Neodynium magnets

[Rumble]

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='286657' date='Sep 18 2008, 03:04 PM']Probably from the fact that most neo drivers are upper end, with better engineering and therefore better midrange response than the cheaper OEM variety drivers. While some may find the superior midrange of high end drivers too 'midrangey' for their taste, based mainly on what they're used to, accomodating tonal tastes is why amps have tone controls.[/quote]

So the 'perceived' increase in midrangey tone from Neo driven cabs isn't totally mythical then?! It doesn't really matter why they have more midrange response, the fact is that they do which becomes more evident when comparing non-Neo cabs with their Neo counterparts from the same manufacturer and/or in a similar price band.

[warwickhunt]

I've always considered that the Neo equipped cabs that I have owned (5 cabs in total) have a 'perceived' increase in mid-range. However, I have accepted that a lot of guys on here know more about the testing and measuring of these things than I do and if theoretically identical neo and non-neo drivers with 'identical spec' (and that's the tricky part) are placed in the same cab the only difference should be weight.

As I highlighted the tricky part is that it'd be almost impossible to get a like for like neo and non-neo driver to do this comparison. I'm gagging to drop a neo 12" driver in my Aggie DB112 just to find out what the difference sounds like but finding that elusive identical spec driver would be almost impossible without loads of research and wedges of money... unless someone in the NE has a Neo 12 and wants to try

[stevie]

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='286815' date='Sep 18 2008, 07:44 PM']I've always considered that the Neo equipped cabs that I have owned (5 cabs in total) have a 'perceived' increase in mid-range. [/quote]

If these are American built cabs fitted with the Eminence Deltalite II2510 10-inch or 2512 12-inch, it's easy to see why. Have a look at the frequency response curves of these two drivers from here: [url="http://www.eminence.com/neodymium.asp"]http://www.eminence.com/neodymium.asp[/url]

Both of these speakers have a 10dB rise up to 2kHz and a really horrendous resonance at around 2kHz (which you can see from the peak in the frequency response and the impedance curve). Once you fit these speakers into a cabinet, you will lose quite a bit of the LF, which will leave the mid even more exposed. Either of these drivers will sound excessively middy and I'd not want to use them full range - they really should be crossed over to a midrange driver. However, I suspect that they are probably typical of what the average US OEM is fitting.

To be fair to Eminence, look at the Deltalite II 2515 to see how it should be done. The response is very smooth and resonances are controlled throughout the passband, as far as one can tell from the available data. This one shouldn't sound overly middy.

As Bill said earlier, the type of magnet has nothing to do with the response curve - that's down to the way the speaker is designed.

Edited September 18, 2008 by stevie

[warwickhunt]

The cabs that I had were EBS and Tech Soundsystems. I believe the Tech cabs were fitted with various drivers over a period of time and were equipped with B&C and or Ciare drivers.



I'm not saying that any of the Neo cabs that I've had are bad, far from it, but they have (whether by design or driver) been mid biased. If real world experiences are showing that people feel that Neo equipped cabs have been mid biased I'd be inclined to think that manufacturers may well just be sticking neo drivers into cabs that were modelled and made to accommodate standard non-neo drivers... would that be an awful and wholly wrong assumption to make

[stevie]

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='286849' date='Sep 18 2008, 08:55 PM']I'm not saying that any of the Neo cabs that I've had are bad, far from it, but they have (whether by design or driver) been mid biased. If real world experiences are showing that people feel that Neo equipped cabs have been mid biased I'd be inclined to think that manufacturers may well just be sticking neo drivers into cabs that were modelled and made to accommodate standard non-neo drivers... would that be an awful and wholly wrong assumption to make [/quote]

You mean, build a box to visually match the standard head, and fit whatever driver you can get the best deal on? Surely not!

[warwickhunt]

[quote name='stevie' post='286876' date='Sep 18 2008, 09:52 PM']You mean, build a box to visually match the standard head, and fit whatever driver you can get the best deal on? Surely not![/quote]

I did not imply nor intimate that a manufacturer might make a box that might by chance accommodate the dimensions of the industry standard width for rack mounted equipment. Nor that said 'box' might be pretty much the same depth as every other box available regardless of the science of acoustics. Heaven forbid that said box might be less designed to get the best from the selected driver, thereby giving the musician the best tone for given criteria, and might in fact simply be a more cost effective use of materials used by that manufacturer.

[KiLLaGoD]

I've recently bought 2 Peavey 2x10 Neo cabs... they are so light I can lift them with one hand and they sound fantastic.

I think the only downside to neos right now is cost. The techno jargo hurts my braaaain but I have to say I haven't noticed a problem with mid range humps but then I like my sound nice and punchy anyways

Edited October 25, 2008 by KiLLaGoD