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4" Full Range Drivers?

JMiP

JMiP

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Not too long ago, I picked up a pair of small li'l Optimus XTS 22 speakers with a 4" full range driver that sounds about as well as you think it would. Think AM radio in a 1972 Dodge Dart. I'm looking to replace them and am looking for suggestions that will cost no more than about $75.00 each. There's no crossover in these boxes, just wire straight from the connectors to the drivers. I have nothing against creating a crossover if that's necessary. I ain't afraid of no soldering iron.

So far, the ones that seem most intriguing are:
Anyone have personal experience with any of them or anything else that you like? The application is near field listening at my computer, connected to a Fosi Audio BT20A amp running audio from my computer.

I'm not listening to Diana Krall or Brothers in Arms in an acoustically perfect room or anything, so some decent and cheapish drivers that I can slap into the Optimus boxes should suffice.
 
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I think those cabinets are too small to benefit from decent full range speakers. Since your willing to do some work yourself, Why not go with the real deal. Go with this Parts Express speaker kit. It has everything you need. A little soldering, Some gluing and stain is all you have to do.

Overnight Sensations MT Speaker Kit Pair (parts-express.com)

Realistic did make some very good small full range speakers, But unfortunately those are not one of them. And no, I'm not talking about the Minimus 7's.
 
I've heard great things on that Overnight Sensastion kit, but hardly full range. That's a 2 way.

The Tang Band speakers have doubled in price, if memory serves, and are still a bargain, if online reviews are to be believed.

This is a topic I'm most interested in of late, ever since picking up some of those bamboo woofer micro system speakers (Pioneers)
 
My 2c is go spell-out your needs & expectations on the fullrange board at diyA. There are a lot of good small drivers these years--and many proven designs. And tell everyone how big your cabs are. Some stuff (cone materials) can be love-hate and you'll need to sort that out to have best chances for success.
 
If gour looking for real full range drivers and kits, Madison has 3" up to 8" full range drivers by FOSTEX along with cabinet kits. Most are horn loaded. If you need extended high end, they sell super tweeters also.
 
onwardjames said:
I've heard great things on that Overnight Sensastion kit, but hardly full range. That's a 2 way.

The Tang Band speakers have doubled in price, if memory serves, and are still a bargain, if online reviews are to be believed.

This is a topic I'm most interested in of late, ever since picking up some of those bamboo woofer micro system speakers (Pioneers)
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Huge fan of both TB and the OS here!
 
I have these full-range speakers from a JVC SP-FSD9 mini desk system. The Kevlar driver is around 4", but don't know exactly. The JVC mini-system was something like $500 in year-2000 dollars, but it sounds better than it has any right to given the small size and single driver. I've not tried the speakers with a different amp than the native JVC, but they sound very good in the system. You could probably buy a set of these speakers on the popular auction site for less than it costs to buy new drivers -- and either use the speakers as a replacement or use the driver in the RS cabinet (check size first) -- but you'd probably want to add a port to the RS cabinets given that the JVC's are ported. The JVC's are 4-ohm.

You could also probably buy some DCM CX-07 (or CX-17) speakers for about the same as the cost of drivers for the RS, which would probably outperform any upgrade of the RS speakers.


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peterp1 said:
I have these full-range speakers from a JVC SP-FSD9 mini desk system. The Kevlar driver is around 4", but don't know exactly. The JVC mini-system was something like $500 in year-2000 dollars, but it sounds better than it has any right to given the small size and single driver. I've not tried the speakers with a different amp than the native JVC, but they sound very good in the system. You could probably buy a set of these speakers on the popular auction site for less than it costs to buy new drivers -- and either use the speakers as a replacement or use the driver in the RS cabinet (check size first) -- but you'd probably want to add a port to the RS cabinets given that the JVC's are ported. The JVC's are 4-ohm.

You could also probably buy some DCM CX-07 (or CX-17) speakers for about the same as the cost of drivers for the RS, which would probably outperform any upgrade of the RS speakers.


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I have a set of those also and you are right, they sound pretty darn good for tiny drivers. I prefer them over my Minimus 7's.
 
I would be interesting to be able to compare a pair of the original KLH Model 21 extension speakers to new designs. Also used in the walnut version of the Model Eleven phono system. Four inch KLH driver in a sealed box. I bought a pair about 50 years ago for my dorm stereo.
 
the Overnight Sensation kit has nice drivers, but doesn't look like a finished product. CNC cut Baltic birch with butt joints? Not very pleasing to the eye. Also, no grill or way to fasten a grill leaves the speaker exposed for some little kid/dog/cat to poke a finger through the cone.
 
So it maybe comes down to what (if anything) you want to do about bass and how much if any surgery you want to do on the cabs. If you want everything in 2 cabs, the PE kit looks tough to beat at the price and skip the optimus-reclamation. I was hoping you'd have real/honest FE-103's/40-1197's and not the smaller magnet jobs and could salvage those. My knee-jerk was that the cabs are small for the any of the 4's I know about and that something like Dave's 3" uFonken made sense. Not sure if he'll reply to your other thread, but he's probably right about bracing the 3/8" composite walls. All that (nothing) stated, Markaudio makes some fine drivers for low-power/excursion usage. One thing--most of the little drivers beam, so if they won't be near & at you, make sure whatever you choose facilitates that (or the MA drivers w/ shallower cones). My own personal stance is that I'll take paper roughness & screech over plastic smoothness/damping most of the time. Some of the metal cones can mess with tinnitus, etc., if that's applicable. With the little drivers, everything always comes back to bass and what you want/hate. If you flog them for all they have, they get dirty. To me, the coherence of a single driver can be magical on sparser-spectrum program material. That's the "parlor trick" they they do. Everything does something. The little Faitals are quite-popular. It's how wedded to your old boxes you are and the other priorities that only you can know--as well as if you want this to be a mini-experiment for a while or just a one-and-done solution.
 
infullview said:
the Overnight Sensation kit has nice drivers, but doesn't look like a finished product. CNC cut Baltic birch with butt joints? Not very pleasing to the eye. Also, no grill or way to fasten a grill leaves the speaker exposed for some little kid/dog/cat to poke a finger through the cone.
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Looks just fine to me.
 
To just kick my experiment off, I'm going with the drivers that @Pete B mentioned above. They're rather cheap at $12 a piece. If those suck as bad as what is in there now, then I'll know that I need to do more. I'm not wedded to these boxes at all and am not averse to modding them however I need to. In fact, maybe I'll even take these back to the thrift where I originally got them for one whole US dollar and just start a project some scratch.

I took the advice of @grindstone way upthread and posted this same post at DIY Audio. Some great ideas being shared in that thread as well, but to be honest, those dudes are talking waaaay above my experience and knowledge level. However, it's giving me a good idea of where I need to start. Since I'm talking about small, near field speakers, maybe I won't be too deep into the money hole by the time I have something that I like. :rflmao: I just know once I get started, much moneys will be spent. That is this hobby after all. :rockon:
 
You could build a Bargain Mini into the box except for the fact that the Aura tweeter is
no longer available. Zaph simulated a PE tweeter and I gathered the information for the
new crossover with the PE tweeter in this thread:
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/minimus-7-with-mcm-1853-woofer-bargain-mini.755200/

I also simplified his XO a bit, but never took any measurements. I did build my pair and
I'll tell you that they easily handle a lot of power and sound pretty good but a bigger box
would help a lot in the bass.
 
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