It's better to start with what one can afford, then spend what one doesn't have...

[SkinnyBoy]

Tis better to start with what one can afford, then spend what one doesn't have...

Did the title suck you in? hehe... basically.. my el'cheapo towers.. hehe... well.. not totally cheap.. but anyway...

Look for yaself.. lol
http://home.iprimus.com.au/jlstanley/Speakers/Speaker_Box_Construction.html

I am sorta having trouble deciding where to mount the mid and tweeter.. I THINK I should have worked that out BEFORE I began construction..

Basically.. I was gunna put them below the woofers... mm.. heh
I considered mounting the tweeter and midrange in a seperate box above the woofer.. OR! mount them in seperate boxes on the sides, facing the front. hehe

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

 

[JOE DIRT®]

it looks like you have the bloody speaker upside down..haha

EDIT: and its good to see you did the dishes for that pic!!!

 

[SkinnyBoy]

Thankyou for your kind input..

 

[JOE DIRT®]

seriously....I would flip them over and mount the mid and tweeter above them.........as for that hole you have already ransacked...I dunno????

 

[SkinnyBoy]

Thats probably not the tweeter I will be using either... thats a nice peerless... and I wanna keep Peerless with Peerless.. lol

I considered cutting the edge off a tweeter and mounting it next to the woofers.... but still no space for midrange... The port isn't finished... I need to flush the MDF with the inside of the pipe, and round it over abit.. and... HAHAHA!! the baffel isn't even glues on.. hehe... theres just a few biscuits holding it in place.. lol

 

[SkinnyBoy]

Possible mid/tweeter locations.. and I am NOT going to put the boxes up the other way...

 

[Da5id4Vz]

Wow these have been a long time coming. Congratulations!

Its always good to see what you’ve been up to.

How do they sound, and what are you thinking about doing for the finish?

I like the idea of putting them in a separate box on top. Perhaps something inspired by the B&W nautilus, round and pointy that is.

 

[SkinnyBoy]

Wow these have been a long time coming. Congratulations!

Its always good to see what you’ve been up to.

How do they sound, and what are you thinking about doing for the finish?

I like the idea of putting them in a separate box on top. Perhaps something inspired by the B&W nautilus, round and pointy that is.

They sound alright... lacking mid at the moment, and the highs are somewhat overpowering due to the tweeters higher sensitivity... (this will ofcourse be fixed when I get the final tweeters and build a propper crossover) They seem to have the ability to be heard halfway down the street, which is what I was aiming for... haven't "cranked" them.. for 2 reasons.. lol ONE!!! the baffels tend to come loose from the boxes... and TWO my amp can only give 60watts into 8ohms, which means each woofer is getting a rather poor 30watts each.. lol (they are rated at 100watts rms)

As for the finish.. well.. hehe.. whenever anyone else asks I say I am doing a high gloss Fire-engine RED.. but I'll probably do high gloss black of white...

The boxes aren't even finished.... I need to round all the edges... I think I will make a seperate box for the tweeter and midrange.. its the easiest thing to do.. and if I don't like it, I can always cut holes in the baffel later..

 

[Da5id4Vz]

Fire engine red would be great, or perhaps something like the Fender smoke and fire guitar paint?

Here is a picture of a stand-alone tweeter in a nice walnut case:

If your mid and tweeter both sealed back devices you might also consider using cast plaster or cement for the enclosure. A plastic bottle could make a good start for a mold.

 

[fatmarley]

Hope you don't mind me asking but what is the other speaker in the picture?

 

[DRC]

Did you consider

Did you consider a seperate enclosure for mid / high with the towers as subs ? That way you could use a narrower baffle and be able to get the drivers at the right height (otherwise you will need to sit on a bar stool to hear it properly ).

Dave

 

[SY]

it looks like you have the bloody speaker upside down..haha

Of course he does, he's in Australia, the bottom of the planet


SkinnyBoy: Looks like my construction methods.

Don't feel bad about keeping the tweeter off the front panel- you're in good company (B&W, Dahlquist).

 

[Ken L]

Perhaps something inspired by the B&W nautilus, round and pointy that is.

Don't feel bad about keeping the tweeter off the front panel- you're in good company (B&W, Dahlquist).

I would put them on the top ala B&W 801's. I used to have a pair. The ability to toe in the mids and tweeters did a good bit for imaging.

Tweeters from below ear level don't work well, but of course they can be somewhat higher than ear level - I would try some form of temporary positioning and listening evaluation before putting a great deal of effort in it.

If it turns out they are too tall to locate on the top -

Then I would just put another piece of mdf over the entire existing front and relocate everything.

which may be your best bet anyhow - would add stiffening and weight to the face, I don't see how it could hurt.

When you're done, you will have a lot of time and effort in them - better to bite the bullet and make sure that it is right, than to possibly wind up with more compromises than you intended.

Regards

Ken L

 

[Da5id4Vz]

Looking at your photos again, it does look like they would be a bit high if mounted on top.

If your using them with a the TV a lot the mids relay shouldn’t be much higher than the picture. You could raise the TV to help, but the sweat spot might still be over your head when seated on the sofa.

Even considering these issues, I still like the idea of putting them on top.

 

[SkinnyBoy]

Fire engine red would be great, or perhaps something like the Fender smoke and fire guitar paint?

Here is a picture of a stand-alone tweeter in a nice walnut case:

If your mid and tweeter both sealed back devices you might also consider using cast plaster or cement for the enclosure. A plastic bottle could make a good start for a mold.

Umm... yeah... thanks for the suggestion... hehe

Hope you don't mind me asking but what is the other speaker in the picture?

Those speakers are... umm... my dads... hehe anymore questions I can't really answer?

Looking at your photos again, it does look like they would be a bit high if mounted on top.

If your using them with a the TV a lot the mids relay shouldn’t be much higher than the picture. You could raise the TV to help, but the sweat spot might still be over your head when seated on the sofa.

Even considering these issues, I still like the idea of putting them on top.

Well.. thats good because this isn't where they are going, nor are they going to be used with the TV... they are PROBABLY going in my room to replace the Acculab piles of rubbish I have now...

I'm not going to make a new baffel... I have spent enough on MDF already...

 

[wintermute]

I'm not going to make a new baffel... I have spent enough on MDF already...

Hey Skinny Boy. May I suggest that you don't glue the front baffles on, maybe screw them and use some sort of non setting sealent. That way later on when you are no longer at the stage of I just want these to be finished you can easily make a new front baffle which may be more optimal.

I guess the thing to check is how high will the tweeters be when you are seated if you put them directly under the woofers. If they are pretty much at ear level, then you will probably be ok. If you then put in a mid I'm not sure how WWTM will go but I guess it would be a good experiment

Regards,

Tony.

 

[JOE DIRT®]

thats why I was eggin at him about the speakers being upside down...I was thinking of the soundstage...but those who dont make mistakes are the ones that never fail...no pun intended....I hope it all works out....an off axis tweeter on top would work well then compensation in the crossover would minimal

DIRT®

 

[BAM]

What about a dipole configuration with the mid and tweeter? That could be cool and would require a minimum of alteration to the baffle of the bass box itself. Of course, the mids should be open-backed. A 4" woofer should be decent for this type of use, or, if you can get Tangband down there, you can get one of their 4" wide-band drivers and use it as mid.Then you can build a frame covered with grille cloth to conceal the rears of the drivers and the wiring if aesthetics are an issue.

Check out this 4" driver which would make a great dipole midrange: http://www.tb-speaker.com/detail/w4-657s.htm
It has an aluminum cone and shiny phase plug which are both functional and good-looking. Then you can pick up a small neodymium-motor tweeter like the Tangband 25-302S tweeter. Nuera in Canada has both the tweeter and the mid. They are fairly inexpensive ($16 and $10 for mid and tweeter, respectively) so you can pay for the international shipping. But you want to make sure to have a good midrange in a high-fidelity speaker, and the 25-302S should also provide an extended, detailed high end. Run the W4-657S between 400 and 5000 Hz, where you should then cross over to the tweeters.

 

[roddyama]

Skinnyboy,

Good job. You're farther along on your speakers than I am on my Aleph5. I like Ken L's suggestion, ala B&W 802.

 

[wrl]

I don't know about those B&W's. I think they are ******* ugly ( a local shop has them set up with two krell monoblocks) Altogether, I think that the system cost more than $50,000. IMHO it didn't sound that good. I haven't heard a set of conventional speakers that can touch ESL's.