Help me find a project!!

[Luke352]

Hey guys,

I've been meaning to start up a DIY Home setup for sometime now, but just never had the time or space, and I now have the space, and a friend just gave 8 sheets of 16mm mdf (I'd rather use 18mm or 24mm but I'll just add more bracing or double it up in areas) so I now have the timber and space, and I can make time, and I'll buy the drivers as required when I get closer to finishing.

I'll give abit of my sound history as far as Home Audio goes I'm essentially a virgin, though I do have quite a bit of experience in the Car Audio realm (don't hate me for it, lol), and mainly around Sound Quality comps, so I do know what I like when I hear it and have a basic idea of what sounds right and what doesnt. Although this by no means makes me an experienced ear, I'll admit my ears are very untrained and thats partially why I'm delving into Home Audio to help train my ears a bit more as I have started doing judgeing for comps.

So I've started looking around for something to build and so far one design has struck a cord with me being Wayne's - Veritas http://www.partsexpress.com/projectshowcase/veritas.htm , it may seem like a rather big build for a first timer at least, but I'm reasonably handy, and a build like that wouldn't bother me, although I'd rather stay away from fancy curved cabinets and the like.

My reson's for liking the Veritas was a couple reason's, one I like the fact that I could quite easily live without a sub, I do like a larger sound with more oomph and impact, and the ribbons will probably give me the top end I'm after, and the veritas looked like they would be good for all this.

My sound preferance I would have to say is rather neutral and uncolored, with strong impact and bass presence with clean midrange with a strong presence around the female vocal range, with clean sharp highs, when I say a sharp high end I don't mean a forceful harsh top end but rather one that you know it's there not one that just falls into the background and gets lost amongst the rest of the music. I can say that Dynaudio doesn't do it for me, I find there sound unnaturally smooth, I'd call them nice, but not really impressive, someone once told me when they were discribing Dyn's, they sounded like speakers on prozac and I had to laugh because I knew exactly what he was talking about.

As for what I've heard and liked, two remain in my memory and that was the Duntech DSM-15's, I heard these in a shop and loved the tonality and cleanness of the top end (and obviously way out of my budget lol), I also heard a set of Martin Logan electrostats that I loved the detail and tonality off, and if I had the money I'd look at buying something like them.

So how will I power these future speakers? I'm not sure yet but probably a DIY amp something like the SKA, or another DIY amp along those lines.

So I'm still not sure what to build as I did some searching on the Veritas and although most people thought the design looked well thought out, there were some comments about the design being a tad old and that there is probably similar and better designs out there that will most likely perform better due to using newer better performing drivers etc...

So guys can you point me in the direction of some designs I should be looking at or what you think could possibly suit my tastes.

[Luke352]

Just found these two designs

http://www.rjbaudio.com/AlpheusMkII/alpheusmkii.html

http://www.rjbaudio.com/Daedalus/daedalus.html

Any comments?

Thanks

Luke

[augerpro]

You can't get the Peerless mid for the Alpheus anymore. Daedalus is nice. What's your budget?

[Luke352]

Knew I'd forget something, probably around the $400-$500 USD ($600 if it was worth the little extra) dollar mark for drivers and xover parts, I believe the projects I posted are around that sort of price range.

[castlesteve]

Originally posted by Luke352
Knew I'd forget something, probably around the $400-$500 USD ($600 if it was worth the little extra) dollar mark for drivers and xover parts, I believe the projects I posted are around that sort of price range.

How about this :

http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/PMS.htm

[RyanW]

Luke,

I can't recommend much in the way of loudspeaker designs, but I would give the SKA that you mentioned a thumbsup. I built a stereo 300D. Sounds excellent and Greg gives great support.

Have you considered bi-amping? It makes things much more complicated... but simpler at the same time. I'm happy with the sound of my bi-amped setup but it is a bit of a pain in the a$$. If you check out the SKA forum ( www.ska-audio.com/forum ), I have posted a few pictures of my build.

Don't fret too much; whatever you build will be better than any standard consumer-grade speakers.

Best of luck,

Ryan

[TerryO]

Originally posted by Luke352
Knew I'd forget something, probably around the $400-$500 USD ($600 if it was worth the little extra) dollar mark for drivers and xover parts, I believe the projects I posted are around that sort of price range.

Luke,
Exodus Audio has just had a review by Soundstage! audio magazine published this week on their "Kepler" speaker kit that is priced right in the range that you've indicated. People that have heard them seem to think they're a very nice sounding 2-way that can compete with some of the best.

Standard disclaimer: Kevin Haskins and I are longstanding friends and although I am in no way connected to his company, I did take an active part in designing the prototype. In spite of this obvious handicap, Kevin was able to bring out a very good, perhaps great product.


You can read the review for yourself by going to:

http://www.soundstage.com/diwhy/diwhy.htm

Whatever you decide to do, just remember that this stuff is supposed to be fun!

Best Regards,
TerryO

[ScottG]

Originally posted by castlesteve



How about this :

http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/PMS.htm

I'll second that recommendation.

[Brett]

Originally posted by castlesteve
How about this :

http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/PMS.htm

Thirded.

Troel's designs are typically well thought out and implemented. The PMS should make an excellent build.

I love the look of the wide baffle design so much, it's under (aesthetic) consideration for my new mains. My design will be larger and symetrical.

Something else worthy of consideration, and I know because I built a pair, is Lynn's Ariel v6. If you can woodwork, and I can barely, then it should be a simple build. I had no trouble, but never finished them so they looked nice before moving on to horns and HE direct radiators.
http://www.nutshellhifi.com/Ariel.html
http://www.nutshellhifi.com/Ariel-6c.gif

[Luke352]

Originally posted by castlesteve



How about this :

http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/PMS.htm

I had spotted them before and that's two (make that 3) recommendations for them now, and the cabinet build doesn't look that hard actually, and they will go out of my budget but there also the only one's that have passed my fiance's looks test lol, a common problem I imagine you can all understand.

Do you think I'd be compromising too much by using 16mm mdf for the build (I was given 8 sheets, so it's always good if you can use something you have) obviously I'd make sure to add in some more bracing, and maybe make them a tad higher by extending the base to allow for the space taken up by the extra bracing, again will this affect them?

Originally posted by TerryO



Luke,
Exodus Audio has just had a review by Soundstage! audio magazine published this week on their "Kepler" speaker kit that is priced right in the range that you've indicated. People that have heard them seem to think they're a very nice sounding 2-way that can compete with some of the best.
You can read the review for yourself by going to:

http://www.soundstage.com/diwhy/diwhy.htm

Whatever you decide to do, just remember that this stuff is supposed to be fun!

Best Regards,
TerryO

Hmm, they look like great performers, though I'm not sure if they'd really have effortless big speaker performance I'd want.

I realise it's all about compromise, I can go smaller and simpler but using better drivers and get a better quality of sound, or bigger and more dynamic with the same budget by using cheaper drivers but probably lose out it in the sound quality stakes a little.

For me I feel I'd rather have the more effortless dynamics, ( my car currently consists of a 3 way DLS front stage 6.5" midbass about to be swapped out for 8" a 2.5" dome midrange and 1" tweeter with subbass provided by a JBL W15Gti, which is the car version of JBL's sub with the split DDD coil arragement etc.. in my car it's flat to 30hz and with a f3 at 20hz) as this is something I'm more likely to notice, but this is the start of something for me. I hope to keep building things for many years yet, an most likely as my ears develop a greater sense of sound I'll start chasing more purity over dynamics.


RyanW, yeah I will most likely go with SKA, since everyone raves about them.

So any more recommendations guys so far the PMS and Daedalus (fiance didn't like the Daedalus much but I can change the looks too suit) are winning.


Thanks Luke