*Newby needs help designing PA cabinets*

[Under Sided]

G'day

First of all I would like to say how great this Forum is!,

Ok, my main goal here is to design and a build a pair of 2 or 3way speakers that will be used for general music listening and PA speakers for a 4 person rock band.I have searched this forum alot but can't find much that corresponds with the brands of drivers that I am looking at.

I have found a few drivers but am unsure what would be the best:
-Eminence Delta 12
-Eminence Alpha 15A
-P.Audio HP-15W
-Etone 1225 o 1525 (cant find T/S)
-Selenium 15PW3
-possibly this driver

I was thinking I could put the Eminence Alpa 15A's as woofers, the Delta 12's as mid-range or possibly smaller 8 or 10 inch Emenence drivers as mids, until I ran the Alpha 15A and Delta 12 in 'Boxplot' and 'Win ISD' where the optimum box sizes for these drivers was huge, one of them was like 1500 L.

If any of you guys have had any experience with these drivers please let me know your 2 cents, advice would be very much appreciated or if someone could recomend a driver in a similar price range that would be suitable for this aplication.

Cheers, Matt

[Josephjcole]

You might want to check out http://pispeakers.com . Wayne who runs it all sells kits based on both the Alpha 15, and the Delta 12. The prices are quite reasonable, and the kits are well designed. You might find exactly what you want there, and get out of the task of designing the crossover, which is not easy to do. Especially if you don't have any experience in crossover design. Either way you should realize that speakers built around these driver will be large, which is pretty hard to get around if you are looking for high effeciency drivers that can deliver any bass.
Joe

[dwk123]

The other standard answer for this would be to check out Bill Fitzmaurices stuff. The Pi gear is really more 'home stuff that might do OK for PA in a pinch', whereas Bills stuff is 'PA stuff that you can use at home in a pinch'

www.billfitzmaurice.com for the plans
http://audioroundtable.com/BillFitzmaurice/ for a good forum

[Andy G]

That Jaycar driver is not a PA driver, not a good idea.

The Eminence Alpha's generally require huge boxes, although Wayne uses a different alignment that allows you to go smaller.

I have actually used the Delta 12 quite a bit, again using Pi-Align, and they do work very nicely combined with a CTS piezo. Cabinet is about 40L (iirc).

The Etones seem to be common down here, I think they were actually made here ?? but its a pain to find T/S spec for them if you don't have a woofer tester available.

I can't comment on the other 2.

The main thing is to be sure that whatever you choose is suitable for you purpose. The single Delta 12 will work well in small pubs for vocal and acoustic work, but if you expect it to be used as vocals for a loud rock band, you really need way more grunt !!

[Under Sided]

Thanks for your replys,

Joe - Those pi speaker kits seem very good but they could be a bit expessive once converted into Australian dollars + shipping fees + import tax.

dwk123 - Bill Fitzmaurices DIY speaker plans also look good but the only suitabe plan i can seem to find is the 'DR300 Concert Grade PA Top' but this has the Eminence Magnum 12HO woofer in it which is quite expensive here in Australia.

Andy - Thanks for the head up on that jaycar driver. Also, I was reading
this thread and I was wondering if you could email me those plans you were speaking of, that would be much appresiated.


Cheers, Matt

[RobWells]

http://www.speakerplans.com/

Not sure about driver availability in Aus though.

Rob.

[Andy G]

I'll have a search for the plans, but I'm not sure they got transferred from the old computer. Hope.!!

At least I should be able to find volume and vent dimensions, which should be enough.

If you don't hear from me within a week or so, email me to remind me, cos I'm pretty busy at the moment with other stuff !

[Josephjcole]

Originally posted by Under Sided
Thanks for your replys,

Joe - Those pi speaker kits seem very good but they could be a bit expessive once converted into Australian dollars + shipping fees + import tax.

Cheers, Matt

Wayne seems quite happy to share the plans for free, so you could order the parts locally. Just ask for the plans on his forum.
Joe

[holger honda]

For general listening I would advise against a 15 and a 1 inch.
15 and 2 would work but you will not really have the upper harmonics unless you pay loads of pennies.
If however you are planning to run miked bass and such through the cabinet a 15 might still be the way to go.
If you are to use them for vocals and keyboards mainly you will be better off with a 12 inch.
You will find that the money spent on drivers will be saved on money spent on amps in the PA world.
3 db more sensitivity means (in therory) half the power needed from the amp.
That is a 95 db speakers requires a twice as strong (and usually twice as expensive) amp as a speaker with 98db sensitivity.
If this is your first venture into DIY PA stick with a two way speaker.
Then start looking at your options and we can all help out.

[planet10]

Originally posted by holger honda
If this is your first venture into DIY PA stick with a two way speaker.

And if a 2-way seriously consider a coax.

dave