A Speaker that Kicks Butt in Large Spaces

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Tiny Dual 3.5 inch Drivers with 0.33X Scale Karlsonator

Just for grins, I wanted to see what happens if I were to take the Karlsonator and scale it by 0.33X in all dimensions and put two small 3.5 in Vifa TC9FD (high Qts) drivers that I use for my other projects. The resulting cabinet is indeed very small ('cute' and 'bookshelf' comes to mind) - about 5.1 in wide x 5.4 in deep x 10 in high (all internal dims). The speakers are assumed to be placed against a wall and the measurement is at 3 meters away. At 2.83V into 4 ohms parallel load, I get a solid 90 dB bass shelf from 80 Hz to nearly 300 Hz. There is a big hole 350 Hz to 800 Hz, which may improve with stuffing inside to prevent the end reflections. Anyhow, I am surprised how well this can throw a solid punch at 3m. The second plot is the impedance, third plot is cone displacement, and fourth is polar plot of 80 Hz, 200 Hz, and 1500 Hz. Note the very wide dispersion of the 1200 Hz without lobing. The frequencies that are there, when they pass hrough the K-slot, have a very wide uniform pattern (90 deg in this case).
 

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interesting - maybe you'll come up with new small Ks that can punch, disperse and play smooth. Would the K6.5 with the wide aperture as I have in the plan, exhibit good performance with a FE166EN? - with the de-whizzered 164, it sounds "deep" and off axis timbre (with helper tweeter on top to fill) seems good at 90 off horizontal in the voice overtone range - it seems more mellow than some of K's

k6.5 plan https://plus.google.com/photos/1005...5578916065853178818&oid=100545049816297868412

K6.5 tuning with a FE164
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


k6.5 test box with FE164
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
 
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when making new small effective K-coupler - what is the best front chamber shape and how does air mass distribution in that chamber matter?

consider these two couplers for 6 inch speakers - as one travels from the speaker up, the chamber cross-section of the Karlsonator 6 is tapering downwards while the HAK6 is getting larger - up to a point.

I think in practice that both approaches will make a good system.

Karlsonator 6
https://plus.google.com/photos/1005...5578916065853178818&oid=100545049816297868412

HAK 6
https://plus.google.com/photos/1005...5624072472699373874&oid=100545049816297868412
 
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Joined 2012
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0.53X Scale Mini Karlsonator with dual TC9FD's

Upon looking at the physical dimensions required to fit a couple of TC9FD's on the front, it looks like the cabinet has to be scaled to 8/15 or 0.53X. This makes the angled driver mounting baffle plate 7.5 inches tall and the drivers are 3.52 in wide a piece - so they just fit in there. It appears the mid-range performance is improved as well. The cabinets are now about 9 in wide x 9.4 in deep x 16.4 in tall - still fairly small. One nice thing is that the driver cone excursion appears to be fairly well controlled. A similar MLTL box that achieves about the same SPL and bass range at 3 m will exceed the driver's xmax of 2.5 mm in a hurry. This could be a fun build in either XPS insulation sheathing foam or even in foam core boards for a fun mini Karlsonator.

Take the plan from:
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and scale all dimensions by 0.53X and it should produce results similar to the plots below.
 

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that's a promising sim for a 0.53 Karlsonator - are there any 5" fullrange which might work well as a single substitute for the side by side 3s?
-- hey X -- what would be the most powerful 12" K for stage work? - does the 115BK work as well with a 12 as K12?
 
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hey X - will the cheap but cheerful Visaton BG20 which sounds nice in a K12 work in Greg B's Karlsonator 8/BOBO/SuperT@#T?

Karlsonator 8 plan
http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/8281/ga7.png

BG20 at Partsexpress http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=292-548

THIELE-SMALL PARAMETERS
Resonant Frequency (Fs) 38 Hz
DC Resistance (Re) 6.2 ohms
Voice Coil Inductance (Le) 0.80 mH
Mechanical Q (Qms) 3.47
Electromagnetic Q (Qes) 0.51
Total Q (Qts) 0.44
Compliance Equivalent Volume (Vas) 3.88 ft.³
Maximum Linear Excursion (Xmax) 2 mm

MATERIALS OF CONSTRUCTION
Cone Material Paper
Surround Material Cloth

MOUNTING INFORMATION
Overall Outside Diameter 8.07"
Baffle Cutout Diameter 7.20"
Depth 3.19"
 
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at its US price of $27, BG20 is now tough to beat plus the surround doesn't disintegrate like the BOFU did. I've not done a side by side comparison with BetsyK but assume its competitive. I heard some harmonic distortion from BG20 on electronic organ sustained pedal notes - maybe a little of that could have been from the slit vent Karlson where it was housed (distortion not noticeable with my 12" coax in same type cabinet.) A single vent or two taller slots might improve a regular K12 for BG20 for playing nearly pure tones. There wasn't much cone movement but guess even a minute amount could "gargle". Oddly, the new Eminence B102 is "kinda" like a B20 -but no highs - and a loss in mids vs their old model - maybe that sounds good with fresh round wound bass strings -?
 
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Founder of XSA-Labs
Joined 2012
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BG20 in Karlsonator

hey X - will the cheap but cheerful Visaton BG20 which sounds nice in a K12 work in Greg B's Karlsonator 8/BOBO/SuperT@#T?

Here is the BG20 in a full scale 15/15 Karlsonator and 12/15 scale Karlsonator. I don't think it is suited for this enclosure. There just isn't enough bass extension - probably Qts is too low?
 

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Founder of XSA-Labs
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