Gainclone & speaker design question. Newbie looking for help!

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hi there,

I am new to diy speaker building, so new even that i'm stunned how many parameters a driver has. Qts, Qms, Qes, Vas, you name it. Couldn't really find any good information on this board or internet...

I'm looking to build a set of floor standing speakers for my gainclone. But.... What to build & how to build it? Which drivers to use??
From experiments I have found out that my clone doesn't really like heavy/complicated loads so an 8ohm full range driver would be nice i guess.

My real question: can anyone direct me to a comprehensive paper concerning all those (strange?) driver parameters? Before diving into the building and buying of drivers i'd like to know what i'm really talking about...

all help appreciated.

Cheerio,

Matthijs
 
Do you want it to be THE Loudspeaker? Which is your budget? Wood experience?
The "easy" way is to search for kits, instead of design it, but it's a lot more fun/educative trying to build it from scratch. Prepare to save time from everywhere, though.
You are going to use it with a GC, so maybe you want to biamp as those are cheap (if you want). If one we all know ( :drink: :Pirate: ) deliver the promised crossover, then we could see the peanut butter closer, and you would have less problems with passive crossovers after the amps.
I'm building a two way GC biamped, with passive crossover, mainly because if I make mistakes, I'd only waste some chips, but I'm dying for an all class A triamped with a good electronic crossover.

Of course, you always have the Jlow, that is a h*** of a beautiful place to sleep (If you drink blood :clown: )
 
For most applications, Qts and Fs are the ones you need to worry about.

Rather than getting too bogged down in the deep theory (and intensive loudspeaker design can get really deep) how about taking a pre existing design.

The gainclone (if reports are to be believed) is suitable for quite high end speaker systems. (not of the vast power sucking Infinty IRS or Apogee Stage variety but normal real world loads and requirements it seems to do well with)

That puts a massive array of net published projects such as the Proac 2.5 clone, the Ariel, many ofthe HiFi World speaker projects and a huge range of single driver speaker systems well within reach.

I guess you really want to look at your budget and figure out what level of drive units you can afford.

If we know thay you have a radio shack 1354 level budget, the suggestions are different from if you have a Scanspeak revelator sort of budget.

What attributes do you prize highly and which are you willing to compromise on? Imaging, tone, dynamics, deep bass, soundstaging (depth).

Folks here ought to be able to suggest a wide range of solutions. Likely, they'll disagree to a point and not all projects will be the kind to "float your boat" but you'll have fun learning what you like.

I've had good results in the past with vifa p17wj008 and d25ag which is relatively cost effective but the sky and your imagination are the limits.

Now I'm doing the Fostex fullrange thing.

look forward to hearing from you...

Drew
 
The full-range route could make things easier if you don't need a crossover. Or, as others have said, stick to a tried and tested design.

I know somebody with a VBIGC who is going for a DIY version of the Adire HE-10 as the drivers are readily available this side of the pond.

Of course, it all depends on your budget.
 
DrewP: What I like in a speaker are good mids and tight bass. For my gainclone I really need drivers that are good in mids because somehow these tend to be a little low.
And for the bass, I just really like good tight bassdrums...

Not willing to compromise on ANYTHING is just plain stupid so... What I really like in a speaker is soundstage and dynamics.

Full range does sound attractive. 😀
 
Not willing to compromise on ANYTHING

i'm afraid that your budget doesn't allow "no compromise".....such speakers are very costly and trying to design them yourself will be a complete waste of money and time - therefore a fullrange with some extra bass (added later if/when budget allows...) could be realistic.....and you could make a real active system with 4 gainclones for a few $$$....
 
The local loudspeaker shop here sells Fostex. I'm in Saarbrücken in SW Germany. www.eckhorn.com I believe. They are called Art of Sound. I think you should be able to find something nearer to home though. I remember a speaker shop in Haarlem (NL), near the train station. I don't know if they have Fostex but when I was there last (abour two years ago) they had quite a range.

Let me know if you need more info.
 
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