Pass DIY Addict
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I'll be very interested to hear about your thoughts on bass extension. I have these waveguides and JBL 2445J ready to go.
Just labouring which woofers will get me the best bass extension and hoping the Faitals you've used are the way to go....
Bass is EXCELLENT! OMG! Been running some Dire Straits tonight - Wow! For the past 20 years, I've been running a DIY 5cu ft vented sonotube sub with a 12" driver powered by a 300w amp. It is flat down to about 17-18Hz and doesn't distort, chuff, or make any other obnoxious noises. It's awesome. Since I completed both speakers, I've turned the sub off and don't miss it at all! Volume is not very high right now and I'm feeling the floor vibrate under my feet. VERY satisfying without being boomy or muddy at all.
I'm pretty sure that I've not mastered all of the appropriate audio-magazine-superlatives, but these speakers are a whole different experience from the FHXL and their predecessors. I'm still getting used to the difference in sound and the drivers still have a ways to go before they are broken in. Where the FHXLs are a bit more "laid back" and "polite" in their presentation, the Calpamos just reach out, smack you upside the head, and don't make any apologies. Music on CD (so far, only a few disks in) sounds GREAT! A few channels on my satellite TV system (Comet in particular) sound pretty bad. Comet channel has never broadcast a proper audio signal (sometimes they only broadcast from a single channel) and has always sounded bad to me. The Calpamos highlight their poor audio broadcast with laser-like focus.
Music, though, is glorious! I think I'm starting to like them more than my big, open baffle Avro speakers that are in my basement theater (click on the DIY Theater link in my signature). Yep, getting happier by the day with these! 😀
Mazza,
Thanks for that paper by Bagby, I’ll peruse it (ie read it carefully).
Mbrennwa,
I am toying with the idea of building your OSMC and then shipping it to Erin for a Klippel comparo…
Eric,
Yes! High efficiency waveguide based mains when done right are very addicting!!
Best,
Anand.
Thanks for that paper by Bagby, I’ll peruse it (ie read it carefully).
Mbrennwa,
I am toying with the idea of building your OSMC and then shipping it to Erin for a Klippel comparo…
Eric,
Yes! High efficiency waveguide based mains when done right are very addicting!!
Best,
Anand.
Awesome, thanks for letting us know and congrats.
Hope you can get some measurements done, particularly off axis.
I built a turntable to do this along the lines of Dr Geddes DIY unit. Helps a lot!
These are some Econowaves I built this year for my niece. Doing horizontal and vertical off axis measurements....
Cheers.
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Nice! Havent test my calpamos yet, meaby next week. There Is Off axis meausurement in tonys home pages.
Interesting... but what do you mean by Klippel comparison? What kind of measurements do you have in mind? If you want to discuss this further, you could move this to the OSMC thread (I don't want to hijack this thread).
That's just a link to a bunch of YouTube videos about various speakers and types of measurements. My question was WHICH measurement type. As far as I can tell, the measurements in the OSMC documentation are already quite complete.
Mazza,
Your efforts in achieving comprehensive measurements on the Econowaves is super impressive. Of course this is dependent on user's experience and availability of time.
Best,
Anand.
Your efforts in achieving comprehensive measurements on the Econowaves is super impressive. Of course this is dependent on user's experience and availability of time.
Best,
Anand.
Awesome, thanks for letting us know and congrats.
Hope you can get some measurements done, particularly off axis.
I built a turntable to do this along the lines of Dr Geddes DIY unit. Helps a lot!
These are some Econowaves I built this year for my niece. Doing horizontal and vertical off axis measurements....
Cheers.
Looks good neighbor!
What woofer would that be..?
Most of the time considerate people respond by saying thank you for that additional information.. 😉
In any event, you can see the full range of measurements he provides in any of the videos as he discusses a loudspeaker's objective data.
Klippel measurement suite of course is considered to be pretty much the reference standard in measuring. It's pretty much a "known" if properly setup, whereas your measurements (though looking quite good) are less well known. In this case then the Klippel measurements would either be providing confirmation or showing some discrepancy in your measurements: in other words it's not about the completeness of your measurements, but rather their accuracy.
Ok, I get your idea. I don't see why Klippel equipment would give principally better accuracy than other quality equipment, assuming the operator(s) did not mess up the results. You are of course most welcome to repeat the measurements and compare the data. I am looking forward to the results!
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Wow, nice link to your speakers, Mazza! I'm not sure if I'll be able to replicate all of the measurements you've made! Creating a turntable for the speaker shows some genuine "over the top" DIY spirit! Very nice.
I also appreciate the link to Jeff Bagby's white paper. The link at the end of the document has lots of useful design tools. I've only just learned about Jeff's speakers, his design philosophy, and of his untimely demise. Such a shame to lose someone so talented and giving to the DIY community!
I also appreciate the link to Jeff Bagby's white paper. The link at the end of the document has lots of useful design tools. I've only just learned about Jeff's speakers, his design philosophy, and of his untimely demise. Such a shame to lose someone so talented and giving to the DIY community!
Hats off Eric, you did a great job..����
I'm already sweating because everything is in front of me, because I'll also be building the calpamos.
I bought the chassis, horns, drivers and crossovers a long time ago, I just couldn't bring myself to start with the housings.
I'm already sweating because everything is in front of me, because I'll also be building the calpamos.
I bought the chassis, horns, drivers and crossovers a long time ago, I just couldn't bring myself to start with the housings.
Pass DIY Addict
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Paid Member
Lumlum: I know right where you are coming from! It took me a while to decide that I actually wanted to build such a large speaker. I sat and looked at them for a while before I decided to buy the crossovers from Tony. Then I sat on them for a few months. I was having second thoughts for sure. I even contemplated selling the crossovers and picking a smaller speaker. I modeled the cabinets in cardboard and saw that they would fit where I wanted to put them, so I moved forward.
Eight months later, I bought the drivers and stated building the cabinets. When I built the rectangular frame for the front of the cabinet, I carried it into the house and thought, “ that’s not so big…”. Then I added the front-to-back bars and had a 3D rectangle. Wow, now it looked really big. As I worked on it more, I got used to the size. They didn’t seem so big anymore. Then I added the plywood sides. Wow, now they looked big again (they were getting very heavy, too!). Those “second thoughts” were coming back again. Then I carried them in the house - wow, they were really large…
Then I connected an amp and had a listen. WOW!!! These are AWESOME!! I’ve never heard anything like them before! All of those times I spent second guessing myself are now gone. These speakers are great and I’m never going to part with them as I have with other speakers.
Go build them! You’ll never look back!
Eight months later, I bought the drivers and stated building the cabinets. When I built the rectangular frame for the front of the cabinet, I carried it into the house and thought, “ that’s not so big…”. Then I added the front-to-back bars and had a 3D rectangle. Wow, now it looked really big. As I worked on it more, I got used to the size. They didn’t seem so big anymore. Then I added the plywood sides. Wow, now they looked big again (they were getting very heavy, too!). Those “second thoughts” were coming back again. Then I carried them in the house - wow, they were really large…
Then I connected an amp and had a listen. WOW!!! These are AWESOME!! I’ve never heard anything like them before! All of those times I spent second guessing myself are now gone. These speakers are great and I’m never going to part with them as I have with other speakers.
Go build them! You’ll never look back!
Pass DIY Addict
Joined 2000
Paid Member
I am not sure if I did this entirely correctly, but I think this is an impedance graph of the Calpamos that I made with DATS. I had a bit of trouble getting DATS to function (at all) when connected it to my portable computer. I had to run it as Administrator and make a few changes to settings in the control panel in order for it to even pass its initial calibration of the test leads.
Anyhow, here are the impedance and phase plots. They aren't an exact match but they seem to follow the general shape of the ones Tony published in his PDF. I'm not sure what to make of the squiggles between 50 and 300Hz. When I measured my FHXL speakers, I got similar squiggles in that frequency range...
Anyhow, here are the impedance and phase plots. They aren't an exact match but they seem to follow the general shape of the ones Tony published in his PDF. I'm not sure what to make of the squiggles between 50 and 300Hz. When I measured my FHXL speakers, I got similar squiggles in that frequency range...
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The impedance curve looks suspicious to me. If it is true, it implies your speaker is severely malfunctioning... which is obviously not the case.
if you have a resistor handy, measure it with DATS. if you still get squiggles, something is wrong with either DATS, the PC, or they way they are interfaced.
j.
if you have a resistor handy, measure it with DATS. if you still get squiggles, something is wrong with either DATS, the PC, or they way they are interfaced.
j.
hifijim,
I would suspect the setup of DATS on the PC; the FH-XL is a single driver speaker, and hence no XO components to deal with - according to Eric the impedance measurement of the FH-XL also had the same squiggles...
I would suspect the setup of DATS on the PC; the FH-XL is a single driver speaker, and hence no XO components to deal with - according to Eric the impedance measurement of the FH-XL also had the same squiggles...
+1
The squiggles might be a result of a low test signal / poor signal-to-noise ratio. Can you increase the signal amplitude?
Also, the Calpamos documentation shows the impedance maximum higher than 40 Ohm at about 1 kHz. Yours is quite a bit lower. This looks like either the xover or the drivers are behaving differently.