Test Bench: Scan-Speak Ellipticor 18WE/4542T00 Midbass Woofer

Following the first test on the new Scan-Speak Ellipticor series, with the D3404/552000 tweeter, this edition of Test Bench focuses on the Scan-Speak Ellipticor 18WE/4542T00 midbass woofer. Like the D3404, the 18WE/4542T00 is a seriously feature rich transducer, which has a magnetically attached aluminum trim ring that can obviously be anodized a variety of colors besides black. For the cone assembly, Scan-Speak chose a rather stiff curvilinear profile back coated paper cone with an elliptical 45 mm × 35 mm convex paper dustcap. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, April 2018.

This edition of Test Bench focuses on the Scan-Speak Ellipticor D3404/552000 dome neodymium motor tweeter. Overall, the D3404/552000 is like a big elongated 28 mm diameter tweeter. For a motor system, Scan-Speak basically scaled up their currently successful Air-Circ tweeter motor with 10 neodymium slugs and copper shorting rings and a titanium former. The big news is that this motor and diaphragm yield a 2.83 V/1 m sensitivity of 97 dB! This article was originally published in Voice Coil, April 2018.

For engineers developing and evaluating headphones, Audio Precision (AP) released this new headphone test solution, a competitively priced IEC 60318-4-compliant accessory that simplifies earbud and headphone measurements in both lab and production environments. Stuart Yaniger puts the AECM206 unit to the test. This article was originally published in audioXpress, April 2018.

Voice Coil April 2018 highlights new drivers from Dayton Audio, and BlieSMa, a new OEM brand from Germany. There's an updated directory of Microspeaker vendors, and David Mathew and Joe Begin from Audio Precision explain all you need to know about the basics of testing headphones and earbuds. Vance Dickason characterizes two of the new Ellipticor drivers from Scan-Speak, and we pay tribute to loudspeaker pioneer Ejvind Skaaning (1929 - 2018). Get your copy now!

Following our March Test and Measurement Focus edition, audioXpress April 2018 expands that focus to specifically include a comprehensive roundup of the latest earphone and headphone test solutions. Read the review of Audio Precision's AECM206 Binaural Headphone Test Fixture, learn about HEAD acoustics' latest modular measurement platform, and discover how Warwick Audio Technologies designed a completely new type of electrostatic transducer. Download audioXpress April 2018 now.