Best speakers for rock, hip hop and movies

PoorSound · 20th January 2006, 12:15 AM

i'm just looking for something that's an all around good sounding speaker. Something that can handle loud rock, bassy hip hop but still sound crisp for movies. this may be asking alot but i thought i'd check! i'm looking for another project, and i'm worried about just picking some brand and building speakers around it. its hard cuz u can' t listen to them before u purchase them.
anybody have any ideas?
what's everyones favorite speaker?

RJ · 20th January 2006, 02:48 AM

Line-Arrays will do all that you ask of them.
My experience with rectangular boxes varies. Alumnium cones sound good with Jazz and some Pop. Rock sounds better with paper cones.
Hip Hop sounds better with Subs and Mains that are tuned for that particuler thump.

My line-arrays are all aluminum, midbass drivers and Planar tweeters.
If I had a dark grill on them you'd never know they were aluminum drivers. With the regular type boxed speakers you can tell if they're aluminum or paper.

I've gone through more than a dozen different types of rectangular boxes with different cone materials and they all have they're characteristic voicing. Just putting a driver in sealed, ported, bandpass, transmission line, horn or aperiodic box will change it's sound.

I like experimenting that's why all the different boxes, but my line-array just kicks butt!!!

PoorSound · 20th January 2006, 03:47 AM

great thanks alot for the reply!
I'm still pretty new at this and i hope i don't sound like an idiot...but what are Line Arrays? i'm sorry if that should be common knowledge but i've never heard the term!

Scottmoose · 20th January 2006, 07:41 AM

Line Arrays? Think of a very tall enclosure, not too wide. They are usually 2 way designs, using a vertical line of about 9-12 mid-bass-units, and a similar number of ribbon tweeters beside them, in another vertical column. Truely devastating, but not cheap to do well. They present a cylindrical shaped wave-front rather than a spherical, so if you sit in the nearfield to them, as you are supposed to, they reduce the effects of the room to a negligable level (the room is always the biggest pain). A brilliant way forward, if you can afford it. Here's some examples at a cringe-inducing price: http://www.selahaudio.com/id73.html and here's Jim Griffin's (he often frequents this forum) seminal white paper on how to design them: http://www.audiodiycentral.com/resource/pdf/nflawp.pdf

Another superb setup is the dipole. Here the drivers are mounted on a flat baffle, not enclosed in a box, so they radiate into space both front and back. Agan, they reduce the problems with the room, and have a glorious midrange and bass. They have to be pretty big however, and if you use dipole bass, you either need a very large / wide baffle indeed, or heavy equalisation due to the progressive accoustic cancelation with decreasing freqency. That usually means going active, with active crossovers and a separate amplifier for each channel, which takes up a lot of space and can get expensive. See www.linkwitzlab.com for more.

Can't afford either, or don't have the space and want a more normal 'box' speaker? Transmission Line every time: have a look here: www.quarter-wave.com for everything you'd ever need.

Best
Scott

RJ · 20th January 2006, 02:20 PM

I didn't have much time yesterday, but here's my picture of the line-arrays I built. They have 10 - 5 1/4" Dayton Aluminum midbass drivers and 6 Dayton Planar drivers per side.
Also, this was my first DIY project. I just downloaded Jim Griffin's White Paper and went from there.

JoshK · 20th January 2006, 03:20 PM

The best I've heard for this kind of music was Dr. Geddes's Summa loudspeakers. Not super cheap though.

tinitus · 20th January 2006, 04:36 PM

I guess it should be "cheap and easy" - in another tread I saw this one - if it can take some "beating" - dont know

http://www.hawthorneaudio.com/drivers.htm

Scottmoose · 20th January 2006, 05:17 PM

Depends how you load it. That a 3.45mm Xmax, and on a 15" cone, you're not going to need a whole lot of excursion to shift a serious amount of air. This thing's based upon an Eminence driver (somewhat cheaper, if not quite as good), which ought to do better in a box enclosure. If you've got the space, the plans for the monster old old Tannoy DC horn enclosures like the GRF Signture / Autograph are lurking around the web and could, with a few modifications, be a very interesting option indeed. I might have a play in MathCad later and see what I can come up with for these Hawthorne drivers and the Eminence units they are based on. Oh yes, and RJ -that's an impressive array!

Best
Scott

20th January 2006, 12:15 AM	#1
PoorSound diyAudio Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: brandon	Best speakers for rock, hip hop and movies i'm just looking for something that's an all around good sounding speaker. Something that can handle loud rock, bassy hip hop but still sound crisp for movies. this may be asking alot but i thought i'd check! i'm looking for another project, and i'm worried about just picking some brand and building speakers around it. its hard cuz u can' t listen to them before u purchase them. anybody have any ideas? what's everyones favorite speaker?

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20th January 2006, 02:48 AM	#2
RJ diyAudio Member Join Date: Oct 2004	Line-Arrays will do all that you ask of them. My experience with rectangular boxes varies. Alumnium cones sound good with Jazz and some Pop. Rock sounds better with paper cones. Hip Hop sounds better with Subs and Mains that are tuned for that particuler thump. My line-arrays are all aluminum, midbass drivers and Planar tweeters. If I had a dark grill on them you'd never know they were aluminum drivers. With the regular type boxed speakers you can tell if they're aluminum or paper. I've gone through more than a dozen different types of rectangular boxes with different cone materials and they all have they're characteristic voicing. Just putting a driver in sealed, ported, bandpass, transmission line, horn or aperiodic box will change it's sound. I like experimenting that's why all the different boxes, but my line-array just kicks butt!!!

20th January 2006, 03:47 AM	#3
PoorSound diyAudio Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: brandon	great thanks alot for the reply! I'm still pretty new at this and i hope i don't sound like an idiot...but what are Line Arrays? i'm sorry if that should be common knowledge but i've never heard the term!

20th January 2006, 07:41 AM	#4
Scottmoose diyAudio Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: UK	Line Arrays? Think of a very tall enclosure, not too wide. They are usually 2 way designs, using a vertical line of about 9-12 mid-bass-units, and a similar number of ribbon tweeters beside them, in another vertical column. Truely devastating, but not cheap to do well. They present a cylindrical shaped wave-front rather than a spherical, so if you sit in the nearfield to them, as you are supposed to, they reduce the effects of the room to a negligable level (the room is always the biggest pain). A brilliant way forward, if you can afford it. Here's some examples at a cringe-inducing price: http://www.selahaudio.com/id73.html and here's Jim Griffin's (he often frequents this forum) seminal white paper on how to design them: http://www.audiodiycentral.com/resource/pdf/nflawp.pdf Another superb setup is the dipole. Here the drivers are mounted on a flat baffle, not enclosed in a box, so they radiate into space both front and back. Agan, they reduce the problems with the room, and have a glorious midrange and bass. They have to be pretty big however, and if you use dipole bass, you either need a very large / wide baffle indeed, or heavy equalisation due to the progressive accoustic cancelation with decreasing freqency. That usually means going active, with active crossovers and a separate amplifier for each channel, which takes up a lot of space and can get expensive. See www.linkwitzlab.com for more. Can't afford either, or don't have the space and want a more normal 'box' speaker? Transmission Line every time: have a look here: www.quarter-wave.com for everything you'd ever need. Best Scott

20th January 2006, 03:20 PM	#6
JoshK diyAudio Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Toronto, ON	The best I've heard for this kind of music was Dr. Geddes's Summa loudspeakers. Not super cheap though.

20th January 2006, 04:36 PM	#7
tinitus diyAudio Moderator Join Date: Nov 2005	I guess it should be "cheap and easy" - in another tread I saw this one - if it can take some "beating" - dont know http://www.hawthorneaudio.com/drivers.htm

20th January 2006, 05:17 PM	#8
Scottmoose diyAudio Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: UK	Depends how you load it. That a 3.45mm Xmax, and on a 15" cone, you're not going to need a whole lot of excursion to shift a serious amount of air. This thing's based upon an Eminence driver (somewhat cheaper, if not quite as good), which ought to do better in a box enclosure. If you've got the space, the plans for the monster old old Tannoy DC horn enclosures like the GRF Signture / Autograph are lurking around the web and could, with a few modifications, be a very interesting option indeed. I might have a play in MathCad later and see what I can come up with for these Hawthorne drivers and the Eminence units they are based on. Oh yes, and RJ -that's an impressive array! Best Scott