Wow, many dimensions.
It takes a lot of time and thought to rate all of these.
I'm guessing that some get high marks and some low.
The perfect speaker does not exist.
The electronics and the music obviously have an effect as well.
It takes a lot of time and thought to rate all of these.
I'm guessing that some get high marks and some low.
The perfect speaker does not exist.
The electronics and the music obviously have an effect as well.
About KEF, I wonder what kind of drivers KEF Q150 use? They are super cheap and trashing the speakers to reuse the driver in a better diy enclosure with good XO parts might be a good way to kef....
I was satisfied (close enough) with a stereo pair of huge, expensive, DIY (4) way corner horns in my first house constructed with an alleged uncompressed high SQ/SPL low B pipe organ RTR tape in mind.
Just know that to my senses it fared well compared to a couple of local low B pipe organs. My then wood framed, brick n' mortar exterior, while better than most since I spec'd it and was there every lunch hour to passively oversee they kept to the plan was no match to huge Ga Granite constructed cathedrals.
A fullrange driver can be great, but it's not neutral sounding. I use a Mark Audio Alpair 10.3 in a reflex for that. I could give you the plans, but the driver is NLA so. Cabinet was about 18L for this and it goes down to 46Hz (F3) freestanding (and lower against a wall). That it is a 5.5" driver is not an issue actually. It's a great set and one of my favorite and most used diy speaker sets. Theywere amped with various amps (tubes, class A transistor, class AB transistor and NCore class D) during the few years i have them and all work well with it.
But if you want it neutral studio monitor like, use a 2 way with a tweeter and a woofer (could be a Mark Audio) as all fullrange have a small dispertion (could be not an issue on short distance) and resonances in the treble (can be tamed a bit). A 2 way will have a more neutral FR rsponse and be lower distortion. But you loose the full point source and phase consistancey of a single driver system. What fits you best is not somethin i can tell.
There are a few designs out that are very high rated, designed by Jef Bagby (RIP) like the Samba TM that are cheap and very neutral and good sounding for a relative small price. You can buy the kit, but the plans are out there to make them yourself also, and the drivers are availeble on the market. All the info is here: https://doc.soundimports.nl/pdf/brands/Denovo Audio/Samba MT/samba-speaker-kit-assembly-manual.pdf
But if a fullrange is good enough, look at some of the smaller cabinets of Planet 10 his site, the Marken ao have a proven track record and altough not fully neutral, they are known to be very enjoyable speakers, with most design still have the drivers not being NLA. If you don't need bass from this, a smaller driver will be better than my 5.5" as the resonances and beaming starts higher in frequency and the cabinet can be smaller.
But for me, my Alpair 10.3 reflexes surely are also very enjoyable. i spend every week hours in front of them while working on my computer(s). I have plans and even drivers to make a neutral 2 way for next to it, but i did not get there yet to build them yet (life did get in the way).
But if you want it neutral studio monitor like, use a 2 way with a tweeter and a woofer (could be a Mark Audio) as all fullrange have a small dispertion (could be not an issue on short distance) and resonances in the treble (can be tamed a bit). A 2 way will have a more neutral FR rsponse and be lower distortion. But you loose the full point source and phase consistancey of a single driver system. What fits you best is not somethin i can tell.
There are a few designs out that are very high rated, designed by Jef Bagby (RIP) like the Samba TM that are cheap and very neutral and good sounding for a relative small price. You can buy the kit, but the plans are out there to make them yourself also, and the drivers are availeble on the market. All the info is here: https://doc.soundimports.nl/pdf/brands/Denovo Audio/Samba MT/samba-speaker-kit-assembly-manual.pdf
But if a fullrange is good enough, look at some of the smaller cabinets of Planet 10 his site, the Marken ao have a proven track record and altough not fully neutral, they are known to be very enjoyable speakers, with most design still have the drivers not being NLA. If you don't need bass from this, a smaller driver will be better than my 5.5" as the resonances and beaming starts higher in frequency and the cabinet can be smaller.
But for me, my Alpair 10.3 reflexes surely are also very enjoyable. i spend every week hours in front of them while working on my computer(s). I have plans and even drivers to make a neutral 2 way for next to it, but i did not get there yet to build them yet (life did get in the way).
What is your opinion on rear firing tweeter? Does it make any sense on desktop? Here the guy used MA driver but had to add a woofer and a tweeter, but the tweeter was rear firing. Maybe because MA kind of did the job up to 13 kHz and only required the last 5 kHz of range to be improved:
I use SB Acoustics SB10PGC21-4 on my desktop.
It is a good driver for low volume listening.
It is a good driver for low volume listening.
Anyone tried to wall-mount speakers right besides to the computer table, for a flatter low to mid response?
If you're going to hang it on the wall, it won't work unless it's a thin box.
The voice coil has a large diameter and the damper area is small, so the bass is not so high.
The sound quality is refreshing with little distortion.
The sound quality is refreshing with little distortion.
I made a wall-mounted Speaker with CHP90.
I used 9mm MDF to reduce the weight as much as possible, but it is strong enough and I don't feel any vibration of the box.
I used 9mm MDF to reduce the weight as much as possible, but it is strong enough and I don't feel any vibration of the box.
Depends…….is your desk up against a wall? Desktop listening is near field with its own set of performance factors. Full range solutions can work very well if the acoustic space is somewhat neutral to deadened…….meaning off axis response isn’t a critical design parameter. Coaxial drivers like the KEF do very well in the near field…….and the extended bass shelf tuning of the Q150 is ideal for near wall placement IF you can mitigate the early reflections……..
If there’s a monitor/ screen, the open space between the horizontal sides of the speakers and the monitors should be eliminated……..this open area is a hells scape for bass response diffraction.
I don't want to talk about myself but yes, a typical computer desktop for which I started this thread looks like this - near the wall and a monitor in between. Pictured is my TB W6 prototype box and the right speaker is Dynaudio Emit. Thanks @perceval for mentoring! Of course I will have to scrap and rebuild this box. It has horrible baffle step and diffraction problems, also the internal size is only 10 L and I need more like 15-17.
The next box will have a much larger bowl-like baffle (think KEF LS50 but a lot more bowl like). The right side will stick out 2 cm and overlap the monitor surface. Essentially I want the baffle to blend with the monitor.
The box itself will use the free space behind the monitor, so essentially the angle between the baffle and the right side will be not 90 but 120 degrees so the box will kind of bend around and behind the monitor.
And the left side will make 80 degrees from the baffle, so it will tilt right, so it doesn't stick outside of the table. The top will tilt up 120 degrees from the baffle, so the reflection goes behind me.
Another option I am still considering is wall mount instead of this purple diffuser. It must be flat but odd shaped to tilt the speaker down and right toward me. The distance will be 2x from my current distance, and I don't know if it's better or worse.
But I want to add as I have other people in the house as most of us should have unless they are audiophile dead head cat boys the wall mount will require higher volume so based on that it should not be an option.
I like the thinking you are going through with the next design. I think it has potential. I like the irregular shaped boxes blending with your current setup instead of the wall mount.
And, as they said in the Matrix, I only showed you the door, you walked through by yourself. 🙂
And, as they said in the Matrix, I only showed you the door, you walked through by yourself. 🙂
I have a question about desk reflection. As you can see from the pic #111 I have some. I understand the options of a smaller desk or covering it with polyprene or felt, that part is obvious. However I'm thinking if it's possible to add some sort of round diffuser at the speaker baffle bottom that will disperse the wave in various directions even before it reaches the table?
If the offending frequencies are somewhere in the 10 - 15 cm length area a diffuser of about 7 cm diameter should be large enough.
Maybe I can test it by attaching a tennis ball at the very bottom of the baffle...
If the offending frequencies are somewhere in the 10 - 15 cm length area a diffuser of about 7 cm diameter should be large enough.
Maybe I can test it by attaching a tennis ball at the very bottom of the baffle...
The goal is to always try to get rid of first reflections.
So, finding a way to diffuse/damp those first reflections is a worthy endeavor.
Diffusers as working tools set in there or other means will be beneficial. However you do it. Be creative using the work tools you have in place.
So, finding a way to diffuse/damp those first reflections is a worthy endeavor.
Diffusers as working tools set in there or other means will be beneficial. However you do it. Be creative using the work tools you have in place.
You simply need more crap on your desk. I don't think diffusors work very well in a close, small area. I would try some absorbers. Put some blankets around your speakers and see what happens.
tens of thousands of our favorite recordings were mixed in a studio with monitors on top of a mixing desk/console.........a non issue
Here a guy is trashing a Mark Audio driver at 49:07.
Apparently the problem is that it's made from a metallic cone, not paper. I also saw some reviews where people are complaining about bad sound of the latest KEF LS50 Meta, and I suspect the problem is the same - metal cone.
I kind of suspected that MA should sound bad just because KEF is bad, and here we go.
Remember, we are building an ultimate desktop here, not some so-so for background noise. Let's stick with paper cones, MA and KEF are out.
Apparently the problem is that it's made from a metallic cone, not paper. I also saw some reviews where people are complaining about bad sound of the latest KEF LS50 Meta, and I suspect the problem is the same - metal cone.
I kind of suspected that MA should sound bad just because KEF is bad, and here we go.
Remember, we are building an ultimate desktop here, not some so-so for background noise. Let's stick with paper cones, MA and KEF are out.
Wow, those drivers are ancient, and he doesn't say what they are which isn't helpful. Maybe CHR-70 Gen. 1 which would be around 2011 production, and was a budget offering at that time, and still is IIRC.
Mark Audio drivers have come a long way since then, so judging them based on that video is just plain wrong.
jeff
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@vinylkid58 maybe but I doubt it. Afaik even the latest MA drivers are still not paper, correct me if I'm wrong. And metallic drives just can't sound good, they just can't no matter how much engineering was spent on them. Same problem with KEF.
This video is from 2023 so the drivers are most likely recent.
This video is from 2023 so the drivers are most likely recent.