my mains have a 1" dome tweeter, 2 5" midranges and an 8" woofer. i originally put the tweeter & mids on a 3.5 2nd order xo and was waiting till i look more into amps to decide on how i was going to cross over with the 8". i was going to use an active xo, but...
i put some kit amps together (and they sound great
), and have come to the realisation that they put out plenty of power for the mains as they are, making bi-amping unnecessary (and better from a financial point of view).
i am running the 8" in parallel with the rest of the speaker, so both lots just playing full range. it does sound quite good, and the amp is putting out 70wrms @ 4ohms now, instead of the 50wrms @ 8 ohms. but do u think i should still crossover? uni has gone back now and i'm broke, and even the cost of the components will cause problems. i was thinking of just low passing the 8"s at around 150hz, but would like opinions.
tweeter: http://www1.jaycar.com.au/productVi...&pageNumber=&priceMin=&priceMax=&SUBCATID=418
mids: http://www1.jaycar.com.au/productVi...&pageNumber=&priceMin=&priceMax=&SUBCATID=383
woofer: http://www1.jaycar.com.au/productVi...&pageNumber=&priceMin=&priceMax=&SUBCATID=383
8" in a 26L sealed, mids together in a 6.4 sealed, 8" side firing, mids and tweeter in MTM config.
i put some kit amps together (and they sound great
), and have come to the realisation that they put out plenty of power for the mains as they are, making bi-amping unnecessary (and better from a financial point of view).i am running the 8" in parallel with the rest of the speaker, so both lots just playing full range. it does sound quite good, and the amp is putting out 70wrms @ 4ohms now, instead of the 50wrms @ 8 ohms. but do u think i should still crossover? uni has gone back now and i'm broke, and even the cost of the components will cause problems. i was thinking of just low passing the 8"s at around 150hz, but would like opinions.
tweeter: http://www1.jaycar.com.au/productVi...&pageNumber=&priceMin=&priceMax=&SUBCATID=418
mids: http://www1.jaycar.com.au/productVi...&pageNumber=&priceMin=&priceMax=&SUBCATID=383
woofer: http://www1.jaycar.com.au/productVi...&pageNumber=&priceMin=&priceMax=&SUBCATID=383
8" in a 26L sealed, mids together in a 6.4 sealed, 8" side firing, mids and tweeter in MTM config.
it will probably be noticeably better with crossovers -
Proper crossovers will remove stress on the drivers at the extremes of their ranges, and give them a smaller area of coverage and should enhance things -
while design is not easy - if you come up with a good design you can scrounge components. The most expensive part is usually inductors - I have been surprised more than once at the quality of sound I have heard with home made inductors consistiing of wire wound on a spool.
The crossovers are the heart of a speaker system - while there are a number of folks that get excited about acoustic crossovers, I personally would prefer that a signal not be sent to a driver that is far wider than the range that the driver can reproduce -
Since your budget is tight why don't you start with the tweeter/mid and later do the mid/low which has more expensive components ?
Scrounging components should keep the cost down and you'll learn a lot in the process -
Plus, it helps start an addiction to tweaking at an early age and will lead to more years of lunacy in your life that will cause problems for some woman that you will eventually marry but haven't even met yet.
_Really Big Grin_
Later
Ken L
Proper crossovers will remove stress on the drivers at the extremes of their ranges, and give them a smaller area of coverage and should enhance things -
while design is not easy - if you come up with a good design you can scrounge components. The most expensive part is usually inductors - I have been surprised more than once at the quality of sound I have heard with home made inductors consistiing of wire wound on a spool.
The crossovers are the heart of a speaker system - while there are a number of folks that get excited about acoustic crossovers, I personally would prefer that a signal not be sent to a driver that is far wider than the range that the driver can reproduce -
Since your budget is tight why don't you start with the tweeter/mid and later do the mid/low which has more expensive components ?
Scrounging components should keep the cost down and you'll learn a lot in the process -
Plus, it helps start an addiction to tweaking at an early age and will lead to more years of lunacy in your life that will cause problems for some woman that you will eventually marry but haven't even met yet.
_Really Big Grin_
Later
Ken L
And, it does! Just one inductor, zero caps, and zero resistors, first order butterworth-style.
thanx guys, gave me some stuff to think about
i have already done the mid/tweeter as i mentioned at 3.5k, maybe thinking i should have gone for 5k as i'm looking at changing to a more expensive tweeter in the future (this tweeter is not magnetically shielded, so when i want to make a matching center i'll need to change these ones. 5k would have given me more options, but i guess i can change that later).
the mid/tweeter combo sounds great, but i will port the center when i do it, as sealed as they are they don't go very low at all.
skinnyboy: i noticed in another thread you were quite young, and so i guess on quite a tight budget also. therefore incase you're interested, these are the amp kits i built: http://www1.jaycar.com.au/productVi...&pageNumber=&priceMin=&priceMax=&SUBCATID=557
they are fantastic. absolutely no noise coming out of these things. i hooked up my speakers without the lpad on the tweeter (which is 94db/w/m) and there wasn't even the slightest noise coming out. and i'm very surprised at the amount of volume i can get out of these, it's more than enough.
i have already done the mid/tweeter as i mentioned at 3.5k, maybe thinking i should have gone for 5k as i'm looking at changing to a more expensive tweeter in the future (this tweeter is not magnetically shielded, so when i want to make a matching center i'll need to change these ones. 5k would have given me more options, but i guess i can change that later).
the mid/tweeter combo sounds great, but i will port the center when i do it, as sealed as they are they don't go very low at all.
skinnyboy: i noticed in another thread you were quite young, and so i guess on quite a tight budget also. therefore incase you're interested, these are the amp kits i built: http://www1.jaycar.com.au/productVi...&pageNumber=&priceMin=&priceMax=&SUBCATID=557
they are fantastic. absolutely no noise coming out of these things. i hooked up my speakers without the lpad on the tweeter (which is 94db/w/m) and there wasn't even the slightest noise coming out. and i'm very surprised at the amount of volume i can get out of these, it's more than enough.
AHHH!!! GET AWAY FROM ME!!! I HATE THAT AMP!!! lol I could never work out why anyone would wanna buy and make that amp.... Jaycar sells an amp kit based on a National Semiconductor IC... it costs half as much, is half the size, and takes half as long to construct, but still has very similar power output specifications and and distortion levels.... you could buy 2 of those for what you paid for one of those.. lol and bridge them.... get about 150watts into 8ohms instead of 50watts into 8 ohms... (unless of course you are running 4 ohm speakers...) yeah.... I think I'll do a bi amping thing for my setup..... bridged gainglones for the woofers... and single gainclones for the tweeters..... hmm... maybe not.. lol anyway.. SEEYA! hehe
yeah.... I think I'll do a bi amping thing for my setup..... bridged gainglones for the woofers... and single gainclones for the tweeters..... hmm... maybe not.. lol anyway.. SEEYA! heheyes, the ability to run 4ohm speakers is a big thing to me. it also includes cutout protection.
but yeah i looked at the other amp. once u purchase the components/kit for a power supply and a transformer/toroidal, u r only getting it a little cheaper. it really isn't worth not being able to run 4ohm speakers (to me anyway) for a tiny saving. i know someone who built one, and it doesn't seem to have very good peak outputs either - it was hopeless on bass. but they still look like fine amps.
edit: oh, gotta buy a heatsink too.
but yeah i looked at the other amp. once u purchase the components/kit for a power supply and a transformer/toroidal, u r only getting it a little cheaper. it really isn't worth not being able to run 4ohm speakers (to me anyway) for a tiny saving. i know someone who built one, and it doesn't seem to have very good peak outputs either - it was hopeless on bass. but they still look like fine amps.
edit: oh, gotta buy a heatsink too.
phreeky82 said:
If ya don't bridge the LM3876 based amp you can run a 4ohm speaker and get the same output into a 4ohm as the one you bought will give.... neither kit comes with heatsinks... or transformers... hmm.. anyway... lol I'm not going to buy either... just buy the amp ICs and make a circuit board less gainclone..
SkinnyBoy said:
If ya don't bridge the LM3876 based amp you can run a 4ohm speaker and get the same output into a 4ohm as the one you bought will give.... neither kit comes with heatsinks... or transformers... hmm.. anyway... lol I'm not going to buy either... just buy the amp ICs and make a circuit board less gainclone..
it does power 4ohm speakers? hmm, doesn't say that anywhere
no, niether come with power supply/transformer/heatsink. but they are the expensive parts. build the gainclone and let me know how it goes please.
phreeky82 said:
it does power 4ohm speakers? hmm, doesn't say that anywhere
no, niether come with power supply/transformer/heatsink. but they are the expensive parts. build the gainclone and let me know how it goes please.
Yeah.. it'll drive a 4ohm speaker and give about 70 watts into it.... I wanna make the gainclone.. but don't wanna spend the money on it just yet...
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