Recommend me an 8" bass driver.

[Dazed]

I have an old small open backed cab which has an 8" driver. I'll be honest it's a guitar cab ?. But having read some favourable opinions on WEM combos of the 70s I'm thinking along those lines. I know they were 12s and 15s though. 

I don't need volume at all. This is home use only, neighbour friendly levels. I'm just looking for lovely tone. The lower volume the better really! 

Whats out there? What should I be looking for spec wise? What info can I provide about the cab? 

 

[stevie]

I'm using a small ported cab with a P.Audio 8" driver, which sounds really nice. It's here: <http://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?id=PAUE8200N&browsemode=category>.

It's neo - so you're paying a (very) slight premium  -  but it's very light, takes up less room  than a ceramic 8" , and won't be fazed by being in an open-backed cabinet as long as you don't go mad with the volume. 

[Hazy Bass]

I built a 4x8 bass cab a few years ago using Fane Sovereign 8-125s ... usually use it along with a 1x12 but it sounds fine on its own. Not neo but given its size, not particularly heavy either. Described as a bass/mid driver & I use it at gig volumes without any problems.

[Dazed]

Thank you. I appreciate the info. 

I need to measure the cab as it's fairly shallow. As in the original post this is going to be used at very low volumes so it's more quality than quantity.  The quality I'm after is old school too not modern hifi. I don't think those old b15's and other low output (compared to modern standards) combo's compare to the cutting edge of today's drivers. 

[Dazed]

Just a thought. If I get a driver rated at 150-200w as most of the ones I've looked at seem to be. Do they provide their best at that sort of volume. What I mean is I'm only going to put 5/10/20 w through them. I'm not sure there's any alternative anyway but maybe someone can shed some light on it. 

[grandad]

I was impressed with:

https://www.fane-international.com/downloads/FANE-SOVEREIGN-8225-DS141117.pdf

 

[Dan Dare]

12 hours ago, Dazed said:

Just a thought. If I get a driver rated at 150-200w as most of the ones I've looked at seem to be. Do they provide their best at that sort of volume. What I mean is I'm only going to put 5/10/20 w through them. I'm not sure there's any alternative anyway but maybe someone can shed some light on it. 

Ratings for drivers for hi-fi/audio use seem to be a little, erm, over-stated. They may say it will handle 150-200w, but I'm pretty sure you could fry it with a 100w guitar amp, especially if you start adding some dirt to the sound. So 5-20w should be fine. I'd suggest looking at the efficiency figure, though. Hi-fi/audio drivers are often in the low 90db range, whereas guitar speakers are typically around 100db. 3db less efficiency requires double the input power to generate the same loudness, so it's important as the difference can be large.

[RichardH]

I have an Eminence Acoustinator NH2008 (a neodymium magnet, hemp coned, long excursion rubber surrounded beasty) that's doing nothing if you're interested - £25 plus shipping? Mods - please remove if not appropriate to offer this in the thread.

[Dazed]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I've spent days reading, trying to understand t and s specs and all things driver related. I still really have no idea what these things do for tone ?  

Anyway going off spec cost and availability I've plumped for a Fane 8 225 from blue Aran. Should land tomorrow with free next day delivery. 

Hope to have an update on the transformation in the next few days. 

[Phil Starr]

I feel I should have responded earlier but mis-read your post. I thought you were looking for a guitar speaker not a bass speaker.

Don't worry about not being able to match specs to 'tone', even for those of us with a lot of experience it isn't an exact science. Thiele Small specs only really tell you about the bass quality. The frequency response chart will give an idea of the sound of the speaker but only if you are doing this a lot and in the end it's only an impression, we still need to build and listen.

That Fane looks like a good little speaker, it would have been on my short list.

I really don't think you will find this very satisfying though as an open backed design. With a short path from the back of the speaker to the front the sound from the back will cancel the sound from the front and you'll have no deep sounds. Also with no air load on the back of a speaker which has a relatively soft suspension you will have to down rate the power handling quite a lot maybe as low as 30w. This isn't a problem for home practice but you mustn't treat this as a 225W speaker if you are tempted to try it with a band. At the very least seal the cab with a wooden panel and some mastic. If you get adventurous you can try porting the cab, that will give you an extra 3dB of bass and a fuller sound. You can port through the blanking panel which would leave your cab intact if you wanted to return it to guitar duties later. Someone here will help you with any calculations.

[Kevin Dean]

sica do a good range .

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

13 hours ago, Dazed said:

I've spent days reading, trying to understand t and s specs and all things driver related. I still really have no idea what these things do for tone ?  

 

Pretty much nothing, as specs only concern low frequency response, while what most refer to as tone comes from the mids and highs. You can use the SPL charts on driver data sheets to see the mid and HF response, but it does you little good if you don't know how what you see translates into what you'll hear.