It has been a long haul. Same old story of a plan to build speakers that turns into years… I would do it all over again. Long story short, I have tried many drivers and many many crossover schemes and it’s at a point where it’s the best I think I can do given that I’m locked into these drivers. In the next 8 days I will make a last-ditch effort to try some suggestions or just tweak to taste. After that I’m going to solder it up and finally clean up my listening room and get on with my life… I don’t really want to move too far away from the XO I have because it sounds so good but if anyone has any suggestions, I’m open. (I have no desire to drive these speakers with tubes by the way) Also, the cabinet is what it is. I can mess with the ports and fill but everything else is set. I’ll get pics of them out when they’re finished.
My system:
Computer (ASUS mobo, LGA-1700 I3 cpu, Matrix element-H USB out) based Jriver CD collection and Apple Music streaming out to
Simaudio 280D dac out to
Gustard P26 preamp XLR and SE out to
Parasound JC5 (in XLR) to drive the 12”, 8” 4” and Tweeter.
Neurochrome Universal Buffer (SE) to level match the other drivers out to
ICEpower 1200AS1 class D mono to drive the 15”
The drivers in this order from the top of the speaker down to the floor:
ETON 12-212/C8/62 HEX SYMPHONY II (quasi-rear ported but heavily filled with wool (cabinet and port))
Scanspeak 12MU/4731T-00 (large sealed area for a 4”)
Scanspeak ellipticor D3404/5520-00 tweeter
B&C 8MBX51 (average size sealed area mostly filled with wool)
SB acoustics SB42FHCL75-6 (Large front ported cabinet moderately filled with wool (cabinet and port))
The FR of each driver was taken with a Behringer ECM8000 test mic at 15mm from driver into a Mackie Blackbird interface using REW out to the 208D dac. I had to do the FR test sweeps at a lower level to avoid the phase giving an incorrect reading. I’m not sure if it’s the interface or the mic but at loud levels up close things get inconsistent. All the impedance sweeps were done in their cabinets with the DATS-v3. For the VCAD screenshots, all 5 drivers are not driven by one amp. I show it that way to get an idea of what the whole system is doing together. Also, I’m not sure if the FR above 14K drops because of my computer or what. I’ve tested two other dacs and another set of tweeters and they all do the same thing.
My system:
Computer (ASUS mobo, LGA-1700 I3 cpu, Matrix element-H USB out) based Jriver CD collection and Apple Music streaming out to
Simaudio 280D dac out to
Gustard P26 preamp XLR and SE out to
Parasound JC5 (in XLR) to drive the 12”, 8” 4” and Tweeter.
Neurochrome Universal Buffer (SE) to level match the other drivers out to
ICEpower 1200AS1 class D mono to drive the 15”
The drivers in this order from the top of the speaker down to the floor:
ETON 12-212/C8/62 HEX SYMPHONY II (quasi-rear ported but heavily filled with wool (cabinet and port))
Scanspeak 12MU/4731T-00 (large sealed area for a 4”)
Scanspeak ellipticor D3404/5520-00 tweeter
B&C 8MBX51 (average size sealed area mostly filled with wool)
SB acoustics SB42FHCL75-6 (Large front ported cabinet moderately filled with wool (cabinet and port))
The FR of each driver was taken with a Behringer ECM8000 test mic at 15mm from driver into a Mackie Blackbird interface using REW out to the 208D dac. I had to do the FR test sweeps at a lower level to avoid the phase giving an incorrect reading. I’m not sure if it’s the interface or the mic but at loud levels up close things get inconsistent. All the impedance sweeps were done in their cabinets with the DATS-v3. For the VCAD screenshots, all 5 drivers are not driven by one amp. I show it that way to get an idea of what the whole system is doing together. Also, I’m not sure if the FR above 14K drops because of my computer or what. I’ve tested two other dacs and another set of tweeters and they all do the same thing.
Attachments
The design is finished. In the 8 days I gave myself I probably made 15 or so adjustments to get to this. I also ran all the parts through DATS-v3 to get the actual values. The previous DCR values were off and in a few cases way off, not sure how I missed that...
I had to purchase a 6 resistors, 2 caps and 2 inductors to finish it. Man have prices gone up! almost double in just 3 or so years... Most of what you see in the pic was bought at 1/2 of todays prices. This is the XO for the tweeter, 4" and 8".
Now I am refinishing my listening room and by this weekend I hope to have it set up and get some pics of the speakers out.
Thanks for the replies
I had to purchase a 6 resistors, 2 caps and 2 inductors to finish it. Man have prices gone up! almost double in just 3 or so years... Most of what you see in the pic was bought at 1/2 of todays prices. This is the XO for the tweeter, 4" and 8".
Now I am refinishing my listening room and by this weekend I hope to have it set up and get some pics of the speakers out.
Thanks for the replies
![Screenshot_with_sub[1].png](/community/data/attachments/1115/1115801-28e6d84380a385ff0720604afbfd5e47.jpg?hash=KObYQ4Cjhf)
![Screenshot_without_sub[1].png](/community/data/attachments/1115/1115802-f5b3732b60659d2c98182a41dc76f702.jpg?hash=9bNzK2BlnS)
