1 afternoon work (not including previously made boxes)
i know its pretty "rough and ready" looking but there is no one here to complain about such things
El cheapo dayton 5"1/4 woofer
El cheapo dayton 1 1/8 silk dome tweeter
besides the drivers and the inductors
all hardware and wood i had "in stock".
capacitors were from something else, where i bought extras
Linkwitz-Riley 2nd order xover @ 2200 hz
(values calculated with on line crossover calculator)
http://ccs.exl.info/calc_cr.html
self wound air core inductors
wood bobbins made and cable wound on taig mini lathe.
(inductors calculated with online inductor calculator)
Bennic "mt" 5% capacitors. metal film? not sure.. non electrolytic)
panel on front of other front panel because I had the boxes from some oval car speakers (sealed box) and i am lazy. I did route the edges round, but I am sure it doesnt do much considering its on another panel. also i may decide to put them on stands, in which case the panel can be inverted.
Computer fan guard to protect the tweeters (LOL!) reason for this is they are on the floor, and i have rambunctious cats
I like it , im going to get bigger ones for the woofers as well. they "ping" a little if they are plucked with fingernail i damped them by forcing some other spacers under the edges but i will use rubber isolators i saw at a surplus store.
So after quick testing with an ILP amp module swept through the range with sines (from creamware scope card) and no nasty dips or resonances.
I really was not expecting much. just to sound better than what was in those boxes before (old sony oval car speakers). especially without properly designing the box dimensions or anything (the box is almost exactly 2x the size recommended by dayton/PE for sealed enclosure)
anyways I hooked it up the old marantz "twenty five" which i use for the satellite TV/vcr/DVD and put on some of the "radio stations" they have on there. now i am not sure how good that is as a source, but it is as good as my el cheapo DVD player and that it what they are going to be used with.
sound impression:
bass is mostly very good "tight" but because they are sitting directly on the floor a bit of LF is transmitted to the wood floorboards and odd things start to happen at high volume.
(I will lathe up some nice pointy legs for them) all in all i am very happy with the bass because the previous ones were really annoying and boomy.
sound stage is not great but much better than i was expecting considering the price of the drivers, kludge box, and compromised position of the speakers. you can close your eyes and the musicians appear to be spread across a stage although most things i tested it with were so processed you could not Tell wtf was going on
voices are really good. you can hear what singers are doing in songs where the voice is low in the mix and it is not nasal i was kind of worried about that because of the crossover frequency.
highs are pretty good as can be expected with the budget tweeter. with music there is no sibilance on hihats and there is "space" when there is supposed to be , for TV/movies sound effects, foley and background sounds have a nice crisp sound without overpowering anything.
during the time i was listening, i was listening to a lot of "classic rock" which i do not own but have heared zillions of times on the radio, I could hear a lot more detail in guitar and background sounds I did not hear before, it was nice
I am very happy with them for the price! i will build a pair of "rears" and "center" with same drivers for when I go with proper surround "home theater" setup
for real stereo I have a pair of EPI 201a which i am rebuilding to use with some gainclones.
upstairs where i do some electronic production, i have event 20/20/BAS they are about 10000000 times better
now i am testing the theory that beer makes your hearing different
i know its pretty "rough and ready" looking but there is no one here to complain about such things
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
El cheapo dayton 5"1/4 woofer
El cheapo dayton 1 1/8 silk dome tweeter
besides the drivers and the inductors
all hardware and wood i had "in stock".
capacitors were from something else, where i bought extras
Linkwitz-Riley 2nd order xover @ 2200 hz
(values calculated with on line crossover calculator)
http://ccs.exl.info/calc_cr.html
self wound air core inductors
wood bobbins made and cable wound on taig mini lathe.
(inductors calculated with online inductor calculator)
Bennic "mt" 5% capacitors. metal film? not sure.. non electrolytic)
panel on front of other front panel because I had the boxes from some oval car speakers (sealed box) and i am lazy. I did route the edges round, but I am sure it doesnt do much considering its on another panel. also i may decide to put them on stands, in which case the panel can be inverted.
Computer fan guard to protect the tweeters (LOL!) reason for this is they are on the floor, and i have rambunctious cats
I like it , im going to get bigger ones for the woofers as well. they "ping" a little if they are plucked with fingernail i damped them by forcing some other spacers under the edges but i will use rubber isolators i saw at a surplus store.
So after quick testing with an ILP amp module swept through the range with sines (from creamware scope card) and no nasty dips or resonances.
I really was not expecting much. just to sound better than what was in those boxes before (old sony oval car speakers). especially without properly designing the box dimensions or anything (the box is almost exactly 2x the size recommended by dayton/PE for sealed enclosure)
anyways I hooked it up the old marantz "twenty five" which i use for the satellite TV/vcr/DVD and put on some of the "radio stations" they have on there. now i am not sure how good that is as a source, but it is as good as my el cheapo DVD player and that it what they are going to be used with.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
sound impression:
bass is mostly very good "tight" but because they are sitting directly on the floor a bit of LF is transmitted to the wood floorboards and odd things start to happen at high volume.
(I will lathe up some nice pointy legs for them) all in all i am very happy with the bass because the previous ones were really annoying and boomy.
sound stage is not great but much better than i was expecting considering the price of the drivers, kludge box, and compromised position of the speakers. you can close your eyes and the musicians appear to be spread across a stage although most things i tested it with were so processed you could not Tell wtf was going on
voices are really good. you can hear what singers are doing in songs where the voice is low in the mix and it is not nasal i was kind of worried about that because of the crossover frequency.
highs are pretty good as can be expected with the budget tweeter. with music there is no sibilance on hihats and there is "space" when there is supposed to be , for TV/movies sound effects, foley and background sounds have a nice crisp sound without overpowering anything.
during the time i was listening, i was listening to a lot of "classic rock" which i do not own but have heared zillions of times on the radio, I could hear a lot more detail in guitar and background sounds I did not hear before, it was nice
I am very happy with them for the price! i will build a pair of "rears" and "center" with same drivers for when I go with proper surround "home theater" setup
for real stereo I have a pair of EPI 201a which i am rebuilding to use with some gainclones.
upstairs where i do some electronic production, i have event 20/20/BAS they are about 10000000 times better
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
now i am testing the theory that beer makes your hearing different
http://www.speakerbuilder.net/web_files/Projects/DBP/dbp.htm
Should help you design a better crossover if the drivers are the same.
Or more to the point if they are the same use this crossover.
The crossover calculator you have used is far too simplistic,
the above crossover will work well, whilst I'm afraid to say
your calculated crossover is far from what is needed.
edit : a serious coating of paint will damp the fancovers somewhat.
sreten.
Should help you design a better crossover if the drivers are the same.
Or more to the point if they are the same use this crossover.
The crossover calculator you have used is far too simplistic,
the above crossover will work well, whilst I'm afraid to say
your calculated crossover is far from what is needed.
edit : a serious coating of paint will damp the fancovers somewhat.
sreten.
Since you have reflective and uncarpeted floors, here's an anti-cat tweak to try: put bumpers on the front of the speakers of sufficient height to stand proud of the panel and driver frames by a centimeter or a little more. Take off the fan. Then lay the speakers face down on the floor. This can give a surprisingly nice sound; I did this with some NHT Super Zeros on a concrete floor and was astonished at the HUGE soundstage I got.
Originally posted by neutron7 now i am testing the theory that beer makes your hearing different
Without a doubt my friend. It also helps speed up the break in period of your drivers.
And thankfully the sound always seems a little sweeter
Cal
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
- Home
- Loudspeakers
- Multi-Way
- El cheapo afternoon upgrade = surprise!