Test Bench: The New Faital Pro 6" 6PR160 Midwoofer/Midrange

This Test Bench characterizes Faital Pro’s new 6” 6PR160 pro sound midwoofer/midrange. This is a driver from the Italian pro sound OEM’s extensive line of high power handling mid-bass woofers. Applications for the 6” 6PR160 include use as midbass or midrange in three-way stage or studio monitors, as well as midrange arrays in large PA systems. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, June 2019.

This Test Bench characterizes the Bianco 44CD-K from SB Audience, a new brand from SB Acoustics. The FEA-optimized ferrite compression driver arrived with its H-250 90° × 90° exponential horn. The SB Audience 44CD-K features a 44 mm (1.75”) diameter voice coil wound with round copper wire on a high-temperature Kapton non-conducting former, driving a single piece Kapton diaphragm and surround. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, May 2019.

The Celestion CDX1-1732 is driven by a 44 mm (1.75") diameter voice coil wound with edge-wound copper-clad aluminum wire on a high-temperature fiberglass non-conducting former driving a single piece polyimide diaphragm and surround. For this Test Bench, Celestion supplied its 1” H1-7050 “No Bell” elastomer (plastic rubber) damped cast aluminum 70° × 50° exponential flare horn. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, May 2019.

This Test Bench focuses on the 14NA100-8, a new high power handling 14” pro sound woofer from B&C Speakers. This is the highest power handling in the brand's 14” group with a continuous power handling rating of 1.6 kW (800 W nominal). Applications range from two- and three-way PA speakers and compact two-way monitor designs for high SPL in limited spaces. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, April 2019.

This month I characterized the 10” L26ROY subwoofer from SEAS’ new Extreme line. The SEAS L26 series from SEAS was popularized by several of Siegfried Linkwitz designs (sold by Madisound as kits), including his "pièce de résistance," the LX521.4, which utilized four L26RO4Y subwoofers (the four-layer version). These 10” woofers were built in Taiwan for SEAS, but that production has now been brought home to Norway and reintroduced as the Extreme subwoofer line. The new L26ROY has a well-appointed feature set. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, April 2019.

In this Test Bench we will be looking at the 29 mm TW29DN-B cloth dome tweeter from the SB Acoustics Satori line of high-end devices. This new TW29DN-B-8 SB Satori tweeter is a wide surround format-type similar to the original Vifa DX tweeter, or the current Scan-Speak D2604 or D2607. However, all of these are 26 mm diaphragm tweeters, and the new Satori ST29DN-B-8 is a 29 mm diaphragm type. This article was published in Voice Coil, March 2019.

This month I am characterizing the SB29BNC beryllium 29 mm dome tweeter from SB Acoustics. This is the second high-end 29 mm beryllium diaphragm neodymium dome sent by SB Acoustics for Test Bench. Features for this transducer include a small format 72 mm diameter injection-molded plastic faceplate, and an 8 mm wide coated cloth surround. This article was published in Voice Coil, March 2019.

This Test Bench characterizes the T34B-4 34mm beryllium dome tweeter from BlieSMa, a German company founded in 2018 by Stas Malikov. BlieSMa’s first tweeter offering, the T34A-4 34 mm aluminum/magnesium alloy dome, appeared in Voice Coil’s June 2018 Test Bench. This month, I received the company’s second offering, and it seems logical that this driver, the T34B-4, is a 34 mm beryllium dome tweeter. This article was published in Voice Coil, March 2019.

For this Test Bench, Vance Dickason actually had lots of fun characterizing a new version of a legendary 6.5” woofer recently announced by MISCO (Minneapolis Speaker Company). The new MS-10W, will be marketed under the new MISCO brand, Bold North Audio, and it is effectively a direct replacement for the famous white driver on Yamaha’s NS10 studio monitors! This article was originally published in Voice Coil, February 2019.

Being primarily known as a pro sound driver OEM, with a great reputation for both guitar speakers and PA drivers, it may come as a surprise that this Eminence driver, the SD28, is a 1” soft dome tweeter — a staple of the home and car audio businesses. I should note however, that while Eminence has a rather large catalog of pro audio transducers, the company also produces drivers for home and car audio companies. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, January 2019