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Single driver speakers

K

kinsale

New Member
Anyone know of any cheap ish single driver "full range" speakers? A lot of people build their own but I have no DIY skills to speak of. Was wondering if there were any vintage examples I could pick up.

Thanks!

Audio Technica TT>Arcam Alpha>B&W Prism
 
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Check around over here for box and driver ideas: Planet10hifi. Dave sometimes has some vintage drivers he's willing to sell. I have a pair of Frazier/Foster drivers I've been thinking of using. I'll keep my eyes on this thread to see what you come up with.

BTW, welcome to AK.
 
Welcome to AK!

I've got the same lust you do. I researched for months before picking a driver I could afford and only after I found a cabinet design for it that I was pretty confident I could build. It's really just a bookshelf speaker sized box with a driver and a port. I've never made a box before and I've never cut a hole with a jig saw before. I'll tell you how it turns out ;) I can understand if you don't have the work space or the tools but if you do I'd encourage you to do more research. Do it until you've given yourself enough self confidence to take a crack at it. And don't start out with anything too complicated!

I'm using the GRS 8FR-8. It's based on the Pioneer B20 which is out of production but man there's a lot of designs out for it.

One more thing.....do you have enough room for open baffles? Look it up. Giant boards of wood standing up right, with a single driver in the middle. There's an inexpensive Goldwood full range on Parts Express that I've heard is great for OB. Read it in the PE customer reviews and I've read it here.
 
Open baffles I can probably manage! Not sure my wife would appreciate it though! I'm amazed nobody has marketed an inexpensive speaker. From what I have read drivers can be pretty inexpensive (as well as really expensive) and there are no crossovers. It's what makes them easy to build. But you can't buy the finished speaker anywhere.
 
Wasn't the Radio Shack Minimus 3.5 a single driver?

I've got a couple I've been playing with. I did these for my boat:

attachment.php
 
Hey RayW. Those look like Aurasound NS3's. I have a pair of those that I need to build a tiny little box for.
 
kinsale said:
Open baffles I can probably manage! Not sure my wife would appreciate it though! I'm amazed nobody has marketed an inexpensive speaker. From what I have read drivers can be pretty inexpensive (as well as really expensive) and there are no crossovers. It's what makes them easy to build. But you can't buy the finished speaker anywhere.
Click to expand...

There's a couple of places offering finished speaker systems, using full range drivers, at less than insane prices: http://www.thehornshoppe.com/ , and http://www.omegaloudspeakers.com/
 
When I attended the California Audio Show last year outside of San Francisco in Emeryville, the Teresonic's were amazing sounding.

A bit expensive at $14,500 and $6,000 for the ones pictured below.

teresonic_room.jpg
 
I do not know what you consider inexpensive, but Louis Chochos of Omega Speakers produces some great single driver speakers.
 
RamblinE said:
Hey RayW. Those look like Aurasound NS3's. I have a pair of those that I need to build a tiny little box for.
Click to expand...

They're Dayton ND-90's. Similar to the Aurasound but they've got a bit more travel (and more bass) and I believe lower sensitivity.
 
Where are you located? There are a lot of single driver fans out there, so you might be able to find a pair in your area. I've got a few pairs, and I like them for what they are. My desk system is a pair of TangBands I got for about $6.00 from a gemtleman on this forum. I ran the TS parameters through WinISD, built some boxes, and they've been in use for a couple of years now. Very easy build, very cheap, and they sound pretty good. If you don't want to build your own boxes and there are no other AK'ers nearby who might help you out, I'd be willing to build you a pair. PM me and we can see what it would cost to ship a pair from 58503 to you.
Mike
 
RayW said:
Wasn't the Radio Shack Minimus 3.5 a single driver?

I've got a couple I've been playing with. I did these for my boat:

attachment.php
Click to expand...

R/S had numerous small extended-range driver speakers over the years. The Minimus 3.5 was kind of puny; the original "Solo-1" was interesting. There were numerous R/S speakers that used their OEM version(s) of the Fostex FE-103 (or reasonable facsimilies thereof) in small boxes. I have a motley collection of these... and I cannot from memory offer the name of a single one of them! :-(

www.radioshackcatalogs.com can identify them all if one is patient (or bored) enough!

For illustriative purposes, here's a scan I happen to have handy of (IIRC) the relevant page of the 1977 catalog.

attachment.php

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As an aside, there was a well-known DIY design published for the Radio Shack 40-1197/FE-103 in Electronics Illustrated (see, e.g., pg. 40 of http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalogs/1971/ ). As it happens, I have a totally mismatched pair of these (found separately at our town dump) :-)

40-1197enclosures.jpg

40-1197insitu.jpg

40-1197innards.jpg

(I am pleased to report that Tim teh Kitteh resisted the temptation to eat the fiberglass damping material)
EDIT: The wayback machine comes through! Here's the original article for this project (FWIW): http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20050430042627/http://au.geocities.com/footstony/sub_mini.pdf

There have been zillions of DIY cabinet designs for this inexpensive (and rather bright, to my ears) extended-range speaker.

FWIW, the R/S 40-1354 twincone 5-1/4" driver is one of my very favorite-est 'full range' drivers. A pair in mass loaded folded, tapered quarter-wave tubes designed by Bob Brines graces :-) my living room.

DSCN5289.jpg

(the drivers have been modified with the addition of Dave Dlugos' phase plugs and some judiciously applied 'moretite' damping on the frames)
 
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more single-driver drivel :-)

Sorry, I just can't stop!

Someone already mentioned Dave Dlugos ("planet 10"). Besides Dave's excellent resources (see also www.t-linespeakers.org ) the full range driver forum has been resurrected. See www.fullrangedriver.com

For semi-DIY, www.partsexpress.com has some beautiful small preassembled cabinets. I suspect it would be possible to do a reasonable facsimilie of one of the small Tekton designs with one of the PE cabinets and a Fostex driver from www.madisound.com.
Link to the PE cabinets:
http://www.parts-express.com/wizards/searchResults.cfm?srchExt=CAT&srchCat=603

FYI and FWIW, the Fostex FE-103 is still available and relatively inexpensive.
https://www.madisound.com/store/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=131&products_id=8825

FE103En.jpg


FYI, here's the Madisound/Fostex knock-down kit that was mentioned in an earlier post: https://www.madisound.com/store/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=131&products_id=1325

Tekton's site is http://www.tektondesign.com/loudspeaker.html
They have some nice ready-made speakers at reasonable prices.

40-1197 info FYI and FWIW: http://diyaudioprojects.com/Drivers/40-1197/40-1197.htm
 
Check out Brines Acoustics as well. I just built a pair of Bobs cabinets, and will be finishing them up this weekend. He sells plans for $25, and also sells flats (unassembled cabinets) without the driver or filter.
 
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