That is good to hear, great endorsement for a less well known British HiFi manufacturing company who make their products here. I'd have their monoblocks if I hadn't started soldering Lm3886 and 1875 chips into old "spares or repairs" pro audio amp cases. Something you've made yourself always has qualities a bought item can never have (for the maker at least, unless it's a high end bargain find unearthed beneath rubbishat a car boot sale).
They look good! Good for rock music? 😉
FYI, there are a couple of very well respected speaker manufacturers in Australia that use felt around their tweeters so I suspect it may make a difference on some speakers. These are manufacturers whose products are pretty well regarded... See this for example: http://duntech.com/products/sovereign.html
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Yeah Dave I reckon some of these guys have been around since the 70's! Duntech, who I linked to, was started by the late John Dunlavy.
Very good .... Groan. Rolling Stones, etc. .. slated by listeners, .. no more, mercy please !!
Does the felt actually make a difference. I quite like the appearance contrast it gives, soft material next to hard, but as to improving sound quality, I'm agnostic.
I'm planning my 2nd try in building speaker cases as the Mk III of my first. My first speakers are built from 18mm MDF, with 22mm front & ground plate. As i am not the richest man under the sun, many materials aren't even in my reach. So i can try what i can do with materials in my price range, i.e. MDF.
The speakers playing at the moment are the second tryout of my first diy-speakers. The first build was intended to run with LM1875 chipamps and had one softdome tweeter with 104mm diameter (Monacor DTM 104-8) and two midwoofers with 147mm diameter Gradient W130AL8).
Mk II was the upgrade of the LM1875 amps to LM3886 and the adjustment of the psu to the bigger amps. also the seats of the chassis were cut out (by hand) to have the speakers flat in the front. My biggest, and not to fix mistake was not to look at the linear travel of the midwoofers. The speakers had no hiss, no hum, played loud & precise, but what i missed was a upper bass kick or punch, which could be felt physical (i'm always talking about a fully active 2.1 arrangement with a active 12" Subwoofer, which goes up to about 90Hz where it is taken out by the soundcard driver with 36dB/oct (all other xovers and sound adjustment are done by EQ APO). The cheapest upgrade to make the speakers move more air, was also the most violent one.
I bought 2 more Gradient midwoofers and added them to the "half"-way of the Speakers, which takes over from the subwoofer and plays up to 500Hz where it is taken out by a Linkwitz-Riley lowpass with 48dB/oct. I also (for sure) added another LM3886. The result was ok for the speakers, for the sound got more substance, they sound a little more "grown up". The physical punch is still missing.
Latest upgrade were two new toroids from Poland with 2x24V/300VA (which would be to small if i took the recommended double of the amps, but i've never used more than half the possible volume, 28-36% is the right amount of noise to make me dance headbanging through the room).
As i used solid 18mm MDF (with 22mm front and ground plate) for the actual cases, i'd like to try something which seems to me like a good idea, but i have to try it to find out. Instead of 1 solid plate, I'd like to take 2 plates of 10mm. One of them will be milled out maybe 3mm on the whole area, only a frame on the outside, and maybe some small contact areas, to get a little more stability. Then i want to fill the milled areas with silicone and put some wood glue on the contact areas. the plates will then be put onto another, aligned, and fixed with screw clamps until everything is dryed and stable. so this becomes a MDF-sandwich with silicone filling. Should, at least, not be worse than a single solid MDF plate.
Somehow i just forgot to tell you why i want to build the new cases. Ok, i want to upgrade to some midwoofers with more linear travel, change the amps from open source LM3886 to the composite TDA7293 + JFE2140 and upgrade the psu's with active rectifiers and new elctrolytics.
I also want to build a new, better carrier for the amp modules, to make the whole thing plug & play (all connections close by pushing the amp-module in the carrier. For heat transfer, all amp modules ar pushed against springs, which will press the contact areas of the amps against the aluminum backplate which will act as cooler. Some thermal paste has to be used for sure).
I'm still not really sure which midwoofer will do the trick of being a real upgrade to the Gradients, while not making me to poor. Some, like the SICA 5.5H 1.5CP, the ScanSpeak 15W/8434G00 and the Dayton Audio RS150-8 are looked closer at. I've seen the Dayton for 41,xx$ at parts express. Maybe i should make a decision.
The pic shows how the speakers look like atm.
best regards
Jochen
The speakers playing at the moment are the second tryout of my first diy-speakers. The first build was intended to run with LM1875 chipamps and had one softdome tweeter with 104mm diameter (Monacor DTM 104-8) and two midwoofers with 147mm diameter Gradient W130AL8).
Mk II was the upgrade of the LM1875 amps to LM3886 and the adjustment of the psu to the bigger amps. also the seats of the chassis were cut out (by hand) to have the speakers flat in the front. My biggest, and not to fix mistake was not to look at the linear travel of the midwoofers. The speakers had no hiss, no hum, played loud & precise, but what i missed was a upper bass kick or punch, which could be felt physical (i'm always talking about a fully active 2.1 arrangement with a active 12" Subwoofer, which goes up to about 90Hz where it is taken out by the soundcard driver with 36dB/oct (all other xovers and sound adjustment are done by EQ APO). The cheapest upgrade to make the speakers move more air, was also the most violent one.
I bought 2 more Gradient midwoofers and added them to the "half"-way of the Speakers, which takes over from the subwoofer and plays up to 500Hz where it is taken out by a Linkwitz-Riley lowpass with 48dB/oct. I also (for sure) added another LM3886. The result was ok for the speakers, for the sound got more substance, they sound a little more "grown up". The physical punch is still missing.
Latest upgrade were two new toroids from Poland with 2x24V/300VA (which would be to small if i took the recommended double of the amps, but i've never used more than half the possible volume, 28-36% is the right amount of noise to make me dance headbanging through the room).
As i used solid 18mm MDF (with 22mm front and ground plate) for the actual cases, i'd like to try something which seems to me like a good idea, but i have to try it to find out. Instead of 1 solid plate, I'd like to take 2 plates of 10mm. One of them will be milled out maybe 3mm on the whole area, only a frame on the outside, and maybe some small contact areas, to get a little more stability. Then i want to fill the milled areas with silicone and put some wood glue on the contact areas. the plates will then be put onto another, aligned, and fixed with screw clamps until everything is dryed and stable. so this becomes a MDF-sandwich with silicone filling. Should, at least, not be worse than a single solid MDF plate.
Somehow i just forgot to tell you why i want to build the new cases. Ok, i want to upgrade to some midwoofers with more linear travel, change the amps from open source LM3886 to the composite TDA7293 + JFE2140 and upgrade the psu's with active rectifiers and new elctrolytics.
I also want to build a new, better carrier for the amp modules, to make the whole thing plug & play (all connections close by pushing the amp-module in the carrier. For heat transfer, all amp modules ar pushed against springs, which will press the contact areas of the amps against the aluminum backplate which will act as cooler. Some thermal paste has to be used for sure).
I'm still not really sure which midwoofer will do the trick of being a real upgrade to the Gradients, while not making me to poor. Some, like the SICA 5.5H 1.5CP, the ScanSpeak 15W/8434G00 and the Dayton Audio RS150-8 are looked closer at. I've seen the Dayton for 41,xx$ at parts express. Maybe i should make a decision.
The pic shows how the speakers look like atm.
best regards
Jochen
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BBC used felt around tweeters to stop interaction with the cabinets which protruded forward of the baffle on LS 3/5a.
It remains a worthwhile even on a flush cabinet.
FALCON ACOUSTICS sells what they claim in the same quality that ROGERS used which was luxuriously soft and unlike any felt I have found for sale elsewhere.
It remains a worthwhile even on a flush cabinet.
FALCON ACOUSTICS sells what they claim in the same quality that ROGERS used which was luxuriously soft and unlike any felt I have found for sale elsewhere.