Hi all
Something special (and new): A speaker out of old wood, including Sonic Emotion 3D sound and a Raumfeld Audio Streaming client.
To say it at the beginning: I work as acoustic engineer at Sonic Emotion, this is a result of a private project (I can explain the 3D sound technology in detail if required..). 3D Sound creates a "virtual" sound stage much bigger than the device itself, with no sweet spot. To produce this sound field, one speaker box with at least four (usually) broadband drivers is needed.
During renovation of a old house, I had a piece of this old wood in my hand and was fascinated by its structure, more than 100 year at the sun and rain.. The idea to build a speaker out of this wood was born, so I made my own "sound tower", and added a client for the Raumfeld system (similar to Sonos). Just bought the cheapest box from them, took the electronics out and put it into my box.. Works quite nice!
For the drivers I used four of the nice TBSpeakers W3-316B and one Wavecore WF120BF woofer for the lower end.
On the website more pictures:
Stolltech |Balken|
Cheers
Mario
Something special (and new): A speaker out of old wood, including Sonic Emotion 3D sound and a Raumfeld Audio Streaming client.
To say it at the beginning: I work as acoustic engineer at Sonic Emotion, this is a result of a private project (I can explain the 3D sound technology in detail if required..). 3D Sound creates a "virtual" sound stage much bigger than the device itself, with no sweet spot. To produce this sound field, one speaker box with at least four (usually) broadband drivers is needed.
During renovation of a old house, I had a piece of this old wood in my hand and was fascinated by its structure, more than 100 year at the sun and rain.. The idea to build a speaker out of this wood was born, so I made my own "sound tower", and added a client for the Raumfeld system (similar to Sonos). Just bought the cheapest box from them, took the electronics out and put it into my box.. Works quite nice!
For the drivers I used four of the nice TBSpeakers W3-316B and one Wavecore WF120BF woofer for the lower end.
On the website more pictures:
Stolltech |Balken|
Cheers
Mario
Is this some extrapolation of Polk's SDA wiring?
http://www.polkaudio.com/downloads/tech-briefs/SDA_WhitePaper.pdf
Instant Home Theater SDA Technology - YouTube
http://www.polkaudio.com/downloads/tech-briefs/SDA_WhitePaper.pdf
Instant Home Theater SDA Technology - YouTube
It's a standalone speaker system, the hardware wiring is:
Raumfeld -(stereo)-> Sonic Emotion Chip -4.1 Channel->amps-4.1-> drivers.
The Sonic Emotion Audio Chip (DSP) has stereo and 5.1 input (I use only stereo). At the beginning in the audio chain there is the analyser. He analyses and separates the sound and generates "sound pattern" for the input content. After that, the sound is radiated by using all 4+1 drivers. We have to measure the exact radiation of every driver, build in the box in our lab. The technology is based on WaveFieldSynthesis, the mentioned analyser, the knowledge of the human hearing, and the physical behaviour of the driver itself (radiation, ..)
What you get is a room filling sound with no sweet spot (no calibration required). The localizable sound parts (voice as example) are stable reproduced, where as the diffuse parts (reverb) is distributed all over the room.
( Sonic Emotion Absolute 3D Sound - the listening experience for all consumer audio products )
Crosstalk cancellation is basically sweet spot dependent, and on this very position it can sound great. The Sonic Emotion thing is not depending if the listener position in a wide range. This is what I like on the sound, together with the audio streaming I can place the speaker almost where I want.
Cheers
Mario
Raumfeld -(stereo)-> Sonic Emotion Chip -4.1 Channel->amps-4.1-> drivers.
The Sonic Emotion Audio Chip (DSP) has stereo and 5.1 input (I use only stereo). At the beginning in the audio chain there is the analyser. He analyses and separates the sound and generates "sound pattern" for the input content. After that, the sound is radiated by using all 4+1 drivers. We have to measure the exact radiation of every driver, build in the box in our lab. The technology is based on WaveFieldSynthesis, the mentioned analyser, the knowledge of the human hearing, and the physical behaviour of the driver itself (radiation, ..)
What you get is a room filling sound with no sweet spot (no calibration required). The localizable sound parts (voice as example) are stable reproduced, where as the diffuse parts (reverb) is distributed all over the room.
( Sonic Emotion Absolute 3D Sound - the listening experience for all consumer audio products )
Crosstalk cancellation is basically sweet spot dependent, and on this very position it can sound great. The Sonic Emotion thing is not depending if the listener position in a wide range. This is what I like on the sound, together with the audio streaming I can place the speaker almost where I want.
Cheers
Mario
this is either snake oil, smoke, or a "new development". how much does the system cost?
Tri-amped line source array!
There are 6 separate cabinets in this system. Each side has two sub-woofer boxes and a wide-range - tweeter panel.
There are ( 4 ) 8 inch woofers in each sub-woofer cabinet, 36 wide-ranges and 49 tweeters in each panel, for a total of
( 16 ) 8 inch woofers
( 72 ) mid-range speakers
( 98 ) tweeters
That is a total of 186 individual active, driven speaker elements!
I designed this system to be a totally over-the-top, dream come true! AND IT IS!
The woofers are in isobaric pairs, two facing out and two facing into each cabinet. They are measured and tuned to be -3dB at about 17Hz!
AWESOME CLEAN BOTTOMLESS LOW END!!!
The woofers work from about 17Hz to about 120Hz (set at the active crossover). The wide-range drivers are actually designed to be used as single full range drivers for table top TVs and computer speakers. So they have a considerably deep wound voice coil and lots of room for throw. They also have pretty good extension into the high end. They cover from 120Hz to 3.5KHz, where the tweeters come in.
There are no passive crossover components in these speakers at all! That means that the speaker voice coils are connected directly to the output terminals of the power amps. The signals do not pass through any kind of resisters, inductors or capacitors. The only DC resistance between the power amps and the voice coils is the speaker wire!
NONE of the drivers used have foam surrounds that will ever rot! The woofers are poly cones with butyl rubber surrounds. The wide-range speakers are paper cones with treated cloth surrounds and the tweeters are all poly. I have used these same exact woofers in designes that I made back in the early 90's and they still look as new as they did out of the box!
All three sections of woofers, wide-range and tweeters are monopole radiators, so placing these speakers in a room is super simple. Just push them back into the corners. They have no rear phase problems like many other tall, line source (dipole) radiators.
They are 3 feet wide, a bit over 6 feet tall and about 17 inches deep. They look HUGE, but take up a surprisingly small footprint. They definitely stand out in any sized room!
Each section requires its own power amp with an active 3-way crossover.
Currently the system is set up with a Behringer CX3400 24dB/oct. active crossover, an old high-current (about 200W) Kenwood power amp for the woofers, an Audio Source 50 watt per channel power amp for the wide-ranges and a Tripath chip kit amp for the tweeters.
Each woofer box is 8 ohms. Two wired in parallel is 4 ohms. The wide-ranges are 8 ohms and the tweeters are 6 ohms.
James.
There are 6 separate cabinets in this system. Each side has two sub-woofer boxes and a wide-range - tweeter panel.
There are ( 4 ) 8 inch woofers in each sub-woofer cabinet, 36 wide-ranges and 49 tweeters in each panel, for a total of
( 16 ) 8 inch woofers
( 72 ) mid-range speakers
( 98 ) tweeters
That is a total of 186 individual active, driven speaker elements!
I designed this system to be a totally over-the-top, dream come true! AND IT IS!
The woofers are in isobaric pairs, two facing out and two facing into each cabinet. They are measured and tuned to be -3dB at about 17Hz!
AWESOME CLEAN BOTTOMLESS LOW END!!!
The woofers work from about 17Hz to about 120Hz (set at the active crossover). The wide-range drivers are actually designed to be used as single full range drivers for table top TVs and computer speakers. So they have a considerably deep wound voice coil and lots of room for throw. They also have pretty good extension into the high end. They cover from 120Hz to 3.5KHz, where the tweeters come in.
There are no passive crossover components in these speakers at all! That means that the speaker voice coils are connected directly to the output terminals of the power amps. The signals do not pass through any kind of resisters, inductors or capacitors. The only DC resistance between the power amps and the voice coils is the speaker wire!
NONE of the drivers used have foam surrounds that will ever rot! The woofers are poly cones with butyl rubber surrounds. The wide-range speakers are paper cones with treated cloth surrounds and the tweeters are all poly. I have used these same exact woofers in designes that I made back in the early 90's and they still look as new as they did out of the box!
All three sections of woofers, wide-range and tweeters are monopole radiators, so placing these speakers in a room is super simple. Just push them back into the corners. They have no rear phase problems like many other tall, line source (dipole) radiators.
They are 3 feet wide, a bit over 6 feet tall and about 17 inches deep. They look HUGE, but take up a surprisingly small footprint. They definitely stand out in any sized room!
Each section requires its own power amp with an active 3-way crossover.
Currently the system is set up with a Behringer CX3400 24dB/oct. active crossover, an old high-current (about 200W) Kenwood power amp for the woofers, an Audio Source 50 watt per channel power amp for the wide-ranges and a Tripath chip kit amp for the tweeters.
Each woofer box is 8 ohms. Two wired in parallel is 4 ohms. The wide-ranges are 8 ohms and the tweeters are 6 ohms.
James.
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Hey James Lehman your speakers look super cool. By monopole do you mean they have the same complement of tweeters and mid ranges on the back as the front and they move in phase with the front drivers? or do you mean that the drivers are operating in half space and therefore have no baffle step due to the corner placement?
are the drivers wired in series parallel strings?
what are the midrange drivers/tweeters?
are the drivers wired in series parallel strings?
what are the midrange drivers/tweeters?
The hardware is not expensive, about 300$ for the DSP and a nice amp board, and another 300$ for the Raumfeld streamer.. But to adjust the algorithm to a speaker box design is costly (takes some days to measure and tune).
My multi amped contraption so far.
There is a lot of mess in my house right now, this is a project i am working on when i get tired of renovating or need to wait for some supplies etc.
the top speakers.
no crossover, except a "safety" 75uf dayton capacitor for the tweeters
tweeter Seas 27TDFC
mid woofer seas er 18 rnx
sealed 3/4 baltic birch with veneer, finished with gun stock oil. there is a brace inside, a 3d printed capacitor holder, and about 50% polyfill. the back of the plastic tweeter housing has some rubber gutter sealer sprayed on it.
both sides working. (not sure why this next picture looks squished, its fine on imgur)
uses speakons
temporarily powered with some gainclones i had made years ago lm3875 for tweeters, lm3886 for mid-bass
passive computer (i5, SSD, no fans) and receiver, couldn't make one of those
The speakers are a massive improvement over the "celestion one" I had been using. even without the woofer units. i have a preset on the miniDSP for listening at lower levels with a LW type boost below the speakers FS.
I love the miniDSP because you can have different playing "modes" to suit what you are doing, and tons of opportunity to tweak around with stuff.
The next thing is to build all my amplification in one box (6 or 8 channels)
then the woofer units, which are CSS SDX10 they will also be sealed, and go in matching lower boxes (not huge pyramids, the taper only continues till the box is wide enough for the woofers)
There is a lot of mess in my house right now, this is a project i am working on when i get tired of renovating or need to wait for some supplies etc.
the top speakers.
no crossover, except a "safety" 75uf dayton capacitor for the tweeters
tweeter Seas 27TDFC
mid woofer seas er 18 rnx
sealed 3/4 baltic birch with veneer, finished with gun stock oil. there is a brace inside, a 3d printed capacitor holder, and about 50% polyfill. the back of the plastic tweeter housing has some rubber gutter sealer sprayed on it.
both sides working. (not sure why this next picture looks squished, its fine on imgur)
uses speakons
temporarily powered with some gainclones i had made years ago lm3875 for tweeters, lm3886 for mid-bass
passive computer (i5, SSD, no fans) and receiver, couldn't make one of those
The speakers are a massive improvement over the "celestion one" I had been using. even without the woofer units. i have a preset on the miniDSP for listening at lower levels with a LW type boost below the speakers FS.
I love the miniDSP because you can have different playing "modes" to suit what you are doing, and tons of opportunity to tweak around with stuff.
The next thing is to build all my amplification in one box (6 or 8 channels)
then the woofer units, which are CSS SDX10 they will also be sealed, and go in matching lower boxes (not huge pyramids, the taper only continues till the box is wide enough for the woofers)
Thanks!
Monopole: I mean that the drivers all radiate in one phase only from the fonts of the cones or domes (except for the woofer ports). In other words there is no rear phase to worry about.
All of the drivers are wired in simple series-parallel; 6 x 6 for the TV speakers, 7 x 7 for the tweeters and 2 x 2 for the woofers (in each box).
The TV speakers and tweeters are pretty much generic. I found the TV speakers in a catalog that had a lot of TV and VCR repair kits and stuff like that. The tweeters were sold in boxes of 200 as a buy-out special at Parts Express.
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Here are two other systems that I designed and built over the past several years.
Metal by James Lehman ~ Extra Stimulus Inc.
Extra Stimulus Speakers
James.
Metal by James Lehman ~ Extra Stimulus Inc.
Extra Stimulus Speakers
James.
you dont wonder why ppl dont buy thise, its bc mostly your paying for the craftmansship, the units use would prob not exceed 5k$ total
they look different in a cool way, but as a diy paying 30k-100k for 5k in parts seems upside down
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hi beeneh,
I have now moved to indonesia and specifically Surabaya. I was wondering where i can get speaker building supplies considering the expense of importing items from Aus or US any assistance would be appreciated.
I have now moved to indonesia and specifically Surabaya. I was wondering where i can get speaker building supplies considering the expense of importing items from Aus or US any assistance would be appreciated.
Hi Chef,
Maybe you could try tokospeaker.com, but I haven't had any dealings with them yet.
hope that helps
Dave
I decided to tidy up my external crossovers and Found some leather wrapped jewelry boxes at a Mall here in Surabaya. They really turned out nice and now all my speakers have the crossovers in these beautiful leather boxes sitting ontop of the speakers.
Attachments
Those look great in those boxes!
Im a newb when it comes to fancy crossover stuff... can you enlighten me as to why the components in those crossovers are so large? Those look like they are the size of large amps!
