would like some input on a setup

[ChemMan]

This is my first time putting together my very own speaker system, so I'd like to hear some thoughts on what I've come up with so far. The point of this project is to replace my crappy old pc multimedia speakers with an inexpensive two way system in a small sealed enclosure. Here is what I've got so far:

Woofer:
Dayton 6 1/2 inch shielded

tweeter:
TANG BAND 28-847SA SHIELDED NEODYMIUM DOME TWEETER


Placed in a sealed enclosure 0.167 ft^3 (4.7 L). The box has a Qtc of 0.76. All of these calculations were made using WinISD.

The crossover I was planning on constructing was a fourth-order Linkwitz-Riley with the crossover point at 2500 Hz, and a zobel network on the woofer. I decided to go with a fourth order crossover to avoid pushing the tweeter too hard in the lower frequencies, even though the crossover will be bulky and somewhat expensive to make($20 for each channel).

My questions are:
1. Does anyone have any experience with these two drivers?
2. Am I going overkill with the crossover? Would a second or third order crossover be more appropriate?
3. Are metallized polypropylene crossover caps worth the extra cost over electrolytic capacitors? Do they sound significantly better or show better performance? (I suppose this is more of an opinion question)
4. Will the inductors cause problems with my monitor? The speakers will be right up against it, hence the shielded speakers.


Thanks for all the input.

ChemMan

[ChemMan]

So no one sees any problems worth commenting about? Great.

[wintermute]

Hi ChemMan,

I looked at the freq response curves of the drivers you are talking about last night and almost posted but figured I'm not that experienced with things like this and someone else would probably say something more meaningful......

I wasn't that wrapped with the response curves, but since this is a cheap project to as you say "replace your crappy computer speakers", I guess that they won't be too bad.

I haven't yet ventured into crossover design, but looking at the repsonse curves of the two speakers my gut feel would be that maybe you should consider a xover at 1.5Khz rather than 2.5Khz (I think with a 600Hz resonant freq the tweeter should handle that), I'm assuming that these speakers won't be being thrashed with high wattage

Jump in and say this is a really bad idea everyone out there with more experience than me if I'm giving a bum steer here!!!!!!

The reason I'm suggesting the above is that the mid/bass dips pretty badly just after about 1.5K but has a peak at about 2.8K whereas the tweeter has a dip at about 2K. I'm guessing that the peaks at the end of the mid/bass' response may actually flatten out the dips in the tweeters response if you move the crossover point down. All wild speculation, but maybe has some merit I'm assuming you were considering a 4th order xo because of the peaks in the mid/bass units response.

I think the only other thing I can give input on is that I believe there have been studies done that show that electrolitics do actually introduce distortion, I believe this is quite measurable, but I could be wrong, this is of course heresay on my part as I don't have any references to back it up!

Regards,

Tony.

[swirv]

Do not use electrolitics in your crossover. Get the better caps. I would also recomend going with a 2nd order crossover if you choose 2500Hz. This should save you some $$$ on the crossover. The 28-847 should be fine. I crossed mine with a 1st order @6500Hz.

[ChemMan]

Great, thanks for the comments.