Simple, inexpensive, high performance Tangbang 3” full range driver project
(Above: Tangbang 3” Aluminum (W3-315) and Paper (W3-319) Drivers work extremely well in small easy to build (or find) sealed cabinets. The aluminum driver sounds a bit zippier in the treble. Other than that, they both sound great!)
Moving into a larger house with a smaller den is frustrating! But it does present an opportunity to build another set of speakers. In this case I decided to use something other than the typical, easy to purchase Radio Shack drivers and try something new - sight unseen. Browsing the web alerted me to a sale on the 3” Tangbang drivers, both paper and aluminum. I bought a pair of each and am glad I did!
I did not expect much from an $8.99 driver but was pleasantly surprised when they arrived. They were heavy and well made. Better than the RS drivers I thought.
These look great! Silver and black. I had an old Sony 3-way which sounded pretty bad - cut off the front baffle and cut a piece of .5” MDF. Cut the 3” hole and plopped in the drivers. I posted at the Full Range Driver Forum and the Madisound Forum for assistance on porting the cabinet. There was some difference of opinion on whether to port these or not. I decided not to port and left the box sealed. I was not disappointed! Perhaps these can be tuned for slightly deeper bass, but I was in no mood to futz around with the cabinets.
I wanted to keep things simple. No crossover for me (been there, done that)! Crossovers make me think too hard keeping me up all night wondering how much better the drivers can be integrated (1.0uf cap or the 2.0uf cap? Hmmm, let me listen each way for several days and still be unhappy).
The Full Range Driver Forum is a wonderful place for speaker builders! Instead of playing with crossover components, they spend time finding amazing drivers at every price point which will deliver most all of the music in a relaxing, non-fatiguing manor. (Steven Brown has put together an amazing collection of full range drivers right on this site. Thanks Steven!) I have been introduced to drivers I never would have imagined existed! I remember the days searching for the best woofer for a certain size box - it had to go the deepest. When I look back at those frequency response graphs I see they do go deep but at around 2K or 3K they go bananas! Huge dips and peaks right in the middle of the music!
So I just put these little gems into a sealed cabinet of .25 cubic feet and listened. Music! Non-fatiguing, relaxing music. These work well with either tubes or solid state.
They sounded better in every way than a different project I had been working on (the new Radio Shack 40-1442, 6” driver in a ported .5 cu ft box). The 3” TB’s are much fuller than the larger driver and have a much more natural midrange.
To my ears a tweeter isn’t necessary (but that’s subjective). But a subwoofer would be mandatory, IMHO. They sounded full-bodied right out of the box. There was a nice sense of weight and foundation to the music that I really liked. But the lowest bass is best handled by the sub.
Overall, I don’t think I would change a thing with these little beauties. It’s the simplest project I ever tried and the results are excellent. I would highly recommend this speaker design to anyone interested in single driver, non fatiguing sound, an inexpensive upgrade from existing speakers, an alternative to those little horrible sounding Bose cubes or a modestly priced tube or solid state based system with a dedicated subwoofer for serious listening.
