Focal buyout

[2leftthumbs]

New buyout posted: http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=299-155. I guess its different but similar to the ones at zalytron.

[tom_s]

Interesting....that trim ring is HUGE! I hope it comes off easily.

[XtremeRevolution]

Interesting....that trim ring is HUGE! I hope it comes off easily.

Looks like it does. One of the pictures is taken without the ring. However, it looks like it would need to be rear mounted. That flange is pretty ugly.

[Whitneyville1]

Not "new", just a re-stock on them, as well as several other 6 1/2" woofers in the "buy-out" line such as the Cambridge 12 ohms I have. BTW, if you plug the Cambridge and the Peerless into WinISD, and adjust the enclosure size to a little more reasonable, except for absolute SPL, the FR curve shapes of the two drivers can be a dead match with the Peerless reaching 2-3 Hz deeper bass, but with a much longer port length, and the Cambridge is flatter in the 500-3K region, and acts nicer above 4~4.5KHz, so don't dismiss it too quickly. In my rough test box, ~1 ft^3 ported tuned to 40 hz, the Cambridge/ Vifa BE25SC55-04 with a basic XO sound much better than $40-odd worth of components should. I haven't played with the Focal yet, but at first glance, it looks to be quite a bit better than the JAMO buyouts, but maybe not as easy to work with as the Bravox buy-outs. I'll see what I can get it to do.

[Whitneyville1]

WinISD Beta came up with some interesting numbers. .8ft^3 ported tuned to 46Hz (2.5 ID port, 5.83" long Mach .12) F3~57Hz, which is very "doable" with only a 1.4dB "bulge" @99~145HZ. A 1ft^3 box tuned ~52 is just a little flatter, and it takes a 1.2ft.^3 box to make a real difference. These aren't floor shaking numbers, but the SPL stays very high. No sweep data available on them, so what they sound like above 3Khz(?) is anyone's guess, although P-E suggests they make good midrange speakers (crossed WHERE???) Sealed box on them is very uninspiring, rolling off from about 100Hz in any normal sized box.
Four of these in ~ 6FT^3 tower with a good tweeter won't go as deep as the Peerless buyouts, but they would be LOUD. You could wire them series/parallel to either 4 or 8 ohms as your amp desires.

[Wolf]

WinISD Beta came up with some interesting numbers. .8ft^3 ported tuned to 46Hz (2.5 ID port, 5.83" long Mach .12) F3~57Hz, which is very "doable" with only a 1.4dB "bulge" @99~145HZ. A 1ft^3 box tuned ~52 is just a little flatter, and it takes a 1.2ft.^3 box to make a real difference. These aren't floor shaking numbers, but the SPL stays very high. No sweep data available on them, so what they sound like above 3Khz(?) is anyone's guess, although P-E suggests they make good midrange speakers (crossed WHERE???) Sealed box on them is very uninspiring, rolling off from about 100Hz in any normal sized box.
Four of these in ~ 6FT^3 tower with a good tweeter won't go as deep as the Peerless buyouts, but they would be LOUD. You could wire them series/parallel to either 4 or 8 ohms as your amp desires.

As I recall- that is very close to what Zalytron recommended for that driver. I don't recall who, but someone at an Iowa event in 2008 made a set verbatim along with the Vifa DQ25 at around 2.5kHz, but the bass was not 'right' sounding.

The guy in the back left with the gray/white is the guy that built them, and I thought the xover was decent, even though he found them to be hot.

Later,
Wolf

[Whitneyville1]

I haven't heard them, so those are "theoretical" numbers, but that should be a place to start. For a "bargain" buy-out driver, these don't look too bad. I would like someone who's played with them to chime in.

[Jeff B.]

As I recall- that is very close to what Zalytron recommended for that driver. I don't recall who, but someone at an Iowa event in 2008 made a set verbatim along with the Vifa DQ25 at around 2.5kHz, but the bass was not 'right' sounding.

The guy in the back left with the gray/white is the guy that built them, and I thought the xover was decent, even though he found them to be hot.

Later,
Wolf

The driver in your first pic is a very different woofer than the one in the original post above.

[johnnyrichards]

Whitney, six cubic feet for a quad of 6.5" drivers is not something I would personally ever do. If I am going to eat that much of my living space up, it will do full output to 25Hz

Looks like a very typical paper cone 6.5" woofer. Lose the trim ring of course. I like the bumped back plate, but the lack of any voice coil venting kind of moots (IMHO) any talk of extreme output levels and/or bass extension.

It is worth the price I imagine, if linear distortion is up to par.

[Jeff B.]

Whitney, six cubic feet for a quad of 6.5" drivers is not something I would personally ever do. If I am going to eat that much of my living space up, it will do full output to 25Hz

Looks like a very typical paper cone 6.5" woofer. Lose the trim ring of course. I like the bumped back plate, but the lack of any voice coil venting kind of moots (IMHO) any talk of extreme output levels and/or bass extension.

It is worth the price I imagine, if linear distortion is up to par.

It's not really a trim ring. Most of the round Focal drivers are packaged with a plastic ring that keeps the box from pressing against the surround. It pops right off. Unless you want to glue it on, you can't really mount with it, so you're good.

[Wolf]

The driver in your first pic is a very different woofer than the one in the original post above.

I thought they were saying before that they were like the ones from Zalytron, my bad.

Later,
Wolf

[johnnyrichards]

It's not really a trim ring. Most of the round Focal drivers are packaged with a plastic ring that keeps the box from pressing against the surround. It pops right off. Unless you want to glue it on, you can't really mount with it, so you're good.

Good to know.

[Whitneyville1]

Johnny, I thought if you had vertical space to spare, four x 1.2-ish ft^3 each should give some SPL with them for shop speakers, or even put a 10-12" woofer in with 'em for the lows, and still make your neighbors mad at you. Jest "head doodlin' ". BTW, anyone have any thoughts on the Tang-Band buy-out 8"X12" sub? I really don't know how to model a sub, and especially this one. "Somebody hit me!", so I don't buy it and a 240watt plate amp for no good reason. It seems like it might make a nice sealed music sub, but honestly, I dunno...

[Wolf]

BTW, anyone have any thoughts on the Tang-Band buy-out 8"X12" sub? ...

Ludo used it. It will be better vented, unless you have some boost for the sealed box.

BTW- it's not a buyout. It's on clearance.

Later,
Wolf

[Whitneyville1]

Wolf, you're right, of course. I modeled it last night as a 10" DIA in 2 cu ft ported at 30 Hz. Not as deep as I thought, but a bargain.

[steveschenkel]

It is a buyout. PE bought them from Zalytron. I have used them before and for the price they are very nice.

[foxfire3]

It is a buyout. PE bought them from Zalytron. I have used them before and for the price they are very nice.

No wonder they're not on Zalytron's site anymore.

I purchased some of these back in Jan. from a seller on eBay.

Elliott at Zalytron told me they worked best in a .75ft3 sealed box.

I have personally tried them in a .75ft3 vented box and thought the bass was quite good with a short 2" port.

I measured one of mine a while back with the WT3 and believe the Qts was closed to .5 than .63.

Perhaps some members with measuring equipment will come up with some good designs using this inexpensive driver.

[Whitneyville1]

That would change my modeling in WinISD considerably. In about 1 cu. ft. ported, tuned to ~32Hz, my F3 was about 30Hz. It got "weird" trying to tune lower. WinISD Alpha kept "kicking out" the T/S parameters as incorrect.

[foxfire3]

That would change my modeling in WinISD considerably. In about 1 cu. ft. ported, tuned to ~32Hz, my F3 was about 30Hz. It got "weird" trying to tune lower. WinISD Alpha kept "kicking out" the T/S parameters as incorrect.

Seems like Qts and Fs were both lower than what PE lists when I tested one of my mine.

I would just have to retest one in order to get you exact numbers.