Love the look of these, are you able to give some more info on them?
Last night I did a tilted-back Tangband W3-871SC Haffler Differential (msg #5216 @MITsound) 3.1ch 1ft "console" experiment; good floating-in-air soundstage width and even better depth. But switching center-driver polarity did not left-right flip the stage as I had theorized above; one way did sound much thinner.
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In the spirit of Minimalism here are two more up-firing XO-less speakers: from Taiwan 8" Hicastle bicone virtual sonic clone of my Lowther PM6A (but only cost $50 due to cosmetic blem.); and WAW 12" Aura ($50 oldie) supporting Mark Audio Alpair10.3 stainless balls variously sold as buffet server/tabletop trashcan/ashtray (really). All these drivers seriously overreached their highs. The Hicastle tea strainer placed over needle-nose phase-plug (and a holey grille) smoothed out the top end as well as vertical directivity. The scarf low-pass Aura and (very carefully) rotatable A10.3 wired in series are perfectly balanced solo & accompaniment. Sure I can nitpick but these aren't easy to beat.
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I have to say I'm rather surprised by the SQ of simple up-firing quasi-fullrange drivers. Possibly the best yet -- and cheapest at $35 total -- old 10" GuoGuang (aka Pearl River) ringed paper cone "woofers" placed atop ~27L "retractable" metal-and-plastic garbage cans. Snuck under-desk for some boost, they fully resolved deep bass drum roll etc from my Classical acid test, Karajan's Dvorak 9th (near the 40-minute mark). A slightly dry-ish sound not yet "lean", very taut and clear. Mids clean and detailed as well. Highs extended near 10khz at an extreme listening angle of 60-80deg off-axis, even fairly flat. The previous owner had cut away the soft dustcap entirely and glued a small piece of foam to the center; hence too much HF if mounted on baffle even without toe-in. Perhaps I will mate them with ultra-fi mid-tweeters like FE108eΣ or MAOP5 or SB Satori to aim for a perfect zero score. As-is playing under a table, -3 score (hi/mid/lo) A-/A/A+ which is pretty uncommon regardless of cost.
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I have replaced the alpair with a mid driver and GRS planner, mid drivers are mounted from back side with chamfer in baffle. Will it cause any interference or diffraction etc?
As that suggests to me the frame is assembled in several layers (bezel/mounting bracket, motor support frame, motor/magnet assembly), perhaps you mean collapsible?
Anyways, enough pedantry for now.
I found a pair of favored, and just lightly used, Fostex FE108EZ 4" full range drivers and bought them. I've begun expansion of the Nest Music Theater to 5.1.2 and need ear-level surrounds. I built a pair of ~5 liter miniOnkens from 15mm Baltic birch remnants from prior builds. These keen tiny full range speakers are awesome from 70Hz-15KHz, despite perfection requiring a much larger horn or transmission line cabinet (which'd be inappropriate for the surrounds locations). The full build & 5.1.2 story is HERE if you wanna wade it.
The suspended "front presence" or "height" speakers in the NestMT picture above, FPL/FPR, which are the ".2" in a 5.1.2 config, are cool too. They are ~8 liter bass reflex cabinets for the wild Tang Band W4-2356 full range drivers, retired from my Blanda bowls. I call them Tang Band Tri-Ports. During the build I measured both the sealed version and the final tri-ported version. The 2nd SPL sweep in this post shows both "Tri-Port" variants ~ there's notable bass improvement with porting. Ultimately they are pretty smooth too; this after I re-teased and reduced the acoustic stuffing. They are not as nice as the Fostex's at the mid-high end though.
The suspended "front presence" or "height" speakers in the NestMT picture above, FPL/FPR, which are the ".2" in a 5.1.2 config, are cool too. They are ~8 liter bass reflex cabinets for the wild Tang Band W4-2356 full range drivers, retired from my Blanda bowls. I call them Tang Band Tri-Ports. During the build I measured both the sealed version and the final tri-ported version. The 2nd SPL sweep in this post shows both "Tri-Port" variants ~ there's notable bass improvement with porting. Ultimately they are pretty smooth too; this after I re-teased and reduced the acoustic stuffing. They are not as nice as the Fostex's at the mid-high end though.
Pure fun project but works very well
DIY whizzer cones and sandwich cone
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/show-your-outdoor-fun-loudspeakers.411007/post-7644286
DIY whizzer cones and sandwich cone
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/show-your-outdoor-fun-loudspeakers.411007/post-7644286