What to do with a pair of HH Scott Woofers

[asoundhound]

and of course, i poked a hole in one of the surrounds with a screwdriver. i patched it with a piece of cloth and rubber cement. let everything dry up and gave them a listen. houston, we have a problem. at high volume, either the damaged woofer or the mid horn is rattling. so i installed port tubes i had laying around. the bass response improved dramatically, but the noise persists. either the woofer voice coil is rubbing, or the crossover is letting low frequency signals to the mid horn. i'll order new caps first chance i get and take it from there.

other than the fault, these things sound pretty darned good! i do need to do something to tame the ringing horns and i have yet to stuff the cabinets.

 

[asoundhound]

definitely a bad voice coil.:dammit:

i'll try to find a pair of 12" utah's i guess.

 

[asoundhound]

i replaced the bad h.h. scott with an orphan university i had around, but it was not a good marriage, so i cut new baffles for the utah 15" woofers i have. i've only got one done, so it's hard to form any opinion, but it sure gets loud! i'll try to do the other tomorrow. i'm going to keep the 12" baffles. i may come across a nice pair of 12's some day.

 

[asoundhound]

got the other built. dang are these things loud! they don't sound too bad, but the woofers need to breath. i'd have to order port tubes, and they'd probably have to go in the back due to space confinements. the horns are far more efficient than any of the woofers i've tried so far. they belong to a tube amp. i think i'll try to find some nice 12" tube-compatible woofers to go with them in these cabinets. the utah woofers sounded better in bigger boxes. back to the old drawin' board, i suppose.

 

[asoundhound]

the first pair of utah woofers arrived. man, are they ugly! this is a fairly low wattage pair. they have small alnico magnets and the baskets are stamped and cheesey. i stuck them in the cabinets with the utah horns and jensen crossovers. holy cow, these things sound great! they handled my 150 wpc onkyo at half-volume with no complaints. i'd be afraid to push them much harder, though, or to crank up the bass. they may be efficient enough for tubes, when i get around to my VOM project, i'll give them a try. i've got another pair of utah 12's on the way. they look to be a little higher quality than these, i hope they sound even better!

as they stand, the bass is tight and deep, though ever so slightly boomy. cabinet dampening material and larger ports should soften this. the midrange is phenominal! the woofers are extended-range, and with no inductors in the crossovers to roll them off, they share duty with the mid horns. they are very open sounding, and the imaging is killer. i've listened to blood, sweat, and tears III ,chicago VII, kansas song for america, and john mayal blues fusion on them. piano, harmonica, violin, brass and percussion come alive! high frequencies are good, not at all harsh, but i may add some super-tweeters. i'm not sure how high the tweeter horns go, but they could stand a little reinforcement in the upper extremes. not that the treble is unsatisfactory now.

i've pulled them into my entertainment room, connected to a kenwood kr-3400 (i think about 25 wpc). the receiver has plenty of power with them. sorry about the bad pics, my camera batteries went dead after the first two shots.

i'll give the other pair of utah woofs a try when they get here, but i'm pretty happy now. a little tweaking for now, and down the road, some better built cabinets.

 

[asoundhound]

the marantz imperial 7 woofers came in today. not nearly as ugly as the utahs, but not as efficient either. believe it or not, these cheap utahs sound better, particularly in the midrange.

 

[asoundhound]

the other utah woofers arrived today. i like. they are heavier and more efficient than the others. i've just got them stuck in the holes, i'll have to enlarge the holes slightly. these woofers are butt ugly, but they sound really good. i think i've found the driver combo i'll stick with. now to play with the crossovers...

 

[kfa888]

the other utah woofers arrived today. i like. they are heavier and more efficient than the others. i've just got them stuck in the holes, i'll have to enlarge the holes slightly. these woofers are butt ugly, but they sound really good. i think i've found the driver combo i'll stick with. now to play with the crossovers...

You obviously realize the "woofer" is a full range driver (kinda)

 

[asoundhound]

You obviously realize the "woofer" is a full range driver (kinda)

yes, and actually, it covers the full range. the crossovers i'm using are jensen, and they only consist of two capacitors and two l-pads, no inductors, so there is nothing to roll off the woofers, the mid and treble is shared with the horns. i'm gonna experiment some more with the crossovers, but they sound darned good like this!

 

[westend]

Are you using any driver parameters at all or are you voicing everything by ear? I don't mean this to sound like demeaning or bad. I read that Henry Kloss voiced some of his designs by ear.

 

[asoundhound]

everything was done by pure chance. the cabinets are the size they are because i had extra lumber laying around. the crossover points are where they are because i bought them that way. the good sound is nothing but luck. i wish i knew the parameters of the drivers, and may buy something to check them with in the future, but for now, fate has smiled my way.

 

[asoundhound]

damn, damn, double damn...

don't know if i mentioned this or not, but i found another scott woofer to replace the one with the bad voice coil. since i decided to build bigger cabinets for the utahs, i put the scotts back in the cabinets and went back to testing mids and tweets. well, wouldn't ya' know it, the voice coil in the other woofer is starting to rattle. figures.

 

[asoundhound]

Voice Coils Not Bad!

turns out that a picture i had on the floor leaned against the wall managed to make contact with the speaker stands. that was the cause of the rattle. so i'm back in business. the search for synergy continues.

 

[asoundhound]

hmmmm.....

midranges by midwest, tweeters from ev7's (cts), all alnico...

 

[cincy]

Wicked looking speaker--with the horns and Utah. :thmbsp:

 

[asoundhound]

the utahs shown in my avatar are awaiting bigger cabinets. i'll probably experiment with crossovers as well. the cabinets were originally built to experiment with the scott woofers, which sound really good in them. it's just been a matter of finding a set of mids and tweets that sound good with them. the best match i've found so far are a set of wharfedale mids and tweets from a pair of dovedales. unfortunately, i blew one of the tweeters. the midwest mids i just acquired sound pretty good, but all the crossovers i have on hand cross a little low for them. i'm not really thrilled with any of the tweeters i have on hand, though several different pair don't sound too bad. the fact that all the mids and tweets i am trying are just layed on top of the cabs, instead of mounted in them makes it a little hard to determine also. for the time being, i'm having fun experimenting!