Now available directly from the Norwegian company and its global distributors, the SEAS Toy DIY kit features a single high-performance C16NX001/X Metamodal TPCD coaxial driver. Announced as part of the ambitious update program that SEAS - part of Merry Electronics since 2018 - is conducting to update both its high-end products, and drivers for consumer and commercial applications (latter offered by Merry), this ultra-high performance coaxial driver, features a custom-designed Composite Sound Metamodal diaphragm for both the woofer and tweeter. This advanced material, now in its second generation, is engineered to a perfect balance of low weight, high stiffness, and controlled damping, with already clearly demonstrated benefits.
The magnet systems for the C16NX001/X are FEA optimized with precisely fitted copper parts for improved linearity, high power handling and minimal distortion. The use of titanium voice coil formers enhances force transfer and enables low mechanical damping, resulting in remarkably clean, transient sound reproduction. The crown-shaped copper tweeter support allows for the addition of damping material, effectively eliminating any resonance from the cavity between the tweeter housing and woofer voice coil former.
The coaxial arrangement of the tweeter and woofer makes the driver an exceptional point source, and when incorporated in a compact cabinet enclosure in the Toy DIY kit, provides a precise and detailed sound with comfortable dynamic range, that elevates the listening experience. The configuration will work for both stereo and surround setups, and speaker builders will certainly enjoy pairing the SEAS Toy design with an SEAS Extreme subwoofer to extend the low end.
As SEAS CEOS Olav Mellum Arntzen explained to audioXpress, the intention was to create a compact speaker to highlight the qualities of the C16NX001/X coaxial. The choice was to use a closed box design, with a 5,7L internal volume, resulting in a Qbox of 0.59. This provides a good balance between low end extension, transient response and a flat SPL. The enclosure is filled 70% with a polyester foam damping material without compacting it.
For the Toy kit, SEAS also decided to build both an active and passive crossover to let everyone choose their preferred setup. In the model that audioXpress had the opportunity to evaluate at CES 2025, a miniDSP 2x4HD was used for the active DSP configuration. The SEAS website offers details of the crossover configuration and passive filters, schematics and setup files for the miniDSP. This also includes the measurements of the drivers in the box and the VituixCAD file for simulating the crossovers, allowing builders to explore other ways of tuning the DSP or passive crossover.
The passive configuration uses a 3rd order electrical high-pass for the tweeter, and a 2nd order low pass with a correction filter for the woofer. The resulting crossover point is 2kHz. All capacitors are metalized polypropylene foil and the coils are air-core coils, except for the 1.2mH coil which uses an iron core. The resistor is 10W MOX.
On the active filter, a selection of parametric EQ's, Pole shift, high and low pass filter, shelving filter and an all-pass filter was used to get the two drivers in phase over a large frequency range for a seamless crossover. The crossover point is also set at 2kHz. The measured result is show below.
www.seas.no
