First Multiway Speaker System Help

[lkstigdon]

I am very new to the whole diy loudspeaker thing. I've done some car audio in the past but most of that was just a matter of plug-and-play equipment. I became interested in loudspeaker design after finding out how expensive some of the nicer professional loudspeaker models can be. I know making them myself that probably will not sound as nice but I'm no audiophile and I love experimnenting and making stuff so I thought I would give it a shot

So here is the plan I did some research and decided to build a 2-way loudspeaker. I am going to use an Eminence alpha 12a for the woofer and and an ASD 1001 for the tweeter. I have every thing pretty much figured out (i.e. the enclosure and the amp) and i decided to go with a passive xover. I already read AllenB's tutorial which was great but he only talked about 1st and 2nd order crossovers, and the eminece rep i talked to recomended a third order (18dB/octave) crossover on the tweeter at 2.5 kHz and said it didnt really matter what order xover you use on the woofer. Before i started jumping into things I wanted some suggestions and guidance on how i should design the xover.

[sreten]

Hi,

Search on "econowave" for that type of loudspeaker.

rgds, sreten.

[sreten]

Hi,

FWIW though some like that type of speaker, 12" + horn, it is
basically how you would build a decent PA speaker that goes
very loud (too loud for typical domestic use) with decent power.

Good for low powered amplifiers domestically, but they need
big boxes for good extended bass. If you have plenty of power
lower efficiency boxes can sound better for a given box and
can have far more extended bass for the box size. They
won't go as loud of course. The trick is to build speakers
that go loud enough for you but not much louder.

rgds, sreten.

[lkstigdon]

Thanks for pointing me to the econowave design is quite interesting and these speakers are not going to be for "domestic" listening so im not worried about them being too loud I just can't seem to find any threads or articles on crossover design as comprehensive and helpful as AllenB's was. Could you point me to anything that discusses the topic of xover design in more detail?

[sreten]

Originally Posted by lkstigdon

Thanks for pointing me to the econowave design is quite interesting and
these speakers are not going to be for "domestic" listening so im not
worried about them being too loud
I just can't seem to find any threads or articles on crossover design
as comprehensive and helpful as AllenB's was. Could you point me
to anything that discusses the topic of xover design in more detail?

Hi,

See the FRD tools stuff below, take a good look at Zaphs designs,
especially the difference between the acoustic targets and the
electrical filters (not textbook) used to achieve them.

AllenB's article IMO places too much emphasis on unnecessary Zobels
and not enough emphasis on the fact its the acoustic target that is
a textbook function, the electrical function is hardly ever textbook.

rgds, sreten.

http://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/diy (see if nothing else, the excellent FAQs)
The Speaker Building Bible
Zaph|Audio
Zaph|Audio - ZA5 Speaker Designs with ZA14W08 woofer and Vifa DQ25SC16-04 tweeter
http://audio.claub.net/Simple%20Loud...ign%20ver2.pdf
FRD Consortium tools guide
Designing Crossovers with Software Only
RJB Audio Projects
Jay's DIY Loudspeaker Projects
Speaker Design Works
HTGuide Forum - A Guide to HTguide.com Completed Speaker Designs.
A Speaker project
DIY Loudspeaker Projects Troels Gravesen
Humble Homemade Hifi
Quarter Wavelength Loudspeaker Design
The Frugal-Horns Site -- High Performance, Low Cost DIY Horn Designs
Linkwitz Lab - Loudspeaker Design
Music and Design

Great free SPICE Emulator : SPICE-Based Analog Simulation Program - TINA-TI - TI Software Folder