Do air core inductors make a noticeable difference over solid inductors low pass

[PWR RYD]

Good point

[billfitzmaurice]

Do some research.

Really? Do you have one of these? When I got mine I needed to be recommended for membership by two members in good standing. One was Joe D'Appolito. The other was Vance Dickason.

[Billet]

I designed a DIY speaker for a friend and he used SuperQ iron core inductors for his midrange and it sounds great. At this point, I don't think substituting an air core would make any appreciable difference. I use the SuperQ iron cores routinely for woofers with absolutely no issues.

[Dukk]

Nope. No way. Iron core inductors are THE DEBIL! I never ever use them. If I have to use a large inductor and resistance is becoming an issue, I look at a heavier wire inductor. Yep, it costs a sh#t-ton but it is absolutely worth it! Nothing like an 8lb litz wire Solen inductor the size of a coffee can.

Yes, I know I am delusional and it is completely unnecessary but it is my little indulgence..

(oh, I never use electrolytic caps either, for basically the same delusions..)

[billfitzmaurice]

Iron core inductors are THE DEBIL! I never ever use them.

Point of fact, you do. They're called 'voice coils'.

[Dukk]

Touché wise sage..

[Jesse055]

"Shunt to ground"

Not disputing use of an NPE in the low pass is not a reasonable cost substitution. Not disagreeing with iron core inductors for LP. But please go learn just a little bit about electronic theory before leading others who also do not have an electronics background astray about location of the component in the network. All current is in the signal path. This is AC.

So you are disputing there is such a thing as a shunt? You’re telling me that a shunt component is directly in the path of the driver? Are you also suggesting that in a dc circuit the shunt would be out of the signal path but in ac it is not? This doesn’t seem correct,

[Geoff Millar]

I've used Jantzen air core inductors in my projects, simply because they're locally available and the parts values aren't available in i-cores anyway.

The only time I've directly compared them - a two way test build with an RS180P - I couldn't notice any difference. There's a website which dismisses i-cores as dental floss so I was interested to test them.

I made one XO with the i-core and the other with the air core. I didn't solder everything up so they weren't fully assembled, if that made a difference. That only came about because I forgot I already had the i-cores in my spare parts box and ordered the air cores when on special.


Geoff

[PWR RYD]

So you are disputing there is such a thing as a shunt? You’re telling me that a shunt component is directly in the path of the driver? Are you also suggesting that in a dc circuit the shunt would be out of the signal path but in ac it is not? This doesn’t seem correct,

FWIW Bill never said the shunt leg wasn't in the signal path as tvrgeek implied.

Many times I have purposely added series resistance to the woofer's shunt cap to change the filter Q and soften the knee. A NPE cap is perfectly fine in that case and many others.

And for all the folks who claim NPE caps dry out and will need to be replaced in 10 years.... they must still be wearing fanny packs in front and thinking about the first generation of crappy electrolytic caps that came out in the 60's. Modern NPE caps are good for decades.

I suggest using the forum's "ignore" feature regarding certain members.