plrease recommend design for HT with t-amp

[fishline]

Thanks to the posts by chicks and others both in this and the class D fora, I picked up a couple of the Psyclone Nodus from stootsi. One thing I'd like to do with them is to make a 5.1 setup in the basement for the kids to watch movies and play wii (although my understanding is that wii has no surround sound). I'd very much appreciate it if someone can recommend some speaker designs (i.e., plans). The points to consider are:

- They will be driven by moderately low power t-amps, so probably need to be fairly sensitive.
- I'd like to have at least decent sound.
- My carpentry skill is rather limited. Just finished building a pair of zigmahornets with stock fostex fs103e, and that top slope was quite a challenge. So, simpler the better.

My guess is that moderately high sensitivity is easier to achieve with full range, thus my posting here. Originally I was thinking of building the Zaph HiVi B3S mini monitors for the "5" in 5.1, but that doesn't seem to be a good idea to be driven by the t-amp given the 81db sensitivity.

The Cyburg Needle looks fairly easy to build, but looks like it's either based on the same HiVi B3S drivers (sensitivity too low) or the now unavailable Tangband. If there are low cost drivers with sufficient sensitivity that can work well in the Cyburg, perhaps that would fit my need?

[kristleifur]

Hi,

With ~12V T-Amps, I've found the Omnes BB 3.01 3" driver to be quite good w.r.t. power/volume. It's a 4 Ohm driver at around 87dB/W sensitivity. It can take some forethought to get proper volume out of T-Amps, as they only put half as much power into 8 Ohms as into 4 Ohms, as you may have encountered.

With my 12V Tripath amp, 4 Ohms + 87dB is good enough for me. If you use 8 Ohm speakers, which are more common, I'd go for around 6 dB more sensitive drivers to start with, so shoot for ~93 dB. Most Fostexes are around that range. Conversely, the Tang-Band W3-871 that I have also tried with a T-Amp, which is 8 Ohms and near ~87dB/W, didn't put out quite enough music.

That said, I really really like my Omnes BB 3.01 BIB speakers. They could be tricky to use in HT though, as AFAIK they need to be placed in a corner.

[mrybczyn]

Another 4-ohm with good bang for the buck: Dayton RS100-4, carried by parts express. Makes for a super-easy BiB build, the panel cuts are same dimensions front, back and sides. Make it an inverted bib.

Cheers,
Mitch