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Interesting new 1.4" Eminence horn driver


Dave A

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8 hours ago, Dave A said:

https://www.parts-express.com/eminence-n314x-8-tour-grade-14-textreme-high-frequency-compression-driver-8-ohm-4-bolt--290-888

 

  This thing looks very interesting and I ordered a set just to see.Looks to be very close to the Faital HF200 everyone raves about.

Textreme a new fabric being used in speakers. Read an article on it not too long ago, looks promising. I will be looking forward to your review.

Edited by Lbk
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  • Dave A changed the title to Interesting new 1.4" Eminence horn driver

Got a set of these in yesterday and here are my initial listening impressions and  have not measured anything yet. Restoring a set of KPT-456's with the 1132 Klipsch driver running the 506 horn. Decided to put the new N314X-8 on a ZXPC 10 x 18 horn using the 1.4" to 2" adapter PE sells (which by the way was a very nice casting) and take a set of KP-450 HF crossovers from another restoration project to use with them. These things are really light compared to other drivers of similar output used here.

 

 Female vocals and all types of percussion magic was my first impression and keep in mind the 456's with the 1132's were on a purpose designed setup. These N314X's were on a cobbled together thing just so I could hear them. The detail is really nice and while listening to some Sheffield big band music just sitting there blown away with the sound. Hugely detailed and clean compared to the 1132's on the 506 horn.  I also tried these on the 904 two way factory Klipsch crossovers and they were superb there and all the 510 horn with the DE-75 driver sour notes and crackle instead of cymbals was gone and replaced with great sound. I have had a couple of songs where there were some strident sounds but I am leaning towards the music being the problem. These same songs also do not sound all that great on the S-MWM's either. The KP-450 and 456 crossovers cross at 650hz and the 904's at 900hz. On either crossover and crossover point the drum snap and horn blat and classical music to rock all sounded really nice with the N314X ZXPC horn setup..

  This is the best sound out of a set of 904LF type bass bin + an HF horn I have had in this shop and these are not dialed in with a crossover built just for them nor bi-amped with a Xilica so I have no idea what their true potential is. Today I try them with the S-MWM. Don't know how low these N314X's would safely crossover so I will probably set the xilica to 650hz instead of 450 where it is now with the 1132 drivers. If what I expect happens today I will be pulling the 1132's off the S-MWM's and sticking the N314X's on there and ordering another set to experiment with. I don't have a lot of time to fool with this right now but next week hopefully I can get down to some actual measurements. I will fiddle with the crossover point too as I would like to get it down to around 500hz and since I will never go anywhere close to full output I expect I can get away with that. I bust a set of diaphragms up they can be replaced so that would be irritating but worth doing just to see. 

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"promising "goosebumps" for those who have the opportunity to listen to the  the latest in high frequency driver technology. "

 

I like the comments about raising goose bumps and agree completely. Maybe this is what the TAD guys all rave about but priced so we all can buy into them. TAD's simply were never going to happen here as it is too darned much money for a driver and I don't care what it does.

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Yeah your time is coming you just don't know it. Had a friend over a while back and playing some Pink Floyd on the S-MWM's when I look at my arm in shock as the hair was standing straight up. I look over at Bernard and he was starring at his arm hair doing the same thing.

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5 hours ago, Dave A said:

TAD's simply were never going to happen here as it is too darned much money for a driver and I don't care what it does.

Not to mention they're pretty much made from unobtanium. Cool find Dave. Can a 2" throat driver made with this be far behind? I wonder....

It looks for volume levels at home you could go lower in freq than 650 with this driver

https://www.eminence.com/speakers/driver-detail/?model=N314X_8

what say you @Chris A ?

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Looks interesting. 

 

My current standard is a biamped BMS 4592ND, which sounds like the TADs on either side.  It looks like Eminence is trying to undercut the dual-diaphragm BMSs (in price/performance) with their carbon fiber diaphragm driver.  It would be nice to have one in hand to test and to listen to. 

 

Chris

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I can't find any information on the horn they used to test the Eminence carbon driver. 

 

From the phase curve, it certainly looks like the driver has some sort of local resonance at 750 Hz (with that unknown horn), then another phase U-turn at 600 Hz, then it begins its roll off (and phase grow steeply) below that point.  I'd certainly have to have one in hand--that's broken in...to see how low it would play for home hi-fi use. 

 

Most compression drivers start to sound not so good below some frequency, and that's what you'd have to find out via listening if you want to play it lower than the point where is begins to roll off. 

 

Chris

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On 4/8/2020 at 9:45 AM, Dave A said:

"promising "goosebumps" for those who have the opportunity to listen to the  the latest in high frequency driver technology. "

 

I like the comments about raising goose bumps and agree completely. Maybe this is what the TAD guys all rave about but priced so we all can buy into them. TAD's simply were never going to happen here as it is too darned much money for a driver and I don't care what it does.

Well I had one and it was superb, but I couldn't afford to keep it, since I got an offer I couldn't refuse for it and was able to put the money somewhere else in this HOBBY, which is not cheap but much more affordable than Exotic Cars!

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On 4/8/2020 at 5:28 PM, babadono said:

Chris, I was more specifically asking looking at the response curve of this driver do you think Dave can go lower than 650 Hz? At the levels needed for home use. Isn't 650 Hz a stretch for his S-MWMs?

Well you can PEQ them, but I would prefer a 3-way with a midbass horn from 200-800 where there would be greater definition. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Ok. There’s a review of this driver in the May 2020 issue of voice coil. I attached the waterfall plot. 
I had to try a pair. I mounted them to my Faital LTH142 horns. At 10db attenuation, courtesy of a 3636 autoformer, and crossed at 650hz, they seem a bit hot mated up with a 3015lf-4. 

The freq response I attached is measured in my living room on my iphone so take that for what it’s worth, particularly the <100hz. 
They certainly sound detailed and quality but sometimes I’m reminded I should shave off 2 more db. 

2544C902-B4D9-480F-B02D-CBE890F68178.jpeg

08C9819A-3CDF-4BA2-801C-4E223F8559D6.png

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On 4/29/2020 at 9:24 PM, Ray_pierrewit said:

So, anything new to report regarding this new driver Dave?

Nothing at this time. All of a sudden my welding and machining side has taken off and this past month has seen little done with audio anything.

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