Convert Ariels to ME2s or start from scratch?

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chris737

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Joined 2008
Many years ago I built a pair of Lynn Olsen’s Ariel 6c transmission line speakers. I fed them with LR4 active crossovers and a 4-channel chip amp. I have just replaced these with a pair of Siegfried Linkwitz’s excellent LX Minis, so I have a surplus pair of Ariels.

My teenage son wants a pair of speakers but the Ariels are way too big for his room. So I’m considering two options:

1. Covert the Ariels to ME2’s. This would simply require trimming the bottom and back off the Ariels, performing some internal surgery and fitting a new back and bottom. The advantage of this is I get to use the existing drivers, crossovers and front/side panels. The disadvantage is they will have even less bass than the Ariels, which I always felt lacked adequate bass.

2. Keeping the expensive Scan-Speak D2905/9500 tweeters, buying a pair of woofers and building a pair of 2-way speakers. I don’t have the knowledge or time to design my own speakers. They don’t need to be audiophile speakers- just “good”. Can anyone suggest a proven 2-way design that would take my Scan-Speak tweeters?

Regards,
Chris
 
Lynn Olson

Lynn Olson

Member
Joined 2004
nutshellhifi.com/
The Vifa midbass drivers are unobtanium now, and don't take too well to abuse from high-powered transistor amplifiers (college dorm use, for example). Spread the word you have a working pair of Ariels, and I'd bet you'd find a good home for them. They're designed for valve-amplifier fanatics, and there must be some in Oz.

I'd strongly suggest designing the teenage son's new speakers around his tastes in music and his choice of amplification. The Ariels mimic the classic Quad ESL57's, which I fell in love with way back in the early Sixties. But that's a really offbeat fetish these days, similar in some way to the Lowther thing, but maybe even narrower in appeal.
 
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chris737

Member
Joined 2008
That's true!

I have decided to use the tweeters in a pair of Carl Richard's Intimates. His original design used the D2905-9500 tweeter with Scan Speak 15W/8530 K01 Revelator midwoofers in a ported 15L enclosure. The crossover is a no-capacitor design. I have gathered all the components. I hope to spray the enclosures this weekend.

I will start another thread about the build.
 
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