About the wattage and sensitivity, we differ but that is unimportant.
I should have mentioned earlier. I've been studying up on phase alignment as it corresponds to imaging/soundstaging, and from what I've seen so far, I think I see the two drivers slightly out of phase at about 3K, but other than that, it looks darn near perfect. A lot better than I've been able to accomplish. I don't think anybody could do any better without a hundred or so hours of research.
But hey, I'm splitting hairs. Perfection is only marginally acceptable©.
I should have mentioned earlier. I've been studying up on phase alignment as it corresponds to imaging/soundstaging, and from what I've seen so far, I think I see the two drivers slightly out of phase at about 3K, but other than that, it looks darn near perfect. A lot better than I've been able to accomplish. I don't think anybody could do any better without a hundred or so hours of research.
But hey, I'm splitting hairs. Perfection is only marginally acceptable©.
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Joined 2003
Great thread! Nice looking design.
Thought you may find this over at AUDIOGON.COM interesting:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vopin&1183325573
Thought you may find this over at AUDIOGON.COM interesting:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vopin&1183325573
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Joined 2003
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Joined 2003
Okay, just a small update with a tweaked crossover. The crossover and response images in my first post have been updated. What was a 2.7 Ohm resistor is now a 3.3 Ohm resistor, and I've now included DCR on the inductors.
In addition to the response in my first post, here's what it looks like when I flip the baffle (tweeter on the bottom). The response is a little more ragged, but still good.
In addition to the response in my first post, here's what it looks like when I flip the baffle (tweeter on the bottom). The response is a little more ragged, but still good.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
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Joined 2003
Hi Peter, it's a Sledgehammer Steel Laminate from Madisound (air core would be one big mother of an inductor to get that DCR). It's the only part I didn't order from Solen. Cost a good chunk of change though, I think $40 including shipping for 2 inductors. Shipping I would expect to be less if the order was larger.
Unfortunately I am still unable to find a distributor of steel laminate inductors in Canada.
Unfortunately I am still unable to find a distributor of steel laminate inductors in Canada.
Member
Joined 2003
Paint!
Hello again,
It's been a while since I built these, and they still sound beautiful, but the bare MDF just isn't the style I'm looking for in my living room, so I'm painting. I'm trying something new: Crackle Paint.
What you see here is the half completed paint job. The final product will have the colors inverted (what is light will be dark, what is dark will be light), as this is just the base coat. I just finished applying the crackle stuff, and once that is dry I can paint the top coat. I did a test strip to see how it will look, and I'm exited to see how this will look when completed.
If all goes as planned I'll be done Thursday, but I won't be able to transfer the speakers back into my house until Friday as I need a second pair of hands.
If you look at the test strip, the part with the dark color on top will be the base of the speakers, and the baffles. The part with the light color on top will the the rest (cabinets).
IMAGE: Test Strip
IMAGE: Back Half Done
IMAGE: Front Half Done
IMAGE: Baffles Half Done
Hello again,
It's been a while since I built these, and they still sound beautiful, but the bare MDF just isn't the style I'm looking for in my living room, so I'm painting. I'm trying something new: Crackle Paint.
What you see here is the half completed paint job. The final product will have the colors inverted (what is light will be dark, what is dark will be light), as this is just the base coat. I just finished applying the crackle stuff, and once that is dry I can paint the top coat. I did a test strip to see how it will look, and I'm exited to see how this will look when completed.
If all goes as planned I'll be done Thursday, but I won't be able to transfer the speakers back into my house until Friday as I need a second pair of hands.
If you look at the test strip, the part with the dark color on top will be the base of the speakers, and the baffles. The part with the light color on top will the the rest (cabinets).
IMAGE: Test Strip
IMAGE: Back Half Done
IMAGE: Front Half Done
IMAGE: Baffles Half Done
A somewhat more random pattern to the braces might be a good idea. But, since the cabinet is already built, the next option would be to add a few more in different places. Approx. 1"x1/2" strips of solid hardwood, or, dowels would both be good options. With dowels, it's easy to add braces after the cabinet is already constructed by simply drilling the same sized hole through both sides of the cabinet, then inserting & gluing in a section of the dowel cut to the right length. You could even cut the dowel after gluing, if you had the right kind of saw to cut off the end sticking out.sreten said:Hi,
You may find a full vertical brace (panel with holes cut out) more
effective than individual cross braces. It or they should slightly
offset towards the front to spread frequencies somewhat.
I would also add a cross brace between the drive units.
All that might be moot, and just useful for future reference for other projects, because it seems the OP is quite satisfied with the sound as is. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
Dave Bullet said:
Place a sheet of sound absorbing fiber material at about 1/3 of the way down, just below the bottom of the woofer across the interior of the cabinet to breakup standing waves. Placing damping on the walls is not a substitute for the function of that sheet, though, it could reduce internal high frequency reflections. In the case of the damping material on the sides (or, on the bottom, in the case of some of Zaph's towers) where the material is more than a few inches thick, then, it could affect standing waves ("pipe resonances"), though, is still usually not quite as effective as the sheet in the 1/3 position.
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Joined 2003
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Joined 2003
Choosing the box size should be the least of your problems. Download Unibox, enter the T/S parameters, and play around with the numbers, look at the graphs, and decide what you'll be happy with. Choosing the right port tuning and cabinet volume for you is a compromise between bass extension, power handling, and excursion limitations. For my design I chose a fairly large cabinet with a low tuning, as I don't intend to play my speakers at ear blistering levels, and would rather have the low frequency extension over being able to play real loud (read: I didn't want a subwoofer to hear the deep bass notes).
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Joined 2003
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Joined 2003
Thank-you! Different is exactly what I was going for.
Tips if anyone wanted to paint something with crackle paint:
I just want to add that this crackle paint stuff is fairly difficult. When painting the top coat, you basically get one shot, after you've done a few strokes of your brush, you can't go back over your first stroke if it doesn't look right, as the paint will lift up and bubble, and not really crack much. It just leaves it looking like terrible paint. It makes it quite difficult, because the cracks will tend to follow your brush strokes, so the paint has to be very even right off the bat for nice even cracks. I have read on the internet, that if you don't like it (it starts cracking within second of painting) you can wipe it off right away with a damp cloth and try again, but I didn't try this myself.
I painted the base twice, as I didn't like it the first time, but I just sanded off the first paint attempt. The base was difficult for the above reasons, and for the fact that it's all corners and curves.
Tips if anyone wanted to paint something with crackle paint:
I just want to add that this crackle paint stuff is fairly difficult. When painting the top coat, you basically get one shot, after you've done a few strokes of your brush, you can't go back over your first stroke if it doesn't look right, as the paint will lift up and bubble, and not really crack much. It just leaves it looking like terrible paint. It makes it quite difficult, because the cracks will tend to follow your brush strokes, so the paint has to be very even right off the bat for nice even cracks. I have read on the internet, that if you don't like it (it starts cracking within second of painting) you can wipe it off right away with a damp cloth and try again, but I didn't try this myself.
I painted the base twice, as I didn't like it the first time, but I just sanded off the first paint attempt. The base was difficult for the above reasons, and for the fact that it's all corners and curves.
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