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09-june-2012
planet_10 hifi provides both
new & used speaker drivers for your DIY projects. We specialize in full-range
speakers, but by no means is that all...
Planet10-hifi presents the
1st commercially available EnABLed** drivers.
These drivers are not only EnABLed but have some Planet10 exclusive modifications
which include cone pre-treatment to reduce high frequency roughness of the driver's
response, basket damping & stiffening, and pair matching of Thiel-Small parameters.
Note: unless specially requested (say to match an existing installation) all now
have EnABL2 a subtle but real improvement on the process. The most recent pictures here have EnABL2 -- the thread also illustrates some
of the possible colour schemes.
All our drivers are matched (excludes special orders) & modified to provide higher
performance levels than the stock drivers they start out as. We have drivers based
on Fostex, Mark Audio, Creative Sound and others on special order.
Included with driver purchase are the subset of paid plans for this driver.
As well as enhancing drivers you send us (not always cost effective), we can also
supply other drivers from Solen, Parts Express, & Madisound
on special order.
It is unlikely you will buy new drivers from us based on price. We are just too small
to compete that way. Besides offering unique product we offer personal service and
friendly help and advice to help out the DIYer. Many of you will have seen planet10
(& friends/associates) posts on diyAudio
and a smattering of other forums. We now have our own planet10-hifi forum on diyAudio.
The Box
Design Library. Here you
will find drawings i have made of designs for speakers we sell, popular DIY designs
and links to others. All plans we have drawn have both metric & english units.
We are also the prime sponsers of both the Frugal-Horn
and Transmission
Line Speakers sites which
have even more plans, projects & useful information.
Choosing
driver size?
What
is involved in making a planet10-hifi driver?
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Shield is available as a vector pdf
for those wishing to make t-shirts or posters or ... currently available with CSS
FR125 or Coral Beta 8 |
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Modifications include:
- reduce resonances & reflection
back thru the cone including basket damping and shaping.
- the cones are EnABLed**. This
dramatically reduces the "hall-of-mirrors" haze, increasing downward dynamic
range (DDR) and revealing subtle information in the music that fills out detail that
gives the brain more data to recreate the event.
- the pre-coat and the post-coat
considerably reduces the cone noise (imagine paper fibres rubbing together as the
cone vibrates) thus further lowering the noise floor
**(H. O. Purvine, U.S. patent # 5,304,746 publication date April 1994) Read more about EnABL
The process the drivers go thru:
- Each batch of drivers (minimum
20) is run-in for 200+ hours (check for duds -- none so far).
- The drivers are then modified
basket, cone
- matched into pairs
- T/S parameters are measured throughout
for data collection purposes and to stream drivers into pairs
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Choosing
driver size?
Choosing a FR means you have to choose your tradeoffs... i'll just tick off a general
ones ...
1/ bigger drivers tend to be more efficient than little ones (which mean they play
louder for a given amplifier. ir if you have a 45SE, maybe that bigger driver is
a good idea)
2/ smaller drivers usually have better mids & tops (we feel the 120mm drivers
hit the sweet spot here)
3/ bigger drivers go lower & tend to be able to do dynamics better -- they can
move more air
4/ small drivers usually go in smaller boxes, with higher WAF, and lower cost to
build
5/ bigger drivers tend to cost more |
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What
is involved in making a planet10-hifi driver?
(february 2009)
When a batch of drivers is received, every driver is unpackaged, inspected and
put onto a break-in fixture for at least a week. Upon completion each driver's impedance
& T/S parameters are measured. Any defective or out of spec drivers are set aside
(few & far between, but not unknown). If drivers are available in different colour
schemes or some are special ordered, smaller sets of drivers are streamed into smaller
batches based on T/S match.
Whizzer cone drivers then get their dustcaps removed (and measured again).
Paper drivers get a pre-treatment to seal the cone. A more elaborate pre-treatment,
specific to FE126/127, is done to ameriolate some significant peaks at ~7KHz.
If drivers are being streamed into smaller batches they are again measured.
Spots are then applied. 229 for the FF85, FE126/127, EL70, 265 for the CHR70, 324
for the whizzer coned FE166/7/206/7. 2 or 3 coats of conformal coating applied on
top of all this (fewer on whizzers & dust-caps).
A PVA teat is applied to the point of the dustcap, this covered with a touch of conformal
coating. Some drivers get an addition set of mid-cone stealth rings (72 more spots
-- FE126/7, EL70).
Whizzer cone drivers get phase plugs. These are EnABLed (229 spots each), get a conformal
coating, PVA teat, and that coated with conformal coating.
Each step requires 6-24 hrs minimum between steps.
Drivers then have their final impedance, T/S measurements and are matched into pairs.
Any outliers are set aside.
Optionally larger Fostex drivers (FE126/7/166/7/206/7) have the back of their bezels
filled with a marine latex compound which stiffens the bezel., and damps the entire
basket. It takes 3 or 4 applications to fill. They are then sanded & sealed.
Drivers have the backs -- particularily at the basket/magnet junction -- is faired
out for less turbulent air flow, with a compound that also supplies some damping.
Drivers can be special ordered with this step down using the same material as is
used on the bezels. It is quite labour intensive and time consuming and has exponential
costs for the gains.
We continually work to improve the process and a certain numer of drivers are set
aside for R&D.
dave |
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