My fully active 4 way OB with 8 Drivers + 15" subwoofer

[sanedesign]

thought I should share my experience with Open Baffle project.

When I first learned about Open Baffle speakers I was really suspicious about how that could work... so I just did a few simple tests starting with a single 6.5" driver and 3/4" tweeter. I was blown away by the clarity of the sound but it was seriously lacking bottom end of course...

I decided to go further with the project because I like to learn and I had some confidence that I could build something that sounds nicer that what I could afford to purchase. Given my goals, I feel the speaker is tremendous success... I had lots of fun and learned alot during the build. Thus far it is without a doubt the best sounding speaker I've ever built.

Its a fully active system with 75wpc for each driver (except 1" and 2" drivers are driven in parallel)
Per side these are the drivers:
2 @ 10" Peerless (Same sub as Orion) in a similar H frame running upto 105Hz
2 @ 6.5" Peerless (105 - 1.65khz / Open back of course)
2 @ 2" Dayton Dome (1.65khz - 4.6khz / 1 front, 1 back)
2 @ 1" Peerless Dome (4.6khz up / 1 front, 1 back)

Here is what it looks like now:


The 10" drivers are in a 24" H Frame (similar to SL's Orion). I used two of the 6.5" drivers instead of the single 8" driver for the lower midrange because I thought this might alleviate cone breakup when approaching 1.5khz on a larger 8" driver. I'm using both the 1" and 2" domes on both front and back.

I just got some testing software so I'm not really sure of the optimum/standard testing so I would be grateful if someone would tell me the best/standard test methods or recommended settings.

Nonetheless, here is some measurement data. Any questions, suggestions, thoughts?

This is an outdoor measurement at 2m (2ms window - no smoothing)


In room response at listening position (200ms)

Note: I'm also using a 15" woofer below 50Hz to help smoothen the bottom end response and provide extra kick

Waterfall plot at listening position. (200ms)

[thunk303]

Well done sanedeisgn.

Looks like you did have fun!!!

What do you use for the active XO duties?

Dean

[DQ828]

Well done, as they say nothing ventured nothing gained. I too am starting another OB, the last ones where a direct copy, the next one's which are in the embryonic stage, will also use a similar base setup as the Orion. This time I will be taking ideas from multiple projects & see what I can conjour up.

I'd be very interested to hear about how you did the active side of things & you impressions of it. I was going to go passive, but could be convinced otherwise if it doesn't look too hard. Electronics doesn't come easy to me.

David

PS more photo's would be great

[Zoran]

really good...
are you using fuzzmeasure for measuring?
btw
i have good experience with that setup of subs
like linkwitz orion style...

[pedroskova]

I'm working on something similar (4way OB), but put the two 6.5" drivers above the mid / tweets to keep the treble closer to ear level. At what height did you make your measurements?

Nice looking FR.

[sanedesign]

At what height did you make your measurements?

I took the measurements at approximately my listening height which is right about the mid point between 2" and 1" drivers.

are you using fuzzmeasure for measuring?

Yes. It seems good... I don't have experience with much else though. I would like to capture more test data. (Multitone distortion tests etc.) Do you know if I can do that with Fuzzmeasure?

I'd be very interested to hear about how you did the active side of things & you impressions of it. I was going to go passive, but could be convinced otherwise if it doesn't look too hard. Electronics doesn't come easy to me.

First, I started with passive but the limitations were just tooo much IMO. Second, I found that passive components were getting to the point of being too expensive and very limiting in their ability.

So, I spent my hard earned money on;
- I think drivers are probably most important so I started with those
- DEQ (take care of room resonances, basic testing abilities etc)
- ECM8000 microphone (GREAT INVESTMENT for use with DEQ and DCX)
- 2 @ DCX (take care of 24db/octave crossovers, driver time alignment, 6db/octave dipole slopes etc)
- 6 @ 75w X 2 amplifiers with pots

The solution above wasn't cheap but it wasn't overly expensive either. If you are thinking about building your own passive crossovers, I don't think the electronic route would be considered much more difficult at all.

If I had to do it over, I might do a few things differently.

#1. Better xovers. Although I have not found any that better meet my requirements of low budget and better performance. I have been thinking about going "all the way" with computer controlled setup using ProFire2626 as a soundcard to drive it all. (This would be similar to StigErik's crazy system)

I've found that the DCX boosts and cuts don't to do quite as much as they are supposed to do. I also believe that a more phase linear (i.e. perfect) crossover would be beneficial. Perhaps the only way this can be realized is with a CPU controlled setup or a much much more expensive active crossover.

#2. Better amplifiers with XLR inputs. Again, I'm not certain I could do much better within my limited budget constraints.

#3. Smaller baffles or even no baffles. (again this would be similar to StigErik's direction). This would probably require greater investments in drivers and electronics.

More than all of the above, my impression of the speakers thus far is that any great level of financial investment would likely be best spent on improving my room.

The best advice you may need to hear if you still haven't decided is GO ACTIVE. You will not regret it. The only think I regret is having spent to much money on capacitors and coils and other stuff that doesn't work near as good as cheap electronics.

Second piece of advice I could give, even if you ignore the first, is BUY TESTING GEAR. The microphone and some simple software will go a LONG WAY to ensure you get the most out of your investments. I made BIG and substantial improvements that otherwise are just not possible without being able to test and see the effects of changes.

Did I mention that active systems I can make a change in 10 seconds without spending money and soldering? Did I mention I can test the effects of those changes in 10 more seconds??

Last bit of advice..... go active!

If you would like any other hints I would be happy to help.

[DQ828]

Sounds like the active approach will be on the list.

I have a long way to go with the research, design, oh and finishing other non audio related projects, before I get to involved in the active side of things. I have a seriously crappy memory and find if I reseach stuff I dont implement it then & there, I forget lots of what I learned. Killed to many brain cells me thinks.

I have previously purchased the, ECM8000 microphone, a Behringer mixer with phantom power for the mic & TrueRTA software, but when I tried to make it work my brain hurt, so I gave up, with the notion I would get back to it.
I need to calibrate the mic for dB, before I get started so I get actual dB readings.

I have built a pair Lukasz Frikus P17 OB's which I think sound great, but have read other opinions on that subject. Once I get my head around the software I intend to measure those for practice & see what they are really doing.

If you can recommend (or anyone else) can recommend software that is easy to use & works well please let me know.

What is;
-DEQ (take care of room resonances, basic testing abilities etc)
- 2 @ DCX (take care of 24db/octave crossovers, driver time alignment, 6db/octave dipole slopes etc)

I will get a thread going once I have solidified a few idea's

David

[gainphile]

DCX2496 can't do Cascaded filter nor Linkwitz transform. These are important.

Have a look at my investigation on MiniDSP.

[Zoran]

I am using demo ver of fuzzmeasure pro so I dot have additional features

[pedroskova]

The problem I have with the DCX2496 is that I listen to far more LP's than CD's, so the added A/D conversion kinda sours everything for me. It would be great in the initial design process.