High-purity graphene, which is a nano-material with special properties, is added to the surface treatment which is applied onto the high-damping magnesium cone, now the successful formula adopted for the new Excel series' cones. The new SEAS Excel graphene coating enhances the low moving mass, high stiffness and damping properties of magnesium, applying the technology developed by SEAS in cooperation with CIC nanoGUNE in Spain: www.nanogune.eu/ and Dr. Perez-Jimenez. See more details here.
Low mechanical and electromagnetic damping ensure high quality reproduction of even the finest micro details in music. At the same time, the high-performance titanium voice coil former and its connection to the cone has very high power handling, suitable for modern amplifiers (e.g. Class-D). The precision cast, machined and Graphene treated magnesium cone acts as a piston through the working frequency band without showing any sign of midrange resonances.
As Claus Futtrup details, "In the new Excel Graphene W12CY004 design, the parameters are such that the driver can be utilized as a mini woofer in a small (luxurious) bass reflex box. In loudspeaker designs using active crossover technology, ASP or DSP, the efficiency (or sensitivity) of the transducer is of less importance, but the overall output capability matters, as demonstrated with acoustical (output based) measurements, following the IEC 60268-21 standard."
The Excel Graphene series is designed for high dynamic capability, and the W12CY004 is no exception. "We have measured consistently that the driver will reproduce 108 dB at 56.6 Volt RMS input sweep in the range of 500-3000 Hz (400 Watt in 8 ohm, with about 3 dB power compression) on a baffle at 1 meter. At lower frequencies, the driver runs into nonlinear excursion. The driver was able to handle 600 Watt in a 1-second sweep (once) without any damage, but we have officially specified the driver at 300 Watt short term on our datasheet because higher power will reduce the expected lifetime of the product. In a midrange application we foresee no problem in utilizing e.g. a 400 Watt amplifier. If you need more max SPL output, please consider applying two drivers in parallel," Futtrup adds.
The SPL vs. input power graph above shows the output scales with the input. For each 10-fold in input power, the output rises with about 10 dB. For each doubling of input power, the output rises with about 3 dB. At high power input a bit less. The driver reaches its limit at about 108 dB (above the baffle step area) and about 102 dB at the lowest frequencies in the graph.
The W12CY004 has exceptionally high dynamic capability, which the light and stiff and well-damped magnesium cone converts into clean and undistorted sound. Therefore, the driver is designed with dynamic precision in mind for truthful reproduction of high-resolution sound. The extremely stiff and stable injection moulded Zamak (Zinc alloy) metal basket, keeps the critical components in perfect alignment, while large windows in the basket, both above and below the spider, reduce sound reflection, air flow noise, and cavity resonance to a minimum.
When the original Excel line was launched in 1993, more than 25 years ago, it started a new era for SEAS and these drivers immediately became recognized for their excellent qualities, even by today's standard. With the new design and graphene-coating formula, every aspect of the speaker from input to output has been scrutinized and optimized.
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