RIP Esoteric

jr@mac

According to a statement made by Rory over at the other place, the Esoteric are clearanced out and will no longer be available, He alludes to low sales based on the industry not accepting that a world class driver can come from Dayton Audio.

Pity - it was a good cone away from being an extremely competitive driver. Maybe they will direct some resources into developing the stuff DIY'ers have been asking for from Dayton Audio, now.

isaeagle4031

Looks like the rs225p and rs150p are going away as well.

jr@mac

That sucks. The 225p I found to be a great performer. Maybe not a bass-pump, but very clean and articulate.

jr@mac

Damn, so is my little Bluetooth/Wifi integrated amp That's ok - they still have that new DSP plate amp.

PWRRYD

Awe Man! The RS150P-8 is one of my favorites. I better scoop up a pair or two.

ThumperTom

I wish they would pump their brakes on some of this stuff. I thought about using the BT plate amp but now I wonder if there is a better option because it is on clearance now or if they have something new coming.

jr@mac

...and yet, the CE line continues to clusterfuck search results for midrange, midbass, and fullrange drivers. I get it, Dayton - you are proud of the 7,000 1-1/4" drivers you sell - but can you please give them their own, special, don't make us sort through 7000, useless for all but weird shit designs, designation? How many designers, when looking for a midrange or midbass or fullrange driver give a shit about a generic, rebranded, clock radio driver that sells for more than buying the clock radio itself?

Aargh, sorry about the rant but the saturation of weird stuff in combination with the pretty pointless web design has rendered PE pretty well useless to me at this point. Just shopping for a capacitor is painful - I routinely get "website stopped responding" errors when I try sorting things. Not good, PE. Not good.

Nothing wrong with old fashioned web design like Meniscus uses. Loads quick, browser friendly, and they don't give a damn about people using handheld devices instead of real computers.

I guess all of this means "PE, why are you killing off useful and interesting and high performance drivers?"

Face

While I do fine the Esoteric woofers almost tempting now at their current price, I'm going to pass.

Besides better power handling capacities, why use such a large voice coil for a mid woofer? Between the large VC, lackluster inductance, and the hard cone, the top end is going to be suck. Then there was the oversized faceplate tweeter that disappeared quickly due to copyright infringement. Whoever designed this line needs to get over Morel and Dynaudio and take notes from SB Acoustics, ScanSpeak, or even Motus instead.

jr@mac

Face wrote: »

While I do fine the Esoteric woofers almost tempting now at their current price, I'm going to pass.

Besides better power handling capacities, why use such a large voice coil for a mid woofer? Between the large VC, lackluster inductance, and the hard cone, the top end is going to be suck. Then there was the oversized faceplate tweeter that disappeared quickly due to copyright infringement. Whoever designed this line needs to get over Morel and Dynaudio and take notes from SB Acoustics, ScanSpeak, or even Motus instead.

Morel is their favorite brand to rip-off, no idea why.

Face

Could it be due to Usher already being assigned to ripping off Scanspeak?

jr@mac

Haha very likely!

jholtz

I'm curious about Motus and Wavecor. These are two brands I see mentioned occasionally but not a lot of information or measurements. Has anyone tried them?

Jim

JasonP

Jim, I had the opportunity to listen to a two-way build using the Motus 6" and Morel tweeter at InDIY this year. I can say that if it wasn't for the cost, I'd already own a pair. It was outstanding in midbass and midrange (all aspects) IMO.

jr@mac

I talked to Mark Sayer about Motus, and he said when they figure out a packaging method, they would be more readily available. I told him I would splurge for a pair of ~5" if and when they are available.

I have a pair of Wavecore 4-1/2" midwoofers with the Nomex cone that are on the docket. Can't make up my mind on tweeter choice, but leaning towards the Viawave. It has interesting T/S parameters similar to some other small woofers I have tested that should yield a relatively low F3 while also offering a lot of excursion protection. If the motor is well behaved at higher excursion, it should yield a very nice little monitor.

jholtz

Thanks guys!

Jim

ani_101

The wave of is a US brand, but not available here? They have some really nice drivers and should be available at a better price locally. I have a set ready to be built.

kennyk

Chris Perez jut posted the esoteric and RS paper will be up graded.

Face

Good job causing a panic Rory, lol.

isaeagle4031

Rory had a lot to do with developing the esoteric drivers. He's no longer there so seeing them on clearance with no explanation... Rory left there to go to Thiele and now is at Emotiva

jr@mac

Will be interesting to see how they fixed the cones on the Esoterics. Some other Dayton drivers could use some work with the cones, while they are at it.

Face

isaeagle4031 said:

Rory had a lot to do with developing the esoteric drivers. He's no longer there so seeing them on clearance with no explanation... Rory left there to go to Thiele and now is at Emotiva

I knew Rory took part in the Esoteric drivers, but maybe he shouldn't spoke with such confidence about them going away...

Moving to Emotiva was a wise move on his part.

JasonP

I feel Emotiva picked up a great asset. Talking to him at InDIY 2016, he suggested a new line of speakers might emerge from them soon. I look forward to seeing that.

isaeagle4031

Face said:

isaeagle4031 said:

Rory had a lot to do with developing the esoteric drivers. He's no longer there so seeing them on clearance with no explanation... Rory left there to go to Thiele and now is at Emotiva

I knew Rory took part in the Esoteric drivers, but maybe he shouldn't spoke with such confidence about them going away...

Moving to Emotiva was a wise move on his part.

It definitely was. It seems that PE many times does not place enough value on their employees ie Darren, Rory. They treat them as if the employee should be grateful to even work for PE.

PWRRYD

Unfortunately that is how it is at most companies I've worked for.

jr@mac

Years ago when the job Rory took at PE was first opened, I had a phone interview. It went reasonably well - until I was told to expect mid 30K salary range. That was enough for me, so I expressed my lack of interest and mentioned it to Rory in Speakchat one night. I knew he was a single guy, and was far more interested in an audio career. I think Rory probably expanded that position beyond the original job description, but I was not surprised to hear he had gone on to better things. I think he will do great things with Emo.

Based on the new curves for the Esoteric drivers, I suspect they applied some damping material around the cone somewhere to tame the midrange gunk. Hope it has a ripple effect on the rising distortion in the midrange. 

I read also that they are working on a new Esoteric tweeter. I hope they fix the various serious shortcomings in that bad boy. The chamber is way bigger than it needed to be, and I suspect the faceplate geometry was not well thought out. 

greywarden

Speaking of SBA, I'm really excited about their new Coax drivers. If the one I'm working on is worth the dime I put into them, I'll do something with a full SBA compliment of drivers.