Anybody used Audax PR170MO?

[thadman 10+ year member]

These midranges look quite interesting and are revered quite highly over on diyaudio.com for use in open-baffle enclosures. They've got a 100dB sensitivity, but only .5mm xmax (yes 1/2mm:crap: )

I'd like to use them from 300hz on up on a 24" baffle (they will be crossed from a Behringer DCX2496 w/ 48dB xovers from a pair of Dayton HF 12s OB also, so if the Daytons can go higher ill take em higher) and then cross them to a Peerless HDS 1" tweeter around 3000hz.

Would these be better than a pair of Peerless Exclusives 5.5s in the midrange?

Theyre only covering about 3 octaves and would achieve the same output levels with only 2 watts as the Exclusive 5.5s would with 64. I could save a lot of money by going with T-amps vs Behringer A500s or offerings from Adcom or Rotel.

Would you recommend these over the Peerless 5.5 (300-3000hz)?

Click to read more...

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

but only .5mm xmax (yes 1/2mm:crap: )

Yup. They were designed strictly for midrange....not midbass at all.

I had heard they were being discontinued about 2 years ago...but I see that Madisound still has them on their website.

Though PHL has some offerings that are supposed to be very similar aswell, albeit about 2x more expensive.

Anyways....I've never heard anything but glowing reviews of them. Back a couple years ago when I had my Illusion horns I was contemplating using them for a 3-way horn setup in my vehicle.

They should do fine @ 300hz with a steep slope.....heck, I know of some people that have ran them down to 175hz @ 24db/oct.

The main problem with your implimentation is that you would likely have to pad them down severely to level match with the rest of your system.

I know, I didn't really answer your question at all. But it's late and I felt like rambling... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif

EDIT:

Now made by AAC of France, the (Audax) PR170M0 midrange. AAC was the parts supplier for Audax and has started building some of the Audax parts.

I see....Audax must have discontinued them, but Audax's parts supplier is continuing to offer them for sale.

 

[thadman 10+ year member]

Im going active with a DCX2496 crossover, so I doubt I'd have to pad them down. I just picked it up on ebay for $215 shipped for a brand new unit , so 48dB xovers are accessible:yumyum:

I'd save a lot of money by being able to use cheap t-amps, instead of higher power amps from other manufacturers.

Has anybody ever done any objective measurements on these?

The big question though, would these (in the respective passband im going to use them, 300/400hz - 3000ish hz with 48dB crossovers) sound better than Peerless Exclusive 5.5s? Would you use them over the Exclusives?

 

[thylantyr 10+ year member]

I did some high sensitivity 'pure midrange' auditions a while back comparing.

PR170M0

PHL 1120

PHL 1660

PHL 2520

Focal 7K2

Focal 6WM

If you need a quality midrange only, it's hard to beat a PR170M0. The PHL 1120 is

very similar in sound to the PR170M0 as it was designed by the same person, but

PHL cost alot more, has more xmax, higher power handling and ~3dB less sensitivity. Considering that it's harder to source PHL drivers and getting PHL

with cone treatments on the front and back of the cone is a special order, the

PR170M0 is realistically just easier to snag if MAD has them in stock.

The Focal kevlar sounded pretty good and the Focal W cone scored worst

of the bunch.

So... PR170M0 is a nice DIY secret if you want to build high sensitivity loudspeakers, but it offers no bass output and your

loudspeaker will be a 3 way design plus subwoofer.

You can put this PR mid in a big closed box to get some extra bass instead of OB.

 

[thadman 10+ year member]

Would it be recommended to use more than a t-amp on them? How much power can the PR170MO take?

Whats the optimal HF limit of these drivers (keeping the 48dB crossover in mind)

 

[thadman 10+ year member]

I failed to mention that the Dayton 12" HF will be used solely for midbasses purposes (70-300/400hz) and an Avalanche 18" in a ported sonotube will take over the lowest octaves //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[thylantyr 10+ year member]

The PR170M0 is a friendly driver meaning 'out of the box' you can play it full range

{with high pass crossover} and it will sound great unlike other fancy midranges

using esoteric cone material design that has nasty and highly audible breakup modes, ie metal, kevlar, magnesium coned mids, etc. This makes the low pass

filter on this driver very flexible. Whatever crossover frequency you choose will work great.

Since the midrange is not the main focal point, you can now switch your focus to

the tweeter you use. This will define the SQ of your design. Find a tweeter that

can hang in the 2khz crossover range plus or minus 500hz and adjust the

sound so the tweeter is operating optimally and whatever frequency that may

be, the PR will integrate well.

Since you plan to use a DCX2496, the task of integrating the PR17 to a good

tweeter to your Dayton 12" will be a piece of cake.

Power? The PR17 will run very well off low powered amplifiers and it will handle

easily a 200w/ch amp playing music all day as long as you keep your high pass

filter in the 300hz range. This is just a ballpark, when you are ready to fine

tune, observe PR17 xmax + sound of your Dayon 12" integration and pick the

crossover setting that provides synergy.

Trust your ears.

 

[thadman 10+ year member]

What tweeter would mate well with the Audax considering its super high efficiency? I cant double up on tweeters for obvious beaming reasons, and Ribbons seem to have loads of harmonic distortion especially down low.

Im starting to question whether a Dayton 12" HF/tower would actually be better (lower in distortion) than a pair of Eminence Alpha 15As

Whats your take on them?

 

[thadman 10+ year member]

to the top guys

Its just a matter of deciding upon a midbass and high efficiency tweeter to mate with it I've done some modeling in *edge* and have come to the conclusion that for total sonic benefits im not going to double up on drivers as their diffraction responses would be very different and wouldnt be able to be corrected with equalization.

Does hornloading a dome tweeter destroy its SQ performance? The tweeter would be crossed around 3000hz or lower, so it wouldnt need to extend super low. I'd like to achieve similar 98-100dB sensitivity for dynamic purposes on the dome tweeter to mate with the midrange. Ribbon Tweeters are too expensive for my purposes and after reading zaphs tests, seem to measure extremely poorly.

Would a Pro Audio midbass be more desirable over a low distortion home audio driver like the Dayton Reference 12" HF for dipole?