HT Center Channel Build

Kahooli · 17th October 2011, 02:51 PM

Well I've settled on which project I want to carry through the next few months as my primary concern - A new center channel.
I've never really been a home theatre guy, but the new girlfriend likes to watch movies so I figure I should make the move from stereo to modern day multichannel.
I decided a horizontal Wt/mW would work well in my room, and work as a furniture piece as well.
Trying not to break the bank (who knows how long girlfriends stick around

), my budget for drivers is set at $200. System impedance will be 4Ohms. It's my plan to have the midrange driver handle the entire 300-3000 decade. Why? Not sure. just an arbitrary goal. Some have said if you can avoid this region it will always sound better, more coherent.

I noticed the HiVi M8a is on sale at PE for $40, so I grabbed a pair. They're known to be solid to 40Hz in a big ported box.
They will be the foundation for fb-300Hz, wired in parallel for a 4Ohm load.
For a tweeter... I'll admit I just wanted to try one of these - Vifa XT25. It's 4 Ohms, and has good FR, off axis, and distortion figures (thankyou zaphaudio for all your great measurements) Planned crossover 3-3.5k,

So now I'm off to shoe horn a midrange in between these drivers. I've seen great things said about theZaph|Audio ZA14W08, but then again I've never heard one. And it's an 8 Ohm Driver...

And then there's the RS-100-4....

Any other driver suggestions? I'd prefer the mid a little more sensitive than either of those drivers; and low distortion and higher power handling will be a must for a home theater center.

I have $80 left in my budget for the mid, but I can swing for the perfect candidate

Paul W · 17th October 2011, 03:31 PM

The ZA-14 is a nice piece...if you want higher sensitivity, consider the SS Discovery 15M/4624G-00.

Kahooli · 17th October 2011, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul W

The ZA-14 is a nice piece...if you want higher sensitivity, consider the SS Discovery 15M/4624G-00.

That looks like i may be the ticket! I'll have to see if anyone has already measured distortion figures.

Also - looks like the m8a is out of stock at PE, I hope my order for 2 this morning gets filled!

Kahooli · 18th October 2011, 05:50 AM

.... my 2 HiVi were backordered.

That inhales vigorously. Looks like I get to start my design over again...

Kahooli · 19th October 2011, 07:52 PM

Score!
Guy I work with is also an audio nut, he had a pair of mint, only measured, peerless 831858 DVCs, it'll put my impedance profile a bit out of wack at 8 but the combination will still put me more efficient than the HiVi's.Plus they sound great (he demonstrated them in the box he intended to use them in but never finished) ....and they were cheap. $20/pair isn't bad at all!

Kahooli · 25th October 2011, 01:19 PM

Not much progress - the ScanSpeak didn't fit well. Evaluating a few other drivers, including a Seas mid from NHT, and an SBAcoustics on Madisound.

Kahooli · 26th October 2011, 05:43 PM

Seems Mark comes in with another find. He has a mint unused Morel EM1308 dome mid that he'll give me for $60. I'll haggle on that, but it's a good deal either way.
Gonna plug that in tonight to see if I can make it work.
I lose my original design goal of a ~300Hz crossover, pushing it toward 5-700Hz, so I need to do some careful measurement of the woofer's behaviour in that region. What I gain is a higher crossover point to the tweeter - quite desirable with the xt25s.

Off axis with the Morel should be superior to any cone mid I've evaluated so far. Predicted flat off axis till nearly 4.5kHz.
Though I am worried about distortion and power compression. I can't find any posted data on the driver.

Zuhl · 27th October 2011, 12:31 AM

I use EM1308s in a three way 850hz/5khz 2nd order high pass/1st order low pass. It's a great sounding midrange but I wouldn't recommend using it any lower than 850.

Kahooli · 27th October 2011, 03:24 PM

Thanks for the comments. As I said I still needed to do some modeling, and I knew if I wanted to run it that low I would need a steeper filter.

Kahooli · 1st November 2011, 02:00 PM

A great thanks to the kx project for supplying a great driver and api for modelling filters in the emu-10kX audio DSP.
My audigy2 is useful again!
Made a test baffle and listened to them with digital filters -> multichannel amp -> speakers

17th October 2011, 02:51 PM	#1
Kahooli diyAudio Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Cincinnati, OH	HT Center Channel Build Well I've settled on which project I want to carry through the next few months as my primary concern - A new center channel. I've never really been a home theatre guy, but the new girlfriend likes to watch movies so I figure I should make the move from stereo to modern day multichannel. I decided a horizontal Wt/mW would work well in my room, and work as a furniture piece as well. Trying not to break the bank (who knows how long girlfriends stick around ), my budget for drivers is set at $200. System impedance will be 4Ohms. It's my plan to have the midrange driver handle the entire 300-3000 decade. Why? Not sure. just an arbitrary goal. Some have said if you can avoid this region it will always sound better, more coherent. I noticed the HiVi M8a is on sale at PE for $40, so I grabbed a pair. They're known to be solid to 40Hz in a big ported box. They will be the foundation for fb-300Hz, wired in parallel for a 4Ohm load. For a tweeter... I'll admit I just wanted to try one of these - Vifa XT25. It's 4 Ohms, and has good FR, off axis, and distortion figures (thankyou zaphaudio for all your great measurements) Planned crossover 3-3.5k, So now I'm off to shoe horn a midrange in between these drivers. I've seen great things said about theZaph\|Audio ZA14W08, but then again I've never heard one. And it's an 8 Ohm Driver... And then there's the RS-100-4.... Any other driver suggestions? I'd prefer the mid a little more sensitive than either of those drivers; and low distortion and higher power handling will be a must for a home theater center. I have $80 left in my budget for the mid, but I can swing for the perfect candidate

17th October 2011, 03:31 PM	#2
Paul W diyAudio Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: North Georgia	The ZA-14 is a nice piece...if you want higher sensitivity, consider the SS Discovery 15M/4624G-00. __________________ Paul The Octagon

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18th October 2011, 05:50 AM	#4
Kahooli diyAudio Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Cincinnati, OH	.... my 2 HiVi were backordered. That inhales vigorously. Looks like I get to start my design over again...

19th October 2011, 07:52 PM	#5
Kahooli diyAudio Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Cincinnati, OH	Score! Guy I work with is also an audio nut, he had a pair of mint, only measured, peerless 831858 DVCs, it'll put my impedance profile a bit out of wack at 8 but the combination will still put me more efficient than the HiVi's.Plus they sound great (he demonstrated them in the box he intended to use them in but never finished) ....and they were cheap. $20/pair isn't bad at all!

25th October 2011, 01:19 PM	#6
Kahooli diyAudio Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Cincinnati, OH	Not much progress - the ScanSpeak didn't fit well. Evaluating a few other drivers, including a Seas mid from NHT, and an SBAcoustics on Madisound.

26th October 2011, 05:43 PM	#7
Kahooli diyAudio Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Cincinnati, OH	Seems Mark comes in with another find. He has a mint unused Morel EM1308 dome mid that he'll give me for $60. I'll haggle on that, but it's a good deal either way. Gonna plug that in tonight to see if I can make it work. I lose my original design goal of a ~300Hz crossover, pushing it toward 5-700Hz, so I need to do some careful measurement of the woofer's behaviour in that region. What I gain is a higher crossover point to the tweeter - quite desirable with the xt25s. Off axis with the Morel should be superior to any cone mid I've evaluated so far. Predicted flat off axis till nearly 4.5kHz. Though I am worried about distortion and power compression. I can't find any posted data on the driver.

27th October 2011, 12:31 AM	#8
Zuhl diyAudio Member Join Date: May 2011	I use EM1308s in a three way 850hz/5khz 2nd order high pass/1st order low pass. It's a great sounding midrange but I wouldn't recommend using it any lower than 850.

27th October 2011, 03:24 PM	#9
Kahooli diyAudio Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Cincinnati, OH	Thanks for the comments. As I said I still needed to do some modeling, and I knew if I wanted to run it that low I would need a steeper filter.

1st November 2011, 02:00 PM	#10
Kahooli diyAudio Member Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Cincinnati, OH	A great thanks to the kx project for supplying a great driver and api for modelling filters in the emu-10kX audio DSP. My audigy2 is useful again! Made a test baffle and listened to them with digital filters -> multichannel amp -> speakers

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