Tang Band WD-1337SDF enclosure

[kjwcb2]

Hi everyone, I'm new here and very happy to be part of the community. Does anyone happen to have a box design for the Tang Band WD-1337SDF full-range driver?

 

[Swerd]

Welcome to AudioHolics !

Was WD-1337 a typo? Did you mean the Tang Band W4-1337SDF?

What kind of box did you have in mind? Small bookshelf type? Floorstander? Or, something more complex, a horn-loaded design?

Small Bookshelf
Parts Express sells these drivers. If you go to the link (above), and scroll down, you'll see their recommended cabinet sizes, for small bookshelf cabinets.

For these drivers, go for a vented cabinet. 0.18 ft³ = 5.1 liters. Don't expect bass deeper than 74 Hz from this driver, it won't work despite what others may say. Parts Express doesn't mention what size vent tubes to use, so I'd call them and talk to one of their people.

There is a DIY design already published online, called the Bandit.
https://www.rjbaudio.com/Bandit/bandit.html
It's for an older version of the Tang Band 4" driver, the W4-1320 SB, but the cabinet size should work for the bass performance of your W4-1337. Two options are shown for a cabinet. One has a single port tube with external dimensions 7" wide × 11.5" tall × 7" deep. The other has two port tubes, but is taller and less deep, 7" wide × 15" tall × 5.25" deep. The designer knows what he's doing, writes well, and shows full details of his design. If you're inexperienced in DIY speaker building, I think you should read the Bandit design carefully.

If you want an exotic looking design, more difficult to build, see this Audioholics thread from 3 years ago.

Small Full Range Driver in TL for office

Hello, all. I acquired a pair of W4-1337 SDF Tang Band 4 “full range drivers some time ago and I want to put them to use. I have a laser cutter and intend to make a design similar to the picture shown to put in my office. The issue it seems, is that the basis of design uses a flared line, by...

forums.audioholics.com

Finally, I stumbled over a transmission line cabinet design for the W4-1337 on You Tube (18 minutes long). I usually avoid YT instructions for anything. Some are actually worthwhile, others are a waste of time, and some are bad advice. It's hard to know what you get. This particular video is worthless without buying the $25 plans.

 

[kjwcb2]

Swerd, thank you for your warm welcome, and thank you very much indeed for your notes and advice. You have clearly gone out of your way to research on my behalf and I much appreciate it.

Yes, the speaker model I posted was a typo and it is indeed the Tang Band W4-1337SDF that I’m focused on. The first post on a new forum should be accurate, right? My bad.

Funnily enough, at the moment, the drivers I have are in the model shown in the YouTube video you found. I was looking for a TL build and I came across it by chance, liked the idea and paid the designer for the plans. As a build, it was very easy but I’m not totally happy with the sound. The speakers are in a large living room and look attractive, which keeps the wife happy, but low frequencies are poor and according to a sound engineer friend of mine, who has younger and much better ears than mine, the highs are missing too.

So, I’ve decided to put some larger speakers in the living room (when my wife is out…) and try the TBs in another, smaller enclosure and use them as bookshelf speakers. The Bandit looks good and I might well consider that. I wrote to Tang Band directly as they have enclosure suggestions on their site, and they replied very promptly with a design recommendation, though it seems to be a bit generic for their 4” full-range drivers. I’ll spend some time at the weekend looking at the various options, including the Parts Express one. As I’m living in Greece, it will be a bit difficult to actually call them, but we’ll see,

BTW, if you are interested in seeing the TL and/or TB build specs. I will gladly share them with you (or anyone else who might be interested).

Many thanks again.

 

[MrBoat]

Wide band drivers are a whole other ball of wax. They do some things well, but are limited in others. I have two designs that use them. I still wouldn't trade my mixed driver designs for them if I could only have one. They're interesting, but when I want to get serious I go for more lows and highs. Also, I have tried smaller drivers like these and they are not for me beyond a novelty.

Perhaps ask @TLS Guy about a design with this driver, or one that incorporates multiples of it, and a tweeter if the more basic single driver designs end up leaving you high and dry.

Another good place to check is diyaudio.com, and if there isn't a discussion specific to your driver in the archives, you may get some interesting ideas, or even someone who is ultimately experienced with it if you ask the question there, too.

 

[TLS Guy]

Wide band drivers are a whole other ball of wax. They do some things well, but are limited in others. I have two designs that use them. I still wouldn't trade my mixed driver designs for them if I could only have one. They're interesting, but when I want to get serious I go for more lows and highs. Also, I have tried smaller drivers like these and they are not for me beyond a novelty.

Perhaps ask @TLS Guy about a design with this driver, or one that incorporates multiples of it, and a tweeter if the more basic single driver designs end up leaving you high and dry.

Another good place to check is diyaudio.com, and if there isn't a discussion specific to your driver in the archives, you may get some interesting ideas, or even someone who is ultimately experienced with it if you ask the question there, too.

I'm visiting friends on Benedict Lake at the moment. May be I can look at it tomorrow.

 

[kjwcb2]

Wide band drivers are a whole other ball of wax. They do some things well, but are limited in others. I have two designs that use them. I still wouldn't trade my mixed driver designs for them if I could only have one. They're interesting, but when I want to get serious I go for more lows and highs. Also, I have tried smaller drivers like these and they are not for me beyond a novelty.

Perhaps ask @TLS Guy about a design with this driver, or one that incorporates multiples of it, and a tweeter if the more basic single driver designs end up leaving you high and dry.

Another good place to check is diyaudio.com, and if there isn't a discussion specific to your driver in the archives, you may get some interesting ideas, or even someone who is ultimately experienced with it if you ask the question there, too.

Thanks very much for your advice, Mr Boat. I've built a number of speakers, 2- and 3-way and the build and sound are far more gratifying. The full-range project was (and still is, I guess) an experiment. If I can put them in small enclosures for more casual listening, they won't have been a complete waste of time and money!

 

[MrBoat]

Thanks very much for your advice, Mr Boat. I've built a number of speakers, 2- and 3-way and the build and sound are far more gratifying. The full-range project was (and still is, I guess) an experiment. If I can put them in small enclosures for more casual listening, they won't have been a complete waste of time and money!

I understand. I built them for the same reason and for something else to do. I also have a pair of the Markaudio Alpair 10.3m drivers I haven't used yet. Mostly because I ended up with 7 pair of diy speakers, 5 diy subs and 2 commercial pair. Since I like to listen to them all, that keeps me a bit busy in the speaker rotation department. I currently have 3 pair set up.

 

[Swerd]

Funnily enough, at the moment, the drivers I have are in the model shown in the YouTube video you found. I was looking for a TL build and I came across it by chance, liked the idea and paid the designer for the plans. As a build, it was very easy but I’m not totally happy with the sound. The speakers are in a large living room and look attractive, which keeps the wife happy, but low frequencies are poor and according to a sound engineer friend of mine, who has younger and much better ears than mine, the highs are missing too.

It's not surprising that the low and high frequencies sound like they're missing. That's all the W4-1337 can do. Tang Band claims it can go as low as 74 Hz, but below that frequency it drops off quickly. No single "full range" driver that I know of can produce high frequencies as well as a simple 1" dome tweeter can.

Tang Band, known to publish optimistic data for it's products (they aren't the only company to do that), shows spec sheet data that indicates the treble above 10 kHz won't sound right. See the red trace below. That driver is breaking up at that frequency.

https://www.parts-express.com/pedocs/specs/264-916-tang-band-w4-1337sdf-specifications.pdf

 

[kjwcb2]

I understand. I built them for the same reason and for something else to do. I also have a pair of the Markaudio Alpair 10.3m drivers I haven't used yet. Mostly because I ended up with 7 pair of diy speakers, 5 diy subs and 2 commercial pair. Since I like to listen to them all, that keeps me a bit busy in the speaker rotation department. I currently have 3 pair set up.

Wow, that's a lot of speakers! "I built them for the same reason and for something else to do " - yes it's a very moreish presoccupation, isn't it?

 

[TLS Guy]

Wow, that's a lot of speakers! "I built them for the same reason and for something else to do " - yes it's a very moreish presoccupation, isn't it?

That unit has an Fs of 70 Hz, so it is feasible F3 could be in the 75 to 100 Hz range. I have not modelled it yet. It is clear that there is severe cone break up starting abruptly at 9 HKz. So this unit needs to be crossoved over no higher than 7 KHz.

So I would need to model an enclosure and select a tweeter and design a crossover.

One thing that concerns me is that the impedance curve has a wiggle at 1 KHz. This has to be some sort of resonance, but is not reflected in the FR like you would expect it to be. I raise this as Tagband specs have a reputation of being less than honest. What the Irish would call Finagling the Truth.

I can do models if you want, but it is significant work.

If you truly want full range drivers with better performance, then you need to look at drivers from Mark Audio.

 

[kjwcb2]

Thanks TLS Guy. I've heard that Tang Band sweeten their specs. Please don't go to any trouble modeling the driver in an enclosure. It really isn't that big a deal.

 

[kjwcb2]

I've just stumbled across this design. So the project potentially goes from a simple single-driver enclosure to something altogether more sophisticated (what's new?). Has anyone built these?

Statements_Monitor_3

 

[TLS Guy]

I've just stumbled across this design. So the project potentially goes from a simple single-driver enclosure to something altogether more sophisticated (what's new?). Has anyone built these?

Statements_Monitor_3

Well it seems to have a decent axis FR, but the devil is in the details, and showing if the off axis response mirrors the axis response is crucial.

That Tagband driver is really a mid-band driver. I think the crossover points are appropriate.

 

[Swerd]

I've just stumbled across this design. So the project potentially goes from a simple single-driver enclosure to something altogether more sophisticated (what's new?). Has anyone built these?

Statements_Monitor_3

No, I haven't built those speakers, but Jim Holtz and Curt Campbell have very good reputations for their DIY designs. They use the Tang Band W4 driver as it should be – a mid-range driver in a 3-way design.

The Statement Monitor was designed in 2010 or 2011, if I remember correctly. The Dayton (Price Express's house brand) RS-180-4 woofer, and the Fountek NeoCD3.0 Ribbon Tweeter have evolved over time. That particular version of the Tang Band W4 driver (the W4-1337S) has evolved into the W4-1337SDF that you have.

Their prices have definitely increased since then.

These newer versions may or may not be possible to use in that existing design. I'd guess that the RS-180-4 woofer will work in that same cabinet volume, but I wouldn't assume the woofer-to-mid and mid-to-tweeter crossover networks will work without some alterations.

 

[everettT]

Here is another of Curt's designs using a Mark Audio wide band driver, considered to be some of the best available today, using 2 SB Acoustics woofers to extend the bass. I've liked all of the designs I've heard from Curt and his partner Jim FWIW but I have not heard this one.

Halcyon ~ Markaudio + SB Acoustics Full Range with Bass | Madisound

Halcyon ~ Markaudio + SB Acoustics Full Range with Bass Assist Tower - Pair. Full range driver available. Single driver solution, no crossover ne. Contact us.

www.madisoundspeakerstore.com

 

[TLS Guy]

Here is another of Curt's designs using a Mark Audio wide band driver, considered to be some of the best available today, using 2 SB Acoustics woofers to extend the bass. I've liked all of the designs I've heard from Curt and his partner Jim FWIW but I have not heard this one.

Halcyon ~ Markaudio + SB Acoustics Full Range with Bass | Madisound

Halcyon ~ Markaudio + SB Acoustics Full Range with Bass Assist Tower - Pair. Full range driver available. Single driver solution, no crossover ne. Contact us.

www.madisoundspeakerstore.com

That looks to be a really nice design and a TL, so I bet that is a really neutral speaker.

If the OP wants to build decent speakers that looks to be a good start. The FR is superb on and off axis. That would be a really easy design to convert to active.