Years ago, in the 1990s, my then brother-in-law and I did a lot of DIY audio work. We made OK omnis with 4" full range for my shop (4 of those really lit up the showroom), a variety of highly tweaked enclosures, a few being rather good, and some riveting open baffles from junk 4 x 8 sheets of plywood. Absolutely no acceptance factor anywhere outside of a garage or basement workshop, but really surprised us. I built a pair of transmission lines with full range drivers at the time. None of this stuff exists any more.
After many dislocations and downsizing like mad I ran across some Polk RT55 loudspeakers with a decent self-powered subwoofer, picked up a nice used hybrid amp, and find that I still enjoy crisp reproduction of technically excellent music. Of course, my tendency to be engaged with design and construction has emerged (I make things. Boats. Violins.), and run into model capability for modeling and a slew of incredible concepts and ideas.
I'm OK with the Polk speakers for TV with my partner, but for home alone listening time I'm looking to get / make some mobile speakers I can pull out and enjoy. These have to be small footprint and easy to move, but can be very tall. I'm looking for clarity, image, wide soundstage. Preferably with no or simple electronics, and will be run with my subwoofer which has high-level input with crossover, crossover frequency selection, and phase adjustment, as well as volume.
I could really use omnidirectional speakers that would fill my woodshop nicely. I had cross sectionally tapered tubes with upward firing full range before, too short for 1/4 wave, but stuffed to the gills, and they were OK. Received numerous complements, but I could hear the issues if I listened at all carefully.
I'm also annoyed with the computer speaker status. I put together some pipe TL using 3" and 2" PVC driven by HiVi B3N. These are surprising me, but are far from perfect. I'm trying the B3N in a 2 L sealed system next, but have a lot to think about. Makes sense to me for vertical narrow enclosure that washes sound across the screen, drivers at about ear level. My thoughts are uncertain and muddy on so many aspects there.
Hope to learn a good deal here, and perhaps contribute from my long experience with musical instruments and bizarre thought experiments.
After many dislocations and downsizing like mad I ran across some Polk RT55 loudspeakers with a decent self-powered subwoofer, picked up a nice used hybrid amp, and find that I still enjoy crisp reproduction of technically excellent music. Of course, my tendency to be engaged with design and construction has emerged (I make things. Boats. Violins.), and run into model capability for modeling and a slew of incredible concepts and ideas.
I'm OK with the Polk speakers for TV with my partner, but for home alone listening time I'm looking to get / make some mobile speakers I can pull out and enjoy. These have to be small footprint and easy to move, but can be very tall. I'm looking for clarity, image, wide soundstage. Preferably with no or simple electronics, and will be run with my subwoofer which has high-level input with crossover, crossover frequency selection, and phase adjustment, as well as volume.
I could really use omnidirectional speakers that would fill my woodshop nicely. I had cross sectionally tapered tubes with upward firing full range before, too short for 1/4 wave, but stuffed to the gills, and they were OK. Received numerous complements, but I could hear the issues if I listened at all carefully.
I'm also annoyed with the computer speaker status. I put together some pipe TL using 3" and 2" PVC driven by HiVi B3N. These are surprising me, but are far from perfect. I'm trying the B3N in a 2 L sealed system next, but have a lot to think about. Makes sense to me for vertical narrow enclosure that washes sound across the screen, drivers at about ear level. My thoughts are uncertain and muddy on so many aspects there.
Hope to learn a good deal here, and perhaps contribute from my long experience with musical instruments and bizarre thought experiments.
