This is the XO I ordered. I realized I could mess with thing forever and never actually order it. So I'm ordering this. I think its a good cross between cost, DCR, and damping.
Since the XO will be exposed on the wall I ordered all poly caps and mostly air coils. I haven't decided how I'm going to lay it out but I'll get it all on a table and take a look at it.
I was able to nuetralize the off axis between the mid and woofer even off axis by 45 degree. The mid to tweeter has a good balance of horizontal and vertical off axis performance. I will be listening to this in my chair. I lean back almost more than I move side to side. So my decision to have the tweeter off axis horizontally and veritcally was a good one. I modeled this with the tweeter directly over the mid and the vertical cancelation is horrendous. That would not have sounded very good.
The vertical has a 10 degree cancellation at around 8khz. It is so narrow that I don't believe it will be that vertical. This is the compromise I had to make. Acceptable to me
Since the XO will be exposed on the wall I ordered all poly caps and mostly air coils. I haven't decided how I'm going to lay it out but I'll get it all on a table and take a look at it.
I was able to nuetralize the off axis between the mid and woofer even off axis by 45 degree. The mid to tweeter has a good balance of horizontal and vertical off axis performance. I will be listening to this in my chair. I lean back almost more than I move side to side. So my decision to have the tweeter off axis horizontally and veritcally was a good one. I modeled this with the tweeter directly over the mid and the vertical cancelation is horrendous. That would not have sounded very good.
The vertical has a 10 degree cancellation at around 8khz. It is so narrow that I don't believe it will be that vertical. This is the compromise I had to make. Acceptable to me
Finished both enclosures. These are packed with rockwool and poly fill. I kept measuring them as I packed them before and quickly realized that the more I could stuff in there, the better.
I think they look amazing. The drivers are essentially perfectly flush the baffle.
The transducer meets the waveguide with a closed cell gasket so there is zero gap there either.
This was not easy to print. Especially not with this level of quality. Most things we print in the shop are small or medium sized. This is massive. Everything you know about printing goes out the window with something this size.
I am waiting for one more cap for the crossover. PE sent the wrong one so another is being sent out.
I am currently mocking up the XO board and how they will be arranged. I think it would be cool to show on the wall how the circuit goes using the board. I can print multiple colors so I can trace the line through the circuit and put words on it
I think they look amazing. The drivers are essentially perfectly flush the baffle.
The transducer meets the waveguide with a closed cell gasket so there is zero gap there either.
This was not easy to print. Especially not with this level of quality. Most things we print in the shop are small or medium sized. This is massive. Everything you know about printing goes out the window with something this size.
I am waiting for one more cap for the crossover. PE sent the wrong one so another is being sent out.
I am currently mocking up the XO board and how they will be arranged. I think it would be cool to show on the wall how the circuit goes using the board. I can print multiple colors so I can trace the line through the circuit and put words on it
Attachments
I got the crossovers wired up. This was harder than I thought. They are mirrored and the leads are all in the back. Very confusing. It took me way longer yesterday than I thought.
I finally blew up a tweeter. Mixed up the woofer and tweeter when I was bench testing. Crinkled that tweeter right up. Woops. Oh well, one thing I have learned in my career in manufacturing is that mistakes are unavoidable and should be factored in. Honestly I'm surprised I haven't killed a tweeter until right now.
Ordered a new tweeter. Then I have to mount these to the wall and run the wires down the wall all nice a neat.
They sound FANTASTIC. I still have to take a measurement of them. They sound pretty close to my 3 ways in my TV room. Considering these are a fraction fo the size, that is unbelievable.
I am still not quite sold on the mid planar. I will have to give that some time. The epique hits hard and clean. Incredible that it can match, and exceed, an 8 inch Peerless woofer in a cabinet 8 times the volume.
The ribbon tweeter is the star of the show. One song I listened to ended in a crowd clapping. I thought I was at the concert. That was crazy. When someone hits a cymbal it's so incredibly clean. I think I'm sold on ribbons. Just have to stop blowing them up....
Will get more pictures when it's all mounted and once I have some time to listen to them. The caps probably all need some burn in time too so I'll probably run pink noise overnight a few days in a row.
I finally blew up a tweeter. Mixed up the woofer and tweeter when I was bench testing. Crinkled that tweeter right up. Woops. Oh well, one thing I have learned in my career in manufacturing is that mistakes are unavoidable and should be factored in. Honestly I'm surprised I haven't killed a tweeter until right now.
Ordered a new tweeter. Then I have to mount these to the wall and run the wires down the wall all nice a neat.
They sound FANTASTIC. I still have to take a measurement of them. They sound pretty close to my 3 ways in my TV room. Considering these are a fraction fo the size, that is unbelievable.
I am still not quite sold on the mid planar. I will have to give that some time. The epique hits hard and clean. Incredible that it can match, and exceed, an 8 inch Peerless woofer in a cabinet 8 times the volume.
The ribbon tweeter is the star of the show. One song I listened to ended in a crowd clapping. I thought I was at the concert. That was crazy. When someone hits a cymbal it's so incredibly clean. I think I'm sold on ribbons. Just have to stop blowing them up....
Will get more pictures when it's all mounted and once I have some time to listen to them. The caps probably all need some burn in time too so I'll probably run pink noise overnight a few days in a row.
Attachments
This project is finished!
It will take about a week before I get used to it but I will share some of my initial impressions
1. The imaging is insane. The sounds seem to come from from my monitor screen. I could point my finger at where the singer is in the imaging. If there's a guitar off to the left then its straight up coming from the left and you swear you could look over there and see a guitarist. Crazy. Going to take some getting used to.
2. It has all the dynamics of a proper 3 way setup. Its crazy that this fits on my desk. This is hitting from 36 hz to 30khz. My sub honestly doesn't do much now. The sub is really just for the subsonics. You can tell when I switch it off but I have it electrically passed at 40 hz right now.
3. The mids are very soft. I thought the mid planar might be a bit analytical but its anything but. My guess is a lot of the imaging is coming from the planar mid.
4. The tweeters are incredible. I'm sold on ribbon tweeters. Its going to be hard to go back to domes after hearing these. They are just so precise.
5. Side benefit: Since these are really directional you cannot hear the music outside of my office. This is perfect. Now I can crank it without bothering my people.
This was, by far, the hardest project I have ever undertook. I am happy I was able to accomplish this and am so thankful to everyone who helped me out. That port tuning and shape issue really taught me a lot. It is fun to use exotic drivers but boy are they difficult to work with. I see now why everyone just uses cones and domes.
It will take about a week before I get used to it but I will share some of my initial impressions
1. The imaging is insane. The sounds seem to come from from my monitor screen. I could point my finger at where the singer is in the imaging. If there's a guitar off to the left then its straight up coming from the left and you swear you could look over there and see a guitarist. Crazy. Going to take some getting used to.
2. It has all the dynamics of a proper 3 way setup. Its crazy that this fits on my desk. This is hitting from 36 hz to 30khz. My sub honestly doesn't do much now. The sub is really just for the subsonics. You can tell when I switch it off but I have it electrically passed at 40 hz right now.
3. The mids are very soft. I thought the mid planar might be a bit analytical but its anything but. My guess is a lot of the imaging is coming from the planar mid.
4. The tweeters are incredible. I'm sold on ribbon tweeters. Its going to be hard to go back to domes after hearing these. They are just so precise.
5. Side benefit: Since these are really directional you cannot hear the music outside of my office. This is perfect. Now I can crank it without bothering my people.
This was, by far, the hardest project I have ever undertook. I am happy I was able to accomplish this and am so thankful to everyone who helped me out. That port tuning and shape issue really taught me a lot. It is fun to use exotic drivers but boy are they difficult to work with. I see now why everyone just uses cones and domes.
