Well, it hasn't happened yet, but I have sent monies to Douglas at the Home of Burros and await 8 Betsys to arrive in the sunny Barossa Valley.
I an intending to use 4 Betsys aside in short array along with 2 Hawthorne Augies per side in OB.
The Augies have been delivering good musical bass with both a PSI Hawthorne 15" Coax, and a Visaton B200 ... adaptor plates make for relatively quick changes.
I'm intending to initially install the 4 Betsy array above the two Augies - this will make for a very tall speaker, but it's easier to prune bits off later than it is to graft bits on.
If you have any thoughts or suggestion (please save satire for later - I'm sure it will be necessary) please don't hesitate.
I'm gunna try to attach a pic now - I hope it works.
This is my first post since 2009 - how the time goes ... moving back home disconnected me from a lot of things.
I an intending to use 4 Betsys aside in short array along with 2 Hawthorne Augies per side in OB.
The Augies have been delivering good musical bass with both a PSI Hawthorne 15" Coax, and a Visaton B200 ... adaptor plates make for relatively quick changes.
I'm intending to initially install the 4 Betsy array above the two Augies - this will make for a very tall speaker, but it's easier to prune bits off later than it is to graft bits on.
If you have any thoughts or suggestion (please save satire for later - I'm sure it will be necessary) please don't hesitate.
I'm gunna try to attach a pic now - I hope it works.
This is my first post since 2009 - how the time goes ... moving back home disconnected me from a lot of things.
Attachments
Hi guys.
I need to hear some words of opinion and perhaps some words of advice (although I confess that I am notoriously bad at taking advice - possibly a by-product reaction against a vocation where I am called on to give much advice).
Now, these questions may seem naive and foolish to you - especially coming from a grey-beard who has been building and tweaking speakers since about 1967 … but I have always built and adapted the recipes of others - I am not a particularly original audio chef, and I I am a clergyman / theologian and former plant researcher - induction and impedance and such are just not part of my conscious mind.
I have had a long love affair with Open Baffles … and now I desire more.
I have ordered 8 Wild Burro Audio ‘Betsy’ 8” full-range drivers that I intend to make into a pair of (short) full range open-baffle arrays … bass will be helped out by my 2 per side Hawthorne Augies in OB.
I have read good things (and some criticisms) of Visaton B200 OB Arrays, and I am intending to try similar but cheaper … I’m not particularly worried about comb filtering - the 4 close together don’t have a very great difference when it comes to distance to ear in listening position … I’ll probably use a bullet tweeter (or a horn loaded compression tweeter) to fill in the high top end. I’m getting old, and am starting to hate cutting holes, so while I don’t mind experimenting, I’d like to keep the hole sawing to a minimum.
Now - stupid questions.
1 … does the array have to be completely vertical - this is what I’m intending, but the thought does occur that perhaps as a space saver and source concentrator I could have the 4 arranged in a close square of 2X2, or even a diamond with a tweeter squeezed in the middle.
2 … now this sounds really dumb, but wiring them, is it better to have 2 in series paralleled, or 2 paralleled in series? Does this change in any way the sum of the strange load individual drivers see when having an identical fellow in series with it? (I am reluctant to ask my tube amp to attempt a 2ohm load)
3 … is a rearward facing tweeter going to be of any benefit to the OB? I tried a rear upward pointing tweeter with a completely different open baffle a few years back, but … well … I dunno - my mental jury is still out … I had a rebuild.
Any constructive thoughts or experiences will be appreciated - but please - don’t hit me with too much theory -I use my ears rather than conceptions I build from reading theory - over the past 45 years or so I have found that practice doesn’t always obey the theory - speakers often don’t seem to read the papers.
Thanks fellas - cheers! ALF.
I need to hear some words of opinion and perhaps some words of advice (although I confess that I am notoriously bad at taking advice - possibly a by-product reaction against a vocation where I am called on to give much advice).
Now, these questions may seem naive and foolish to you - especially coming from a grey-beard who has been building and tweaking speakers since about 1967 … but I have always built and adapted the recipes of others - I am not a particularly original audio chef, and I I am a clergyman / theologian and former plant researcher - induction and impedance and such are just not part of my conscious mind.
I have had a long love affair with Open Baffles … and now I desire more.
I have ordered 8 Wild Burro Audio ‘Betsy’ 8” full-range drivers that I intend to make into a pair of (short) full range open-baffle arrays … bass will be helped out by my 2 per side Hawthorne Augies in OB.
I have read good things (and some criticisms) of Visaton B200 OB Arrays, and I am intending to try similar but cheaper … I’m not particularly worried about comb filtering - the 4 close together don’t have a very great difference when it comes to distance to ear in listening position … I’ll probably use a bullet tweeter (or a horn loaded compression tweeter) to fill in the high top end. I’m getting old, and am starting to hate cutting holes, so while I don’t mind experimenting, I’d like to keep the hole sawing to a minimum.
Now - stupid questions.
1 … does the array have to be completely vertical - this is what I’m intending, but the thought does occur that perhaps as a space saver and source concentrator I could have the 4 arranged in a close square of 2X2, or even a diamond with a tweeter squeezed in the middle.
2 … now this sounds really dumb, but wiring them, is it better to have 2 in series paralleled, or 2 paralleled in series? Does this change in any way the sum of the strange load individual drivers see when having an identical fellow in series with it? (I am reluctant to ask my tube amp to attempt a 2ohm load)
3 … is a rearward facing tweeter going to be of any benefit to the OB? I tried a rear upward pointing tweeter with a completely different open baffle a few years back, but … well … I dunno - my mental jury is still out … I had a rebuild.
Any constructive thoughts or experiences will be appreciated - but please - don’t hit me with too much theory -I use my ears rather than conceptions I build from reading theory - over the past 45 years or so I have found that practice doesn’t always obey the theory - speakers often don’t seem to read the papers.
Thanks fellas - cheers! ALF.
Hi,
Generally its pretty pointless giving advice to those who don't like.
theory, because any sensible advice requires using sensible theory.
1) The arrangements, are different with different consequences
though the square and diamond will be much more similar.
2) Will not matter, either way is the same.
3) Rear tweeter being any use or not depends on a lot of things.
rgds, sreten.
I like good theory. I don't like bad theory, too much of that in hifi.
Generally its pretty pointless giving advice to those who don't like.
theory, because any sensible advice requires using sensible theory.
1) The arrangements, are different with different consequences
though the square and diamond will be much more similar.
2) Will not matter, either way is the same.
3) Rear tweeter being any use or not depends on a lot of things.
rgds, sreten.
I like good theory. I don't like bad theory, too much of that in hifi.
Thanks Sreten ... yes, I guess my problem is that I have been hit too many times with bad theory, or mediocre theory delivered with a bad attitude, to be really comfortable with it ... I value experience - although, of course, it's heavily subjective. A few years back I tried an upward firing rear tweeter - a bit of sparkle, but generally annoying ... I guess I'm thinking rear tweeter to simulate dipole at the very top end - it opens up a whole lot of room treatment issues I guess, and yes - it's a dumb question.
Cheers
ALF
Abandonment
I have been flat out working, trying hard to stress myself into an early grave, so no proper builds have been done.
But,
after a few experiments and cardboardy mock-ups, I have abandoned the Betsy Array idea (for now anyway) ... I just couldn't get no satisfaction.
But,
I do have a stereo pair of Betsy drivers in temporary baffles powered by my KT120 pp valve amp, assisted by separately driven 15" Hawthorne Augies from 100hz down, and I've gotta say they sound pretty close to sublime ... It's amazing how expen$ive such "cheap" speakers can sound ... Lovely little driver yer Betsy!
ALF in Autumnal Aus.
I have been flat out working, trying hard to stress myself into an early grave, so no proper builds have been done.
But,
after a few experiments and cardboardy mock-ups, I have abandoned the Betsy Array idea (for now anyway) ... I just couldn't get no satisfaction.
But,
I do have a stereo pair of Betsy drivers in temporary baffles powered by my KT120 pp valve amp, assisted by separately driven 15" Hawthorne Augies from 100hz down, and I've gotta say they sound pretty close to sublime ... It's amazing how expen$ive such "cheap" speakers can sound ... Lovely little driver yer Betsy!
ALF in Autumnal Aus.
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