Madisound (Eminence) W1238R 12" woofer...

[Richard C.]

I have searched AK and can't find any info on this woofer.

Anyway, I picked this particular woofer for it's TS specs to be a temp woofer for some JBL L100T's (without woofers), that I got recently. These woofers have similar specs to the original 2214H, and I am very pleased with how they sound. They do have stamped steel frames with very sharp edges, and there is a warning label on the box! The grills need to stay on to hide the incorrect drivers. :yes:

Anybody have experience with this woofer?

Richard C.

 

[Pete B]

I have searched AK and can't find any info on this woofer.

Anyway, I picked this particular woofer for it's TS specs to be a temp woofer for some JBL L100T's (without woofers), that I got recently. These woofers have similar specs to the original 2214H, and I am very pleased with how they sound. They do have stamped steel frames with very sharp edges, and there is a warning label on the box! The grills need to stay on to hide the incorrect drivers. :yes:

Anybody have experience with this woofer?

Richard C.

That is from the Eclipse family I believe. I've used the 8" driver, and the 10" in that family was suggested for the Swan kit published in Speaker Builder many years ago when the correct Peerless 12" became unavailable. The 10" was close in output to the 12" Peerless that it replaced. These drivers have linear motors that work well far beyond the Xmax spec. How much power are you driving them with? They're clearly of low cost construction but very well engineered.

Pete B.

 

[RayW]

The 10" was a replacement for the Swan driver? You sure? Eminence was making a Swan 305 driver that was almost identical to the W1238R except with a foam surround (1238R = 12 in, 38oz magnet, Rubber surround). I thought that one was the drop in replacement in the Swan kit. They made that one for years. The Madisound site shows the 12" as the Swan 305 driver but it's no longer available:
http://www.madisound.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=221

Anyway, I have some experience with the 12" and as stated by Pete, it's a good driver. People always feel that smaller magnets are cheap/bad but the right amount of magnet is the right amount of magnet. If you can hit the T/S parameters you're looking for with a 38oz and save a chunk of money that's not a bad thing.

Ray

 

[Pete B]

Madisound had the Eminence 305 done due to demand after the Peerless was discontinued, but there was a gap where there was no 12" driver available. Yes, the Eminence replacement is very similar to the 1238 however, the cone mass is significantly higher allowing it to work properly in a smaller vented box.

Pete B.

 

[GordonW]

Friend of mine has SIX of these woofers, mounted in pairs (4 cubic feet each, vented, IIRC), as subwoofers in his home audio system (tri-amped- 6 1238Rs on subs, 4 Madisound 8252R 8" per side on midbass, and a small cabinet with a Focal 7V313 mid and SEAS 27TFFC per side for mid-highs). Power comes from a CinePro 3K6 power amp (400w x 6 channels), and frequency dividing is done by a Madisound Sledgehammer 3-way stereo electronic crossover.

One of the most impressive sounding systems I've ever heard. Flat +- 2 dB from 20-20000 Hz, at the listening location. Dynamics are UNLIMITED... of course, with a max output capacity of 126dB+ (!), that's probably not surprising.

Speaker distortion is simply inaudible...

Regards,
Gordon.

 

[Richard C.]

I do need to do some testing on these un-original L100T's, but it's summer and there are just too many things to do. I just hope they will go up to 800Hz, because they may become more than temporary. My 1st power up was with a vintage Pioneer SX-828 receiver @ ~80 WPC. The loudness switch on an old Pioneer must add about 15dB bass boost, cause it really makes them thump - no sub-woofer needed!

Pete - Ray - These do have a small (2" V.C.) and a fairly small magnet, but it seems to work. It would be nice to put a real JBL 2214H in one side and compare.

The 4" rear port is strange to me, and I think the distance to a wall or corner will be fairly critical.

The 2214H is so expensive these days for a 20 year speaker with either rotten/dried up/missing foam surround, OR a very bad refoam job from a "professional". There are only a handful of people I would actually trust to work on these.

Gordon- Is this 4 Cu. ft. per pair of these drivers? I think I may have more than that for only one driver.

I plan to bring these L100T's to our AK get-together this fall. I need to re-cap the Xover and probably change it to a T3 design. I've read that it "voices" it better.

I really like my Altec 19's but they just don't travel well.

Richard C.

 

[GordonW]

Four cubic feet each- 8 cubic feet for a pair, in these subs.

The L100T is about 3 cubic feet, for a single woofer.

Regards,
Gordon.