New Eminence "PS15" Speaker

This is not recording related but it may be of interest to some.
I'm testing a prototype 15" Eminence neodymium magnet speaker that is designed to be a "clone" of the Peavey 1501-4 Black Widow speaker that they have used in Steel Guitar Amps (e.g. later Nashville 400's, and Nashville 1000's).   How I got chosen to get one of the prototypes ???  I guess because I asked them if they had a 4 ohm model 15" speaker such as their Deltalite 2510 and after a couple of discussions wth engineering I was asked to evaluate it.
 
Short version, I'm testing this with my Pedal Steel Guitar and a GK "MB200" amplifier (which works great for Pedal Steel).  My initial reaction the first time I tried it was "this sounds like the JBL K130 that I had in an old Twin Reverb Amp" and it seemed to have too much highs (at least for my personal taste).  But after doing some break in with it connected to my stereo system and also with the guitar it's sort of mellowed out a bit and much more acceptable.  The Peavey 1501-4 was designed as a replacement for the JBL's that Peavey originally used on the Session 400 steel amp as it didn't have the needed power handling capability.  Given that the Eminence "PS15" speaker sounds like a JBL and the 1501-4 BW speaker was also designed to sound like a JBL, Eminence has done their "homework".  If/when this goes into production it will be part of their "Kappalite" line.  The speaker is about 9 Lbs.  I have it in a partial open back cabinet that is 21X17X10 (I built this out of standard pine lumber) and the total weight is 25 lbs. 
 
I've tried my Tele and Les Paul through this amp/speaker combo and it works great with both.  I read on another forum that a steeler was using an MB200 with a 15" SICA speaker and his band's lead player tried his Tele through that and went out and bought an MB200 and is using it with a 12" speaker. 

The speaker is currently named "PS15", not "MB200".  The MB200 is a Gallien Krueger amp.  I've tamed the highs down with the MB200's EQ, however I've got the Treble and two mid controls set on the cut side and the bass on the boost side - and this is with an amp that was designed as a "bass" amp.

The final product designation will probably not be PS15, this is the name they are using for the prototype.

Two others that I know that are/have tested this speaker are a Pro Steeler in Nashville and Ken Fox of "Fox Vintage Amps" in Georgia.  Both agree on the JBL comparison.

Have you thought about sealing and porting a cabinet for any of the speakers?

I play my JBLs in both sealed and open cabinets. I've thought about building a ported cabinet because I think I recall t is possible to find the parameters for the older JBL Ks.

I assume that any new Eminence would come with availability of all the parameters to design a cabinet and it might even be easier to tune a cabinet for a freshly made speaker made with the consistent quality control you can expect from Eminence.

Anyways just thinking out load.

I've been out of the live playing thing for several decades now and the amps I have now, have factory speakers in them.

Back in the day...... I played with a few 12" speakers, but I really liked the sound of 15" speakers for guitar. They were often not as bright sounding but if you listen to my tone, even now, it's not a bright sparkly sound.

The JBL's were very efficient...loud for the wattage applied to them, and they moved a lot of air for a really fat sound. I bought a Carvin 100w amp with the JBL upgrade. Man was that thing loud. It was supposed to be Carvin's answer to the Mesa Boogie 100w combo single 12". I sold it in about a year and bought a lower wattage Boogie (22w) with a factory Vintage Mesa Boogie Black Shadow probably a midrange knockoff of a celestion ...which I still have.

I also had an old Jensen 15 in a fender cab as a floor monitor for my boogie.... I regret letting that one go. It had a nice tone.

Our PA system had some EV 12" speakers in the folded "W" bass bins (a pair in each) those EV's had 17 lb magnets and we never blew them out no matter how hard we pushed them.

Also... concerning the Emminence speakers of the day..... back then, they were a step above the radio shack speakers. Obviously, they have learned the lessons and improved the speakers ....from what you're saying. We had a few around the band that were spares....since they were cheap, and we used them when we blew out the better speakers while we had the good ones reconed.

Man I used to love messing with speakers and seeing which ones had sweet tone and which ones were really efficient...or not.