Fast, fun, Inexpensive OB project

Offical 2 and 3 way Schematics.jpg


2 Way Connections.jpg


3 Way Connections.jpg
 
Hey there...anybody have any ideas regarding post 3114? I posted the schematics above on how the dual crossovers are wired and used depending on whether I am using them as 2 ways or 3 ways. I recently got ahold of some Acoustat Spectra 1100s....so now I am playing around with the idea of scrapping these and using the GRS 15s as open baffle woofers for the Spectra 1100s.
 
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John Busch is being laid to rest right now in his homeland of Iowa. May he Rest In Peace.
Of all the audio lessons that John taught me, the most important and fundamental is that the crossover is king. John had a talent for crossovers likes of which I've rarely seen. That he managed to make so many oddball and offbeat designs work, is because he could nail the crossover. Other people didn't dare, or didn't understand, so could not make unusual designs work. John Busch was a genius at picking drivers and building a crossover that made them blend and sing.

John's talent with driver pairing and crossover design are what allow a simple design like the Manzanita to work so well. There were much more complex designs, too - but John didn't expect inexperienced builders to master those, so they went unpublished. If ever there had been a sort of "Scrapyard Challenge" of speaker building, John would have been the champ. He had an uncanny knack for picking what worked well together.
 
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The above words will be confirmed by the listening experience with my Manzanit with SLS12 + tc9fd.

People with listening experience are surprised. It is not a cash register, not parts ... Only design, speaker selection, crossover and strict adherence to the constructor's instructions.

It is known that the uncompromising 3way open baffles will play better, but it is difficult to fault something here.

as a souvenir for John: as a souvenir for John: https://1drv.ms/f/s!Av4BXWzPRzrEgb1qnUWuVi14DAtu4w
 
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Finally, the Manzanita is finished.
Speaker terminals, 12 mounting legs for the xo in order to mount it protected against resonances, eggcrate foam for the wings (after a series of listenings with and without).
And it sings. After about 100 hours of listening the Vifa is now very smooth, the slight harshness of the first listenings is gone.
An amazing speaker.

PSX_20220821_180710.jpg
 
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Finally, the Manzanita is finished.
Speaker terminals, 12 mounting legs for the xo in order to mount it protected against resonances, eggcrate foam for the wings (after a series of listenings with and without).
And it sings. After about 100 hours of listening the Vifa is now very smooth, the slight harshness of the first listenings is gone.
An amazing speaker.
Note the sharp edges around the VIFA. It's not good... reading the thread many people had a sound problem with it. Look at my photos.

Those look very nice, and your room should have good acoustics too!
You should put those photos here in the thread.

The room is great. Almost everything sounds good here, but the OB produces a reference bass effect.

Please remember about the quality of the voice coil for VIFA. John's advice of a minimum wire diameter of 1.6mm2 for an air coil is hit advice.
The quality of the bass coil is also of great importance. ERSE works very well for me, but the perfect solution may also be: https://www.parts-express.com/Jantzen-6595-18mH-14-AWG-C-Coil-Toroidal-Inductor-255-844

or

https://www.hificollective.co.uk/catalog/000-6605-20mh-jantzen-c-coil.html
 

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Note the sharp edges around the VIFA. It's not good... reading the thread many people had a sound problem with it. Look at my photos.
There is no sharp edge, it is rounded and far away from the Vifa so it can breath without sharpness or shouting. Further, as the Vifa is mounted from behind, there is a height difference of only 8-9 mm between the rear edge of the Vifa's casing and that of the baffle. I had some baffle versions and this one works great (I had a version with a funnel-shaped cutout, but this one screamed) and I had many listenings until this version turned out to be - for me - the best. But thanks for the advice.
 
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I’ve lived on the dark side of more traditional two-way bass reflex speakers with high-quality drivers for several days and after going back to my Manzanitas there is something I miss in the hyper-resolution department for the upper frequencies. Therefore I would like to try my hand at adding an OB planar (or AMT) tweeter to the Manzanita concept. Not going to change the speakers I have, but rather build another set with the peerless 12, TC9, and a (super)tweeter. I‘ll start with XPS prototype baffles and see how that goes.
 
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I was thinking cone for the mid, because cones tend to have good impact in the midrange and I like that sound. For some other projects I bought and tried a few GRS fullrange and car speakers. I didn't like any of them. But I haven't tired them all.

Please let us know what you think of the GRS planars. I haven't seen the Fosters.
 
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