DIY LS3/5a using the MiniDSP?

[Brisso57]

I was reading that one of the greatest barriers to overcome for DIY-ers to clone the LS3/5a is that the B110 mid-bass drivers were very carefully screened & matched.

Does the advent of the MiniDSP open the possibility (for LS3/5a cloners) of going fully active and doing all the "matching" in software? i.e. can we basically just grab any old pair of SP1003 B110's that are in good condition and close to original spec'n, and just make use of the (say) PEQ 2-way plug-in?

If this isn't feasible, why?

cheers

Doug

 

[DDF]

I've completely rebuilt and redesigned JR149s, slightly more updated versions of the LS35A.

After spending much time with the B110, I believe your efforts would be better served working with a better driver. It's dispersion is very irregular and it has a bad cone/surround resonance.

JeffB at Parts Express tech talk forum has built a modern interpretation of the LS35A using an AC130. The design carefully used the original BBC concepts in terms of driver mounting, cabinet size and voicing. It was very well received at DIY events, and I would suggest that route first.

 

[Brisso57]

Another alternate driver

See Monacor SPH-135 AD

The Monacor unit is also apparently a suitable B110 replacement.

But anyway, the gist of my post was to seek opinions about the possibility of employing the MiniDSP to avoid requiring closely matched drivers (of whatever brand).

Doug

 

[DDF]

See Monacor SPH-135 AD

The Monacor unit is also apparently a suitable B110 replacement.

But anyway, the gist of my post was to seek opinions about the possibility of employing the MiniDSP to avoid requiring closely matched drivers (of whatever brand).

Doug

I considered that and there are also Silver Flute and Peerless units that would fit.

Getting back to your original question, design both channels for the same frequency response (ie if one B110 is a bot more sensitive than the other, run the first tweeter a bit hotter) and then use the balance control to set them to the same sensitivity. This reduces to a channel gain issue, which can be handled many many ways (put a resistive divider in the input to one amp channel; or if the pre-amp is homebrew, adjust one channel's gain to compensate; or use dual mono pots in the preamp or or). DSP is overkill.

 

[ttan98]

Hi,

Stay with modern driver than trying to get the old drivers like the B110. I build the LS3/5A clone based on Jeff's design sounds very good to me. Most imptly, costs less than $400 in parts.