DIY ribbons for this particular dummy.

[Spasticteapot]

I have some decent metalworking skills, and a bit of access to some CAD machining stuff. Anyone have any tips for where I can get info on DIY ribbon speaker construction, such as the sorta-kinda-Linaeums that have been featured as of late?

[ppfred]

For starters try:
Another DIY Ribbon thread

AudioXpress sells a book on DIY ribbons.

[Spasticteapot]

I'm looking for more of a "build this, put magnets here, here and here, and add voltage" sort of guide.

Hence, "for dummy".

[ppfred]

http://home.comcast.net/~hendentures...es/Page332.htm

And put out for the book if you're serious.

[el`Ol]

This is linaeum-like DIY speaker:
A DIY Ribbon Speaker of a different Kind

[stokessd]

I was all set to build a set of 48" ish long ribbons. I even drew up all the pieces in autodesk inventor. I was ready to pull the trigger on about $400 worth of magnets. The guy at Hendentures was a real inspiration

But I was waiting to see some results that showed that a 4 foot long x 1/2" wide ribbon could play down to about 200 Hz or so, so I could cross the thing over to a woofer. I don't want a set of $500 tweeters that don't play down below 1 KHz. the real information content of music is way below that and I'd be listening to my midbass units with minor contributions from the ribbon.

In my searches to try to find a project that showed that such a ribbon response was possible I came across the ZaphAudio website where John does some distortion measurements. The results (which corroborate journal articles) show pretty crappy performance from ribbons.

The combination of spending a lot of time to build a $500 pair of high distortion tweeters and not finding any indication that the $500 tweeter can also be a midrange took the wind out of my sails.

I love my ESL's and their distortion is very low. The ribbons for me would be an experiment to see how close to the ESL performance I could get with a higher dispersion device.

So my goal is to get proof (without me building a set) that a big ribbon can play through the midrange. Then I'm all over building a set.


Sheldon

[tinitus]

Well, cross it higher and be aware that you should make the bass as a dipole line array - and not play too loud

But I will say that a slim ribbon dont have enough power at 200hz anyway

Distortion figures I wouldnt bother about - its kind of like tubeamps - measures awfull but sounds wonderfull

But improperly built it may rattle at higher levels, but thats a different mattter

[Spasticteapot]

I'm thinking that "magnetostatic" speakers seem to be the best combination of performance, price, and ease of construction. However, they require mylar streching, which I am not looking forward to.

ESLs are also nice, but I need something with a bit less high voltage.

Does anyone know how they produced metalized mylar or polypropylene, as for capacitors?

[stokessd]

Originally posted by Spasticteapot

ESLs are also nice, but I need something with a bit less high voltage.

I'd rather deal with the wimpy high voltage power supplies than the potentially dangerous insanely strong magnets. Don't let the high voltage scare you, it's just like low voltage only higher.

Sheldon

[stokessd]

Originally posted by tinitus
Well, cross it higher and be aware that you should make the bass as a dipole line array - and not play too loud

But I will say that a slim ribbon dont have enough power at 200hz anyway

One of the things I'm going for in my newer designs are slim unobtrusive speaker systems. I'm playing with active crossovers, bass lift and such to get high performance out of small packages. I don't find myself sitting in my listening room much anymore, and I'm enjoying music all over the house. This changes my priorities a bit.

I've got a design on paper that uses an XT25 and a pair of Vifa PL18's that are going in a slim floorstanding TL enclosure with built in amplifiers and active XO. Should be quite good, and will live near my pinball machine in the lower level of my house. The entire audio system there will consist of those speakers and a squeezebox.

Sheldon