Donkey Kong Baffles

[cervelorider]

[cervelorider]

Question posed:

"So, without wandering too far OT, and as charcoal may have been wondering, how is the low end, cervelorider? With floor coupling a similar style OB I made had decent low end (mine wasn't square and driver was off-center as Charcoal also asked). Without that, I could imagine it might get a bit thin."

Answer: Actually, these have the best bass of any single driver open baffle speaker I've ever heard. Recently, at a friend's house, as Randy in Caintuck can attest, the bass response of the Betsy full range driver elicited "whoa" responses from all three of us listening. Placement and room boundaries have as much to do with the bass as the driver and baffle though. My friend's smaller room sounded much better than my larger room. So...as with all things audio, your results may vary, but the off the ground design seems to be made up for by the large baffle surface.

[Carlp]

Thanks for posting this, cervelorider. I've been looking at the Betsy and BetsyK for a while (I LOVE the way OB sound except for the sometimes lacking low end), just waiting for a little extra green in my wallet.

Oh, and as I said in the fullrange thread, they are truly beautiful! Love the black on birch.

[Urchinn]

Truly beautiful. How bout some more photos? And some measurements? And some thoughts about how they perform, where they are placed, and what you might do differently. Basically, I'm seeing a project that even I could pull off...and want to know more. Thanks sooooo much.

[Randy in Caintuck]

Originally Posted by cervelorider

Answer: Actually, these have the best bass of any single driver open baffle speaker I've ever heard. Recently, at a friend's house, as Randy in Caintuck can attest, the bass response of the Betsy full range driver elicited "whoa" responses from all three of us listening.

I am here to attest .....

The "whoa" response happened several times. The other neat thing about these speakers is that they had the effect of just making me close my eyes and soak up the front row performance that was taking place in the room ..... very natural, with a good blend of tone and detail across the entire frequency range.

Since my "MTM Betsy" project didn't turn out as well as expected, I now have a spare pair of Betsy drivers to play with.

Guess what I am going to build with them .....

Randy

[cervelorider]

Alright Randy! Can't wait to see the Donkey Kong II.


Urchin: Sorry, no measurements. Wouldn't tell you much anyway as the room and placement is everything when it comes to a speaker like this.
Placement is by taste and varies depending on the room. I had them at a friends house and his room sounded much different than mine.
There isn't much to the build. What you see is about it. Some short angled wings, hidden behind the "legs" is all I did for support on mine. The bottom needs to be angled back a bit. You'll need to engineer more bracing than I did if you have pets, kids or don't like to live dangerously. A swoopy L shaped bracket cut from a singlular piece of ply, on a piano hinge, would probably suffice.

[Urchinn]

Is the back of the Donkey Kong also perfectly flat? And I can't really see how you made the feet. They do, in fact, seem easy to tip....

[cervelorider]

Originally Posted by Urchinn

Is the back of the Donkey Kong also perfectly flat? And I can't really see how you made the feet. They do, in fact, seem easy to tip....

Yes, the back is perfectly flat, except for the narrow wings that are about 1/3rd of the way up the back. Oh yeah....super tippy, especially on carpet.
My friend has them at his house, giving them a good work out, but when I get them back, I'll be adding a brace in the center back, with a piano hinge.

[Urchinn]

Thanks! When you do get them back, I would love to see a photo of the back. I'm not sure what "narrow wings" look like...but I would love to have a peek.

[Studio Au]

Really beautiful...