What would be the best DIY dipole speakers you have ever heard?
I'm interested on building some OB speakers, and the clear purpose is to get better sound quality than with current Magneplanars. I'm quite happy with their true ribbons, so it wouldn't be a problem using Maggie's ribbons for the highs. Basses is the biggest problem with Maggies for me; no matter what the model is, there is always something missing from the bottom end with music such as pop/rock or classical. I think that mids are quite good, but if there are any ways for improvement, I'll more than glad to hear your suggestions.
I also think that I will be using DEQX for crossovers and corrections.
Thank you!
I'm interested on building some OB speakers, and the clear purpose is to get better sound quality than with current Magneplanars. I'm quite happy with their true ribbons, so it wouldn't be a problem using Maggie's ribbons for the highs. Basses is the biggest problem with Maggies for me; no matter what the model is, there is always something missing from the bottom end with music such as pop/rock or classical. I think that mids are quite good, but if there are any ways for improvement, I'll more than glad to hear your suggestions.
I also think that I will be using DEQX for crossovers and corrections.
Thank you!
An Australian company called ER Audio sells very fine ESL kit speakers. Another company called Just Real Music (Michigan/USA) sells complete ESL speakers and components for DIY'ers at very reasonable prices-- I hear the owner Russ is a really nice guy who won't cheat you but sometimes has more work than he can do quickly-- so it might take a while to get an order filled.
The great thing about ESL's is that, if you're moderately handy, you can build your own hybrid ESL's for not a lot money. The website below is a pretty good resource for a newbie ESL builder. The ESL panels and power supplies shown there are simple and easy and could adapted to practically any hybrid ESL speaker design.
Jazzman's DIY Electrostatic Loudspeaker Page
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Check out my "Aurium Waveguide" open baffle speakers. Woofers are in separate cabinets. The system as a whole is triamped, and measures acoustically flat at the couch from 20HZ to 20kHZ, +/- 3dB. Watch out for the Behringer products. Some of them have really bad analog circuits. See my web page on the one I redesigned and rebuilt, after Gary Pimm brought the design problems to my attention. Bob's Website
http://www.spiritone.com/~rob_369
http://www.spiritone.com/~rob_369
I understand exactly where you're coming from. I have MG-IIIa's and love so many things about them but their lack of LF prowess is a definite handicap. I tried supplementing them with subs (sealed and ported in a variety of sizes) but never thought anything integrated all that well. Then I built a pair of OB H-frames with 15" Eminence Alpha LF driver and it was a match made in heaven. The H-frame subs are everything they say they are....musical as all hell with a robust, fat as well as punchy character with speed and clarity unlike any any boxed sub I've ever heard. I've never measured mine but I'm sure their fairly flat down into the upper thirties, at least....possibly lower. Provided you have the space to accommodate them along with the Maggies (the H-frames need to be about four feet out from the front wall to sound their best) it's a very impressive combination.
- Michael
- Michael
Well THAT sounds interesting!
But, can they really be so good with that wide frequency range? I think that requirements for playing well on 200hz are quite different that for playing well on 20khz... Since I'm going to use DEQX with digital 3-way crossovers, a 3- way setup would also be just fine.
Does anyone have experience on B&G's against true ribbon Maggies, how do they compare sonic wise?
Might also want to take a look at Siegfrieg Linkwitz' latest:
LX521 Description
This is on my "I want" list....
LX521 Description
This is on my "I want" list....
I have chosen to go with four 18" woofers in HBaffles to handle my 2 channel bass, and have done some corresponding with several members including StigErik, and can tell you the big OB bass guys are an enthusiastic bunch and their attitude is highly contagious
I tried a 3-way with 10" woofers. It didn't sound as good as the RD-75 in a 2-way setup, crossed at 200 Hz.
The RD-75 is really a gem ... its width s small enough to work well at high frequencies, yet the entire membrane area is close to an 18" woofer, so 200 Hz is really not a problem either.
While I'd expect those to work rather well they're not dipoles.
You can't exploit dipole roll-off to get properly centered imaging across a three seat couch, side-wall reflections will be an issue with asymmetric placement, and you won't have the dipole modal behavior.
StigErik; do you know if RD-50 or RD-48 are also able to go well down to 200hz? I think that RD-75 would be a bit too long for my purposes.
Does anyone have experience on how these RD's would compare to the mid section of the 3.x Magneplanars?
What I would look at carefully is the lower end of the midrange driver. Some (notably JK and SL) designs use a substantial midrange driver reaching right down to 100hz... This IMHO is a key requirement (especially important for dipole system).
Yes, you can add a sub/woofer system to an ESL or other bass challenged speaker, which sure takes care of bass below 100hz-ish .... but if the original midbass / lowermid driver doesn't have enough displacement (lots don't), then we may still have torture at 200hz (there's a lot of music @ 200hz IMO) ;-)
Obviously your target SPL will make this more or less of an issue.
EDIT: Re: RD-75, I don't have experience with such a driver (I would like to) ... so take the above with a "grain of salt" if you think I'm knocking RD75 and similar. Intuitively 200hz seems impressive to me for RD75.
Yes, you can add a sub/woofer system to an ESL or other bass challenged speaker, which sure takes care of bass below 100hz-ish .... but if the original midbass / lowermid driver doesn't have enough displacement (lots don't), then we may still have torture at 200hz (there's a lot of music @ 200hz IMO) ;-)
Obviously your target SPL will make this more or less of an issue.
EDIT: Re: RD-75, I don't have experience with such a driver (I would like to) ... so take the above with a "grain of salt" if you think I'm knocking RD75 and similar. Intuitively 200hz seems impressive to me for RD75.
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