It doesn't get much better than this, Satori drivers from SB Acoustics.
Note the tweeter's surround. It's unusually wide and made of a very light weight fabric rather than rubber. The result is a more linear and freer suspension for better dynamic linearity. That combined with the Beryllium dome result in a very low moving mass. Beryllium is light stuff, element #4. Unlike other metal domes you'll see an absence of ringing at the top of the range. Quite a low Fs considering the mass is so low; that's because of the extra tricky dual back cavities.
Notice that the faceplate is two concentric rings that are elastically decoupled.
Tweeter artifacts manifest in the vocal range, so they're usually attributed to something other than the tweeter. This one's as clean as a whistle and that really shows up on female vocal. For that, there's a hard to achieve character we call "Dew on the Bosom", this one gets us there.
This hansom guy is large for his category with a nice, big effective area and exceptionally long stroke. Stoke times area equals displacement, the most important measure of how much work a woofer can do as frequency descends - a factor we love to exploit with DSP.
SB's gone all-out on suspension symmetry with a flat spider facing wide open air loads on both sides, they've even brought the coil braids out at 180 degrees to negate any possible coil cock. Notice that the motor is elastically decoupled from the basket. That's a first. Plus every coil cooling trick in the book.
Nicely vented pole piece with a flare at both ends. Neodymium motor that is extremely well focused on a tallish gap, terrific flux density. The former looks a bit long, but that's to accommodate the extended copper shorting sleeves on the pole piece. So this motor packs a punch with very low distortion.
When you feel the stroke you'll find the compliance especially soft and linear. The cone is a house specialty made of pressed papyrus - which seems like a weird idea until you hear it. Light, stiff and dead; SB's Scan Speak lineage is showing here. A little cone cry is evident on the bench but it's way, way, way above range and out of the way.
All of these things combined give us a driver with noticeably superior transient response, naturalness in the mids and manliness in the bass. Just gorgeous, this woofer is a powerful "shot across the bow" for every other woofer maker. You should hear it in tandem with its 9.5" big brother.
Any DIYers among us? You have to try this driver! I'd pay twice as much for it, maybe more. Plus it's breezy-easy to use.
Note the tweeter's surround. It's unusually wide and made of a very light weight fabric rather than rubber. The result is a more linear and freer suspension for better dynamic linearity. That combined with the Beryllium dome result in a very low moving mass. Beryllium is light stuff, element #4. Unlike other metal domes you'll see an absence of ringing at the top of the range. Quite a low Fs considering the mass is so low; that's because of the extra tricky dual back cavities.
Notice that the faceplate is two concentric rings that are elastically decoupled.
Tweeter artifacts manifest in the vocal range, so they're usually attributed to something other than the tweeter. This one's as clean as a whistle and that really shows up on female vocal. For that, there's a hard to achieve character we call "Dew on the Bosom", this one gets us there.
This hansom guy is large for his category with a nice, big effective area and exceptionally long stroke. Stoke times area equals displacement, the most important measure of how much work a woofer can do as frequency descends - a factor we love to exploit with DSP.
SB's gone all-out on suspension symmetry with a flat spider facing wide open air loads on both sides, they've even brought the coil braids out at 180 degrees to negate any possible coil cock. Notice that the motor is elastically decoupled from the basket. That's a first. Plus every coil cooling trick in the book.
Nicely vented pole piece with a flare at both ends. Neodymium motor that is extremely well focused on a tallish gap, terrific flux density. The former looks a bit long, but that's to accommodate the extended copper shorting sleeves on the pole piece. So this motor packs a punch with very low distortion.
When you feel the stroke you'll find the compliance especially soft and linear. The cone is a house specialty made of pressed papyrus - which seems like a weird idea until you hear it. Light, stiff and dead; SB's Scan Speak lineage is showing here. A little cone cry is evident on the bench but it's way, way, way above range and out of the way.
All of these things combined give us a driver with noticeably superior transient response, naturalness in the mids and manliness in the bass. Just gorgeous, this woofer is a powerful "shot across the bow" for every other woofer maker. You should hear it in tandem with its 9.5" big brother.
Any DIYers among us? You have to try this driver! I'd pay twice as much for it, maybe more. Plus it's breezy-easy to use.