Zaph Bargain Aluminum MTM - something missing - help

[SoundQuest]

I just finished a pair of ZAPH's BAMTM

(http://zaphaudio.com/BAMTM.html)

My friend and I let them break in and then we auditioned the heck out of them. They do many things well, but one area they absolutely fail in is vocal reproduction (and this is huge in my book). If a speaker can't do vocals and do them well, why bother? My own opinion, just ignore if you don't agree. I believe this is a result of the very low x-over point that Zaph chose (1450 Hz), and think the vocals would come through in a big way if crossed over at a higher point of 3k.

Is there anyone out there that had a similar experience?

At any rate, I would greatly appreciate anyone who could redesign the crossover to 3k and post the values here.

Thanks very much in advance.

[bigwill]

Have you checked tweeter polarity?

[Zaph]

I apologize about the design, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm sure you wired the crossovers exactly as detailed, and the chances of you making a mistake anywhere are zero. The 100 other folks who built this design and loved it probably don't have your evaluation skills. Yes, I think you should move the crossover point up to 3kHz, that would definitely sound better. You can use equations right out of Vance Dickason's Loudspeaker Design Cookbook, for accuracy. Thanks for your design insight, I'm going to go update that page right now with your new, better sounding design.

Also, have you tried placing the speakers right in corners, against the wall? Sometimes that improves vocals.

[bigwill]

[crazyhub]

(joke inside)
SoundQuest: try to use another microphone when singing through the BAMTM...or even change the singer...

[fwater]

Zaph, you should be ashamed of yourself. What are you thinking? You spend lots of money auditioning and testing drivers of all sorts, posting the results, spending many hours perfecting numerous speakers designs, and participating with the gurus and newbies alike, all for absolutely no charge to us and no (that I know of) financial gain for yourself. This guy knows that your crossover design is wrong, so re-design it for him! While I'm at it, the waveguide TMM can't possibly work with a simple cap for the tweet (we all know that from the textbooks). I think your website should be pulled down until you can start being responsible and post designs that actually work. Total elimination of the possibility of mistakes being made in the crossover section by any builder would be a good place to start.

All kidding aside, thanks for the work on the waveguide design. It has inspired me to do a bunch of experimenting with less expensive drivers in your configuration, though admittedly with marginal success. I won't blame your hard work, though. I'm capable of goofing something up myself as well as any other guy...

[ocool_15]

If you could post some measurements that would be useful in troubleshooting.

[peter_m]

Zaph you sure don't waste time... I like I like!

But who cares right? The OP obviously doesn't want help...

[ShinOBIWAN]

All bow down to the mighty Zaph.

Love the attitude just because someone doesn't happen to think like you do. Stick to the blog, at least there people don't talk back and can't offer opinions.

[MisterTwister]

you must power them with 4ohm capable receiver-amplifier, it's very important. I once tried my pair with cheap 8ohm receiver and all imaging and great bass they had were gone.