Speakers

WILD BURRO’S SPEAKERS
Betsy was my first Burro (she lives happily on Paul’s father’s farm in Nebraska). She’s also the first speaker from Wild Burro Audio Labs. BetsyK is short for Betsy with-a-kick (she’s got a bigger motor). That doesn’t make her a better speaker, it just means she’s ideal for different situations.

We hold firm to the commitment for value driven hifi, and strive to keep our prices low. Prices of AlNiCo are subject to market adjustment.

THE BETSY
$125/pair* Betsy is made for open baffles. I use the baffle outlined on the projects page. You might try a JE Labs style OB. Or a big sheet of ply with a hole cut in it. Or you might want to get fancy with some helper woofers. Or an H-frame sub. Betsy is worth the effort.

THE BETSY-K
$140/pair* BetsyK was designed for resonant enclosures. Given her high compliance, the best options are big. My pair lives in a pair of 6’6″, 13.25×20″ BIB cabinets. They should also work well in Metronome’s or BVR’s. The easiest option is a one or two cu. ft. sealed box. The former will give you warmer bass, the latter, a bit more damped response. You can use a two or three cu. ft. ported enclosure, if you tune it low. You’ll probably want either some baffle step compensation and/or wide baffles close to room boundaries (not needed with BIB’s).

THE ALNICO no longer available due to magnet costs
The aluminum-nickel-cobalt V magnet of the open baffle Betsy was rather soft launched a few years back. Word of mouth sold them faster than I could get the magnets, so I didn’t really post them up on the website. I don’t think I could describe it better than Lynn Olson, who stated “Let’s just say every Alnico speaker I’ve heard to date has a special quality, a low-level delicacy to tone that just isn’t there in the ceramic-magnet equivalent.”

*Prices as of Dec 1, 2022. Still doing my best to keep costs down and fun up!

FEATURES
Cone: The cone is the key to Betsy’s great mids and extended frequency response. It is special natural fiber kraft paper augmented with a couple of space age materials (carbon fiber and Kevlar). It is rigid, well-damped, and ultra-light (less than 10 grams!).

Suspension: Old fashioned, good sounding cloth accordion surround and a nice big spider contribute to linear excursion. Betsy’s awesome cone just doesn’t need a big roll of rubber to tame it.

Whizzer: Betsy has a small, super stiff (due to the curve) whizzer. To my ear, it stays out of the cones way better than a larger one. I think the Seas Exotica folks agree.

Excursion: Betsy has about 2mm. I listen to the OB’s near field, and they get plenty loud. 2mm is more than enough for the BetsyK in BIB’s. Sure, we could use a longer voice coil. But it would weigh more. And the inductance (thus distortion) would be higher. If you want to hook a big solid-state amp up and pound your little 8″ fullranger in a box, Pioneer makes nice speaker. Or, you can buy the Seas Exotica. I get by fine. And I do listen to some heavy stuff with a 50-watt chip amp.

Basket: Good ol’ steel. Maybe a cast basket would sound a tiny bit better, but it would cost much more. Of course, you can glue stuff to the basket to your hearts content. I find she sounds incredible as she comes out of the box.

Motor: Ceramic. Betsy’s 10 oz. motor has a bumped and vented back plate. BetsyK’s is a basic 20 oz. slug. Maybe someday Betsy’ll go all fancy and get some Alnico. Ya’ never know.

Specs: V2 (red line) is the Betsy. V1 (blue line) is the BetsyK. VAS is given in liters.