3 way speaker is ti possible to build

[carlos38]

Hi everybody i'm looking to build 3 way floorstanding speakers with this drivers
RAAL 70-10D RAAL Ribbon Tweeter 2 https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.co...morphous-core/
SEAS Excel W15CY-001 (E0015) 5.5" 4 https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.co...m-cone-woofer/
SEAS Prestige CA26RFX (H1305) 10" Woofer 4 https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.co...m-cone-woofer/

i plan to set the drives in parallel and using active crossovers i built a pair of bookshelf befor using active crossovers but i know going 3 way is a different thing so what do you think ?
thanks in advance

[BobEllis]

Designing a three way is a bit more complicated than a 2 way but not impossible. There will be a few more iterations to get the balance of the low to mid and mid to high crossovers. I start with mid-tweeter and then work in the woofer-mid crossovers. Not that the mid-tweet crossover won't change again in the process...

That said, I think you should reconsider your mid and/or tweeter. The RAAL needs to be crossed a bit higher than the W15CY is comfortable unless you are using a brick wall transfer function. I have the W15CY in an MT and love it. It's a very good driver, but if you want to use it you need a tweeter that can go down to 2KHz or maybe a bit lower. If you want to use the RAAL, you need a mid that can reach to at least 3500 Hz, just based on its response, although RAAL suggests 2.8K (still a bit high for the W15CY). Look for distortion measurements, it may want to be crossed higher than that. Although ribbons have their enthusiasts (i once was one) see http://zaphaudio.com/nondomes/

Not sure what you mean by using the drivers in parallel with active crossovers. Do you plan two CA26RFX per channel?

[JonMarsh]

Another solution would be to save money on the midrange, use the Zaph ZA14 from Madisound, which is very low distortion and quite reasonably priced, and use the money to get the larger RAAL ribbon, which is designed to work as low as 1600 Hz with a 4th order passive network. I would REALLY advise working out the midrange to tweeter network passive, including any necessary BSC for the midrange (depends on your baffle size and how low you run the mid), then just go active two way between the woofer and mid.

Just my 0.02 USD! :W

[5th element]

Even the larger RAAL is supposed to be far more comfortable working from around 2.5kHz and higher. Ribbons and metal coned drivers do not a happy marriage make - usually. If you're going MTM you're going to want to cross over pretty low too. You could always use something like the 15M/4624G00 as the midrange and due to its voltage sensitivity you'd only need to go MT. This would easily cross over to the smaller RAAL and eliminate the requirement for a low crossover point due to the MTM.

In my opinion you'd really have to decide what's more important to you, the RAAL ribbon, or a metal coned mid.