First experimental build 2-way

[firstwatt]

Not sure how bad this design will sound when complete, but I'm building some 2-way towers out of mdf enclosures I won at the last Burning Amp 28 x 6 x 5 x 7". The previous year I had picked up a free pair of Peerless 6.25" mid woofers. So I purchased these Dayton tweeters last night.................
Dayton RS28F-4 1-1/8" Silk Dome Tweeter | Parts-Express.com

and bought some pre-built Dayton x-overs at 2KHZ............
Dayton XO2W-2K 2-Way Crossover 2,000 Hz | Parts-Express.com

This is a first speaker build and will be run with a great dac/gamma2 and a t-amp. So far 1" ports on the bottom of the front baffle. Anyone know about how it should sound?

[gfiandy]

It is impossible to say how they will sound. It is unlikely that they will have a smooth response through the crossover however it is sometime supprising how good a speaker that measures really bad can sound.

The cross over should protect the tweeter and reduce high frequency distortion from the bass driver. That is about as much as you can expect without either simulating or measuring the design and optermising it.

regards
Andrew

[firstwatt]

Thank you for your reply. Yes, I'm anticipating significant tweaks in the xover to get a decent sound. The tweeters and xovers arrive Saturday and then the process of finding out what will be needed begins. Just hoping to have something to work with when they are put together. I don't have an impedance curve for my woofer(Peerless 850397), so until I plot that, the tweaks are somewhat unknown for now. Thanks again.

[Moondog55]

The first problem I see ( as an "Off-the-shelf" unit) is the poor impedance matching, looks to be for an 8R tweeter so XO values will be skewed
The Dayton tweeter looks OK on paper but it is a nominal 4R driver with a DCR of 2.8 ohms, it has an SPL of 88dB so padding probably wont be an issue

[Moondog55]

From the ashes of Burning Amp: the Peerless 850397-based 'LoudFreeker'

Design suggestions using 6.5” Peerless NPT-11-078-1

[cradeldorf]

Good luck on your first build. : )

[stoc005]

Consider doing the following.
Add a zobel network to the woofer. Flatten out the woofer impedance as the frequency rises. Helps the crossover work better into a more constant load.
Add Baffle Step Correction to the XO. Unless you are going to push the speaker against the wall, you need it to "fill out" the bass.
I doubt your simple crossover has those options.

Any changes to the XO, like the above, should be done such that you can connect/disconnect the changes easily and hear the effect it causes without turning the amp off. That way, you decide if you like/dislike the change and be able to tell what it did to the overall sound quickly.

I use a CD with warble tones and a Rat Shack SLM with flat response to plot the crude overall frequency response of speakers using Excel. Sounds crude but I was able to pick out dips in the midrange and the fact that the tweeter was 1-1.5 db too hot and had to be attenuated. Took me a year of fiddling to get a simple 2 way (8 inch/1 inch dome, 1800 Hz XO) to the point where I couldn't improve it more and I loved the sound.

Bill

[Moondog55]

As the post is headed "experimental" and it is your first build I'll say what I always say: Just built it! Even if it isn't good or even OK you will learn a lot, then you can come back and ask the right questions to make it better or build a new one and make it as close to perfect as you want.
Reasonably good choice of drivers for a 2-way with a low XO ( nothing beats free) although I have no personal experience with either

[firstwatt]

Thanks everyone for your input! Yeah the 4R impedance for the tweeter was an oversight to say the least. Not sure that the impedance mismatch with the woofer (8R) is doable. Unless you were meaning that the Zobel network was going to iron that out. I'm not thinking that's what was meant there though. I'm assuming the T-amp doesn't care about the mismatch and that it would be more of a speaker sound issue. Thanks again

[Moondog55]

No it is more a matter of the component values in the XO being wrong.
Could be as simple as using a solder sucker to remove components and putting reasonably correct values back in place, I've done this a few times, really it is quite easy to do so.