I'm intrigued by hopefully building some speakers with 'Onken' style enclosures)(I'm currently leaning towards 'classic Onken' rather than the Planet10 alternate 'Fonken' -although I have the highest regard for Dave and his work).
I'd be open to either Multi-way or Full-range, but with a definite gladness to go full range if I find suitable drivers within my reach. And I think I have found two potentially-excellent candidate drivers for this: the Tang Band W6-2144 or W8-2145.
I've been using the 'Onken calculator' at
HiFi Loudspeaker Design
The W6-2144 looks like it performs very, very nearly as well at lower frequencies as the W8, and the W6 manages to do so in a much more modestly sized enclosure. PDFs of calculations (from the above-mentioned onken calculator website) attached. The results I am getting from the online 'onken calculator' show the W6 an f3 of 33.8hz in a 60.8 liter enclosure vs the W8 with 32.5hz in a 100.7 liter enclosure.
Difference in price between the drivers $91.10 for the W6 vs $96.90 for the W9 is practically a rounding error, so prices of the drivers aren't a reason for me to lean towards one vs. the other.
My questions:
1) Can I reasonably rely on this online 'onken calculator?'
2) I don't yet have real depth of understanding (at least not nearly what I'd like) of how the multiple characteristics of drivers interact with different size and configuration enclosures - so- am I missing the boat here somewhere in what the calculator is telling me, both in relation to:
a) overall results?
b) the relative lack of benefit of going with the W8 in a bigger enclosure compared to the W6 in a more modest-sized enclosure?
3) Aside from "graphed frequency response" and a slight gain in db per watt efficiency in the W8 over the W6, is there any
other reason I should consider going with the W8 over the W6?
4) similar to "3" but more narrow: if I use a single-ended triode tube amplifier with no negative feedback, would the W8 in a large enclosure present a better load and match to the amp than the W6 in a smaller enclosure?
I realized that I stacked a lot of 'ask' into this question, so thanks for plowing through it. and I appreciate and look forward to input. Thanks in advance!
