What to do with these cabinets?

[TurboFC3S]

So I have these cabinets, they're pretty well made with a nice oak verneer and some decent internal bracing. Here are the dimensions:

Tweeter face - 4 1/8"
Midrange face - 7 1/4" with a .62 cu/ft sealed cab
Woofer face - 7 1/4" with a 1 cu/ft vented cab, 3" port

My ideas are:

- Make a 3 way using a Tang Band W6-1139SG Neo Sub in the 1 cu/ft vented chamber crossed at around 300-400hz (http://www.partsexpress.com/pdf/264-832.pdf) to the Dayton RS-180 in the .62 cu/ft sealed chamber, and the RS28 tweeter. For this I would need help with a crossover design. But I bet those Neo subs would totally kick some butt

- Cut out the wall separating the two driver chambers to make a single 1.65 cu/ft vented enclosure and build a 2.5 way based on design here - http://www.rjbaudio.com/RS180MTM/rs180-rs28-mtm.html No extra work needed other than putting it together based on his crossover design.

- Keep the 2 chambers seperate, make a 2.5 way design with the Dayton RS180 in the vented chamber, Dayton Euro ES180 (or possibly Vifa XG18) in the sealed, and a Dayton RS28A tweet. I consider the Euro for a mid because it's less analytical and more forgiving of bad recordings. And use the RS180 in the vented chamber because it has more xmax.

I want plenty of bass, they'll be used in a fairly big room with no sub. Also want good detail, but needs to be forgiving enough to use with not-so-well recorded rock and metal music. So which of the above ideas would you try and why? Or maybe some other idea I haven't considered.

Here are some pictures of the cabinets - they're upside down



And a picture of the internal bracing I've added, as well as a thick coat of water putty to harden it up some more.

[v-bro]

Nice cabinets

I would suggest a multi-amp design with the filter on each amp-input specifically tuned for each driver.

Amp idea's:
http://41hz.com/
Or to make it easier with a built and tested (or even encased) design:
http://www.autocostruire.com/catalog...e2c2e631187655

Filter idea's:
http://www.t-linespeakers.org/tech/f...ssiveHLxo.html
http://www.marchandelec.com/xm46.html
http://www.marchandelec.com/ftp/xm46man.pdf

This way you can make the bass as impressive as you like....

Advantages are that the filter is a lot less expensive, this money can be used better for amplification, and for the price I can't think of a better amp than a class D of the latest kind ("class T")..

I've put my 30W class A amps in the storage and am pretty much in love with my 4 channel mc4x100 from audiodigit...

[Illusus]

what drivers are in the one in picture background? Also, Why are you wagging the dog?

just curious.

[FastEddy]

here's what I did with some very old cabinets: http://3dotaudio.com/waterputtyexperiment.html ...

They sound pretty good. The drivers still have to be broken in and the crossovers tweaked. (I'd love to take a whack at your's = too cool! )

[TurboFC3S]

Originally posted by Illusus
what drivers are in the one in picture background? Also, Why are you wagging the dog?

just curious.

Background is an empty Wharfedale Evo 30 cabinet and the other Wharfedale Emerald 87 ... that's the other half of what I'm working with here.

Wag the dog?

[Illusus]

ahh, so the drivers in the original design are wharfdale.

Wag the dog - doing something backwards - tail wags dog... you started with cabs and are trying match drivers to them.

How'd you manage to get raw wharfdale cabs?

[Willitwork]

Originally posted by Illusus Wag the dog - doing something backwards - tail wags dog... you started with cabs and are trying match drivers to them.

Little choice but to wag a couple of dogs when spiffy empty cabinets sorta just happen upon you.

[TurboFC3S]

I acutally got the speakers two days ago, found them on craigslist for $50. I brought them home and they work fine, but the cabinets were pretty scratched up. The pictures show cabinet 1 all sanded down and cabinet 2 in the background with the original drivers and finish still on it.

After I opened up the cabinet and made some measurements, I decided they're perfect for better drivers. Last night I stained and poly'd the first cabinet and it looks fantastic, so why not give it fantastic sound as well If it works out well, I'll probably base an entire home theater off the final design.

So far I've ruled out the Tang Band Neo sub ... sensitivity is just too low. What I'm leaning toward is a 2.5 way with undetermined drivers and keeping one chamber sealed, one vented.

[TurboFC3S]

Today's progress

One cab finished and poly'd ... ready for drivers. Checkout the nifty trim rings, those will make fitting new drivers look totally clean if the overall diameter is slightly smaller.

I'm about to pull the trigger on a 2.5 way with Dayton RS180's and Seas 27TBFC/G, but am afraid it won't be very forgiving

Am also considering a 2.5 way with Vifa XT18's but problem there might be not enough bass. What to do, what to do?

[Jim85IROC]

Perhaps revisit your tangband subwoofer idea by buying a subwoofer plate amp to install on the back of the cabinet. This will make your crossover easier because it'll be just a conventional 2 way, and also answers your sensitivity mismatch issue.