I am looking to build a small PC type of speaker for family member, mainly nearfield listening using a chip amp (TDA7297) in a small room.
it will be a small group jazz and vocal mainly using these speakers from PE. Can someone suggest a dimensions? One of my favorites micro-Fonken need different vent size...
Fountek FE83 3" Full Range Driver 8 Ohm
it will be a small group jazz and vocal mainly using these speakers from PE. Can someone suggest a dimensions? One of my favorites micro-Fonken need different vent size...
Fountek FE83 3" Full Range Driver 8 Ohm
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I would just dial the figures into WinISD and see what it recomends for a sealed box. Nice thing is sealed boxes are not so specification critical.
Having a look at the graphs, 2L sealed is near enough optimum (Q = 0.76)
I think you could comfortably get away with a 1L sealed box. (Q = 0.87)
Having a look at the graphs, 2L sealed is near enough optimum (Q = 0.76)
I think you could comfortably get away with a 1L sealed box. (Q = 0.87)
Hi,
YMMV, but IMO this is trying to reinvent the wheel,
with no idea what can go wrong in your amateur
efforts compared to the good stuff out there.
Decent PC sound systems are great, really good at
any cost. You have no hope of getting anywhere
near them with a simple attitude that does not
appreciate the sophistication built into them.
Once you appreciate the sophistication you realise
you have no chance of building anything better,
and that the building route is very pointless.
You would be much better off looking for good PC
speakers going for a song than building anything.
And the end user will be much happier.
rgds, sreten.
YMMV, but IMO this is trying to reinvent the wheel,
with no idea what can go wrong in your amateur
efforts compared to the good stuff out there.
Decent PC sound systems are great, really good at
any cost. You have no hope of getting anywhere
near them with a simple attitude that does not
appreciate the sophistication built into them.
Once you appreciate the sophistication you realise
you have no chance of building anything better,
and that the building route is very pointless.
You would be much better off looking for good PC
speakers going for a song than building anything.
And the end user will be much happier.
rgds, sreten.
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Dear sreten,
I think most computer speakers are ugly, boomy, and expensive. They are also usually in badly made thin plastic boxes 🙂
Also DIY is some times about the making 🙂
These computer speakers could cost as little as $20 USA.
KEF Uni-Q driver thread looks like a more upmarket solution to the the same issue of computer speakers.
Though if you include the Behringer TRUTH B2031A, which is said to be very good I could agree with you 🙂
I think most computer speakers are ugly, boomy, and expensive. They are also usually in badly made thin plastic boxes 🙂
Also DIY is some times about the making 🙂
These computer speakers could cost as little as $20 USA.
KEF Uni-Q driver thread looks like a more upmarket solution to the the same issue of computer speakers.
Though if you include the Behringer TRUTH B2031A, which is said to be very good I could agree with you 🙂
Sreten, please don't project your own experiences on others. It can be done, and the Fountek speakers mentioned are a reasonable starting point.
However, they don't go very low, and they have a break up peak which makes running them full range difficult. For a project like this under 2 liter, I would recommend the Aura NS3 or the comparable Dayton speaker, both for sale at PE. Make it a simple 2 way, and you can get something better than what you recommend. However, it takes a serious effort and it won't be easy, but hey, it's diy.
However, they don't go very low, and they have a break up peak which makes running them full range difficult. For a project like this under 2 liter, I would recommend the Aura NS3 or the comparable Dayton speaker, both for sale at PE. Make it a simple 2 way, and you can get something better than what you recommend. However, it takes a serious effort and it won't be easy, but hey, it's diy.
gychang, I've been playing with a pair of FE83's and I thought I'd share what has happened so far: I through together a lash-up cabinet from some thick, finger jointed wine boxes I had, with 1/2" russian birch ply front and back, and a thin slot port at the bottom. They sound iffy up close, but when I set them up in away from the desk, they blew me away. I've been building speakers for years, but these brought musicians into the room (Thomas Dybdahl "Something Real" has percussion tracks (bottles and glasses?) that are startlingly real. So I set about building the suggested .08, ported enclosure, tuned it with a slot port to 90 Hz. All the magic went away. The wine boxes are .095 cu ft, the slot ports are 1/4" tall, the width of the interior of the wine box (4 3/8") and around 2 1/4" long (don't remember and it's too thin to get a tape in). They ended up being tuned to around 75 Hz. A light stuffing of fiberglass in the bottom half, lined the back behind the driver with rubbery, 1/2" packing foam. Super simple, super live and detailed.
Hi,
I have a pair of computer speakers with 2.5" full range drivers and 3" PR's.
They have active EQ, so sound rather good, and dynamic bass control
technology not available to the DIYer, which prevents gross bass
overload, whilst at the same time producing impressive bass,
though it has to be said not strictly hifi but it works well.
I'm not projecting anything, I'm telling it the way it is, the amplifier
technology built into decent budget PC speakers is not DIY available,
and you can't get close to decent budget PC speakers going DIY.
(Well you can, but at nowhere near the same cost and effort.)
You try both options and see how you get on.
rgds, sreten.
I have a pair of computer speakers with 2.5" full range drivers and 3" PR's.
They have active EQ, so sound rather good, and dynamic bass control
technology not available to the DIYer, which prevents gross bass
overload, whilst at the same time producing impressive bass,
though it has to be said not strictly hifi but it works well.
I'm not projecting anything, I'm telling it the way it is, the amplifier
technology built into decent budget PC speakers is not DIY available,
and you can't get close to decent budget PC speakers going DIY.
(Well you can, but at nowhere near the same cost and effort.)
You try both options and see how you get on.
rgds, sreten.
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Hi Sreten
I agree, I've heard some very impressive commercial desktop systems, and have one from Swan/Hi-Vi. They're extremely competent. But what just happened, mostly by accident, with the FE83's (for $6.90/driver I hasten to add) is astonishing. I've been playing with expensive drivers and getting good at competent for a long time, I have a pretty good reference point, and the full-range, 3", cheap Fountek is opening dimensionality and details in my music that are light years more interesting and subtle than merely competent. All full-range, single driver speakers are flawed... and my little speakers are very flawed. But I've never had so much information about how a piece of music is produced available to my ears: how 3D space is constructed with varying amounts and types of reverb/decay, how delivately layers of mixes are put together, and tracks that have accidental, natural sounds like a shuffling page or a bumped music stand or something dropped -- come across so alive that I can't help but check that there isn't someone unexpected in the room. I've switched over to my 2020-based T amp (a modified Lepai), and the level of detail got nothing short of spooky. I'll take flawed magic over competency any day.
I agree, I've heard some very impressive commercial desktop systems, and have one from Swan/Hi-Vi. They're extremely competent. But what just happened, mostly by accident, with the FE83's (for $6.90/driver I hasten to add) is astonishing. I've been playing with expensive drivers and getting good at competent for a long time, I have a pretty good reference point, and the full-range, 3", cheap Fountek is opening dimensionality and details in my music that are light years more interesting and subtle than merely competent. All full-range, single driver speakers are flawed... and my little speakers are very flawed. But I've never had so much information about how a piece of music is produced available to my ears: how 3D space is constructed with varying amounts and types of reverb/decay, how delivately layers of mixes are put together, and tracks that have accidental, natural sounds like a shuffling page or a bumped music stand or something dropped -- come across so alive that I can't help but check that there isn't someone unexpected in the room. I've switched over to my 2020-based T amp (a modified Lepai), and the level of detail got nothing short of spooky. I'll take flawed magic over competency any day.
Boenicke w5
Maybe you can reverse engineer these?
W5_c - Boenicke Audio
Fountek FE85 and Peerless SLS 5" or in the "SE" modell Tang Band w5-1139
Maybe you can reverse engineer these?
W5_c - Boenicke Audio
Fountek FE85 and Peerless SLS 5" or in the "SE" modell Tang Band w5-1139
Wow, that's cool. Not having seen those, I just yesterday ordered a pair of Peerless SDS-135F25CP08-08, 5 1/4" subs, to build something like these! Thanks, I'll absorb their ideas. I do happen to be a furniture maker, so stack-laminating isn't a particular challenge...
PS: Internal dimensions of my happy accident enclosure: 4 3/8" x 14 3/8" internal dimensions x 3" deep, slot port 5/16" tall x 2.56" long (full internal width). Tuned to 85 Hz.
I appreciate the dimensions given and plan to build them, I am wondering if the attached ufonken be the wrong size?
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Hi gychang
Firstly, I'm no expert. BUT after the wine-box cabinets were so pleasant, I made the PE suggested size (.08), properly. Braced, built tightly, stuffed lightly, tuned port to 95 Hz. They sounded like a telephone. The wine boxes are a little bigger and tuned a little lower, .095 cu ft and tuned to 85. They aren't quite right for a desktop, because they don't sound as good from really close - you need to be 5' away for them to sound really good. That said, if you add an inch of height you'll be close to my internal volume. Do you know what the uFonken cabinet you found is tuned to? i'm curious to try other cabinets for these, though really excited to build a W5 clone with my PE Buyout Peerless mini subs!
Firstly, I'm no expert. BUT after the wine-box cabinets were so pleasant, I made the PE suggested size (.08), properly. Braced, built tightly, stuffed lightly, tuned port to 95 Hz. They sounded like a telephone. The wine boxes are a little bigger and tuned a little lower, .095 cu ft and tuned to 85. They aren't quite right for a desktop, because they don't sound as good from really close - you need to be 5' away for them to sound really good. That said, if you add an inch of height you'll be close to my internal volume. Do you know what the uFonken cabinet you found is tuned to? i'm curious to try other cabinets for these, though really excited to build a W5 clone with my PE Buyout Peerless mini subs!
Hi,
But note the speakers are being built for someone else, and whether
you'd take flawed magic over competency any day of the week, is
pretty much irrelevant building stuff for other people, my main point.
As said earlier i'm not projecting anything, and a big mistake is to
project your own values on stuff you are building for other people.
Unless of course your values are real maximum practical bang for
minimum practical buck, in context, and that is my only viewpoint
in approaching stuff for other people, that have no real viewpoint.
Of course my views are evident in what I think is good BfB for
the person concerned. That is my experience they are using
for free that they don't have, to guide them very effectively.
FWIW I don't foist stuff on people. ( A friend whom I
accompanied on his quest to build an expensive hi-fi
system told me the guy from the shop delivering his
stuff told him he was really lucky, that I was the only
"hifi buff" they had ever seen that let him make his
own unbiased choices, of course under questioning.)
rgds, sreten.
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On the other hand, when such an item is intended to be a gift, as opposed to fulfilling a specific utilitarian need, the authorship and craftsmanship becomes part of the value of the gift.
Which is not to say I don't itch for some cheapo dsp solution to put into my cheapo speaker projects.
Sreten, you raise a great point that actually occurred to me when I found myself making suggestions out of my pay grade. But I think this forum has giving in its DNA. It certainly has DOING in it. The gifts exchanged are rarely from giver to recipient... there's such a rich and perpetual exchange process here of ideas, opinions, expertise and enthusiasm, that everyone's offerings are peppered with a thousand other gifts. In this spirit, as long as advice includes some clarity as to the poster's limitations (such as: YMMV), it is a crucible for great things, great experiences, and great learning. It's up to everyone to read with their BS meters on, and to post with humility and generosity.
Happy Holidays, All
M
Happy Holidays, All
M
TO those interested in what to do with this driver - the uFonken works and works well, but is too small. Dave Dugen of Planet10 suggested the driver needs more than double the volume, but with the uFonken, shrinking the two ports by growing the port divider from 5/8" to 66 mm (just less than 1 5/8"), and experimenting with closed-cell foam in the ports to dampen a resulting peak at around 150. I've done so, and it sounds quite good... depending on room placement you may or may not need to stuff the port. So far, however, the winning alignment I've found is a well-braced, felt-lined, sealed cabinet of 3.8 liters (.134 sq ft). Open, controlled, delightful.
Cheers
Cheers
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