Hi all,
Plan on building a smaller 2 way bookshelf and could use a little help from the community. I did a a fair bit of research and have opted to go the inexpensive route it terms of drivers. I plan on using:
Peerless 830656:
The Madisound Speaker Store
&
Hi-Vi K1:
The Madisound Speaker Store
or
Hi-Vi Q1R:
HiVi Q1R 1-1/8" Textile Dome Tweeter 297-417
My two questions are what would the final impedance of the speaker end up being and what are my options for the crossover or do I even need one? Sorry, I don't have much experience with crossovers and am kind of stuck at this point.
Thanks!
Plan on building a smaller 2 way bookshelf and could use a little help from the community. I did a a fair bit of research and have opted to go the inexpensive route it terms of drivers. I plan on using:
Peerless 830656:
The Madisound Speaker Store
&
Hi-Vi K1:
The Madisound Speaker Store
or
Hi-Vi Q1R:
HiVi Q1R 1-1/8" Textile Dome Tweeter 297-417
My two questions are what would the final impedance of the speaker end up being and what are my options for the crossover or do I even need one? Sorry, I don't have much experience with crossovers and am kind of stuck at this point.
Thanks!
You'll need a crossover for a number of reasons. The tweeters should be corrected for being too loud to begin with. They should also be protected from low frequency energy.
When you cut the lows to the tweeter you should do it in a way that corresponds with the woofer, and the highs that should be cut from it.
As far as impedance, this is going to be different across different frequencies. With an 8 ohm woofer and 5 ohm tweeter it will generally tend toward being those amounts in the range that each of these drivers will cover.
When you cut the lows to the tweeter you should do it in a way that corresponds with the woofer, and the highs that should be cut from it.
As far as impedance, this is going to be different across different frequencies. With an 8 ohm woofer and 5 ohm tweeter it will generally tend toward being those amounts in the range that each of these drivers will cover.
I would think about a kit Lokii, all the engineering has been done, measured etc.
Here are a couple of 8ohm projects:
Overnight Sensations MT Speaker Pair Kit 300-706
Zaph|Audio - ZMV5 - MCM / Vifa 5" System
Here are a couple of 8ohm projects:
Overnight Sensations MT Speaker Pair Kit 300-706
Zaph|Audio - ZMV5 - MCM / Vifa 5" System
+1 on building something like this at first.
Building from scratch is a romantic idea, but there's a lot of learning involved.
Take a look at this: crossovers
IMHO, the crossover is the heart of the loudspeaker, the math and work that goes into it will be 90% of the success of the final product. Get your feet wet first on something already done, which you can later reverse engineer as further learning before attempting your own.
This is like asking "Does my car need a transmission? Can I use the one from this truck in a Prius?"
Seriously, you need to do a LOT more reading first.
OR take a look at something like this.
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=264-918
Impressive in a 19L tuned box, nice solid bass; a bit light on the treble, maybe a turn on the receiver treble knob would be sufficient.
Good read on the crossover link (page).
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=264-918
Impressive in a 19L tuned box, nice solid bass; a bit light on the treble, maybe a turn on the receiver treble knob would be sufficient.
Good read on the crossover link (page).
Thank you all for the suggestions. I guess I was being a somewhat ignorant when asking these newbie questions. I've begun reading up a lot more on crossovers and it is starting to make a little more sense.
My hobby is music and I consider myself an amateur audiophile. I came up from custom car audio builds using little-known, high-end brands like Rainbow and Adire Audio. After that the home audio bug hit me and I got a some Paradigm Studio 100s with NAD separates for my bedroom. Yes, complete overkill.
At the moment I have a pair of Ascend Acoustics CBM-170's and some Dynaudio Audience bookshelfs. In the past I've owned many brands of speakers from B&W to Spendor. My favorite pair to this day was a beat up pair of A/D/S L1290s. Flattest frequency response I've ever come across with unbelievable bass from a sealed cabinet. I have also been through many amp/preamp units and currently own a Creek Destiny as well as a Rega Mira integrated.
Now I am ready to get into DIY. I know brands and have access to woodwork but as far as a completed, decent sounding speaker, I am far off. I guess my real question and the reason for me coming here is whether building from scratch can be compared to buying something already engineered to sound its best, especially by someone as green as I am in the field.
My hobby is music and I consider myself an amateur audiophile. I came up from custom car audio builds using little-known, high-end brands like Rainbow and Adire Audio. After that the home audio bug hit me and I got a some Paradigm Studio 100s with NAD separates for my bedroom. Yes, complete overkill.
At the moment I have a pair of Ascend Acoustics CBM-170's and some Dynaudio Audience bookshelfs. In the past I've owned many brands of speakers from B&W to Spendor. My favorite pair to this day was a beat up pair of A/D/S L1290s. Flattest frequency response I've ever come across with unbelievable bass from a sealed cabinet. I have also been through many amp/preamp units and currently own a Creek Destiny as well as a Rega Mira integrated.
Now I am ready to get into DIY. I know brands and have access to woodwork but as far as a completed, decent sounding speaker, I am far off. I guess my real question and the reason for me coming here is whether building from scratch can be compared to buying something already engineered to sound its best, especially by someone as green as I am in the field.
If designed by you, no, impossible. It takes years until you can beat well engineered commercial ones.
But you can build designs from experts. So instead of doing research on drivers, do research on projects.
And you are looking for inexpensive route...??? This hobby is very expensive. You should really build other people's design, a proven one, to be effective and efficient.
I've never bought a set of speakers for serious listening and I've never touched a kit.
It's a steep learning curve. Maybe that's a good thing, it makes for a good hobby. By jumping in this way it requires you to learn things that you might not learn if you were given the answer. But then there's opening speakers, modifying them, combining them.. now and then blowing one up. Good times.
It can also be frustrating, but probably not as much now there's this internet thingy. If I could go back and tell myself one relevant thing, it would be how sound moves about and what that means. It can be difficult to imagine just what is happening based on what you hear.
Instead I had to learn what a box is and why I needed one. That's ok. Wouldn't have it any other way 😉
It's a steep learning curve. Maybe that's a good thing, it makes for a good hobby. By jumping in this way it requires you to learn things that you might not learn if you were given the answer. But then there's opening speakers, modifying them, combining them.. now and then blowing one up. Good times.
It can also be frustrating, but probably not as much now there's this internet thingy. If I could go back and tell myself one relevant thing, it would be how sound moves about and what that means. It can be difficult to imagine just what is happening based on what you hear.
Instead I had to learn what a box is and why I needed one. That's ok. Wouldn't have it any other way 😉
Madisound has a kit.
ntroducing "The Diego" Seas Prestige Compact 2-Way Speaker Kit!
By way of a special purchase from Seas of Norway, we bring you this high quality yet heavily discounted speaker kit.
https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/index.php?p=product&id=2003
Limited quantity. When they're gone, they're gone!
ntroducing "The Diego" Seas Prestige Compact 2-Way Speaker Kit!
By way of a special purchase from Seas of Norway, we bring you this high quality yet heavily discounted speaker kit.
https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/index.php?p=product&id=2003
Limited quantity. When they're gone, they're gone!
Hi,
Build these if you want a bookshelf : Zaph|Audio - ZMV5 - MCM / Vifa 5" System
Floorstander : https://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/diy/amiga
Both offer very high quality for the cost.
rgds, sreten.
Build these if you want a bookshelf : Zaph|Audio - ZMV5 - MCM / Vifa 5" System
Floorstander : https://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/diy/amiga
Both offer very high quality for the cost.
rgds, sreten.
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The crossover network is the absolute key to achieving an outstanding loudspeaker design. Most anyone can select a group of drivers but to attain a speaker that compares to and exceeds commercial loudspeakers takes an experienced designer. Selecting a set of drivers is easy but the difficult part is the marriage of them in the crossover.
The best advice I have for lokii is to purchase a kit for his first DIY speaker. He will gain the advantage of knowing that his efforts will yield a successful conclusion. Furthermore, his sweat equity in building the cabinets will be worthwhile.
lokii should look at kit offerings from Parts Express and especially Meniscus Audio. The Meniscus kits are especially interesting as several are from Jeff Bagby, Paul Carmody, Dennis Murphy, and other active and successful designers. Browse through these pages at:
DIY Speaker Components | Replacement Speakers | and Speaker kits from Meniscus Audio Group
While these designers are successful DIY speaker contest winners, they are also active on several DIY forums (especially the Parts Express Tech Talk forum). Hence, they or other builders can address questions as you proceed on your project. Paul Carmody (a mathematical teacher by day) has several relatively inexpensive designs that would be a good start for a first time build. I should add that Dennis Murphy (the retired economics expert and musician) designs crossovers for both Salk Audio and his own Philharmonic speaker lines. Jeff is an Electrical Engineer in his full time job and an avid DIY'er and teacher to us DIY designers as his hobby. Jeff's crossover design software program is widely used by several of us DIY'ers. Checkout Jeff's software at:
http://audio.claub.net/software/jbabgy/jbagby.html
Another possibility is to contact a designer like Rick Craig at Selahaudio.com and ask him to design a custom speaker for your needs. Rick sells both finished speakers and kits.
Good luck.
Jim
The best advice I have for lokii is to purchase a kit for his first DIY speaker. He will gain the advantage of knowing that his efforts will yield a successful conclusion. Furthermore, his sweat equity in building the cabinets will be worthwhile.
lokii should look at kit offerings from Parts Express and especially Meniscus Audio. The Meniscus kits are especially interesting as several are from Jeff Bagby, Paul Carmody, Dennis Murphy, and other active and successful designers. Browse through these pages at:
DIY Speaker Components | Replacement Speakers | and Speaker kits from Meniscus Audio Group
While these designers are successful DIY speaker contest winners, they are also active on several DIY forums (especially the Parts Express Tech Talk forum). Hence, they or other builders can address questions as you proceed on your project. Paul Carmody (a mathematical teacher by day) has several relatively inexpensive designs that would be a good start for a first time build. I should add that Dennis Murphy (the retired economics expert and musician) designs crossovers for both Salk Audio and his own Philharmonic speaker lines. Jeff is an Electrical Engineer in his full time job and an avid DIY'er and teacher to us DIY designers as his hobby. Jeff's crossover design software program is widely used by several of us DIY'ers. Checkout Jeff's software at:
http://audio.claub.net/software/jbabgy/jbagby.html
Another possibility is to contact a designer like Rick Craig at Selahaudio.com and ask him to design a custom speaker for your needs. Rick sells both finished speakers and kits.
Good luck.
Jim
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I would agree that building a proven speaker design from a reputable designer is the (only) way to go. Occasionally I review the new builds of the designers Jim Griffin mentioned. Btw: Jim Griffin himself belongs in the list. He has made numerous prize winning designs and also contributes much knowledge to the community.
'oldmanaudio' pointed to an interesting kit from madisound designed by Seas. I cannot believe I haven't read more about this kit. It is priced at $149 per speaker, drivers and xo components. It is a very small bookshelf.
I have been considering the "The Diego" as well for a pair of desktop speakers. Not sure how it rates compared to the "Overnight Sensation" but I believe as far as cost it is $149 for the pair. I could be wrong.
MLC
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