- Well .... Well… What to do?
- How about an IKEA speaker?
- Well, maybe.
- Salad Bowls?
- Naah – Been there, done that.
Since I’ve been "struck" by the open-baffle-speaker flu, I wanted to make some nicer cabinets for the basement room (measuring 4x4 meters incl. miscellaneous cellar stuff – thats about 12x12 feet).
Fullrange drivers for OB are Monacor SP-205/8. And they look like this:
They should be located near (and the cabinet must stand directly on) the floor in an open baffle (ie either a flat plate or a cabinet without backplate). The wider the plate, the lower the frequency before the driver rolls off. Placing the baffle on the floor and/or locating the driver closer to the floor enhances the bass.
Fullrangers often have a rising frequency response, which in one way or another must be addressed if we shall be able to listen to those speakers - in this particular case it works fine, because I sit dramatically off-axis in a normal chair (with my ears at 90-100 cm above the floor).
Treble level often falls dramatically when listening off-axis, and that’s also the case here. So I ended up (in the current cabinet) with a balanced sound, but still a bit too light on cellos (there is too much metal on the strings). Voices and Treble appears to be fine.
Well, one day I surfed on ebay, and found this:
IKEA Lack shelf
Aha - This might be useful. A more than 2 meters wide baffle perhaps may give a little more richness to the aforementioned cellos. I am satisfied with the present bass level, but am also curious whether deeper and even more dynamic bass could be wrung from this driver or not.
To put a long story short, I bought the IKEA Lack shelf, removed two cross-sections, cut out two black MDF front baffles 25.2 x 87.3 cm and 25.2 x 87.2 cm). Two holes with a diameter of 18.0 cm was cut out with jigsaw, 8 screw holes with a drill - and finally mounted the IKEA Lack top-plate plus wires. Ready within one hour, great.
The entire installation in less than an hour?? So what’ve we got (sorry for the crappy mobile pictures)?
A REAL IKEA STEREO BENCH!
And how is it sounding?
I thought the sound would be very similar to the sound I had from the separate enclosures I have used recently - but no. It was all very soft, and tube-ish (I use a Tripath 2024 amplifier, the source is an Ubuntu-based PC) - rather like an old tube radio. It was just too dull. The bass wasn’t spongy - or went deeper. It just felt significantly slower. This wasn’t working - Something had to be done.
Hmmm ... since an open baffle largely connects to the floor, I thought: "what the heck - let's try to lift the "IKEA Stereo bench" up a bit.
I found four hemispherical sorbothane damping feet (diameter 5 cm, height 2.5 cm) and placed one under each corner of the "IKEA Stereo bench."
This was somewhat better - there was still plenty of bass, but it wasn’t right yet.
I had four hemispheres left. Next step was to put them together, so I ended with 5 cm balls in each corner of the stereo bench. Bingo - Now it’s here: good, defined bass, nice midrange and ok treble (though not particularly airy). But the Stereo bench really excels in reproducing moods. Basically, it’s fun to listen to. And the cellos? Well, they finally got the touch of warmth that I originally desired.
Have a nice summer ;-)
1 inch = 2.54 cm
- How about an IKEA speaker?
- Well, maybe.
- Salad Bowls?
- Naah – Been there, done that.
Since I’ve been "struck" by the open-baffle-speaker flu, I wanted to make some nicer cabinets for the basement room (measuring 4x4 meters incl. miscellaneous cellar stuff – thats about 12x12 feet).
Fullrange drivers for OB are Monacor SP-205/8. And they look like this:
They should be located near (and the cabinet must stand directly on) the floor in an open baffle (ie either a flat plate or a cabinet without backplate). The wider the plate, the lower the frequency before the driver rolls off. Placing the baffle on the floor and/or locating the driver closer to the floor enhances the bass.
Fullrangers often have a rising frequency response, which in one way or another must be addressed if we shall be able to listen to those speakers - in this particular case it works fine, because I sit dramatically off-axis in a normal chair (with my ears at 90-100 cm above the floor).
Treble level often falls dramatically when listening off-axis, and that’s also the case here. So I ended up (in the current cabinet) with a balanced sound, but still a bit too light on cellos (there is too much metal on the strings). Voices and Treble appears to be fine.
Well, one day I surfed on ebay, and found this:
IKEA Lack shelf
Aha - This might be useful. A more than 2 meters wide baffle perhaps may give a little more richness to the aforementioned cellos. I am satisfied with the present bass level, but am also curious whether deeper and even more dynamic bass could be wrung from this driver or not.
To put a long story short, I bought the IKEA Lack shelf, removed two cross-sections, cut out two black MDF front baffles 25.2 x 87.3 cm and 25.2 x 87.2 cm). Two holes with a diameter of 18.0 cm was cut out with jigsaw, 8 screw holes with a drill - and finally mounted the IKEA Lack top-plate plus wires. Ready within one hour, great.
The entire installation in less than an hour?? So what’ve we got (sorry for the crappy mobile pictures)?
A REAL IKEA STEREO BENCH!
And how is it sounding?
I thought the sound would be very similar to the sound I had from the separate enclosures I have used recently - but no. It was all very soft, and tube-ish (I use a Tripath 2024 amplifier, the source is an Ubuntu-based PC) - rather like an old tube radio. It was just too dull. The bass wasn’t spongy - or went deeper. It just felt significantly slower. This wasn’t working - Something had to be done.
Hmmm ... since an open baffle largely connects to the floor, I thought: "what the heck - let's try to lift the "IKEA Stereo bench" up a bit.
I found four hemispherical sorbothane damping feet (diameter 5 cm, height 2.5 cm) and placed one under each corner of the "IKEA Stereo bench."
This was somewhat better - there was still plenty of bass, but it wasn’t right yet.
I had four hemispheres left. Next step was to put them together, so I ended with 5 cm balls in each corner of the stereo bench. Bingo - Now it’s here: good, defined bass, nice midrange and ok treble (though not particularly airy). But the Stereo bench really excels in reproducing moods. Basically, it’s fun to listen to. And the cellos? Well, they finally got the touch of warmth that I originally desired.
Have a nice summer ;-)
1 inch = 2.54 cm
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The 'tuby' sound might be the resonance of the "U-baffle". Is there any sound absorbent material behind the drivers? Or, there might be some resonance in the Lack shelf itself - I remember the walls are hollow.
I've been thinking of choosing one of the Ikea table board for baffle, though - there're many shapes: rounded, curvy sided, elliptical, even peanut shaped... particle boards or MDF boards might be solid enough and with decent finishes already
I've been thinking of choosing one of the Ikea table board for baffle, though - there're many shapes: rounded, curvy sided, elliptical, even peanut shaped... particle boards or MDF boards might be solid enough and with decent finishes already
Hi CLS
Considering the bass got pretty much better, while I lifted the Stereo Bench a few inches, I don't think it's a matter of resonance. There's no sound absorbent material behind the drivers.
I think the slow bass was a combination of the room, the very broad baffel, and the coupling with the floor. But I'm satisfied with the sound now
Have a nice day
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