Orion's belt

[Mats J]

This is mostly a thought exercise, but if you wanted to make a cheap version of Linkwitz's Orion, which I'll call orion's belt (as in the old saying of tighten one's belt) which drivers would you chosen to replace the following:

Tweeter - Seas T25CF002 1" dome
Midrange - Seas W22EX001 8" mid bass
Woofers - two Peerless 10" XLS, 830452

Off the top of my head, meaning I'm thinking these up right now, so I won't be about to give you exact model numbers, nor will they necessarily be the best choices:

Tweeter - Dayton's new "european tweeter"
Midrange - Seas aluminum standard line 8"
Woofers - two Standard line Peerless 10"

[Mats J]

hmmm...over 100 views and not a single reply?
maybe links will help?

the real orion can be studied here:
http://www.linkwitzlab.com/orion_challenge.htm

as for the drivers, here are the original:
Tweeter - Seas T25CF002 1" dome--
http://www.seas.no/excel_line/excel/E%20011.PDF

Midrange - Seas W22EX001 8" mid bass--
http://www.seas.no/excel_line/excel/E0022.pdf

Woofers - two Peerless 10" XLS, 830452--
http://www.d-s-t.com/peerless/data/830452.htm


and maybe some cheap alternatives:
Tweeter - Dayton's new "european tweeter" --
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...D=122562&DID=7

Midrange - Seas aluminum standard line 8"--
http://www.seas.no/seas_line/woofers/H1252.pdf

Woofers - two Standard line Peerless 10"--
http://www.d-s-t.com/peerless/data/831727.htm

[Rudolf]

Hi Mats,
this forum is about Do it yourself, not THINK it yourself.
Interest in Orion is always high here, but we have all learned, that replacing the drivers (like you seem to want) is like starting from scratch. If you feel, that the Orion is too pricey for you - which is fully understandable - you should look for less elaborated dipole projects on this site. There are lots of them.
Rudolf

[AndersZ]

Although not an Orion clone, but certainly inspired by it and the Beethoven main panel are my under contruction open dipoles which use:

Tweeter: Seas T25C001
Mid: Seas CB17RCY/P
Woofer: Cheapest 8":ers possible, will be changed to Peerless units when I have the cash.

If I were to start over I would use the same tweeter, an L22 mid and two L26 woofers.

For more info on my project you can check my speakerpage:http://www.t.kth.se/andzak54/speakersIntro.htm

Anders

[Mats J]

AndersZ, great site and very interesting speakers! That's basically, albeit scaled down, what I was picturing when I started this thread. On your next project, the free standing one, which drivers were you thinking of using? The same ones?

Rudolf, I thought designing was a part of doing it yourself.
Kidding aside, although the cost is high for a DIY project, that isn't my deterant. (Actually I'll probably be buying the designs very soon. Building them will come some time after I have the required number of channels of amplification.) My interest in this is as you stated, "...is like starting from scratch...", except that there are some specific requirement that must be met, such as what the finished project will look like.

Also, the more I think about it, maybe I will try to create a real live orion's belt. But I need more ideas for drivers. Anyone?

[sreten]

http://www.linkwitzlab.com/proto.htm

edit : Bummer, seems pages B to F are no longer available

sreten.

[NoTalent]

That page is available here:

http://web.archive.org/web/200306120....com/proto.htm

It has designs B-F

[Mats J]

Thanks for the reply, sreten. I know about SL's protos, but I'm not interested in a finished design where I "paint by numbers". For that, as I stated earlier, I'm planning on getting the Orion plans.

Okay, maybe if I start by stating my new goals I won't confuse anyone anymore.
1) create a poorman's Linkwitz Orion using his enclosure, with different size cutout for the new drivers, of course.
2) follow the real orion's driver layout and sizes. therefore it will be a TMWW with the bass being 2 10" drivers, the midrange is covered with a single 8", maybe consider a 7", and the tweeter a 1".
3) the drivers must be much less costly compared to the orignally spec'ed ones. Preferably <$50.00 for each indiviual piece, excluding tax, shipping, etc.
4) get within shooting distance sound quality wise of the originals
5) willing to sacrifice max SPL.
6) must finish design by end of, oh say, summer.

[sreten]

well the obvious place to save some cash is the bass and treble
drivers.

Dayton 10" drivers for bass ? ridiculous value for money :

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshow...number=295-315

a little down on max SPL.

edit : perhaps not, they are a lot down on the XLS excursion.
Car audio "free air" drivers could be worth investigating though ?

Treble I'd go for any of Seas excellent value tweeters,
in the Millenium vein the 27TFFC ?

Midrange the new Seas L22RNX/P aluminium driver.

sreten.

[Mats J]

You mentioning the dayton woofer made me take a look at the rest of PE's in house 10 inchers. I can across this:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshow...number=295-485
it has better xmax than the one you mentioned plus, if I leave one of the coils open(its a dual VC), the Qts would be ~.76, thus requiring less eq.