Hello everyone,
For a long time I've been planing to build my own speakers and recently I've purchased a pair of Seas Excel W18EX001 woofers at a good price.
Now, I'm looking for a pair of tweeters.
I live in Europe and my budget for the tweeters is in the range of 200-250 euros. I've found a pair of Seas Excel T29AF001 at a very good discount, matching my budget. As I found a model of a DIY speaker kit for this comination of woofer and tweeter, I was convinced that for such a good discount this is the right combination for me.
However, recently I've found a long dicussion on diyAudio from 2018 on a similar topic to this one, which made me change my mind. The main conclusions I've made are:
I'm a complete newbie in audio and there are many things I don't understand. However, I'm a physicist and from my general knowledge of spectra the SB26ADC has a much better frequency reponse. The only upside of the T29AF001 is the lower resonance frequency, howver I do not see any related impovemets on the impedance variations in this region.
This said I'm thinking about choosing the SB26ADC tweeter for my project. Still, I do hesitate as the price difference between the tweeters is huge (x4) and there may be other things to take in consideration that I do not know.
If would kindly ask for an optinion, a sugestion or an advice about this problem. It would be much appreciated.
P.S. I plan to build a pair of 2-way compact ported floorstanders with an internal volume of about 30L, made from 25mm (1inch) MDF. The port design and the exact dimensions are not yet calculated. I plan to build a passive crossover with Standard Jantzen Audio or Mundorf EVO components. The exact crossover will be designed after I will install the drivers in the cabinets and measure their frequency reponse. From what I've read on other discussions, I expect to be able to build the crossover with a 2nd order HP filter for tweeter and 4th order LP filter for woofer.
For a long time I've been planing to build my own speakers and recently I've purchased a pair of Seas Excel W18EX001 woofers at a good price.
Now, I'm looking for a pair of tweeters.
I live in Europe and my budget for the tweeters is in the range of 200-250 euros. I've found a pair of Seas Excel T29AF001 at a very good discount, matching my budget. As I found a model of a DIY speaker kit for this comination of woofer and tweeter, I was convinced that for such a good discount this is the right combination for me.
However, recently I've found a long dicussion on diyAudio from 2018 on a similar topic to this one, which made me change my mind. The main conclusions I've made are:
- for a 2-way sistem with such a woofer I have to choose a tweeter suitable for a very low crossover in the region 1.5kHz (or may be lower).
- a more expensive tweeter (like the T29AF001 in my case) doesn't mean better, for this specific case (as many comments suggested).
- a waveguide (e.g. Monacor WG300) attached to a tweeter would somehow make it easier to apply a low frequency crossover.
- one of the most recommended tweeters for a low requency crossover was SB Acoustics SB26ADC (which fits into my budget). Other models were SB26CDC and SB29RD.
I'm a complete newbie in audio and there are many things I don't understand. However, I'm a physicist and from my general knowledge of spectra the SB26ADC has a much better frequency reponse. The only upside of the T29AF001 is the lower resonance frequency, howver I do not see any related impovemets on the impedance variations in this region.
This said I'm thinking about choosing the SB26ADC tweeter for my project. Still, I do hesitate as the price difference between the tweeters is huge (x4) and there may be other things to take in consideration that I do not know.
If would kindly ask for an optinion, a sugestion or an advice about this problem. It would be much appreciated.
P.S. I plan to build a pair of 2-way compact ported floorstanders with an internal volume of about 30L, made from 25mm (1inch) MDF. The port design and the exact dimensions are not yet calculated. I plan to build a passive crossover with Standard Jantzen Audio or Mundorf EVO components. The exact crossover will be designed after I will install the drivers in the cabinets and measure their frequency reponse. From what I've read on other discussions, I expect to be able to build the crossover with a 2nd order HP filter for tweeter and 4th order LP filter for woofer.
I'm afraid that is not in production anymore.
But you can 3d-print very well designed waveguides, have a look at @augerpro 's www.somasonus.net website and his thread:
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...-cnc-3d-printing.318190/page-108#post-7661649
Hi,
I have tried the SB26STAC which is similar to 26ADC with different membrane material. Was not impressed by it's ability to reproduce undistorted sound below 2500 Hz, especially at high level. So it was returned and exchanged to SS 2905/950000 which copes quite a lot better IMO. More expensive, though.
Regards
I have tried the SB26STAC which is similar to 26ADC with different membrane material. Was not impressed by it's ability to reproduce undistorted sound below 2500 Hz, especially at high level. So it was returned and exchanged to SS 2905/950000 which copes quite a lot better IMO. More expensive, though.
Regards
For a person new to the speaker building game, you have already chosen a most difficult bass unit. For all that, results should be good if you embrace complexity in crossover:
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/TJL_2W.htm
This uses the 110mm Excel T25CF001 fabric tweeter:
https://www.seas.no/index.php?optio...6-t25cf001&catid=50:excel-tweeters&Itemid=247
You are out of your depth unless you use an established skilled design, but I like the openess of Troels' design here. In fact I would not be too intimidated by substituting a metal Prestige 104mm 27TBFC/G unit since it is broadly similar on FR and Impedance curve and sensitivity:
https://www.seas.no/index.php?optio...bfcg&catid=27:seas-vintage-drivers&Itemid=366
Perhaps a little high end lift from a 2.2uF capacitor across 3.3R R1051 as in the SEAS Aphel:
https://www.seas.no/index.php?optio...s-aphel-kit&catid=66:seas-diy-kits&Itemid=345
I say this as someone who dislikes regular soft domes.
Best, Steve.
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/TJL_2W.htm
This uses the 110mm Excel T25CF001 fabric tweeter:
https://www.seas.no/index.php?optio...6-t25cf001&catid=50:excel-tweeters&Itemid=247
You are out of your depth unless you use an established skilled design, but I like the openess of Troels' design here. In fact I would not be too intimidated by substituting a metal Prestige 104mm 27TBFC/G unit since it is broadly similar on FR and Impedance curve and sensitivity:
https://www.seas.no/index.php?optio...bfcg&catid=27:seas-vintage-drivers&Itemid=366
Perhaps a little high end lift from a 2.2uF capacitor across 3.3R R1051 as in the SEAS Aphel:
https://www.seas.no/index.php?optio...s-aphel-kit&catid=66:seas-diy-kits&Itemid=345
I say this as someone who dislikes regular soft domes.
Best, Steve.
Last edited:
Thank you for your answer.
At what crossover frequency did you listen to SB26 and SSd2905/95?
How do you fing the off-axis reponse on SS2905/95 tweeters? From the manufacture datasheet, they roll off at 30 degrees in higher frequencies (>10kHz).
I did exclude the SSd2905/97 from my list, however the SS.../95 could fit into my budget.
Regrads.
A good few years ago I built a pair of Thors using those Seas speakers, two in parallel per cabinet. Getting a suitable response was a challenge; take a look at the peak around 4900 Hz!.
A notch filter is absolutely needed. After considerable fiddling the response became tolerable.
Probably the best solution is bi-amping; use them as a woofer to say 400Hz with a 24db/octave electronic crossover and choose your mid and tweeter to taste. I have used them also with a Morel Supreme st1108, elaborate crossover including notch filter and Zobel network.
Consult posts by Jim Angie to diy.
The original Thor crossovers didn't work well and were designed for speakers in parallel.
A notch filter is absolutely needed. After considerable fiddling the response became tolerable.
Probably the best solution is bi-amping; use them as a woofer to say 400Hz with a 24db/octave electronic crossover and choose your mid and tweeter to taste. I have used them also with a Morel Supreme st1108, elaborate crossover including notch filter and Zobel network.
Consult posts by Jim Angie to diy.
The original Thor crossovers didn't work well and were designed for speakers in parallel.
Thank you for your opinion.
I'm happy to find someone familiar with T29AF001.
Do you know how they bahave at in the 1-3kHz region and what was crossover you listened at?
Cordialement.
Thanks for the suggestion.
I did look at those.
The Millenium (Seas T25CF002) is out of my budget.
The DTX (Seas H1966 27BCD) has a high resonance frequency of 900Hz. As a newbie, I'm afraid to use it with a crossover at 1.5-2kHz as it will be just an octave above its resonance and the tweeter could be forced to play frequencies it has difficulties with.
Hi,
I have experimented with different crosss over points, from about 2 to 3 kHz. I would say that SS 2905/95 can be used satisfactory down to 2 kHz, maybe a little lower in case of high order crossover(e.g 18 or 24 db/oct). The roll off is perhaps because the dome is a bigger than 25 mm. I do not find it being a problem subjectively. Overall the tweeter sounds nice and non-fatiquing to me. Distortion is low and without peaks.
So I think it's a kind of safe-bet and universal tweeter.
Regards
Thank you, Steve, for your suggestions and hints, much appreciated. The plans of TJL2 speaker are very close to what I plan to build. I will take a closer look for inspiration when I'll start designing the crossover and cabinets.
I did expect to run into problems with crossover with a 2-way speaker with such a big woofer and I don't expect to build the best one from the first try. My plan is to leave the Xover plate outside the speaker for some time and experiment with different possibilities. I still have to investigate the market of electronic components, but I hope to find some cheap components to experiment with before I build the final version of crossover with good qulity components.
Regards,
Victor.
The Visaton WG 148 R is available and there's a comprehensive list of tweeters and how well they match here. No experience with it but for example the Seas 27TBFC/G mentioned above by system7 seems to be a good match (only a small mod required), is highly regarded and would be within your budget, waveguides included.
Not familiar with the T29AF001, would like to test it. Honestly I thought they are not available. But very familiar with its little brother 27TBC/G. The question is below 2kHz, very few 1" tweeters can go lower. I think you should stay above 2kHz. A T29 can handle the woofer above 2kHz.
Thank you for the answer.
I'm also not confident about that huge peak at 5kHz and I'm very happy with Troel's design that system7 suggested. No matter what tweeter I'll get, I'm going to use/adapad the parameters on the low pass filter he used in his crossover.
As a begginer I think that a 3-way sistem with bi-amping and electronic crossover seems more complicated, than building a passive crossover. It is better to say I feel a bit more confident in doing that.
Thank you for an interesting link. I think I'll get the Visaton WG. Considering how many tweeters fit with this waveguide, I think it should be not complicated to install it on most of tweeters with simple geometry.