Bonjonno,
Thank you for the nice report back with use example and tips on improving sound by weighting down. The second K aperture liquid nailed on is a great idea really cuts down on rattle. Thin 3/16in floor underlayment plywood is also great as second layer glued on. I never considered using them as monitors. If you need a little more sensitivity, swap TC9FD for 3FE25 and get 6dB boost for free.
Thank you for the nice report back with use example and tips on improving sound by weighting down. The second K aperture liquid nailed on is a great idea really cuts down on rattle. Thin 3/16in floor underlayment plywood is also great as second layer glued on. I never considered using them as monitors. If you need a little more sensitivity, swap TC9FD for 3FE25 and get 6dB boost for free.
Thanks guys. I LOVE these little speakers. And they get plenty loud for my tastes. At home (at the computer where I am 8 hours a day) they are perfect and if I want to really party I kick in a powered 10" sub that was a bit expensive, $100. The resulting sound is huge and not at all lacking. BTW, the folding model of the 0.41X, if used with the right kind of $1 sheet foamcore (soft paper cover), is a very quick build. It goes together like a snap.
For desk monitors, with 2 TC9FD per side you need .53x size or something closer to .41? Think .53 would be too big for desktop nearfield but only one driver per side on .41x maybe too weak for all music types at normal or higher levels? I also read looks like one driver only sounds sweeter in .41x? Thanks for any advise, want to try this. i got the 4 TC9FD. no crossover needed or caps? read you indicated your viva la vifa (that has a small crossover, which could degrade sound a bit?) could be more precise , which i like that but this .41 or .53 karlson is more enjoyable?
The viva la vifa DCR is not a Xo but a baffle step circuit to attenuate high frequencies to balance with the bass, which suffers -5dB baffle step loss. The Karlsonator, on the otehr hand, does not suffer nearly as much baffle step loss because it actually produces bass gain, so it balances out about. If you want a dual desktop that is smaller, a dual 3FE22 might be the ticket as it has a much smaller Vas and smaller Qts. Maybe 0.44x? I will have to run a sim to be sure though. Those drivers are almost 3x the price of the TC9 though. 0.40x Karlsonator with 3FE25 will be 91dB so that alone is very helpful. The dual 3FE22 Karlsonator will be close to 97dB at 2.83v.
Thank you so much xrk971 for all you do and publish here and for your response! i really like these tcfd, so can .53 be shrink-ed a bit say maybe to .5 or less so they might not be more than say 13.5 inches tall? or just try the .41 single. worst comes i could just a blow a driver? i see that soundstage would be relatively low, so they would need stands in desktop right? do the speakers disaperar or viva la vifa disapears more? maybe as they are low soundstage being tall is not an issue if on stands? love sound behind speakers as im close to them.
The 0.40x actually disappears nicely relative to stereo imaging. Use on stands away from wall if you want great imaging. Less bass that way though. If you want to make it not as tall, go ahead and scale it by the height you want, just increase depth to keep volume the same. The tuning will go down somewhat but overall, it will still work.
The speaker is a transmission line design. So when you make it smaller - the natural main resonant frequency of bass gain goes up. Kind of like making a flute shorter makes the pitch go up. The 0.53x has a natural frequency around 55Hz so it may rise to say, 62Hz or so if you make it shorter. It will still sound quite good but 55Hz is the sweet spot as it matches the peak of a kick drum.
Thank you very much for your response! So i could make the .53 less tall, say 13 or 14 inches but add more depth to compensate and still have same result, right?
Almost, as I said, the TL length will be reduced if you make it less tall. But it will probably not be of much consequence if height is reduced 2in or so.
No comb filtering issues as the K aperture homogenizes everything. Certainly, the driver that is more exposed probably contributes more HF. If you wanted you could make it a 1.5 way speaker and run the bottom fullrange and top as a "woofer" via a first order low pass filter (maybe 4mH to 6mH or so). I haven't found it necessary.
Thank you, will start with one speaker asap. hopefully will move well with my tpa3116d modified for my desktop! i have been playing with these drivers like them, find them peaky and bit irritating, giving tinitus. right now in a box one front firing another top firing. hopefully this will work while having pinpoint, depth, smooth to ears and all the goodies audiophiles like..Thanks!
Matched sub(s)?
Love this thread and all the possible variants. I really enjoy my 0.4 TC9FDs in my kitchen.
Has anyone made a small sub to pair with these passively?
I understand it would be simpler to add any kind of sub with its own amp, but I was thinking it would be great (in my application, above my kitchen cabinets) to have a small foamcore or XPS passive sub to tie in with the little Karlsonators. Maybe 2 low profile MLTLs to lay between the TC9s...?
Just tossing out ideas to eek out a little more low end without getting big.
Love this thread and all the possible variants. I really enjoy my 0.4 TC9FDs in my kitchen.
Has anyone made a small sub to pair with these passively?
I understand it would be simpler to add any kind of sub with its own amp, but I was thinking it would be great (in my application, above my kitchen cabinets) to have a small foamcore or XPS passive sub to tie in with the little Karlsonators. Maybe 2 low profile MLTLs to lay between the TC9s...?
Just tossing out ideas to eek out a little more low end without getting big.
