Advice needed for new speakers!

[MellowTone]

Timbo, I went rather cheap with these, as they are my first set, and i learnt a LOT. I used 16mm MDF from Bunnings, two sheets 1200x600mm (I had this cut by a teacher at my high school). for the drivers I used 8" woofers from Altronics.com.au (I can give you cat# if you need) and 19mm vifa tweeters from Speakerbits.com.au. I used cheap, iron-on Radiata Pine Veneer from Bunnings to cover them (ConsolidatedVeneers or something). I also used premade crossovers (probably a bad idea), but it turned out ok, if you have any soldering expeience I would say that making your own is a good idea

All came in around $300, later I will add some more detail, no time now.

All this is driven by an Rotel RA1000 40wrms/2 amp (ebay $180, probably paid too much), which hisses a bit.

Cheers, Nic.

[Timbo]

Hey Nic,

Thanks for taking the time to reply mate!

Just a few questions:

-Did you base this speaker on a pre-existing design? I mean the driver/tweeter combination?

-How did you work out the box size?

-Have you compared these to any "brand name" speakers to judge their quality?

-What did you base the purchase of your crossover design on?

What i am leaning towards is trying to find a nice deign somewhere on the net (which i have found lots of) with a proven combination of driver/tweeters, and all the details for box volume and crossover specs. I am by no means an expert in any of this stuff and really dont have the equipment or knowledge to start tuning and playing with bits and pieces like that, so i feel it would be suicide to go it on my own and try to design something from scratch.

I am very handy with building the boxes and soldering things up, thats no problem, so hence why i was looking at a kit of some form where i can build all the bits myself but base it all on a proven design. I would hate to spend money and time on something that is a dissapointment in the end.

One that i have heard really great reports on is this thing:

Acapella SE

I think they look sensational and from all accounts they appear to be the builders "reference" speaker.

Would this be overkill for me seeing as though i already have the bass-side covered with my 2x10" subs? Can i build a cut down version of this?

Sorry for the long list of questions, but if you dont ask you dont know, and as i said i am a little tentative to go this alone due to my lack of knowledge in this area.

Thanks again,

Timbo

[MellowTone]

I made the design pretty much from scratch, I just had mild basings in some designs I saw (of rough shape and tweeter offest) I used a program called BlauBox to design in, rather basic, but gets the job done (I can email it to you if you life, although if you ask other members here i'm sure they could point out a better program). The combination of RedBack woofer and Vifa tweeter was purely based on price and availability, they also looked like reasnoble quality to me (I didn't want to pour $$$ into my first design, as I was mainly planning to learn a lot, which I did, and I still got good sound.)

On the camparing them to other speakers front, I really only have an old pair of Hitachis (which they beat the Hell out of) a 30 year old pair of Interdyns (Which they beat) and a set of 3way Jensens (about 20yrs old, my speakers are around these ones. The bass in the Jensens is stronger, because I had to compromise a bit on volume when I made them, as I did not want floorstanders.) I have listened to some Wharfedale $1000 3way floorstanders and they are around their quality.

For the crossovers, I wanted an xover freq of about 3500hz, so the ones I got were about that. I would strongly reccomend you make your own crossovers, just ask around the forums and I'm sure you'll find a good xover design program.

Finding a design on the net sounds like a great idea, they should be sound and tried. Just make sure you can source the drivers. And as you said, they will be a good combo of tweeter/woofer. Make sure you find a good'un, mabye ask around here.

If you can afford it, the Acapella SE looks good. As long as you can make it well, don't dive in the deep end too early. from what ive read, i think "reference" speakers are meant to be good?

As i've said before, I don't use subs with music, so I wont comment too much on this. Just make sure the subs are good quality, or you can get horrible distortion. I would ask around the forums for an answer to this.

I don't mind helping others, as forum members here have been very helpful to me, I though i'd pass some knowledge on. Hope this helps.

Cheers, Nic.