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When I was in Singapore last month, I saw this speaker in the hotel I was staying in. Upon closer examination, it was an Electro-Voice Evolve 50M. Apparently it cost around 2K USD. I thought it was a bit of an overkill for background music in the lobby. After I flew back to the US, I just couldn’t get it out of my mind. Surely I can design a similar speaker costing much less. That was when I started to look for a suitable 3″ full range driver for the column. I need the cost to be as low as possible because with eight of them in the column, the cost can escalate very quickly. HiVi C3N-III Initially, I thought of using my Fountek FE85 which is ideal for this column but the price today has gone up to $28.50 USD each. For eight units, the column will cost an astronomical $228 USD. That’s way off my budget. That was when I discovered the HiVi C3N-III. She cost $9.02 USD each at Parts Express. At this price, the column cost only $72.16 USD. The price is right but is she good enough. Manufacturer’s Thiele & Small
HiVi C3N-III Thiele & Small (DATS) I bought four units of HiVi C3N-III and measured all of them with DATS. I’m relieved to find they are quite consistent. Overall, my DATS measurements are quite close to the manufacturer’s.
The plot above is what the bass will look like when the C3N-III is loaded into a sealed box of 2 liters. The peak at 200Hz is unavoidable. That’s from a Qts of 1. I generally do not use such a high Qts but I don’t have much of a choice. Fortunately during auditioning, the peak did not present any issues. |
August 26, 2023PRO DRIVERS
