ultimate DIY speakers - Ideas?

[benoz]

I have just assembled the parts for a pair of proac 2.5 clones (with a few mods.) and for my next project! - does anyone have any ideas for a complete design for an ultimate speaker - cost no object!

[pinkmouse]

Now do you really mean "cost no object", or do you actually have a budget limit, some of these things cost more than you might think.

Or is this just a hypothetical query

[joe carrow]

Ok, so cost is no object at all? Here are some possible projects.

1) Lowther line array

2) Raven Rs line array, obviously with a wall of IB subs

3) Servo controlled electrostatic wallpaper

4) Industrial diamond fullranger, probably with that servo control

5) Massless piston (from this thread )


I guess I should have asked- is this just for music, or also home theater?

Here's what I think each would cost-

1) At $1,000 each, and 24 per side- $24,000 for the drivers. Go ahead and triple that for the enclosure, passive and active electronics, and double it again for a cost-no-object amp. call it $100,000.

2) At $2-3,000 each if you can find them, probably $50-$75,000 for the ravens. You could get by on $15,000 in subs, and a $20,000 reinforced wall to hold it all. About $110,000.

3) I don't even know if this exists. You've heard of a servo sub? Go ahead and spend the R&D to have positional feedback control of the entire surface of the electrostatic at a 100khz+ sampling rate. This one could cost millions.

4) To avoid what people call "doppler distortion" and all the other nastiness that people flung at CW in the AA thread on a new japanese fullranger, you'd need some fancy electronics. The diamond could probably be constructed for around $3mil, plus a control system that would probably be cheaper to implement than the above.

5)

[Rocky]

Go for a full horn system. Goto or Ale bass compression drivers on a bass horn, JBL 375 or TAD for the mids, and top it off with an Onken horn tweeter... cost? dunno, but probably about the price of a F1 racing car

[planet10]

Originally posted by joe carrow
1) Lowther line array
2) Raven Rs line array, obviously with a wall of IB subs

If you did the lowther arrary, the interdriver spacing would dictate a tweeter line of Ravens -- biamped of course.

5) Massless piston (from this thread )

Better would be the 4-space cycliner or sphere (i'm ignoring the time dimension so this puts us in 3-space) being moved thru 3-space, creating the massless pulstating cylinder or sphere.

dave

[454Casull]

Probably an upgraded Plasmatronics upper speaker with a servo-controlled W-frame dipole subwoofer with subwoofers that haven't been developed yet.

[JinMTVT]

on a more serious note than a massless piston driver

I would really consider doing a pair of huge electrosatic
pannels, something in the 8feet tall by 4 feet each..
drived directly by an HV output amp, mono for each of course...
of you could only use plitron nice ESL transformers with good good amplifiers ...( that is prety cheap in fact, 340$CAD each transfo *2)

Pannels would be divided based on quadrative residue formula for best possible output ..
Xoed at 300-500hz

lower freq. would be coverd by 8 18" drivers
in 2 towers ...deisgn would have to be think of
maybe bipolar TL style ( just to please Dave )

I guess that would make some good system .
Room would need to be at least 20' by 20'+ with 9' ceiling.

That would be a project i would go in if i had ressources
( time and money )



( at least mine is kinda realistic haha )

[planet10]

Originally posted by JinMTVT
Room would need to be at least 20' by 20'+ with 9' ceiling.

If it is ultimate -- and the room cannot be considered as a separate piece -- the room should be more irregular and the roof should slope in 2 directions...

dave

[Rarkov]

Hi,
Without a doubt, the answer you are looking for is the Manger 103 speaker. Plans are available from various places (email me if you have searched the net and can't find them). Manger provide very good support for DIY versions of their speakers. Apparently, so much so; they have been known to travel from Germany to the UK to listen to some. Dedication on a par with Pass Labs!

They are the most SUPERB speakers you will ever have the pleasure to listen to. BTW I am not affiliated with Manger in any way, but I have lived with the 109 speakers for a while and am building some 103 speakers at the moment.

See Manger Audio UK for details of various products. They are expensive - but try and get a listen! I guesstimate:

6 Manger Drivers....£2500
4 Visaton Subs.......£320
2 Sub Amps............£250
Misc (wood etc)......£150
Components..........£50
Finish (Reference)..£200

Total: £3470

I intend to run mine from Class-T amps and Behringer DCX2496 (or whatever the speaker control part number is!)

Good luck!
Gaz

[Bose(o)]

Have a microphone array which can compare the input source signal with the signal taht the microphone array "hears." Making adjustments to Reverberance, Frequency response and delay to further keep the system "in-tune." This would be done by use of a computational device, perhaps a PIC will do?