Budget-ish 1.4/1.5" horn drivers

Discussion in 'Speakers' started by philipmorgan, Jul 20, 2018.

  1. philipmorgan

    philipmorgan Member of the month

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    I'm shopping for some 1.4/1.5" 4-bolt horn drivers for these Faital LTH142 horns I picked up on the cheap.

    I had a false start with some BMS 4555 drivers ordered from Thomann. They literally tossed them in a cardboard box with nothing more than a few airbags and 1/4" of bubble wrap around each 5lb driver. That's the equivalent of shipping someone a bowling ball packed in a glass aquarium. I'm pursuing a refund for this. When I asked the after sales support what their plan was if I opted for replacement, they said they'd ask the shipping department to do a better job next time. LOL.

    Anyway, let's say my budget is $600. What 1.4"/1.5" 4-bolt drivers should I be on the lookout for? I want to at least try this horn from ~800Hz to 20k (ok, let's be honest; if it clears 10k I'll be happy) in a 2-way setup, so I'm only interested in drivers that can go that low in a home hifi setup. Another details: active XO (sorry @ultrabike, active EQ), flea power SET driving the horns.

    I'm also OK with used options.
     
  2. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    I am very surprised to hear that Thomann would do that. I hope they rectify it.

    I've been looking at Dayton drivers. I think @spwath has something he's looking to offload.
     
  3. spwath

    spwath Hijinks master cum laudle

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    They were 1", and sold on eBay.

    On the topic of compression drivers, I got my new ones on Craigslist for $100, and they go down to 500hrz. From the 80s, but brand new
     
    Last edited: Jul 20, 2018
  4. philipmorgan

    philipmorgan Member of the month

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    Whelp, I went with the FaitalPro HF146 drivers.

    Thomann did right in the end. They had this bizarre process involving me taking these janky forms they created to the post office and asking them to sign and stamp them, which of course the post office refused to do because they were janky homemade-looking forms that implied liability on their end, but my good faith effort to use Thomann's forms seemed to move the process to the next step, which was a complete refund and no need to return the drivers (which would have involved me paying for proper packing this time).
     
  5. direstraitsfan98

    direstraitsfan98 D2Girls v2.0

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    Just saw this. I was going to reccomend faital HF10AK compression drivers. You get 90% of the performance of a TAD-4001, at a fraction of the cost.

    Im curious, what are the differences between the driver you got and the one I reccomend? They appear to be very similar in price.
     
    Last edited: Jul 25, 2018
  6. philipmorgan

    philipmorgan Member of the month

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    Huh, looks like the main--perhaps only--real difference is the exit throat diameter. I needed 1.4/1.5" to mate with the horn I'm going to use.

    Glad to hear about the favorable comparison with the TAD driver.
     
  7. direstraitsfan98

    direstraitsfan98 D2Girls v2.0

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    No problem. I've heard the TAD 1601B + 4001 on a speaker with the exact same cabinetry and smith horn as the one I used to own. My speaker used the aforementioned HF10AK compression driver, with a set of Beyma paper woofers. I found the bass on the TAD speaker system to be better, warmer and bigger and more natural sounding, the crossover was differnt and had 6db more sensitivity, 99db, compared to the Beymas 93db. That also might have had something todo with it.

    As for the faital pro vs the TAD, to my ears they both sounded remarkably similar. Sparkly and airy, and excellent sounding. The fact that one was nearly 20 times more expensive blew my mind.
     
  8. philipmorgan

    philipmorgan Member of the month

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    I guess you combine a prestige name and a bigass Be diaphragm and you get a 20x price multiple but diminishing returns on SQ.

    That Smith horn is so sexy. The system I'm building is an 18" Beyma woofer, the aforementioned HF146 driver, and the Faital LTH142 horn.
     
  9. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    Customer service in Europe can be kind of a headache. Believe it or not, your experience is actually better than the stuff I went through in France.
     
  10. Poleepkwa

    Poleepkwa Friend

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    I have always had superb service from Thomann. Hopefully your experience is a an exception, unfortunate as it is. My experience are that there are big differences in customer care here in Europe and the States. Those Faital driver looks interesting ( I never knew that Italy had such a big variety of driver manufacturers).
     
  11. philipmorgan

    philipmorgan Member of the month

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    One last rant on this Thomann thing and then I'll let it go I promise.

    THIS is how you pack a pair of heavy compression drivers for shipment:

    IMG_1762.jpg
    IMG_1763.jpg
    IMG_1764.jpg

    Parts Express did it right.

    This is how Thomann did it:

    IMG_1709.jpg

    Alright, rant over.

    I'll try to report back on how the Faital HF146 drivers sound. They're certainly beautiful to look at.
     
  12. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    Glad it all got sorted out in the end!
     
  13. philipmorgan

    philipmorgan Member of the month

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    The Faital HF146 + LTH142 combo is really good. Not dialed all the way in yet, but sounding great.
     

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