Starting Question

[renderbass]

Hello everyone,

Im Ray, I'm a musician and a recording and mixing enthusiast. I have some backgrounds on acoustics since i've designed and buid myself the acoustic treatment for my home studio mastering room. I did all the reading for that purpose and of course i will do it for this new DIY proyect i have in mind if it worth te effort. Well, I'll like to start with a simple question.

Is it a good idea to build near field monitors (for mixing in a small room) from a pair of CAR speaker sets?

The speakers are 130KP from FOCAL and they sounded GREAT in my car.

130mm (5") Woofer
25mm (1") Voice coil
85mm (3.5") Magnet
TNK inverted dome tweeter
Separate crossover : 12/12dB/oct (3.5kHz)
Adjustable tweeter level : (0,-3,-6dB)
Max. power : 140W
Nom. power : 70W
Sensitivity (2,83V/1m) : 90dB
Frequency response : 70Hz – 20kHz


Any help?

[nigelwright7557]

Originally posted by renderbass
Hello everyone,

Im Ray, I'm a musician and a recording and mixing enthusiast. I have some backgrounds on acoustics since i've designed and buid myself the acoustic treatment for my home studio mastering room. I did all the reading for that purpose and of course i will do it for this new DIY proyect i have in mind if it worth te effort. Well, I'll like to start with a simple question.

Is it a good idea to build near field monitors (for mixing in a small room) from a pair of CAR speaker sets?

The speakers are 130KP from FOCAL and they sounded GREAT in my car.

130mm (5") Woofer
25mm (1") Voice coil
85mm (3.5") Magnet
TNK inverted dome tweeter
Separate crossover : 12/12dB/oct (3.5kHz)
Adjustable tweeter level : (0,-3,-6dB)
Max. power : 140W
Nom. power : 70W
Sensitivity (2,83V/1m) : 90dB
Frequency response : 70Hz – 20kHz


Any help?

The sensitivity is not very good.
I would be looking at 95db or more for a good speaker.

[Cloth Ears]

Originally posted by renderbass
Is it a good idea to build near field monitors (for mixing in a small room) from a pair of CAR speaker sets?

You may be able to, but I can't find much information on the mid-bass used in this 2-way package from Focal. In general, car audio drivers are designed more for robustness than actual fidelity, but there are exceptions.

Unless you can find out the box dimensions suggested for this particular speaker combination, the problem will be in designing a box to put it in that gives you the best results. For better results, you might want to try a true co-axial driver (rather than, as this Focal is, a mid-bass and a woofer presented as a package) like the PHL 1240TWX - if they're still available.

And sensitivity is an indication of how much power is required to achieve a sound pressure level. It is not (in itself) and indication of quality. Lower sensitivity = more power to reach the same sound level. Higher sensitivity = less power to reach the same sound level. There are trade-offs for both approaches.

[nigelwright7557]

Originally posted by Cloth Ears


And sensitivity is an indication of how much power is required to achieve a sound pressure level. It is not (in itself) and indication of quality. Lower sensitivity = more power to reach the same sound level. Higher sensitivity = less power to reach the same sound level. There are trade-offs for both approaches.

Sensitivity is very important to loudness.

Bear in mind the ear is logarithmic and so needs 10 times more power to percieve a doubling in loudness.

[Cloth Ears]

Agreed. I just put that in for our initial poster, who indicated he liked the sound of the drivers in his car. Finding some speakers that you like is half the battle. And finding some that'll work co-axially (is that a word?) is probably an even better thing.

[sreten]

Hi,

Car speakers will only work the way you intend wall or soffit mounted.

Boxes do things to the response and near and farfield are not the same.


$850 for the focal stuff ? - do me a favour .........

< half the price : http://www.madisound.com/catalog/pro...oducts_id=8307

~ the same ball park

http://www.madisound.com/catalog/pro...oducts_id=8362

http://www.zaphaudio.com/SR71.html
http://www.zaphaudio.com/ZRT.html

May need to fiddle for near field use. Depends on distance and if
a rear wall is involved (should not be, speakers are still freefield).

Or similar size to the Focal :

http://www.zaphaudio.com/ZD5.html

FWIW the 5" Focal driver specs are awful for a hi-fi speaker :
Fs = 89Hz, Vas = 5 litres and Qts = 0.7, good for in-car + sub.

/sreten.

[sdclc126]

Oh my gosh that Zaph ZRT looks amazing.

[peter_m]

http://www.speedsound.com/product.as...ific=jnfmening

$500 to $800... ouch! save your money or make a donation to a non-profit org.

Zaph has a near field x-over design for his L18 2-way system. I last saw it here http://htguide.com/forum/showthread....ight=l18+field But his link doesn't work anymore. Maybe someone still has a diagram so ask around. Here is the original L18 design: http://zaphaudio.com/audio-speaker17.html

Peter

[renderbass]

Wow!
Thank you all for your input. I'll try to sell those car sets then... and start saving money to BUY some dedicated monitors of a decent reputation instead of trying to get water out of the rocks...

Ray