(Norwegian) Pronounced "VO-gan"
This is definitely a one-off project (due to driver choice), but I was pretty pleased with the results, so I thought I'd post it anyway. This is a set of speakers I designed for my father in law for his 60th birthday. Originally, it was actually going to be a rectangular box, but the idea of these two relatively small drivers in a 17 Liter bookshelf just didn't appeal to me; so I made things more interesting. Everything's 13-ply BB ply, either biscuited or just plain clamped.
The drivers I got on two steals. The Woofer is an Audax AP170G2, which Parts Express had on DOTD for $11 one day. The magnet is awfully small, and the bass certainly won't rattle the rafters, but it has a pleasing overall sound. Therefore, I thought it would mate well with the Vifa D25ASG, which I bought from someone off the board for $25 for the pair. The Vifa D25 is definitely one of my favorite tweeters. It goes down easy and I could listen to it for hours. Unfortunately, this shielded version has a catch--the Fs is MUCH higher; it is not your standard D25AG. Nonetheless, the higher operating range wasn't too big an issue, since the Audax had no problems playing higher.
I kept the slopes as shallow as possible, and they end up being something like 3BW, summing around 2500 Hz. (I also thought the Butterworth alignment would work well because my father in law cannot sit still, and so I figured the majority of his listening would be off-axis). I have learned that I find the "Power Response" button in PCD to be the most useful tool--far more useful than the FR summation. Since these were optimized for off-axis, I aimed for a power response that was relatively flat, but tilted down toward the high end. There is a slight dip around 3K that seems inherent to the driver/XO combination (and no, I don't want steeper slopes), but I'm okay with that! They actually have a really fun sound, and image much better than I'd ever expect them to. The soundstage is surprisingly tall (?), and seem to have a pretty big sweet spot.
So that's that. My first original 2-way. Not quite as tough to design as I originally thought (I had a mental block about designing 2-ways, since the midwoofer handles so much of the responsibility). 'Course, the driver choices helped, and I would recommend them to beginner designers. Sadly, Audax is making their exit, and the name Vifa no longer means what it used to. On the other hand, my father in law is definitely getting a one-of-a-kind speaker.
-Paul
This is definitely a one-off project (due to driver choice), but I was pretty pleased with the results, so I thought I'd post it anyway. This is a set of speakers I designed for my father in law for his 60th birthday. Originally, it was actually going to be a rectangular box, but the idea of these two relatively small drivers in a 17 Liter bookshelf just didn't appeal to me; so I made things more interesting. Everything's 13-ply BB ply, either biscuited or just plain clamped.
The drivers I got on two steals. The Woofer is an Audax AP170G2, which Parts Express had on DOTD for $11 one day. The magnet is awfully small, and the bass certainly won't rattle the rafters, but it has a pleasing overall sound. Therefore, I thought it would mate well with the Vifa D25ASG, which I bought from someone off the board for $25 for the pair. The Vifa D25 is definitely one of my favorite tweeters. It goes down easy and I could listen to it for hours. Unfortunately, this shielded version has a catch--the Fs is MUCH higher; it is not your standard D25AG. Nonetheless, the higher operating range wasn't too big an issue, since the Audax had no problems playing higher.
I kept the slopes as shallow as possible, and they end up being something like 3BW, summing around 2500 Hz. (I also thought the Butterworth alignment would work well because my father in law cannot sit still, and so I figured the majority of his listening would be off-axis). I have learned that I find the "Power Response" button in PCD to be the most useful tool--far more useful than the FR summation. Since these were optimized for off-axis, I aimed for a power response that was relatively flat, but tilted down toward the high end. There is a slight dip around 3K that seems inherent to the driver/XO combination (and no, I don't want steeper slopes), but I'm okay with that! They actually have a really fun sound, and image much better than I'd ever expect them to. The soundstage is surprisingly tall (?), and seem to have a pretty big sweet spot.
So that's that. My first original 2-way. Not quite as tough to design as I originally thought (I had a mental block about designing 2-ways, since the midwoofer handles so much of the responsibility). 'Course, the driver choices helped, and I would recommend them to beginner designers. Sadly, Audax is making their exit, and the name Vifa no longer means what it used to. On the other hand, my father in law is definitely getting a one-of-a-kind speaker.
-Paul
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jdbrocious said:
<Chuckles to self> No, just this clamping nightmare.
If you want to know how I figured out how to cut/fit the pieces for a trapezoidal enclosure, let's just say I learned a lot by building Wayne W's Cinderellas
http://www.geocities.com/cc00541/Cinderella.html
I'm no master cabinet maker. The fact that I used biscuits to do this is like a quantum leap for me. Up until now, everything has been screw n' glue. I'm tired of covering up screw heads, though!
(If you're wondering how I did biscuits in the angled parts, well, I didn't. Only perpendicular joints are biscuited. I couldn't get my brain to figure out how to line up the fence on my cheapo biscuit joiner in order to line up angled joints. Maybe it's time to save up for a brad nailer.)
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something vaguely familiar about your design.
(vifa metal dome, peerless hds mid, csx woofer, ribbon sapeli veneer)
Matt
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
(vifa metal dome, peerless hds mid, csx woofer, ribbon sapeli veneer)
Matt
y8s... what a strange feeling it was to see that speaker. At first I just saw the top cab and thought I had maybe entered an alternate universe. Even stranger is that you used a "stepped baffle" to align the mid and tweeter, which is something I was going to do in my next project (though not a trapezoid. phew!)
Anyway, great job. I really like it. I imagine they must sound VERY nice.
Anyway, great job. I really like it. I imagine they must sound VERY nice.
Undefinition said:
it was weird for me too.
I did the stepped baffle as multiple pieces. You can put the chamfered step in and then trim the trapezoid shape after the fact to save you doing it twice and hoping it matches.
anyway, they did sound pretty good but it was an early project that lives in a friend's living room... and I haven't talked to that guy in years!
You can see them if you look inside. You have to first attach them to one panel with glue and nails and you do this using a spacer block the same thickness as the plywood to gauge where to put the cleat. Easy really. In this case I used strips of cabinet material, 3/4 (19mm) plywood
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Cal Weldon said:
? I just hold things together with my hands while I use the nail gun, the whole point of the nail gun to me is that I don't have to clamp then...
I thought I was going to build gobs of speakers when I moved here and I've got like three nice nailers and a big compressor. Sadly, it's been years since I've built speakers, all those tools waiting in my garage... Somehow finding the time to build speakers is alot easier when you work at a speaker factory
(what I was doing before I moved back to the Midwest)My dad gave me a biscuit joiner for Christmas the other year, but the nail guns are so much faster - the reasons I could see for using biscuits rather than nails are: if you're not going to veneer, or, if you want to do rounded corners and don't want to hit nails w/your router.
Yes, the clamps are only there to snug the boards while you nail. Living in a moist environment means you don't always have perfectly flat material to work with. I use the hand grip type for ease of install and removal. Very quick, very handy.
Like these:
http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/...ode+matchall&recN=113192&N=0&Ntk=P_PartNumber
Like these:
http://www.homedepot.ca/webapp/wcs/...ode+matchall&recN=113192&N=0&Ntk=P_PartNumber
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