Mini Karlsonator (0.53X) with Dual TC9FDs

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This is a good one. The Tang Band W5-876SE are discontinued but many variants exist. Look for Qts around 0.4 and smaller Vas.

Light as Air Slot Loaded Band Pass Sub

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hello i need some help.. i´m going to build the Mini Karlsonator (0.53X) for dual drivers but my amp is around 15/20 watts.
is better to buy 3FE22 or 25 instead of the vifa???
is better to buy 16ohm to get 8 or 8 to get 4 ohm???
the amp is a tda7297 based board from a diyaudio member...

thanks
 
PA130-8 driven by TDA8932

Over the weekend I managed to cobble a pair of MK 0.53X with Dayton PA130-8 drivers. This comes after my success and joy with the MK 0.41X w/ TC9FD. Coincidentally, after i finished the first 0.53 box, a pair of TDA8932 boards that I ordered from China a few weeks ago appeared in my mailbox. I went with these choices after questioning XRK971 about what would be the most fun bang per buck. Before I could get the 8932's wired up (they are tiny and my 65 year old eyes were laughing at the prospect of threading the needle holes with wires) I hooked the MK's up to a threshold power amp to check out (break in). Initially I was surprised at the brittle sound and lack of bass; especially when the smaller TC9's seemed awesome from the get go. But I reserved judgement until they could break in a bit. Ran them at low volume for 24-30 hours; put them on the floor where they sounded best. Gradually the bass came on and the highs smoothed out nicely. By then I had wired up the 8932's and moved the speakers up a couple of feet. As soon as i turned on the 8932's I noticed some noise(pumped up sample attached); a high pitched 10K whistle if you position ur ears 2 feet directly in front of the driver. Annoying. I'm guessing it's the power supply. I picked up some old HP 19v 6.9amp bricks. I'm using one to power both boards; each amp has a schottky at + input. The whistling is moot when the music starts up. Oddly, these tiny amps that I've seen rated anywhere from 35 to 55 watts each, drive the MK's much louder than the Threshold, which is rated at 125w/ch. And it's a glorious monster. I'm driving both with an acurus preamp which is interfaced to a PC with a homebrew DAC (DIY Monica). I'm guessing there is an impedance mismatch or something going on. The combination is certainly room filling and the sound quality is very good, tho I find the TC9's driven by a TDA7297 more refined. I have a pair of 10" subs driven by a QSC GX3 that I can kick in for bottom. Unfortunately it's driven by the same outputs on the acurus pre and the 8932s' gain is too high (even w/ the GX3 turned up max) to get a match. The audio clip is made on a handheld Tascam with a variety of musical tidbits coming from the MK's/8932 combo. I couldn't attach mp3's for some reason; so put them on my google drive. Hope the links work.
noise 8923 noise.mp3 - Google Drive
tunes MK 0.53X PA130 demo.mp3 - Google Drive
 

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Bonjonno,
Nice looking build on the 0.53x Karlsonators with PA130-8's! You look like a foam core pro now. That noise you hear is probably the SMPS. Try a different one, HP is usually pretty quiet so I am surprised. You can also make a CRCRC filter with a 10mF cap and some 0.47R resistors that might clean it up a bit. Add a volume pot or voltage divider on the input of the 8932 so you can match your sub.

Your sound clip of music sounds great. The Pa130's are pro drivers with treated cloth surround so the break in was a good thing, although I never noticed that I had to do so before. Nice work!
 
xrk971 thanks for the props. and the fix suggestions. You have been a great mentor and I'm musically richer for having tried ur designs. If you look behind the curtains in the above photo you may see some 20" Cornu's; I loaded them with 2 1/2" Dayton CE65W-8's and use them for tv-the sound is unbelievably ballsy considering. Just got done viewing tonight's Viet Nam War episode and the bomb's were rattling the walls.
 
This is a good one. The Tang Band W5-876SE are discontinued but many variants exist. Look for Qts around 0.4 and smaller Vas.

Looks like the Dayton Audio DS135-8 is a good replacement option here, and not too expensive either. I am intrigued by this sub. Will it make a good helper woofer in a FAST setup? I.e. for music, or is it better suited for HT? I am looking for small footprint helper woofer options.
 
Hopefully I have the right thread opened now! :)

I built a small prototype of the single TC9 0.4 K.

Is this the real world (taken away from back wall) performance I should expect? I couldn't find a real world measurement of the single 0.4x TC9 Karlsonator to compare... only a simulation by X.

I had trouble with hot glue and blue foam... seems they don't work well together, so I might have a leaky enclosure.
 

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Looks like the Dayton Audio DS135-8 is a good replacement option here, and not too expensive either. I am intrigued by this sub. Will it make a good helper woofer in a FAST setup? I.e. for music, or is it better suited for HT? I am looking for small footprint helper woofer options.

Nice find Twocents! Thank you, I have been looking for something similar for a while.

This can work very well - let me run some simulations to get the optimal box volume and vent dimensions.

Product Specifications
Nominal Diameter5"Power Handling (RMS)50 Watts
Power Handling (max)100 WattsImpedance8 ohms
Frequency Response50 to 7,000 HzSensitivity86.6 dB 2.83V/1m
Voice Coil Diameter1"Magnet Weight21 oz.
Thiele-Small Parameters
Resonant Frequency (Fs)52.5 HzDC Resistance (Re)5.9 ohms
Voice Coil Inductance (Le)0.84 mHMechanical Q (Qms)2.02
Electromagnetic Q (Qes)0.48Total Q (Qts)0.39
Compliance Equivalent Volume (Vas)0.257 ft.³Mechanical Compliance of Suspension (Cms)0.95 mm/N
BL Product (BL)6.23 TmDiaphragm Mass Inc. Airload (Mms)9.7g
Maximum Linear Excursion (Xmax)4.85 mmSurface Area of Cone (Sd)75.4 cm²
 
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Hopefully I have the right thread opened now! :)

I built a small prototype of the single TC9 0.4 K.

Is this the real world (taken away from back wall) performance I should expect? I couldn't find a real world measurement of the single 0.4x TC9 Karlsonator to compare... only a simulation by X.

I had trouble with hot glue and blue foam... seems they don't work well together, so I might have a leaky enclosure.

Your measurements look quite balanced and good, the -3dB point should be about 80Hz and you are at about 100Hz, so it may sound a bit bass shy. You may have a leaky cabinet. Try putting it near a back wall and listen to it - if it sounds full and rich for most music, it is working.
 
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xrk971 thanks for the props. and the fix suggestions. You have been a great mentor and I'm musically richer for having tried ur designs. If you look behind the curtains in the above photo you may see some 20" Cornu's; I loaded them with 2 1/2" Dayton CE65W-8's and use them for tv-the sound is unbelievably ballsy considering. Just got done viewing tonight's Viet Nam War episode and the bomb's were rattling the walls.

Literally behind the curtains! Did not notice so thanks for pointing that out. Glad they are working as HT mains for you:)

You are enjoying this hobby, I can tell. That's awesome pace of builds you are showing. It's nice when no sawdust has to be made and material is $1 a sheet!
 
HP SMPS

Bonjonno,
... That noise you hear is probably the SMPS. Try a different one, HP is usually pretty quiet so I am surprised. ...

x- I bought a lot of 4 HP SMPS from a computer place for a good deal; that was before I discovered u can run two 8932 boards off of one HP SMPS satisfactorily. Anyway, I have three extra at this point and would gladly switch out to see if that is where the noise is coming from. The problem is that they have these large plugs on the end that I cannot find a matching jack for. So it means cutting that end off to get at the bare wires and then the value if I want to re-ebay it is nil. Do you know of anyplace that has the part that mates to this connector? As near I can tell it's 7.5mm outside, 5mm inside and has a tiny centre pin; 3 conductors. Thanks.
 

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x- I bought a lot of 4 HP SMPS from a computer place for a good deal; that was before I discovered u can run two 8932 boards off of one HP SMPS satisfactorily. Anyway, I have three extra at this point and would gladly switch out to see if that is where the noise is coming from. The problem is that they have these large plugs on the end that I cannot find a matching jack for. So it means cutting that end off to get at the bare wires and then the value if I want to re-ebay it is nil. Do you know of anyplace that has the part that mates to this connector? As near I can tell it's 7.5mm outside, 5mm inside and has a tiny centre pin; 3 conductors. Thanks.

Sorry, can't help you there. As far as I can tell, that is an HP proprietary jack made specifically so that it won't be compatible anywhere else! I have a bunch of those myself. I cut them off boldly and don't look back at re e-baying them :)

Just one of those can power qnty 4 x 8932 amps easily. Sell off the unused ones and cut the one you keep.

In the future, look for SMPS bricks with the 5.5mm dia coaxial jack. That is an industry standard and can be used many places.

If you take two 9v batteries and snap them together nose to tail you have a very clean 18v power supply that will let you test your 8932 to see what the source of the noise is. It will probably run for a good 3hrs to 5hrs to power your amp! :)

Give that a try.

Btw, that daisy chaining technique will let you easily generate lethal voltages with about 12 batteries end to end so be careful.
 
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Hey Jonathan, we have not heard (read?) your final opinion on the Karlsonators yet. Are you using your new TDA7297 amp for these speakers? Let us know how the speakers turned out, and also what drivers you used.

Hello, yeah I haven't finished my K sorry!:D
The TDA amp is an old one, that I use with the K. I am using 0.4x with one TC9FD. These are nice, balanced sounding, the right amount of bass, great articulation for such small speaker. Staging is nice, I listen to a wide range of music and all are represented nicely. The amp produces maybe 8-10W per channel and it's enough to drive the 0.4xK.:)