Summer Project

[edjosh23]

It is finally summer, although being a kid I should have more time than during the school year, but to tell you the truth I don't. I'm working at my mechanic shop for 45 hours a week, but that means more money to build speakers. I've decided that its finally time for me to build some front speakers.

I want some somewhat efficient speakers. I'd like 88db or higher. The big thing I want is BASS. The wr125s do pretty good in the bass department, but not good enough. I'm thinking about the seas P21RF/P (H511). It seems to be a pretty good. The thing that I was looking for was bass repsonce and a good frequency range. Since it will be a two way I need the woofer to be crossed over very high, and the tweeter very low.

What I'm having trouble finding is a tweeter to match this woofer. I was originally thinking of the vifa ring radiator (because of the group buy, which is now off) because it can go pretty low, but Dave says that the crossover could be difficult to design.

The other option was a ribbon tweeter because they can be crossed pretty low, but again I'm not sure if I am skilled enough for the crossover design, but I'm always willing to try it out. I want to try a ribbon tweeter because off all the great things I've heard about them.

My total budget, will be about $400, preferably less, because I'm planning on building other things this summer and money has to be saved to build throughout the school year.

Are there any other woofers that can reproduce the lows and go up to pretty high frequencies?
What would be a good tweeter to match the woofer and meets the needs to reproduce the lower highs?

Thanks,

Josh

[BassAwdyO]

Adire's Extremis6 might be worth considering. Efficency is rather low at 86db but if you use 2 per channel you can gain a bit back. I have a pair and love them! They can go low (30hz in a ported box easily) and they can go high (no problems below 3k where I'm crossing at, but I'm sure they can go higher)

[planet10]

If you want bass, have you considered building a pair of powered woofers to go with the WR125s (i can't see many 8' keeping up with these in the critical midrange... a pr of extremis, a pair of peerless WR220, a pr of ApexJr 8s, a pair of <many choices) per side...

dave

[edjosh23]

Dave, I cannot add powered subs to my wr125s because I have an integrated amp. This summer I am building an xls sub.

2 extremises would be nice, but that would eat up my budget. I could do that if I got a cheaper tweeter, but I want a really nice tweeter.

I can maybe go with less efficiency to 1 extremis per side, but I was really hoping for more efficient speakers.

Dave I'm not sure which peerless your talking about the 830411 looks pretty good. I could go with two of those and a tweeter no preblem.

The Hi-Vi RT8II looks like an interesting tweeter.

Any other suggestion?

Thanks,

Josh

[planet10]

Originally posted by edjosh23
I cannot add powered subs to my wr125s because I have an integrated amp. This summer I am building an xls sub.

Maybe one of your projects should be adding pre out/power amp in to your integrated... or just build your own.

The woofers could always be passive, but XO would need to be 250-300 Hz.

dave

[edjosh23]

The wr125s will be rebuilt, into a very neat cabinet and made into rear speakers. The fronts I would like to be a simple 2 way with lots of bass and preferably a TL. And then I'm going to make a Peerless XLS w/ passive radiator sub that will be similar to my bed side table.

Josh

[planet10]

Originally posted by edjosh23
The wr125s will be rebuilt, into a very neat cabinet and made into rear speakers. The fronts I would like to be a simple 2 way with lots of bass and preferably a TL.

Just seems a bit strange to put the speakers with the best mids in the back...

dave

[GM]

Greets!

Since you'll be adding a sub it sounds like what you need is midbass 'slam' with a low Fb, so a reasonably high efficiency design such as this should 'fill the bill': http://www.pispeakers.com/AvailableC...htm#Thermionic

GM

[dwk123]

Originally posted by edjosh23
The wr125s will be rebuilt, into a very neat cabinet and made into rear speakers. The fronts I would like to be a simple 2 way with lots of bass and preferably a TL. And then I'm going to make a Peerless XLS w/ passive radiator sub that will be similar to my bed side table.

Josh

Well, I'm going to agree here that if you already have the wr125's, assigning them to rear channel duty is a mistake. I seriously doubt you will get a speaker for $400/pr that will have good bass and come anywhere close to the wr125 in overall performance.

Honestly, I'd seriously consider looking at the new '641' kit that Exodus is prepping. Mates the wr125 with the extremis and the usher tweeter. It's still on the drawing board so price is in flux, but it'll probably be closer to $500-$550 even if you have the wr125's. However, I fully suspect that it will be a far better speaker overall than any 2-way of comparable price. (oh, yeah - it'll also be inefficient - probably 85dB at best) See audiocircle for prelim info.

Barring that, if you really want a completely new two way, look into the myriad of projects using the new Dayton RS series drivers. An MTM with the RS180 and RS28a would be an idea. You *might* be able to squeeze a 2-way with the RS225 and the RS28, but maybe not. Check the parts express board or htguide for the Dayton designs.

[studiotech]

I would have to second the choice of the Parts Express reference series drivers....at least the tweeter. The woofers require some rather complex crossovers to sound their best, so the price begins to rise, but their measured distortion performance can't really be beat anywhere near the price.

Not to get too off topic, but Dave have you been pleased with the performance of the Apex super 8's? Any comments on their quality or lack there of?

Greg