Heard them - loved the sound, hated the look!
Regards, |
Ah, Metralla, glad you have something to report. What did you like about the sound and what did you dislike about the looks? |
I've had the luck to experience them twice and Metralla is right - soooo good. Just an effortless, rich, presentation at all volumes. The last time I heard them was a few years ago at The Show in Los Angeles. The Cogents were driven by Ron Welborne's Terraplane 300B or 45 monoblocks. Far too small a room for those monsters, but still sounded good.
Bet they've come a long way since them. |
Utterly effortless sound - the Cogents impressed me a great deal. The Cogent room has been one of my favorite rooms at several audio shows over the past few years. I would say that some of the horns they've used have been better than others, but that effortlessness is there consistently so that's probably the driver.
Classic Audio Reproductions showed with a smaller field-coil driver at T.H.E. Show in January of this year, and I thought they had one of the two best rooms at T.H.E. show, along with Sonicweld (I don't think Cogent was there).
Macro, any chance you might make it to RMAF in a few weeks? If so, I'll be in the top of the tower (room 1100) - come on by! No field coil drivers, but it would be good to meet you.
Duke
dealer/manufacturer |
Duke - Which horns did you feel worked best? I'm very interested in Bill Woods Acoustic Horn AH 300 wooden horns.
The field coil option may be too expensive for me. Do you know what Cogent charges for theirs? If I can't afford the field coils I'm thinking about a 2 inch vintage JBL instead.
Last year I was in Denver buying a car on the weekend of RMAF and didn't bother to check in. Maybe this year will be different. If I come to the show, I'll look you up. |
Macro, I liked 'em with Bill's horns the best. It was in a huge room at RMAF last year, and it sounded like there was a band up there playing. A pretty good one, too.
I don't know what Cogent charges for their drivers. You might try contacting Steve Schell or Rich Dreysdale, they post on Audio Asylum's high efficiency speakers page sometimes.
Duke |
Somewhere in this great land I am sure there are those who can lay out $14,000 for a pair of drivers to use in a DIY speaker project. Not I, however.
So Cogent is not a realistic consideration for me. What else should I consider at maybe 10% of that amount? |
Macro, what frequency range do you want the driver to cover? Do you have a horn already picked out, or is choosing a horn part of the project? Active or passive crossover, and who will be doing the crossover design (or setup, if active)? What will the bass section be?
Thanks!
Duke |
Duke,
At present I plan to use the woofer and cabinet from my JBL L-200 speakers. I will bypass the XO and horn in the JBLs and mount an ah300 wooden horn on top. Thinking of using a 2 inch coax driver. Crossover from the woofer would be around 450 HZ. Bill has agreed to build my crossovers for me for a fee.
Overall frequency response should be 40Hz. to 16Khz. This approach allows for an upgrade path as money becomes available. |
Thanks for the information, Macro. With Bill Woods on your team, you're in great shape.
Best of luck with your project!
Duke |
Thanks, Duke. I agree with you about Bill Woods. He cut his teeth in the real world of pro audio and seems to have an encyclopedic knowledge of speaker design.
Now I just need to sell some things to fund my project. |
fostex d1400 is very good but only 1in and cut off for me 650hz. Trebles almost good enough for me. But I use t500amk2 with my d1400 |
