Diamond Tweeter?

[Asliang]

I recently received some really tricked out woofers from SEAS designed to be used with the white diamond tweeter. However, it is going to be quite some time before I design and optimize a crossover for this speaker. It is not high priority at this time - but it is something I definitely will get done sometime in 2018 as I want this pair for me

Hi Dave, any hints on what kind of woofers these are? Are they OEM available on places like Madisound? Can you tell us what size it is?

Also, in case you no longer want those speakers, any chance you'd have an interest in selling them or making a custom pair ? :P

[davef]

Hi Dave, any hints on what kind of woofers these are? Are they OEM available on places like Madisound? Can you tell us what size it is?

Also, in case you no longer want those speakers, any chance you'd have an interest in selling them or making a custom pair ? :P

Like all of our woofers -- fully custom made to our specs and not available to anyone but us. I don't want to post public info on these woofers, but they use the SEAS Curv cone (which is fantastic) combined with an extremely advanced motor system and optimized former and voice coil length for precisely the frequency range and mass we want for this woofer. Purely a joint effort between SEAS and us.

I doubt I would sell my personal pair - but yes, this would be a special order product that we can build for others but the pricing on a pair would likely shock you. With these woofers and the white diamond tweeter, just a brief estimation on pricing would put it in the range of about $7500/pair.

If you're serious - send me an email and I can give you an estimate of when I will have my pair available so that you can personally demo them here. I would not want you to even consider ordering a pair of these without personally auditioning them first. Because these would be special order only - these will not be covered under our 30-day satisfaction guarantee - or if we do decide to cover them, there would be at least a 15% re-stock fee. White diamond tweeters are currently retailing for nearly $7K per matched pair, these are not parts that we will keep in stock (obviously)

[curtis]

....I can give you an estimate of when I will have my pair available so that you can personally demo them here.

Mitch and I will come listen!! I am sure others in the gang would be interested as well.

[Asliang]

Like all of our woofers -- fully custom made to our specs and not available to anyone but us. I don't want to post public info on these woofers, but they use the SEAS Curv cone (which is fantastic) combined with an extremely advanced motor system and optimized former and voice coil length for precisely the frequency range and mass we want for this woofer. Purely a joint effort between SEAS and us.

I doubt I would sell my personal pair - but yes, this would be a special order product that we can build for others but the pricing on a pair would likely shock you. With these woofers and the white diamond tweeter, just a brief estimation on pricing would put it in the range of about $7500/pair.

If you're serious - send me an email and I can give you an estimate of when I will have my pair available so that you can personally demo them here. I would not want you to even consider ordering a pair of these without personally auditioning them first. Because these would be special order only - these will not be covered under our 30-day satisfaction guarantee - or if we do decide to cover them, there would be at least a 15% re-stock fee. White diamond tweeters are currently retailing for nearly $7K per matched pair, these are not parts that we will keep in stock (obviously)

Sounds neat, I would love to hear them. I definitely would be interested if it could surpass something like the Paradigm Personas with their beryllium midrange drivers (price wise it would be competing directly with their B bookshelf). In that way I'm actually more interested in the performance of the woofer than the tweeter. I'm thinking of going to canjam this year so I might drop by around that time (early april), I would love to hear them. Of course it entirely depends on your schedule, if it won't be ready for a while I can wait.

Will this driver be comparable to the Scanspeak Illuminator 15WU that's often paired with RAAL tweeters in custom designs in terms of bass extension/performance/distortion, or will be much better? Also is this going to have the same bass extension as the regular Seas curv woofer, or will it extend further?

[Asliang]

Also are you able to get the T29D001 with the black faceplate like on the Arabesque Minissimo speakers? That could easily go into a piano black Sierra cabinet, whereas with the white faceplate I'd feel tempted to go for a custom gloss white finish.

Minissimo_Diamond_Show_2450x300[1].jpg

[davef]

Also are you able to get the T29D001 with the black faceplate like on the Arabesque Minissimo speakers? That could easily go into a piano black Sierra cabinet, whereas with the white faceplate I'd feel tempted to go for a custom gloss white finish.

We will be going with a black faceplate.

[Asliang]

Thanks! Good to know. Also I notice the Scanspeak illuminator is commonly paired with either the Seas diamond tweeter (with the Arabesque Minissimo monitors) as well as with RAAL-based speakers (Selah Tempesta, Salk Silk Monitors, etc) as well as in a ton of high end monitors. Do you think these custom curv woofers will outperform the 5" Scanspeak Illuminator? I ask that because since you've been building RAAL-based speakers for years I assume you must have come across the driver at least once.

If you haven't, then I'll post some REW FR and distortion measurements of the Salk Silk Monitor (RAAL 70-20 & Scan Illuminator), Ascend Sierra-1, Ascend Sierra-2, Dynaudio C1, and Paradigm Persona Bs as a reference point, and maybe I can get your take on where the performance of this new driver will fall relative to the standard curv and scan illuminator or persona beryllium woofer--once you take measurements of it.

[Sam1000]

We will be going with a black faceplate.

This is great news that folks will get a chance to listen to this speaker soon. This could be another home run for Ascend in a different price bracket based on price/performance ratio. I would be really interested in this design as well, but audition will be a little problematic since I'm located in SF bay area.

@Dave, apart from measurements, it would be awesome if you could also provide some subjective impressions.

[davef]

This is great news that folks will get a chance to listen to this speaker soon. This could be another home run for Ascend in a different price bracket based on price/performance ratio. I would be really interested in this design as well, but audition will be a little problematic since I'm located in SF bay area.

@Dave, apart from measurements, it would be awesome if you could also provide some subjective impressions.

I strongly doubt we would sell many pairs of these due to the pricing. This is really more of a personal pet project that came about from being highly impressed with the white diamond tweeter. Another reason for doing this is to see how our ribbon based products compare with a speaker that uses the best components possible. When completed, I will definitely share my thoughts - I am as curious as anyone. I'll likely build up a pair with the white diamond tweeters as well as our RAAL 70-20xram just to see which I prefer.

To be honest, I get a bit nervous just handling these SEAS diamond tweeters as I have been known to drop a tweeter every now and then These are the single most expensive transducers I have ever handled. I don't even know of any woofers or tweeters that are more expensive...

[davef]

Mitch and I will come listen!! I am sure others in the gang would be interested as well.

Always a good time and everyone is welcome of course. I am thinking late March early April....