Seas tweeter inquiry. See if you can help!

[mk_ 10+ year member]

Sup fellas,

I had a quick question regarding the madisound seas neo tweeters. Because I will be going active in the next few weeks I decided that I wanted 4 ohm tweeters as opposed to the 6 ohm tweeters that I have in the MB Quart QTD 25. I feel the 4 ohm impedance will give me a greater idea of how much power I would be actually putting to the small speakers. (i.e I know power @ 4 ohms from my amp, as opposed to guessing what it would be putting out @ 6 ohms.)

Now I was looking at

http://www.madisound.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=8177

and

http://www.madisound.com/catalog/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=149&products_id=633

Power handling is rated @ 80wrms and 90wrms respectively. Now, I have no preference towards softdome or aluminum as I have heard both and don't have any complaints towards either. I plan on showing each tweeter 125wrms, and the obvious answer would be to go with the tweeter with the higher power handling, but I wanted to know if I should worry about overpowering either of these to that extent. I personally don't think it would be much of a problem based on gain settings but would like your opinions.

The amplifier I will be using is an Avionixx 400.2 - 125x2 @ 4 ohms.

After reading over my post, I think I talked myself into getting the aluminum dome, higher power handling tweeter... But still, opinions please!

Thanks for reading,

Michael

Click to read more...

 

[pellis 10+ year member]

dont look ohms alone, i have a pair of seas tweeters only get 30w rms, and they are plenty loud, and keeps up with everything else.

seas has better tweeters out there than those two. if going active and you didnt want to spend an arm and a leg for your first set up then check out lpg 25/26nf series.

 

[mk_ 10+ year member]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

I checked out the 25NFA LPG (did a search on Madisound, one set was out of stock and the other was still available.)

My question to you is, what would be some advantages of the LPG 25, as opposed to getting the ones that I mentioned. BTW, I should say I was drawn to the ones in my OP due to sexxxy price tag. Do you really think there would be that much of a difference between them? Say, if I got the Seas in my orig. post, would it totally ruin my whole system? Obviously it wouldn't ruin it or come close to anything of that extent, but why do you think (if you even think that to begin with) I would be kicking myself for not going with the LPG's?

Michael

 

[mk_ 10+ year member]

Also I see that you have experience with a similar set that was mentioned, so your opinion is greatly valued!!

 

[pellis 10+ year member]

no, it wouldnt ruin your setup but, i just like the lpgs better than the seas small format tweeters. about to leave from work, but the lpgs have better top end than the seas. just my opinion though. i just tested out the aluminum seas small format the other week. i didn't like those either.

 

[mk_ 10+ year member]

Great. Thanks for your opinion on everything. Chime in if you get a chance another time.

Bump for other opinions.

 

[mk_ 10+ year member]

Just got into an article regarding speaker impedances and efficiency. Looks like I got a long way to go before I make a decision.

Anyhow, opinions.................

 

[BrianChia 10+ year member]

I say don't worry about the impedance and power handling. These tweeters are designed for sound quality at a budget not "SPL" use. You don't want to push them to distortion power levels anyway. The only difference impedance will make either way is in the crossover which is impedance sensitive.

 

[mk_ 10+ year member]

Is active crossover impedance sensitive?

So lets say I get the 4 ohm tweeters, 90rms power handling. What would be wrong with giving them their rated power, assuming I set the gain for approximately 90wrms @ 4 ohms?

With a higher impedance tweeter, say 8 ohm, it would probably more efficient, and running the amp not as hard... but in reality the amp was made to run @ 4 ohms, so what's wrong with running it how it's supposed to be run?

Michael

 

[BrianChia 10+ year member]

I did not know you were running active crossovers. If that is the case then the impedance is not relevant to the crossover.

An amp isn't "supposed" to run at any impedance. They have minimum impedances where they are stable. As you run at lower impedance, distortion starts to increase, signal becomes "dirtier", the amp gets hotter, etc. Some amps can tolerate the increased current. You should always have headroom on your amp to keep from pushing it too hard anyway--what you should do is get an amp that will do rated power at 8 ohms. Regardless, there is small difference between 100W at 4 ohms and 50W at 8 ohms. The difference is about 3 db. With a 6ohm speaker the difference is even less. Between the two tweeters you selected, you will NOT tell a difference between 80WRMS and 90WRMS if sensitivity is the same. It is more important to look at tonal characteristics and sensitivity when comparing the two tweeters.

And nothing is wrong to running them at rated power, I'm more concerned about pushing your amp to levels of distortion. At 8ohms you should have more than enough power for the tweeters with less distortion.

There is more to speakers and amps than just trying to max out WRMS wherever possible.

 

[mk_ 10+ year member]

Thank you for taking the time out for a well thought response.

In regards to maxing out most possible wrms, yes it is a bad habit of mine, as well as many others i bet //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

And there is also a ton more to speakers than happens to meet the eye, as pertains to ratings, sensitivity, efficiency and more. I'm finding all this very very interesting and opens a whole new world to the hobby.

Right now, I think I'm going to stick with my current 6 ohm tweeters and see how it all comes together. I don't even have all my equipment yet, it is on the way, and I guess theres no better way to judge how something works/sounds than letting your ears do the judging. So thats the way I'm going to go now and keep researching any other info.

Thanks again,

Michael