Tweeter faceplate as part of the cabinet

[Ed LaFontaine]

At this point this is only a mental (stretching?) exercise.
What if I removed the faceplate from my tweeter and mounted the tweeter from inside the speaker cabinet?
For this execise the tweeter is not specified and assumes the diaphragm is not mounted on the faceplate.
1. I could duplicate the profile of the original faceplate. I think the benefit of this would be appearance. I imagine a select or figured wood that I would like to see more of.
2. I could alter the profile. I would like discussion or direction to sources that will help me understand "horn loading" and difraction as they would relate to the changes in tweeter response.
I will consider these things for incorporation into another set of home-built speakers.

Yee Ha!

[454Casull]

Somebody here replaced the front plates of his Vifa XT25 with hand-carved wooden plates... I can't remember who it was.

[Ed LaFontaine]

That's along the lines of what I'm considering. However, I would make the tweeter mount integral with the cabinet instead of attached to or "on top" of. Thanks for the heads-up.

[HeatMiser]

I happen to have that link handy in case it's helpful at all.

Turned my own Tweeter faceplates to see if they look any better...

[Nuuk]

Not quite the same thing but done with aesthetics in mind.



I don't know how far the aperture in the baffle could be reduced before the sound of the tweter was affected.

[Rocky]

If you have the woodworking skills for such a job, why not simply use a compression driver tweeter? You can mill the horn into the front using a CNC router of some kind, or sand down concentric rings to get the shape... It'll make the tweeter better time-aligned to the mid/woofer too..

[Rocky]

Originally posted by bg40403
I would like discussion or direction to sources that will help me understand "horn loading" and difraction as they would relate to the changes in tweeter response.

There is a variety of horn contours to choose from.. The Single Driver website will explain you some concepts.

[kingdaddy]

Somebody here replaced the front plates of his Vifa XT25 with hand-carved wooden plates... I can't remember who it was.

Yea that was me, however it took some tweaking on the faceplate to make them as transparent as the original. I had no idea that the tweeter faceplate could change the sound so easily by being just a little different.

[Ed LaFontaine]

Rocky, Thanks for the reference to The Single Driver Website, I'll spend some time with it this weekend. Woodworking skill? I have a shop and am handy with wood turning. A stack laminated horn behind the cabinet face could be considered. It could be finish-turned, mounted inside the cabinet and then the cabinet face opened up and profiled with a router or other shaping method. I like the concern for time alignment. Sweet.

kingdaddy, Yours is the "faceplate" I found when doing a search prior to my post. The change in sound you refer to is one of the things concerning me, one of my motives for research of this. Read, plan then do.

My "bulls eye" at this time is to cover all of the tweeter except the diaphragm, allowing the profile of the opening to do the same job as a "normal" faceplate. Until now I hadn't considered a compression driver. The list grows and

The saga continues

[Sandy H.]

bg40403, please keep us up to date. You are obviously taking this project with a good perspective of sound and aesthetics. This is good for people like myself. I look forward to your success and hope to see your implementation.

Thanks all for the good source information.

Sandy.