diyparadise

Coral Speaker Drivers

Clockwise from top left: 8A-40, Flat 8, Flat 6 and Beta 6

I'm sold out on ALL Coral drivers. Whichever driver is still available on sale will be shown in the e-Store, so do check out there.

And on the seventh day, God created Coral Speaker Drivers.

Okay, okay, I'm full of bull here but these are, in my unabashedly unashamed opinion, one of the best speaker drivers around.

Rear view.

First things first, please stop writing me to enquire about Flat 8 drivers as I have sold all of them. No more. Finito. Finished. If you missed the boat, don't be slow again! [If you have to ask me about availability of the 8s, give me your address first, so that I could drive to your place, and clobber you to dead with my pair of 8s.]

As you may still not know this (where have you been?), the Coral Audio Corporation has ceased operation in the mid-80s. I was told they were bought over by Mitsubishi Corporation. Which must be a sad day for the audio world as these wonderful drivers made more than 25 years ago are not only beating the shit out of MOST contemporary drivers TODAY but also amazes us at how well they withstood the test of time!

If you have no idea what how long that was 25+ years ago, consider this:
The King of Pop was Black.
US of A has a former actor as the President.
The British PM wore a skirt.

Today, we are not sure of all three!

Considering back then, without the aid of Computer Aided Design, it was really marvellous speaker drivers of such quality was designed and manufactured. I'm sure you must have read all the problems with single drivers on other forums, like lack of bass, thin-hollow sound, rising frequency response, surround needs changing every few years.. Plus all sorts of tweaks to improve her performance... Well, I don't find a need for all this work! [Though adding a phase plug did bring an improvement.]

Now isn't this amazing?! How did they do this back then? What has 25+ years of technology and R&D later give us? Boy, I sure wish I could talk to a former Coral engineer to learn more about this amazing company!

DIY Paradise has been extremely privileged and grateful for the opportunity to discover this warehouse of a former Coral distributor, and as such, have been selling these full range drivers for the last 2 years. To date, I have sold over 50 pairs of Flat 8s and 60 pairs of Flat 6s! Imagine New Old Stock vintage speaker drivers!

Differences in cone, whizzer and surround construction.
Left to Right: 8A-40, Flat 6, Flat 8, Beta 6.

So grab them while you still could!

Flat 8. SPL 95dB. 40-20000Hz.   [NO LONGER AVAILABLE]
Flat 6. SPL 92dB. 45-20000Hz.   [JUST SOLD OUT! Have some B-stocks though. Please write to enquire.]
8A-40. SPL 93dB. 40-18000Hz.   RM400 / USD115 a pair
Beta 6. SPL 93dB. 40-20000Hz.   RM1600 / USD460 a pair

Without a doubt, the Betas are the flagship models. The basket is diecast, instead of stamped. The ribs reduce reflection and look at the mojo binding posts!

Drool, Drool, Drool!

Enclosures
I have had the privilege to listen to various Corals in bass reflex, sealed box, TQWT, spiral horn and the Hedlund horn cabinets. Out of all these, it is without a doubt the best sound came from the Hedlund horn. The spiral horn is pretty amazing too and it sure doesn't take up much space! If you aren't horny, here's some enclosures.

Some of the designs I have played with.
Beta 6 in Hedlund horn, Double Flat 6s, Waily's Flat 8 (i built this too), Flat 6s in Spiral Horn (i fitted a phase plug).

Feel free to write me if you want your own spiral horn for your Corals.

Search more info on Coral speaker drivers on the Net.

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