a low cost 12" 3-way

[cubsfan]

Just finished building a pair based, in part, on the PE Golden Boys design. IMHO a surprisingly nice sounding and musical 3-way for under $65 per speaker for the drivers and x-over parts. Details are:
- Goldwood Pismo Series 12" woofer (PE 290-335)
- Goldwood 5" sealed back midrange (PE 280-105)
- ApexJr shielded silk dome tweeter
- the woofer low pass consists of a 4.00 mH 15 awg
Sledgehammer and a 70 uF cap (two 18 uF Tecate Ind. Mylar film
caps and a 34 uF NP electrolytic)
- the bandpass is Darren's design (see PE site) except that I used
19 awg Madisound air core inductors and film caps - 22 uF (one
18 uF Tecate Ind. Mylar film cap + one 2.0 uF Dayton film cap +
one 0.47 uF, 850 V GE 42L film cap) and a 4.7 uF Solen Fast Cap.
- the high pass is a 3500 Hz 2nd order LR using a 4.00 uF Solen
Fast Cap and a 0.52 mH 19 awg air core
- Variable 15 W, 8 Ohm L-pads (PE 260-250) on the midrange and
the tweeter.
The 3 drivers are aligned vertically in a 16" by 24" by 12" cabinet of 3/4 " MDF lined/dampened with 1/8" vinyl floor tiles. Cabinets were then lined with Dacron damping cloth (Meniscus) and filled
with 1 & 1/3 lbs. of 100% polyester fiberfill (Madisound). Finally, the cabinets are surfaced using Duck Easy Liner Light Oak Adhesive Shelf Liner. Thanks and best regards.

[Cal Weldon]

Sounds good. Where's the pics?

You are happy with a closed back midrange?

[infinia]

I like, looks like it should be a winner!
Most prob. holds up well to any AR-3 or other retro designs.
Are you happy with the crossovers?
What are you using to power it?

[prerunnerv6]

Another vote for pictures. Sounds like a great project.

[cubsfan]

Sorry. No pics at this time. I need to buy a digital camera first.
I'm pleased with this Goldwood closed back midrange, in fact very surprised that it sounds as good as it does. I'm very happy with the crossovers. IMHO Darren (PE) did a great job with his low pass and bandpass crossovers. I just tried some upgrading using film caps that I had on hand, along with a higher gauge (15 v 18) steel laminate on the low pass. Then I just added a low cost silk dome tweeter ($14.95 a pair at ApexJr), and placed variable L-pads on the midrange and tweeter. I'm using a HK 3480 stereo receiver (120 W/ch) that I purchased off of the Harmon Audio website for just under $200. A very retro system that sounds really nice, especially considering the low cost. These speakers seem to be as good if not better than my old AR 2aXs. I don't have these old ARs working any longer, so this is just my impression. Thanks for your comments and best regards.

[infinia]

sweeet
with all the clams you saved on this job, reward youself with a digicam.
We all want a look since we cant hear it.

[cubsfan]

Just fyi. I had a friend measure the Frequency-SPL response of this speaker earlier today. I don't have the means of posting the chart, but the data are as follows:
Hz [dB] = 20 [67], 30 [77], 40 [84], 50 [89], 60 [94], 70 [94],
80 [94], 90 [93], 100 [93], 150 [93], 200 [89], 300 [87], 400 [89], 500 [88], 600 [85], 700 [86], 800 [87], 900 [88], 1K [90],
2K [88], 3K [85], 4K [84], 5k [86], 6K [87], 7K [88], 8K [91],
9K [91], 10K [90], 20K [89], 30K [87]. The SPL drops off rapidly at about 32KHz. All measurements were made with both variable L-pads on center (midpoint) positions. Of course, one could knock down the above normal high frequency response by adjusting the L-pad. I don't pretend that this is anything like a high quality speaker, but I like the way it sounds and enjoy listening to it. Thanks and best regards.

[prerunnerv6]

It's great that it turned out the way you wanted. I'm building my first 3-way speaker this weekend and I hope I'm as happy with it as you are with yours.