Matrix, Atomic CLR, RCF, ALTO, XITONE, EMINENCE BETA CX 12

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npdcoremetal

Inspired
I have been reading, watching, waiting and thinking on this for a length of time and now I am to a point where I am ready to make my move on another FRFR option, but thought I would post here and see what all you people here that have tried these things out thought.

I been looking into all of these options from Atomic to XTone. I came to two conclusions. The first being that since I have a super nice ALTEC-LANSING COAXIAL 1x12 MONITOR box I aquired that since it was specifically mad to house a coaxial type speaker and made for that sound that I would go ahead and first purchase an Eminence Beta cx 12, the driver and crossover. I thought for around 150-200 dollars I could throw that into my Altec-Lansing cab and either hook up a 1/4 and xlr plate and use my Matrix power amp to power it, or tear apart one of the behringer powered monitors I have modify the Altex cab a bit and just make it powered. As of now this is what I am really leaning towards.

The Second was for a long time a RCF, however things have changed in the last few months so I could get a Matrix right now, Wait for my name on the Atomic, go with Xitone which I kinda think If I was going to use the same speaker to do my own it would be silly to go with xitone, or go cheap and get an alto coaxial. I thought about even grabing the Carvin Coaxial they offer that uses the same speaker combo that Matrix uses or buying the celestion and going back to the DIY route.

What I am wanting to find out is if going the DIY Eminence route is the way to go and that particular speaker sounds good with High Gain with axe fx matrix eminence. Or is the RCF, Matrix etc. etc. better for what I am looking for and if so still I could do the celestion diy just as I could the Eminence.

I know there is a lot of people here that have tried many of these options together or have had the oppertunity to A-B them
Just for refrence purposes I have tried and owned Mackie hd1221 (Which was My favorite by far, but two broke in one week) Matrix hd1531 (It is ok), Behringer powered monitors 12" (They are real good for what they are) QSC K12 (HATED IT!!!!) Breifly got a chance to play with an ALTO with an old crap line 6 pod so can not really tell, however from what I did hear I liked it.

Any of your opinoins especially hi gain players that have got a chance to use a eminence beta cx would be great \\

THANKS IN ADVANCED GUYS!!!!
 
My only guess is maybe going the DIY route with the Eminence, the inner air volume and dynamics as a whole may not be as well engineered and tested as a unit that was designed from ground up, complete. Sure your enclosure is "designed" for it, but it's not designed specifically for that one driver. From my limited research in the matter, having just decided to take the plunge into FRFR, would seem that the products getting the best reviews are those designed as a complete whole.

That said, and since I am a luddite, rather than spend vast amounts of time edumicating m'seff on all the variables and intricacies, I just decided to go with Atomic - 2 active CLR wedges - and forget about everything else. Ignorance is bliss, and so far, the pop out of the audience on these CLRs is 100% positive.

IMHO, YMMV.
 
If you haven't seen this already, Eminence gives you specs on what an enclosure's (sealed or vented) volume should be for the Beta 12CX: Speaker Detail | Eminence Speaker

I would check those specs to see if your Altec Lansing box was around the same size. If it is, I would think it would be worth the $150-$200 to give it a try. Just buy the drivers from someone with a good return policy should you not dig 'em. Plus, going with a passive monitor of some sort will allow you to use your Matrix with it, and your real cabs depending upon your situation mood, etc.

EDIT: Oh, and as for my opinion on the Eminence with high gain metal... I think it's fantastic, with the right IRs. I really wasn't digging FRFR for distorted/high gain tones until I shot an IR of my favorite guitar cab. Now, I'm lovin' it! :mrgreen
 
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npdcoremetal said:
.. I would go ahead and first purchase an Eminence Beta cx 12, the driver and crossover. I thought for around 150-200 dollars I could throw that into my Altec-Lansing cab and either hook up a 1/4 and xlr plate and use my Matrix power amp to power it ...
Click to expand...


There are 3 things you need to make a coaxial monitor ...

1) a coaxial driver

2) a box that has the correct volume and the correct porting to match the bass unit of your coax.

3) a crossover to split the HF and the LF and send them to the right bits of the speaker. (if you wire the HF unit directly to the amplifier without a crossover, it will last less than 10 seconds ...)

Theres quite a lot of variables there, and when you buy a ready-made speaker, part of what you are paying for is the time and effort spent testing and trying all those different combinations. I would think if you visited any of the well-known makers on here and asked to have a look "round the back" you would find a pile of cabinets and bits of speaker that were built and rejected before they got it just how they wanted it.

Of course, you can have a lot of fun experimenting with a driver and some crossovers until you find a combination you are happy with, but if you want something that is known to work and be flat, I would just go with one of the ready-made solutions.
 
CrazyTrainer said:
There are 3 things you need to make a coaxial monitor ...

1) a coaxial driver

2) a box that has the correct volume and the correct porting to match the bass unit of your coax.

3) a crossover to split the HF and the LF and send them to the right bits of the speaker. (if you wire the HF unit directly to the amplifier without a crossover, it will last less than 10 seconds ...)

Theres quite a lot of variables there, and when you buy a ready-made speaker, part of what you are paying for is the time and effort spent testing and trying all those different combinations. I would think if you visited any of the well-known makers on here and asked to have a look "round the back" you would find a pile of cabinets and bits of speaker that were built and rejected before they got it just how they wanted it.

Of course, you can have a lot of fun experimenting with a driver and some crossovers until you find a combination you are happy with, but if you want something that is known to work and be flat, I would just go with one of the ready-made solutions.
Click to expand...

I know all of these things. This is why I was thinking about doing a speaker for myself due to the fact that my altec lansing box is identical to these cabs everyone is buying munis the black color
 
I'll echo others here, and want to underline that I'm no way underestimating the OP's technical skills here.

I agree that putting a loudspeaker in a cab is not enough to ensure a big (= transparent, range-extended, as flat as possible, phase-aligned, well-projecting, well-dispersing) sound.
Even if you have scripts and diagrams about the internal volumes and other data, you'll most likely end up with "any" cab, where the difference with a high-level will be remarkable.
Of course the economical aspect matters here, and one might decide that saving 6-700 $ is a good bargain from a Q\P POW.

Having said this, I feel a difference has to be made between such cab used as a PA\generic music playback system, or as a guitar cab instead.
I believe there's more freedom in the second case; not because a modeller would not need a "FRFR" cab (whatever the term means), but because 100 guitar players end up tweaking 100 different sounds, each of them believing that that sound of theirs is amazing.
I mean, you may find that you prefer a certain sound over another regardless how faithful the reproduction is, in the same way as two people may prefer the RCF over the Yamaha (or the other way round) for their modeller.
 
npdcoremetal said:
I have been reading, watching, waiting and thinking on this for a length of time and now I am to a point where I am ready to make my move on another FRFR option, but thought I would post here and see what all you people here that have tried these things out thought.

I been looking into all of these options from Atomic to XTone. I came to two conclusions. The first being that since I have a super nice ALTEC-LANSING COAXIAL 1x12 MONITOR box I aquired that since it was specifically mad to house a coaxial type speaker and made for that sound that I would go ahead and first purchase an Eminence Beta cx 12, the driver and crossover. I thought for around 150-200 dollars I could throw that into my Altec-Lansing cab and either hook up a 1/4 and xlr plate and use my Matrix power amp to power it, or tear apart one of the behringer powered monitors I have modify the Altex cab a bit and just make it powered. As of now this is what I am really leaning towards.

The Second was for a long time a RCF, however things have changed in the last few months so I could get a Matrix right now, Wait for my name on the Atomic, go with Xitone which I kinda think If I was going to use the same speaker to do my own it would be silly to go with xitone, or go cheap and get an alto coaxial. I thought about even grabing the Carvin Coaxial they offer that uses the same speaker combo that Matrix uses or buying the celestion and going back to the DIY route.

What I am wanting to find out is if going the DIY Eminence route is the way to go and that particular speaker sounds good with High Gain with axe fx matrix eminence. Or is the RCF, Matrix etc. etc. better for what I am looking for and if so still I could do the celestion diy just as I could the Eminence.

I know there is a lot of people here that have tried many of these options together or have had the oppertunity to A-B them
Just for refrence purposes I have tried and owned Mackie hd1221 (Which was My favorite by far, but two broke in one week) Matrix hd1531 (It is ok), Behringer powered monitors 12" (They are real good for what they are) QSC K12 (HATED IT!!!!) Breifly got a chance to play with an ALTO with an old crap line 6 pod so can not really tell, however from what I did hear I liked it.

Any of your opinoins especially hi gain players that have got a chance to use a eminence beta cx would be great \\

THANKS IN ADVANCED GUYS!!!!
Click to expand...




I too am considering making my own cabs and using the Eminence and JBL drivers for a coaxial solution. There really isn't rocket science to this. Open up a high end monitor and look inside and you will see there really isn't much to them. The key is quality materials and component matching and of course dimension's to match the driver enclosures. I would love to read a report of your findings once you finish up-grading the Altec- Lansings.
 
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