Weems-designed enclosures need new drivers

[River757]

Well I finally decided to do something with a pair of speakers I've had since 1982 and which have been sitting in a closet pretty much since then.

Back in my senior year of high school (1983), I built a pair of small bookshelf speakers based on a design found in David Weems' book sold at Radio Shack, Designing, Building And Testing Your Own Speaker System: the system used a Radio Shack 4" full range driver, cat# 40-1197, the one that some say is a Fostex FE-103 with RS branding, operating in a .14 cubic foot sealed enclosure.

This might ruffle a few feathers since that driver is respected by many in the DIY community, but personally I never did like the sound of that system: little useful bass of any sort (not that I expected bone-rattling levels from such a small driver, but some would have been nice), rather grainy high frequencies and just an overall irritating in-your-face sonic personality.

So when one driver was burned out when the speakers were on loan to a buddy, I never bothered to replace it. And into the closet they went, though back in the mid 90s the still-operational one was put into use for a year as the surround speaker in a system using the Hafler ambience circuit.

But after reading about all the much improved FR drivers the last couple of years, I decided to haul out my first-ever DIY speakers and revive them with modern drivers.

I'm looking for ideas for drivers suited for rock music - Beck, Jefferson Airplane, Alan Parsons Project, with some Black Flag and Fugazi thrown in there too - and happy operating in a .14 cubic foot enclosure - ported or sealed - but do not have to generate high volume levels and hopefully do not cost more than $20 apiece.

Any opinions would be appreciated!

*****************************************
Bonus info about these speakers : they were "practice" speakers built in anticipation of building a pair of 3-way speakers using an RS kit (12" woofer, 5" midrange and a 1" soft-dome tweeter and full crossover i.e. 12dB/octave slopes for the tweeter and midrange and 6dB for the woofer). Enclosure's styling: at the time I was really into Infinity's speakers and my choice of wood finish and grill reflects that.

FYI: seen through the baffle's mounting hole are 1" x 2" x 2" non-shedding fiberglass squares, as per Weems' specifications, that completely fill the interior.

[rjbond3rd]

Hmm, 4 liters.

http://homepage.mac.com/tlinespeaker...-aperiodic.gif

CHR-70 Mini BR plan | Markaudio (mount port on the outside to reclaim some internal volume?)

[AEIOU]

I recognize the picture behind the enclosures, from the movie "Forbidden Planet" my all time favorite science fiction movie. Are you aware that Leslie Nielsen died not too long ago?

You can only squeeze so much out of a small full ranger mounted in a small enclosure. Whatever you build, at that size it will never truly "Rock."
Go over to PartsExpress EXTENDED RANGE CONE DRIVERS from Parts Express ship same day and come with 45 day money back guarantee. Free Shipping Available. Order free 10,000 product catalog.

and look at their lineup of full range drivers. TangBand makes some pretty good/rugged little full rangers that will fill your bill. One other possibility would be to remake it into a two way, a small woofer instead of a full range and a very small tweeter. You'll get more bass from a small woofer, but the trade off is the requirement for a tweeter and at least a simple crossover.

Originally Posted by River757

Well I finally decided to do something with a pair of speakers I've had since 1982 and which have been sitting in a closet pretty much since then.

Back in my senior year of high school (1983), I built a pair of small bookshelf speakers based on a design found in David Weems' book sold at Radio Shack, Designing, Building And Testing Your Own Speaker System: the system used a Radio Shack 4" full range driver, cat# 40-1197, the one that some say is a Fostex FE-103 with RS branding, operating in a .14 cubic foot sealed enclosure.

This might ruffle a few feathers since that driver is respected by many in the DIY community, but personally I never did like the sound of that system: little useful bass of any sort (not that I expected bone-rattling levels from such a small driver, but some would have been nice), rather grainy high frequencies and just an overall irritating in-your-face sonic personality.

So when one driver was burned out when the speakers were on loan to a buddy, I never bothered to replace it. And into the closet they went, though back in the mid 90s the still-operational one was put into use for a year as the surround speaker in a system using the Hafler ambience circuit.

But after reading about all the much improved FR drivers the last couple of years, I decided to haul out my first-ever DIY speakers and revive them with modern drivers.

I'm looking for ideas for drivers suited for rock music - Beck, Jefferson Airplane, Alan Parsons Project, with some Black Flag and Fugazi thrown in there too - and happy operating in a .14 cubic foot enclosure - ported or sealed - but do not have to generate high volume levels and hopefully do not cost more than $20 apiece.

Any opinions would be appreciated!

*****************************************
Bonus info about these speakers : they were "practice" speakers built in anticipation of building a pair of 3-way speakers using an RS kit (12" woofer, 5" midrange and a 1" soft-dome tweeter and full crossover i.e. 12dB/octave slopes for the tweeter and midrange and 6dB for the woofer). Enclosure's styling: at the time I was really into Infinity's speakers and my choice of wood finish and grill reflects that.

FYI: seen through the baffle's mounting hole are 1" x 2" x 2" non-shedding fiberglass squares, as per Weems' specifications, that completely fill the interior.

[Godzilla]

>>> I recognize the picture behind the enclosures, from the movie "Forbidden Planet" my all time favorite science fiction movie. Are you aware that Leslie Nielsen died not too long ago?

I noticed that too. Cool photo of the unbuilt model you have! Recently watched the movie since hearing about Leslie Nielsen and one of the Rocky Horror Picture Show songs was stuck in my head (Ann Francis stars in Forbidden Planet, oh oh oh oh...)

Yes the MA and TB drivers will work in cabs that small and give you better/more bass than the old 1197s you had in there... don't expect the world tho... i'm sure you don't. But you will get respectable sound.

Cool poster!

[AEIOU]

I have a friend who collects/collected all sorts of models and stuff like that, but he never builds any of it, he just holds onto it. Anyway when he was hurting for money he started liquidating his stuff, a lot of it went up on eBay. But I conned him out of the model for $30! The finished size of the completed model is something like 30 inches or 76 centimeters, in diameter. But it sits in my garage unbuilt. Maybe one day.

Originally Posted by Godzilla

>>> I recognize the picture behind the enclosures, from the movie "Forbidden Planet" my all time favorite science fiction movie. Are you aware that Leslie Nielsen died not too long ago?

I noticed that too. Cool photo of the unbuilt model you have! Recently watched the movie since hearing about Leslie Nielsen and one of the Rocky Horror Picture Show songs was stuck in my head (Ann Francis stars in Forbidden Planet, oh oh oh oh...)

Yes the MA and TB drivers will work in cabs that small and give you better/more bass than the old 1197s you had in there... don't expect the world tho... i'm sure you don't. But you will get respectable sound.

Cool poster!

[AEIOU]

Did the original kit plans include instructions for making a notch/contour filter to be used with the speakers?
Some of the really older Radio Shack 40-1197 drivers apparently were rebranded FOSTEX, but sometime later on Radio Shack began sourcing them, having them built elsewhere. The ones I obtained in the later 80s were definitely not FOSTEX FE-103, but I found their sound to still be pretty good.

Originally Posted by River757

Back in my senior year of high school (1983), I built a pair of small bookshelf speakers based on a design found in David Weems' book sold at Radio Shack, Designing, Building And Testing Your Own Speaker System: the system used a Radio Shack 4" full range driver, cat# 40-1197, the one that some say is a Fostex FE-103 with RS branding, operating in a .14 cubic foot sealed enclosure.

This might ruffle a few feathers since that driver is respected by many in the DIY community, but personally I never did like the sound of that system: little useful bass of any sort (not that I expected bone-rattling levels from such a small driver, but some would have been nice), rather grainy high frequencies and just an overall irritating in-your-face sonic personality.

So when one driver was burned out when the speakers were on loan to a buddy, I never bothered to replace it. And into the closet they went, though back in the mid 90s the still-operational one was put into use for a year as the surround speaker in a system using the Hafler ambience circuit.

But after reading about all the much improved FR drivers the last couple of years, I decided to haul out my first-ever DIY speakers and revive them with modern drivers.

I'm looking for ideas for drivers suited for rock music - Beck, Jefferson Airplane, Alan Parsons Project, with some Black Flag and Fugazi thrown in there too - and happy operating in a .14 cubic foot enclosure - ported or sealed - but do not have to generate high volume levels and hopefully do not cost more than $20 apiece.

Any opinions would be appreciated!

*****************************************
Bonus info about these speakers : they were "practice" speakers built in anticipation of building a pair of 3-way speakers using an RS kit (12" woofer, 5" midrange and a 1" soft-dome tweeter and full crossover i.e. 12dB/octave slopes for the tweeter and midrange and 6dB for the woofer). Enclosure's styling: at the time I was really into Infinity's speakers and my choice of wood finish and grill reflects that.

FYI: seen through the baffle's mounting hole are 1" x 2" x 2" non-shedding fiberglass squares, as per Weems' specifications, that completely fill the interior.

[River757]

You can only squeeze so much out of a small full ranger mounted in a small enclosure. Whatever you build, at that size it will never truly "Rock."

Yes the MA and TB drivers will work in cabs that small and give you better/more bass than the old 1197s you had in there... don't expect the world tho...

Oh I never thought such a small driver would put King Crimson in my living room but just wanted a fuller/richer sound than the RS drivers.

I am strongly considering using these with my computer - I listen to a lot of music (CD, MP3 and internet radio) while sitting there and also some podcasts - and I think in that nearfield environment bass will be much better than if they are used for example in my living room.

Did the original kit plans include instructions for making a notch/contour filter to be used with the speakers?

Yes they sure did and I wish I had included it. But at the time I just wanted to get to the "real" speakers i.e. the 3-ways, and as soon as these were done I pretty much 100% put them aside, physically and mentally.

Are you aware that Leslie Nielsen died not too long ago?

Yes. I watch that movie a couple times a year and the next time will be a little melancholy.

That looks like an awesome model. 30 inches across?! You need to build it! (I used to build plane and spacecraft models throughout my teen years) Maybe use one one of those new 120V LED spotlights to one side to create some interesting shadows.

[AEIOU]

Originally Posted by River757

Yes they sure did and I wish I had included it. But at the time I just wanted to get to the "real" speakers i.e. the 3-ways, and as soon as these were done I pretty much 100% put them aside, physically and mentally.

That looks like an awesome model. 30 inches across?! You need to build it!

I was hoping to find out, see what the components (schematic) for the filter consisted of.

My plastic model of the C-57D can be assembled with a cut away interior view, but it would be a lot of work detailing everything.