Kicking around ideas for new speakers

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
Hi,

I think I want new speakers, but I'm not quite sure what I want. So I thought I'd post some random thoughts/ramblings here, in the hope that some of the more experienced speaker builders can chime in with advice and/or suggestions. Alright, here goes...

Constraints, or the things that cannot be changed:

* Room - roughly 25'x15', with the speakers along a long wall. So the listening position is about 5-7' from the plane of the speakers, but the speakers themselves can be put 10-12' apart if needed. Speakers are usually about 2-3' from the back/front wall. No room treatments.

* Amps - I'm definitely going to try active biamping, that's a given. I have a 3W tube amp for the tweeters, and a ~ 25W (not quite sure what the maximum output of my new Gainclone amp is) SS amp for the woofers. So I need 96dB or higher sensitivity (and hopefully 8 ohms) in the tweeter, on the woofer I guess I could handle low 90s, maybe even high 80s.

* Size/aesthetics - my wife is pretty forgiving so this isn't really an issue. I don't want anything too large or heavy though, so 6' tall speakers are out.

Sound, or what I'm looking for - I'm not really sure.

* I love the midbass dynamics of my HE12.1s, and so I'm definitely not going back to a wimpy 6.5" 2-way or anything like that.

* I'd love to get the smooth midrange and treble of my GR Research Paradox 1s back.

Other than that, I don't really have much of an idea of what I'm looking for. Nice place to start, huh :)

* Oh, bass - don't need any real extension below 50Hz or so. The speaker will be high-passed at around 100Hz, with the bass being handled by an EQd subwoofer.

Other stuff:

* Dipoles and/or open baffles - the concept intrigues me, but I'm not sure I have the listening distance for these types of speakers to work. Also, I'm not sure this is a good choice for a first time crossover attempt. Maybe I'm wrong though... suggestions?

* Line arrays. Again, the concept intrigues me, but the two or 3 line arrays I've listened to, I didn't like them *that* much. This doesn't include the Acoustats where the panels had been rearranged to form 10' high speakers - those were good, but that's not an option for me right now.

* Ribbon drivers - again, intrigued by the concept, haven't heard much to really have an opinion. It seems that getting the sensitivity as high as I need it to be might be a challenge?

* Coaxials - I really like the presentation of the HE12.1s. Also, this would allow me to ignore delay issues in the crossover (at least as a first cut), which should make things simpler? So maybe I should just try building another coax, using different/better drivers?

* Horns... as much as I like the concept, I don't think I can handle a full-blown horn rig in my current room. I think I'll stick with direct radiator woofers for now, with horn/planar/direct radiator tweeters.

And that's about all that I've thought of. Does there appear to be any coherent thought running through these ramblings? :) Does anyone have any ideas that could meet all or most of these criteria? If you do, would you build it for me too? :)

Oh, and while we're on the topic - is anyone interested in a pair of highly modified HE12.1s? That might inspire me to actually take these ideas and actually build something with them :)

Thanks for reading.

Saurav
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.