I'd recommend the PHT-407N instead. In my opinion it sounds nicer and doesn't have the strange peaks that needs to be dealt with that the 406 has.
The rising output toward the low end on the 407N is perfect for making a low order filter that has a very steep slope acoustically. What you do is choose a filter that is -3dB at XO, for example a first order butterworth (a single series cap), and put that XO on the low end of the peak, ie. ~2500Hz. What you get acoustically is basically a 6th order bessel filter with -6dB XO at ~2100Hz with perfect completely linear output and phase response. It will basically be almost within 1dB in frequency response almost to 20KHz, it's something like within +0.5/-1 dB.
Another reason that I'd chose the 407N over the 406 is that even though there's nominally only 10 degrees difference in coverage angle, it appears to be much more than that.
A third reason is of course weight. 200g vs. 900g each adds up to a difference of almost 3 kilos more with the 406s.
Fourth reason to chose the 407Ns is that if you have a 4 channel amp then you parallel connect the woofers and serial connect the tweeters to go 2 different channels per side. Doing this means the woofers are 4 ohms and the tweeters are 16 ohms. Together with the insertion loss of a PLLXO on the woofers channels the padding down of the tweeters is automatic and matches eachother. It also means the tweeter channels will consume next to no power but since they are serially connected they will have a power handling that easily matches the woofers even with a low order filter.
The rising output toward the low end on the 407N is perfect for making a low order filter that has a very steep slope acoustically. What you do is choose a filter that is -3dB at XO, for example a first order butterworth (a single series cap), and put that XO on the low end of the peak, ie. ~2500Hz. What you get acoustically is basically a 6th order bessel filter with -6dB XO at ~2100Hz with perfect completely linear output and phase response. It will basically be almost within 1dB in frequency response almost to 20KHz, it's something like within +0.5/-1 dB.
Another reason that I'd chose the 407N over the 406 is that even though there's nominally only 10 degrees difference in coverage angle, it appears to be much more than that.
A third reason is of course weight. 200g vs. 900g each adds up to a difference of almost 3 kilos more with the 406s.
Fourth reason to chose the 407Ns is that if you have a 4 channel amp then you parallel connect the woofers and serial connect the tweeters to go 2 different channels per side. Doing this means the woofers are 4 ohms and the tweeters are 16 ohms. Together with the insertion loss of a PLLXO on the woofers channels the padding down of the tweeters is automatic and matches eachother. It also means the tweeter channels will consume next to no power but since they are serially connected they will have a power handling that easily matches the woofers even with a low order filter.
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I'm making another build for my GF's camp, and they want it ultra-cheap (<1000kr / <190$), so I will use only 2 speakers (still stereo, not back-to-back), and the sound-quality is not of importance, so I have found this amp:
SA-36A TA2020 Tripath Class-T Digital Amplifier HiFi on eBay (end time 20-Mar-11 04:01:55 GMT)
and these speakers:
SPM-200X/4
I've read something about these cheap china-amps but I get confused about people's arguments about these, so what do you think? Is it okay for a budget-boominator? Or is it possible that they use way more power than the great Amp6-B kits?
And also...does the speaker seem okay? I noticed they only go to 15.000Hz, but when I cut off @16.000Hz in Winamp, I barely notice any sound-quality loss, although I do @14.000Hz
Hope you can help
SA-36A TA2020 Tripath Class-T Digital Amplifier HiFi on eBay (end time 20-Mar-11 04:01:55 GMT)
and these speakers:
SPM-200X/4
I've read something about these cheap china-amps but I get confused about people's arguments about these, so what do you think? Is it okay for a budget-boominator? Or is it possible that they use way more power than the great Amp6-B kits?
And also...does the speaker seem okay? I noticed they only go to 15.000Hz, but when I cut off @16.000Hz in Winamp, I barely notice any sound-quality loss, although I do @14.000Hz
Hope you can help
BL of 3.9 and xmax of 1mm indicate poor bass performance - however relatively high SD gives a high efficiency of 94db (i think they have the wrong graph shown though - seems to be impossibly high for a 6.5" driver)
weight is 700g though so v light and at £35 quid its a decent enough deal
verdict - a loud efficient speaker that is bound to handle mid well, but will struggle at the bass end (no bass) and it wont sound all that crisp.. although - it will do the job
weight is 700g though so v light and at £35 quid its a decent enough deal
verdict - a loud efficient speaker that is bound to handle mid well, but will struggle at the bass end (no bass) and it wont sound all that crisp.. although - it will do the job
BL of 3.9 and xmax of 1mm indicate poor bass performance - however relatively high SD gives a high efficiency of 94db (i think they have the wrong graph shown though - seems to be impossibly high for a 6.5" driver)
weight is 700g though so v light and at £35 quid its a decent enough deal
verdict - a loud efficient speaker that is bound to handle mid well, but will struggle at the bass end (no bass) and it wont sound all that crisp.. although - it will do the job
Maybe it's because it's an 8" driver
ThokN, I'm only using amplifiers from eBay and they are doing a great job. I dunno whether or not my amps use power in idle because they have a power switch, but it seems to follow the tripath power consumption very well. My stereo played 3,5 days last year on a 9 Ah battery with 10-14 hours playing time each day.
I'm very satisfied with these ebay amps but Saturnus said that they may be less fortunate when failing on you at the festival. Although I personally have not experienced anything at all yet (and I've been using them all year).
I think you could get a "decent" performance out of those Monacor speakers. Good enough for medium output listening. I've heard that these fullrange speakers with "doublecones" distort quite a bit when pushed to a limit. Somebody has to confirm that though
I'm very satisfied with these ebay amps
but Saturnus said that they may be less fortunate when failing on you at the festival. Although I personally have not experienced anything at all yet (and I've been using them all year).I think you could get a "decent" performance out of those Monacor speakers. Good enough for medium output listening. I've heard that these fullrange speakers with "doublecones" distort quite a bit when pushed to a limit. Somebody has to confirm that though
Thanks for your great responses!
I'm a bit worried about the lack of bass on the speakers, but since it seems ok to use such an eBay-amp, I save some money there instead of buying an Amp6 + enclosure + power switch + volume knob, so I might be able to choose a little bit better speaker. I will look into what BL and Xmas is to get a one with better bass.
Edit: Actually I think I will have the money for some piezo's and some bass/midrange drivers...that will probably give the best result. I think it will be these:
https://www.madisound.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=8594
http://www.monacor.dk/produkter/hoejttalerenheder-hifi6-9/vnr/103980/
Thanks again, very helpful
I'm a bit worried about the lack of bass on the speakers, but since it seems ok to use such an eBay-amp, I save some money there instead of buying an Amp6 + enclosure + power switch + volume knob, so I might be able to choose a little bit better speaker. I will look into what BL and Xmas is to get a one with better bass.
Edit: Actually I think I will have the money for some piezo's and some bass/midrange drivers...that will probably give the best result. I think it will be these:
https://www.madisound.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=8594
http://www.monacor.dk/produkter/hoejttalerenheder-hifi6-9/vnr/103980/
Thanks again, very helpful
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whoops, so it is
thokn: here is a great guide Speakerplans.com
Also worth looking into:
Vd (you want as high as possible, product of Xmax and Sd) and
Fs ideal 50-80hz
Qts anywhere in 0.28 - 0.45. you'll see in simulatons which work better for intended box sizes
you will need to simulate in "winisd" for ported enclosures
thokn: here is a great guide Speakerplans.com
Also worth looking into:
Vd (you want as high as possible, product of Xmax and Sd) and
Fs ideal 50-80hz
Qts anywhere in 0.28 - 0.45. you'll see in simulatons which work better for intended box sizes
you will need to simulate in "winisd" for ported enclosures
I actually have a question regarding the use of winISD.
Say you want to design another cheapo boombox as ThokN is about to. To calculate a port you need to fill in size of the port. Then there's a red or a green number, usually 0.xx (zero dot something). I guess when it's red it's not good and the other way around. But is it good to have a high number here? Like 0.8ish or so?
I'm I just babbling or does someone know what I'm talking about?
Say you want to design another cheapo boombox as ThokN is about to. To calculate a port you need to fill in size of the port. Then there's a red or a green number, usually 0.xx (zero dot something). I guess when it's red it's not good and the other way around. But is it good to have a high number here? Like 0.8ish or so?
I'm I just babbling or does someone know what I'm talking about?
Zerokelvin99: Inspiring site you linked to! Great info, and I think we might build an X1 for next years festival to extend our Boominator!
I can't find the relevant data (Qts, Vd, Fs etc.) for the Monacor speaker unfortunately. Maybe someone in here has a guess on volume and port-size for those?
I have a quick question:
Does it matter where in the system I connect the solar panel? Close to the battery f.x.?
I can't find the relevant data (Qts, Vd, Fs etc.) for the Monacor speaker unfortunately. Maybe someone in here has a guess on volume and port-size for those?
I have a quick question:
Does it matter where in the system I connect the solar panel? Close to the battery f.x.?
Sorry I haven't replied to any of the latest conversation but I don't see how it's relevant to the topic.
On the battery itself if possible. You will want to remove any risk of the battery becoming disconnected without the solar panel also being disconnected. Using the amp on the solar panels alone will kill it.
As far as I know the line out of the nano is exactly the same signal as the headphone out, just at a fixed volume. I hear some people actually prefer the headphone out on the nano. On the classic and touch on the other hand there's quite a big difference in SQ.
An ipod will never be an audophile music player by any standard, nor will the Boominator for that matter. It's designed to play LOUD while using next to no power, and have acceptable SQ.
An ipod will never be an audophile music player by any standard, nor will the Boominator for that matter. It's designed to play LOUD while using next to no power, and have acceptable SQ.
I think you missed the question
Afaik the output of the ipod nano is around 20mW.. How much do you think it would improve performance in general if i hooked it up to a headphone pre amp and fed the amp6 with 200mW instead?
I have hooked made a tube buffer as an iPod dock, and to me, it does improve the sound, especially with stronger bass. It's possible that a headphone amp would do the same thing, as long as it can perform well with a high impedance load into the boombox rather than headphones. You have to think that battery life was a higher design priority than pumping much current on the outputs of the iPod.
--Buckapound
--Buckapound
Darkwithin used some rubber tubes he had lying around to make the speakers fit. Looks like a good solution too. However, I don't have such tubes and I'm quite unsure what you mean when saying sealing gaskets. Something like this (which is "fugefilt" in danish)?:
Paroc fugefilt 22x50mm - 15 meter Alt i træ og byggematerialer til faste lave priser
Or does it need to be rubber? Do you have any idea on what to use instead?
thanks Saturnus
Darkwithin used some rubber tubes he had lying around to make the speakers fit. Looks like a good solution too. However, I don't have such tubes and I'm quite unsure what you mean when saying sealing gaskets. Something like this (which is "fugefilt" in danish)?:
Paroc fugefilt 22x50mm - 15 meter Alt i træ og byggematerialer til faste lave priser
Or does it need to be rubber? Do you have any idea on what to use instead?
thanks Saturnus
Sealing gasket is "pakning" in Danish.
I guess that rubber is preferable to any other material, since it can seal of while not being to hard on the speakers.Sealing gasket is "pakning" in Danish.
Alrighty then. I will have to find a shop that sells something I can use. Looks like it's gonna be quite a task since google doesn't find anything when I search it... Or maybe I'm looking the wrong place.
Another question then (leaning towards Darkwithin): Do you play with inductors to filter out some of the bass? Or do the piezos take over well at around 3500-4000? I bought the same piezos as you did.