Small full range for Desk use

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Arne

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Joined 2003
#1
I have just gotten myself a new office. That is a good thing. However, I would like to be able to play some decent sounding music there. Preferably through a bluetooth connection so I can easily change devices and don’t need to run cables. However, I would like to build something and do that on a budget in comparison to just going out and buying a JBL or Sonos 5. 😉

So, after doing some searching, I really am up in the air on what to choose and where to get the plans. I have never been that math genius who could use the programs used here to determine cabinet sizes, Q’s etc.

These are my requirements:
- I need something small to sit on my desk
- I want it to be clear sounding and have a decent range (I don’t expect room filling bass from this, but it should not just be mids and highs.)
- Materials are up for debate. Anything that sounds great can work
- I do have some experience having built a set of TQWT’s with 50’s Isophon’s before (don’t have any left over)
- No specific size requirements as it is my office. For now my first thought would not go out to floor standers though

I have seen some interesting ideas with PVC, but not found anything concrete with drawings that look nice.
I have seen the LXmini design which is also two-way, but I would like to build this on a budget, so I would like to steer clear of buying $100 plans. Open sourced stuff preferred and willing to contribute where I can.
And I like the simplicity of a full range speaker.

Any thoughts or suggestions from you guys?
 
#2
Built these a couple of months back very happy with how they sound used Bamboo Ikea Aptitlig chopping boards and Scanspeak Discovery 10F/8414G10 Full range drivers cabinet is a Ufonken (made a little wider to better fit the driver 10mm I think it was)

9935934_l.jpg


2"-3" fullrange

http://p10hifi.net/tlinespeakers/FAL/box-plans/microFonken-0v9-map.pdf

Also looked at a TL speaker enclosure called the Lance which looks a lot easier to construct.

http://wodendesign.com/downloads/Woden-BabyLabs-081015.pdf

Edit I have them set up at my desk running off one of these little 20W Bluetooth amps works very well blue tooth range is around 15 feet

DROK(R) Mini Stereo Audio Wireless Bluetooth: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics
 
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#3
I just built a set of full range desktops last week with a markaudio CHR70.3 driver in each 7.5 liter cabinet. The plan for the cabinets is on the markaudio.com website. I have ran them for approx. 130 hours so far and they keep sounding better the more I play them (still breaking them in). Bass is really pretty decent for such a small driver and I am very pleased with the way that they turned out. I may eventually add a subwoofer to my system in the future, but for now I am enjoying the full range two speaker experience as is.
 
#7
Mark Audio drivers, actually almost all the FRs i have tried, need break-in. Some take less, some more.

Alot of our uFonken (FF85wk), and various milliSize boxes (a wide range of drivers) get used on the desktop. I suspect the newish uMar-Kens (Alpair 5.2) will too. The Woden Baby Labyrinths are a bit bigger but designed for the same purpose.

uFonkenSET in solid walnut:

blackWalnut-uFonkenSET-comp.jpg


dave

dave
 
#10
I am partial to the uFonken with the FF85wk, there are 5 versions, the 2 rectangular box ones are easiest to build. The small one is almost identical to the uFonken plans you can find here (down the left side about half-way down) Meet the Fonkens. The uFonkenSET i posted in post #7 is the hardest of the lot to build but have the most finesse.

There are similar enclosures for the Alpair 5.2

Bigun has a Fountek FE88ex enclosure (Martello, Post #6) he likes… we also posted a set of plans. We find the top end of the Founteks to be a bit “tizzy”. We were looking at them in the limbo between the discontinuation of the FF85k and the intro of the even better FF85wk.

The Fountek Five for FR88ex

XRK wil/has recommend the little karsonators… watch the TC9, i got 4 on the ove rthe top accolades, but found them very disappointing. I have only beem able to give one pair away.

dave
 
#13
Scottmoose said:
In addition to Dave's Fonkens & their derivatives, there is a small series of desktop labyrinths which seem to have gone down quite well, and are straightforward to build: http://wodendesign.com/downloads/Woden-BabyLabs-081015.pdf I don't normally mention boxes I designed, but you asked for simple & for 3in drivers.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing. Those look interesting and pretty simple to build. You also name a range of possible drivers to use. Are there drivers that work better for one design than the other?
 
#14
Yes, the one each says it's designed for tends to be the preferred unit. 😉

Humour aside, there is a small amount of flexibility, but as a rule, try to stick with the design driver as that's the one it's been optimised for. If you have an alternative, assuming it's suitable for such a load I can work up a specific enclosure.
 
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#15
Scottmoose said:
Yes, the one each says it's designed for tends to be the preferred unit. 😉

Humour aside, there is a small amount of flexibility, but as a rule, try to stick with the design driver as that's the one it's been optimised for. If you have an alternative, assuming it's suitable for such a load I can work up a specific enclosure.
Click to expand...
LOL, can you believe I actually completely missed that driver reference right under the name?

Well, neither can I. 😉

Thanks, this looks good. I'd have to find out where I can get these drivers and at what cost, but this gives a nice idea.

I also came across a cheap webshop selling Visaton and Monacor. Would those units be nice to play with, or just be rubbish and I should discard them anyway. 😉 (Besides the fact that I'd have to find an enclosure design somewhere.)
 
#16
Arne said:
Thanks for sharing. Those look interesting and pretty simple to build. You also name a range of possible drivers to use. Are there drivers that work better for one design than the other?
Click to expand...

If you do a search, the Lance is the most popular but in my opinion the Bloodhound is the overlooked sleeper probably because it is a newer driver,( Alpair 5.2). More people need to be building Bloodhounds.
 
#18
Scottmoose said:
In addition to Dave's Fonkens & their derivatives, there is a small series of desktop labyrinths which seem to have gone down quite well, and are straightforward to build: http://wodendesign.com/downloads/Woden-BabyLabs-081015.pdf I don't normally mention boxes I designed, but you asked for simple & for 3in drivers.
Click to expand...


I built the Falcons and absolutely love them. I ended up adding a bsc, though I don't recall the values atm, and they came alive even more.

Easy to build and sound fantastic.
 
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