Budget Classic 3-way Discussion Thread

Regardless of the driver selected, the baffle/cabinet will have a large effect on the directivity.

A science based design would focus on SPL and directivity goals first, rather than drivers first.

Here's an example of a KEF employee, using off-the-shelf parts, but carefully consider baffle and cabinet construction.

Note the geometry of the baffle and the port position.

Carefully chosen geometry allows drivers to play as smoothly as they can, and match each other's radiation pattern: Here's the same SB15 driver (albeit CAC) and SB26CDC

You can achieve very good results with flat baffle too and with very chip drivers. And very easy to do ...
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...chano23-open-source-diy-speaker-review.54066/

There is just several ways ....
 
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All of us have known since post #1 what the weaknesses and compromises of this format are
Yeah, no square box with sharp edges and a flat-faced tweeter will ever have an ideal DI curve. So what does that mean? Well, the speaker will be sensitive about placement... or it may need some room treatment if it is to be positioned non-optimally. Even when well positioned, it will probably have a sweet spot where only one listener at a time can enjoy the best imaging and localization performance. And that is fine.... that describes most hi-fi and pro audio speakers for the last 40 years...
 
You can achieve very good results with flat baffle too and with very chip drivers. And very easy to do ...
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...chano23-open-source-diy-speaker-review.54066/

There is just several ways ....

Now you're talking! A narrow baffle for the mid and a tweeter whose behind a faceplate with a profile that's close to the profile of the MF's cone.

Now show me a 5" cone mid on a wide baffle with a flat faced tweeter that doesn't have a wide-narrow-wide directivity transition.
 
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You can achieve very good results with flat baffle too and with very chip drivers. And very easy to do ...

There is just several ways ....
I think you just made the case for people to stop discussing the challenges of the Monkey Coffin format with a wide baffle and just accept it. You referenced a speaker less than 7 inches wide with a waveguided tweeter.

Again, we have all known since post #1, that we will not get the flat response and favorable directivity of a 7" wide two-way with a waveguided tweeter by building a 16 inch wide, 12", three way, with sharp edges and no waveguide.

Can we PLEASE let it go?
 
I think there is misunderstanding since I wanted to reply to tktran that it is Monkey Coffin thread here ... Just wanted to note that we can have simple speaker but good results.
Any way I will be glad to stop talking about off topic stuff here and to stick to what have been decided before....

@tktran303 the other thread is going narrow, cardoide, dsp and all optimisation you can think of. Maybe you will have more interest to fallow this one!
 
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I am leaning towards the ScanSpeak 15W. It will be more tolerant of a low crossover (300 Hz range) than the SB12, and since we do not have a measured Peerless woofer response, we do not yet know what the big Peerless can do. ....

It doesn't seem there are strong preferences either way between the 5 inch Scanspeak 15W/4434 and 4 inch SB Acoustics SB12MNRX2. The 4 inch gives us more flexibility between the mid and tweeter and easier directivity to work with, while the 5 inch gives us more flexibility between the 12" woofer and midrange. I was going to post why I think we should be more worried about the SLS 12" since we don't currently have one to take actual measurements, but realized hifijim already stated it clearly.

So, lets proceed with the Peerless SLS 830669 12 inch woofer ($65/€100) and the Scanspeak 15W/4434G-00 ($80/€70) midrange.

The midrange is pushing us up toward the high end of the price range we want to be at, but I think it should sound great.

Next steps:
  • Tweeter selection
  • Determine enclosure volume and dimensions
  • Decide whether to offset tweeter and midrange or not
  • Discuss cabinet construction / best practices (while keeping woodworking skills to a minimum)
  • Discuss bracing best practices
  • (while keeping woodworking skills to a minimum)

Tweeter selection:

I think two obvious choices to consider are the SB26STAC ($49/€48) and SB26ADC ($55/€53). These are known to be two of the best tweeters for the money. Measurements on the prototype baffle are in post # 973. [There have been comments regarding creating multiple designs. I think this is a case where it would be quite feasible to have a design with each of these tweeters, as the crossover difference would probably be pretty small. Note that the SB26STAC is available in Europe with a plastic faceplate as SB26STC €33, which is not available in the US.]

Are there any other tweeters people think we should add to our short-list for consideration?
 
With the Scanspeak you will have to cross low, arround 1500Hz i think, and then there are non that beat the SB26ADC i think, certainnly not without waveguide. There are not that many tweeters that can crossover that low without added distortion like the SB26ADC.
 
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With the Scanspeak you will have to cross low, arround 1500Hz i think, and then there are non that beat the SB26ADC i think, certainnly not without waveguide. There are not that many tweeters that can crossover that low without added distortion like the SB26ADC.

I'm not sure why would you have to cross at 1.5kHz - but even if you do, SB26STAC can do it at 95dB/1W/1m

https://www.audioexcite.com/?page_id=4041
 
TLHP price when logged in
sb26stc 26€
1743076087439.png



sb26Stac 36€ each
1743075534180.png


sb26adc 38€ each / 2 pieces
1743075650242.png


sb26stwg 67€ each / 2 pieces
1743075774786.png
 
We are talking about STC-C not ST-C I do think you have the ST-C
I think this is probably the case. I just found out about the STC-C, but looking on SB Acoustics product page I thought they were different tweeters. The ST-C is different but the STC-C seems to just differ by the faceplate. This makes sense because the "A" in STAC is for Aluminum (faceplate). (I'm pretty sure.)
 
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