams are better behaved at higher frequencies (~2 more octaves higher looking at the published frequency responses). In this case, because the Cabasse lacks Xlinear, the smaller RS225 can provide significantly more usable excursion, while also exhibiting low nonlinear distortion. I am not at all sure if the older and now obsolete Cabasse 55ND has a motor and suspension that is as well designed as the Dayton RS225, and because of its age would suspect that it does not until shown otherwise.

The array provides good efficiency, and considered in aggregate, you get a lot more suspension, a lot more motor, and probably better cooling (more surface area). The RS225 array will need a big enclosure, but the few enclosures I have seen for the Cabasse 55ND were also very large (I don't have the T/S params to model it for comparison). And that consideration of size brings up another advantage for the array, that you don't have to place the woofers on a large front baffle, but rather could also use them side firing with half of them on each side of a relatively narrow baffle.

The MSRP of the Cabasse 55ND in 1999 at e-Speakers was $1600 each. Today 9 years later, you can buy (currently available from PE at sale price of $41 each) six RS225S-8 woofers for $246, nine for $369. If you damage one of the Daytons, you can easily and cheaply replace it as it is niether obsolete nor made of unobtanium.

The Cabasse 55ND provided high efficiency and a breakup resonance at a high frequency for the size of that diaphram. To do that required an expensive diaphram. I think the primary goal of that was marketing related, to create a large woofer that would be visually imposing, with the exclusivity marketing gimmick of a complex/expensive diaphram that was unavailable in modestly priced drivers. That large expensive diaphram is not necessarily the best path to the performance goals.

http://web.archive.org/web/20000302073108/www.e-speakers.com/woofers.htm

http://web.archive.org/web/20021204030602/http://www.cabasse.com/hp/55nd/courbes.htm

This is a link to the RS225-8S at PartsExpress that includes a suffix that I think should provide some revenue to this discussion board (if I added that correctly):

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=295-366&orefer=htguide-flash

http://www.partsexpress.com/pdf/295-366g.pdf

[Endless Lasers]

Thanks JRT for your comments which on most, I must agree on.

Cabasse self also revamped the 55ND into the 55ND46 which uses all the best materials nowdays are possible, this resulted in the Saturn 55 and Sphere.
The old 55ND is defenetly obsolete and is passed on many points by many drivers at this moment.

I opened this discussion not to find out which is good, better or best.
I am just curreous what some designers of speaker builders have done with this driver.

[JRT]

Thanks JRT for your comments which on most, I must agree on.

Cabasse self also revamped the 55ND into the 55ND46 which uses all the best materials nowdays are possible, this resulted in the Saturn 55 and Sphere.
The old 55ND is defenetly obsolete and is passed on many points by many drivers at this moment.

I opened this discussion not to find out which is good, better or best.
I am just curreous what some designers of speaker builders have done with this driver.

This info would probably run afoul of the rules if the Cabasse 55ND was currently available for sale new. But since it isn't (AFAIK), I should be able to post this info here for you without raising the ire of the moderators:

Andre Perreault was working with some of those for his own use and for his customers. I recall one design he was promoting that used those on open baffles in combination with some big Raven tweeters (R3.0 or R3.1). Andre is the proprietor of e-spekaers.com which was a dealer for Cabasse when the 55ND was available. And before that I think he was affiliated with Orca Design, which was the distributor of Cabasse and Raven drivers in N.America.

Dave Craig was discussing on the Madisound discussion board (maybe 7-8 years ago? not sure.) a large woofer cabinet that he had designed and built for the 55ND. Someone had commissioned the project and when he delivered it he posted some proud father pictures, a few of which (attached below) I found on his website artofsound.com

Consider contacting both of them directly and maybe they might share their experience and have some useful suggestions for you.

[Endless Lasers]

Thanks again JRT, the information you give increases exponentialy.

I know about the open baffle design but at that time only saw a CAD drawing and wondered if it was ever buildt. When i search it now I find an actual buildt open baffle but only the one of Andre Perreault.

The design of Dave I had never seen and is exactly the thing I wanted to see (and special thanks for the high resolution pictured), I hope to find some more designs though