[npdang]

Measurements taken in free-air with the driver unbaffled.

The rolloff you see in the low frequencies at 1/2m is due to the driver being tested without a baffle. The yellow curve is taken right up at the driver's cone, and is accurate in the low frequencies to about 500hz.

Spl looks to be about 88dbwm. No evidence here of cone breakup, just a nice smooth rolloff at ~4khz. The bump at 1.3khz is a measurement artifact... probably diffraction off the edge of the driver. All the little squiggles are reflections, and no smoothing was applied.

Nice smooth rolling response into the bass, should give pretty flat bass all the way down to 20hz in a well treated door.

Impedance curve, note the edge resonance at 800hz from the surround. Excellent quality control, t/s parameters are close to manufacturer specs.

Clean waterfall, with perhaps a slight problem at 10khz, which could be the room.

Average decay.

Some problems here, could be cone breakup.

All distortion plots taken at 96db @ 1m. This is actually fairly loud, and representative of real world listening levels.

Pretty good performance, below audible threshold.

Still decent. Note that higher order products are always lower than second order, which is good.

Not so good performance here. Coincidentally, this is the same area where the ripple shows up in the impedance curve.

Everything past here is below 1%.

Interesting curves. BL curve looks a bit funny, but gets you to 9mm 1 way xmax. LE curve is not so good, just a standard overhung driver without shorting rings. KMS is also not very good. Looks like rearward travel is restricted to prevent bottoming of the voice coil and spider.

Note that this driver was able to reach 24mm peak to peak before reaching protection limits, which is 25% of BL and 20% cms. Outstanding.

Pros:

1. Affordable, high output mid/bass w/ good efficiency
2. Nice low end response and smooth, extended top end
3. Quiet operation with low mechanical noise and good airflow around
the driver

Negatives:

1. Distortion could be better
2. Could have better decay times

I really like this driver. It has a pleasing sound that's a tad on the warm side and is very well built for the money. Bass output is phenomenal, and the driver does not complain all that badly when overdriven. For a home project I might look elsewhere, but for car audio it's a sure winner.

 

[dodgerblue]

i wonder how the focal 6w2 compare,i know its not a diy driver but still waiting to sell these to sell for a favorable diy 7 in. set

 

[demon2091tb]

Hey dang, with as much pushing and talking about the Seas CA18's how bout some data on it? Would like to see some measurements and such, just to look at all of the pretty colors and cool squiggly lines.....Would like to see midbass output as well, while i have nothing hooked up right now because i'm building my subbox, gotta get my fix somewhere lol.

Also a nice compairson graph would be awesome as well, b/w each of the Seas Lines, but simplified would be great. To show the advantages and disadvantages of each driver over one another, just a simple graph with all the drivers overlayed on it.

 

[Nothingness]

i wonder how the focal 6w2 compare,i know its not a diy driver but still waiting to sell these to sell for a favorable diy 7 in. set

Focal is a nice driver. Seas is going to sound a little less dynamic, perhaps, but the sound is so good, it won't be like you have sacrificed much to take the 6W2 ot of the equation. The 6W2's are worth some good money. I'd sell them and get the Seas and some tweeters.

 

[dodgerblue]

thx. nothing,i am pleased with the 6w2,s 100 hz down is a bit too pronounced-i think due to the qts. being so high-around .74 ,midbass is good but not as dry and tight sounding as some drivers i have listened to,the seas g-rnx with its 9 mil xmax-will def. be fun to listen to !your right the 6w2,s and my focal tn 51,s are selling for more on ebay than what i paid for the drivers new!-good investment. might do that soon!

 

[lv_v]

What do you think about this DIY setup, or is the Seas G18RNX/P not suited to play up to 3k to mesh with the LPG 25nfa tweeter?

Tweeter: LPG 25nfa
Tweeter Amp: Zed Audio Gladius (37.5 x 2 @ 8 ohms)
Mid: Seas G18RNX/P
Mid Amp: Zed Audio Deuce (100 x 2 @ 8 ohms)

I can use the built in crossovers on the Zed amps to highpass the tweets up to 3.5k and bandpass the mids anywhere from 46hz to 3.5k.

My question is this: will the Seas drivers play high enough to crossover relatively smoothly with the LPG tweets w/o EQing?

 

[dodgerblue]

in what npdand stated in his review -graph-smooth roll off near 4k 3-4k will be fine,with the lpg sounds like closer to 4k would be a better choice-or 18-24 db near 3k,depends on your listening habits, ive listened to the zed deuce its a quality unit-sounds good, great crossover-i might lay off the burr brown option an extra 100.00 for the 2 amps you mentioned-but either way the deuce measured 270 wpc .8 thd and gladius 95 wpc under 1 perc. thd without the bb option.

 

[lv_v]

I got the Burr Brown on both amps. What exactly does the Burr Brown do? Warmer sound, more clarity? I really have no idea. I just bought the amps from trome1 on ECA with the black pre-production heatsinks. I am going to be running a single IDMAX12 in the trunk but I love lots of midbass and a solid front stage; would you recommend the G18 or the CA18 Seas driver in my situation?

 

[dodgerblue]

on the seas i have not listened to either but after seeing npdangs review on the g-rnx along with the other reviews from great members i am considering replacing my focal 6w2,s,thats great you got the black zed sink amps! those should look sweet!i personally like the sink design -kinda old school-unique-i spoke to steve before ordering my deuce with bb-and the bb option is a burr-brown opa 2134 chip i think there were 7 of them in the pre amp section on the deuce,the bb chip itself offers much lower thd. ,better slew rate etc. over the stock op-amp,after doing some reading on the bb 2134 op-amp-reviews etc. most say overall it has a more laid back character compaired to some other op-amps- either way its a better op-amp than his stock offering-whether it makes much of a diff. soundwise by ear-is up in the air-to me the new zeds sounded very similar to my old nakamichi -zed made also-pa 1002-100wpch ,and thats a good thing!the nak uses the large bipolar toshiba transistor set for outputs and no bb 2134,s in the preamp stage and it sounds very similar .

 

[demon2091tb]

So whats with all this talk now about the G18 over the CA18, i almost feel like i should have gotten the G18 instead of the CA18. What are advantages and disadvantages of one over the other?

 

[mk1982]

yeah i'd like to know to .. what are the differences ?

 

[fin]

I'm keen for input on this too as I'm considering the CA18RNX/25NFA setup that seems a good bet. (Will be buying blind without hearing these drivers...)

Also can I expect similar sound quality from G17REX/P woofers, these may be all that is available to me in Australia in the same range. CA18RNX are available.

(If anyone has a good source for the SEAS woofers and LPG tweeters in Aus I'll be very very appreciative!)

 

[10K2HVN]

So whats with all this talk now about the G18 over the CA18, i almost feel like i should have gotten the G18 instead of the CA18. What are advantages and disadvantages of one over the other?

i havent heard either CA or G, but i think i would rather have the G over the CA. It should have about the same amount of bass and midbass output because they share the same motor, but with the stiffer cone you should get more detail but with the same amount of topend extension and no breakup (from what i see on the graph) then the CA's..

 

[npdang]

Neither is better. CA18rnx is warmer, softer, more forgiving. G18rnx is more lively and detailed. All of the "RNX" drivers share the same motor.

 

[demon2091tb]

So each driver has the same motor, cone materials and phase plugs differ, and the specs that are dependant on the materials and such differ as well.

 

[matdotcom2000]

Yea all of that is great but which is better the Adire extremis or the seas? And when I mean better I am refering to SQ. I would like some CDT eurosports with a midbass, from what I am seeing is both of these speakers have the potential but I want to know what the top end is like (400hz and up)? Is it clear up there or what?

 

[10K2HVN]

Yea all of that is great but which is better the Adire extremis or the seas? And when I mean better I am refering to SQ. I would like some CDT eurosports with a midbass, from what I am seeing is both of these speakers have the potential but I want to know what the top end is like (400hz and up)? Is it clear up there or what?

lol

 

[fin]

Cheers heaps for the info, it's highly appreciated btw.

 

[capslock]

I actually have taken apart an L18RNX/P and simulated the B-field.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=727382#post727382

Note that my B plot only plots the magnitude of B along the gap. I really have to figure out how to plot the magnitude of B x z.

 

[Bobo]

Neither is better. CA18rnx is warmer, softer, more forgiving. G18rnx is more lively and detailed. All of the "RNX" drivers share the same motor.

The G has a phase plug, right? Would this make it better for us with drivers mounted way off axis?