Hey guys so thought I'd just throw a bone out there, making another set of minikarlsons for my mom for christmas, but this one will be ocean blue, I hope I do a decent enough finish to make them look pro.
Oh and good job Frazier I like those supports for the wings, I may consider putting some in. Do any of you guys paint inside of the wings (sides, beyond the baffle) I'm considering it but not looking forward to lots of masking.
Sabaspeed,
They would indeed make great presents.
instead of smooth paint on inside chamber try covering with felt or swifter brand mop head pads. It cleans up the internal reverberation. Some like it without though. Easy to try though.Different Driver
Hi XKR,
in the '60's I built a number of Carlsons, without much success. Reading this thread and your work, I now understand why. But I have always liked their looks.
I now have the need for a small unit, and are thinking of this driver, single.. Needs are a "technical look", small size, good mid-range, but power handling not important.
Any suggestions for sizing etc?
Regards, Ross
Hi XKR,
in the '60's I built a number of Carlsons, without much success. Reading this thread and your work, I now understand why. But I have always liked their looks.
I now have the need for a small unit, and are thinking of this driver, single.. Needs are a "technical look", small size, good mid-range, but power handling not important.
Any suggestions for sizing etc?
Regards, Ross
Attachments
got to thank XRK and his threads on karlson/karlsonator. If I would hazard a guess try Blaides drawing on the first page but make it 26 inches height instead. I have had success making the karsonator with popcorn variety of foamboard. There's enough information on these threads and the foamcore one to do it easily so just go for it.
This driver works well doubled-up and wired in series for 8 ohms nominal load in a 0.60x scale Karlsonator. You have to watch out for exceeding xmax though but the response is pretty flat down to 60Hz. Use a K-aperture that goes to a sharp cusp rather than a slot for the deepest bass extension. Use a slot to get more bass amplitude but less extension.
SPL vs Freq at 1m and 2.83v:
Impedance:
Cone displacement:
Attachments
That is great information thanks. 18 inches is fine for dual. I'll mock that up.
I thought it would need to be bigger.
How about single? Hoyungh is suggesting 26 inch, I think for a single but not sure, which does not agree with above.
I may try a 0.47 single as well, ie approx .15 inches just for fun. I am not fussed by loss of bass in this application, and will in fact roll it off to avoid over driving Xmax.
I thought it would need to be bigger.
How about single? Hoyungh is suggesting 26 inch, I think for a single but not sure, which does not agree with above.
I may try a 0.47 single as well, ie approx .15 inches just for fun. I am not fussed by loss of bass in this application, and will in fact roll it off to avoid over driving Xmax.
Thanks xrk , I put 1/2 " felt on the inside of the K baffle It took out about 1/2 of the reverb. These speakers are great , vocals are crystal clear, more base than I would expect. Near field , 6' to 12' not pushed too hard.Sabaspeed,
They would indeed make great presents.
I think the next build will replace the towers . 2x 4" drivers or ?? any suggestions gratefully accepted . Happy New Year Thanks
Thanks xrk , I put 1/2 " felt on the inside of the K baffle It took out about 1/2 of the reverb. These speakers are great , vocals are crystal clear, more base than I would expect. Near field , 6' to 12' not pushed too hard.
Try 0.57x scale with dual Faital Pro 4FE35 (8 ohm) drivers in parallel for 4 ohm load and 97dB at 2.83v sensitivity! Bass should be in solid 50Hz range.
So here are the blue mini-karlsonators I made my mom for christmas!
She picked the color, and it looks pretty nice. One thing I will mention is: white primer is for the birds if you are painting a dark finish. It took approximately 5 coats of primer and no less than 4 coats of finish (some sections more) to get a smooth covering.
Oh and I have a sweet jig for cranking out those baffles repeatedly, now I just need to build the 15.25 inch radius arm for my router!
She picked the color, and it looks pretty nice. One thing I will mention is: white primer is for the birds if you are painting a dark finish. It took approximately 5 coats of primer and no less than 4 coats of finish (some sections more) to get a smooth covering.
Oh and I have a sweet jig for cranking out those baffles repeatedly, now I just need to build the 15.25 inch radius arm for my router!
Attachments
For the record I connected them to my mom's existing creative audio set (sub built into amp) because that meant she didn't need to buy an amp and she has the same volume control is before (simplicity is important for those of us with less audio expertise). The cables in the original creative set are rca to hard wire so I took a pair of RCA cables stripped one end and collected the shell into a wire and connected that to the speakers. Doesn't sound too bad! I also finished my present for my brother a couple days back (sealed 10 inch alpine swe10s4 with full mitered corners and oil/lacquer finish) that also looks nice.
They look great- like the blue but I'm not sure your using the right paint
The paint was semi-matte from the paint store down the street (kelly more) the owner of the store knows a heck of a lot more about paint than I do. It was 6 bucks for the quart of blue (which I still have 80% left) and like 7 for the primer. It is not duratex due to the recipients preference (my preferred speaker coating is far and away duratex) and the lightness of the undercoat meant it took a lot of blue to be blue.
Next time I go with blue I'll use a darker primer.
Last edited:
I'm really enjoying my Mini Karlsonators with the TC9FD's. So I'm thinking that a small sub would go nicely with them. I have ordered a TPA3116 2.1 amp for them.
Could someone kindly recommend a driver and box design that would work well. I'd like it to be as small as possible to extend the bass a bit.
Thanks
Could someone kindly recommend a driver and box design that would work well. I'd like it to be as small as possible to extend the bass a bit.
Thanks
So far, I've found my mini Karlsonators are easy to match to a sub. I'm using a cheap Bic 12" crossed at about 60hz at the moment, and the combination is very pleasing. They would easily live up to a better quality sub I'm sure, but IMO nothing terribly exotic is needed.
Anyhow, since they go fairly low by themselves, I'd suggest a decent 10" sub driver in a simple sealed or vented box. A plate amp with boost would be helpful. Obviously there are smaller sub drivers, but most of them are really woofers not subwoofers. There wouldn't be much point to a sub that only adds 10hz or whatever to the bass extension.
Anyhow, since they go fairly low by themselves, I'd suggest a decent 10" sub driver in a simple sealed or vented box. A plate amp with boost would be helpful. Obviously there are smaller sub drivers, but most of them are really woofers not subwoofers. There wouldn't be much point to a sub that only adds 10hz or whatever to the bass extension.
at Amazon US, one can get a decent powered Polk subwoofer for $90 shipped. The late Marshall Leach used a 12" MCM dual voice coil woofer - it plays well in a Karlson K12 (about 1.3 cubic foot rear chamber) with vents sealed.
http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/55-1465
Amazon.com: Polk Audio PSW10 10-Inch Powered Subwoofer (Single, Black): Electronics
http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/55-1465
Amazon.com: Polk Audio PSW10 10-Inch Powered Subwoofer (Single, Black): Electronics
a standard 1958 Karlson K12 with its vents sealed gave the following in-room response with that MCM DVC 12" woofer - its reasonably easy to drive and punchy - the little Polk powered woofer referenced above is a bargain and probably more neutral with small fullrange than attempts to extend a FR's bass with long path pipehorn, etc.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
The short answer is: no, not really.
Karlsons are bandpass devices, and trade extension for efficiency. It is difficult to get super deep response from them. Karlsonators already bend the rules about as far as is practical.
It would be in fact possible to build a Karlsonator optimized as a sub, but it would be very big. Ditto for genuine Karlson. A K15 with a retuned port would be good for about 30Hz in my estimation (with EQ), but they are big.
That little Polk looks about optimal to me. I might get one myself. Costs less than it would to DIY something similar.