My own "Ultimate" loudspeaker

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StigErik

StigErik

Member
2008-02-21 12:30 pm
  • #1
    As promised in a other thread here about an ultimate loudspeaker - here's a presentation of my own current speaker system. Ultimate or not, its kind of interesting I think.

    This first post contains a picture and physical parameters....

    Height: 190 cm
    Width: 48 cm
    Depth: 70 cm
    Weight: approx 300 kg

    Build from: MDF
    Filled with: a lot of sand!!

    More info will follow!

    [IMGDEAD]http://memweb.newsguy.com/~stigerik/assets/images/418-2.jpg[/IMGDEAD]
     
    StigErik

    StigErik

    Member
    2008-02-21 12:30 pm
  • #3
    A few words on the cabinets first. The system is devided into three sections, two bass boxes and a large mid section. The system has to be set up on-site because of its weight.

    The bass boxes are made from 30 mm MDF with internal bracing. They are quite light, about 35 kg without the driver. Internal volume is 100 liters.

    The mid section houses the tweeter, two midranges and two mid-woofers. All drivers have their separate closed chamber. There is also a room at the back, where the power amplifiers are placed. There are large chambers along the sides and between the amplifier room and drivers that are filled with sand for damping and mass. More than 100 kg of sand are used in each cabinet! The sand was filled in after the mid section was mounted on top of the bottom bass box. With sand, drivers and amplifiers, the mid section weighs at least 220 kg.

    The cabinets are laquered. I dont like veneer...
     
    StigErik

    StigErik

    Member
    2008-02-21 12:30 pm
  • #10
    bonjonno said:
    Is there a thick concrete slab or bedrock under the flooring? Looks gorgeous. Bet it sounds BIG.
    Click to expand...


    They do not sound big at all, if you by "big" mean something lik "wall of sound". I think they sound more like really good electrostats with a pair of well-integrated sub's, only with 30 dB greater dynamic range.

    I do have a concrete floor in my room. The speakers stand on a separate slab, so any vibration from the speakers is not transfered to the rest of the floor.

    The link to my homepage with some more info on these beasts and my listeing room has been posted here already......
     
    StigErik

    StigErik

    Member
    2008-02-21 12:30 pm
  • #12
    y8s said:
    flat within +/- half a db!
    Click to expand...


    If you've looked at the measurements in the x-over section of my homepage, there are measurements of my OLD speaker system, not the new.

    This new one here measures on-axis within +/- 0,2 dB (anechoic of course) Oh yeah... a lot of EQ is required for such a result of course, and its only that good on axis. 5 degrees of axis, everything changes at least a dB, maybe more.

    What's more interesting is that the impulse response of the speaker looks very much like a perfect pulse. This is what we get when frequency response, phase and group delay is flat. This is all thanks to the PC-based x-over system I'm using.
     
    StigErik

    StigErik

    Member
    2008-02-21 12:30 pm
  • #14
    The drivers are:

    18" Woofers - Beyma 18P1200nd
    8" mid-woofers - Seas Excel W22EX001
    5" midranges - Seas Excel W15CH001 (with the hexadym magnet system)
    tweeter - Mundorf AMT2340 Air Motion Transformer.

    The Beyma woofers sound really good I think, have low distortion and good Xmax .. just what we need here :)

    The woofers are used in closed box - a bit unusual with such PA woofers maybe? The system resonance is ~70 Hz, placing the resonance at the x-over frequency. The woofer thus works only below resonance.
     
    StigErik

    StigErik

    Member
    2008-02-21 12:30 pm
  • #16
    Thank you all for the nice words.

    Now lets continue, and talk about how many magic purifying stones and quantum hallographic acousto-transformation cables it's in this thing - the important stuff!


    just kidding



    On the rear side of the mid section I have a large aluminium plate, where the amps are mounted - all ICEPower amps. Originally it was configured like this:

    one ICE 1000ASP driving both woofers (1000W)
    one ICE 500ASP driving both mid-woofer (500W)
    two ICE 500A, powered from the ASP, driving the mids and tweeter (500W each)

    I have tested the new ICEpower ASX2 series of amps. They do sound better, especially in the treble. They also reveal more detail, depth and ambience. So - now I am driving the tweeters with an external ICE 50ASX2 in stereo mode - that is 2x50W/4 ohms. The mids are powered with an external ICE 125ASX2, also in stereo, 2x120W/4 ohms. Because they are stereo amps, long speaker cables are needed...

    The plan is to mount an ICE 125ASX2 into each speaker, replacing the two 500A modules for the mid and tweeter.

    (Yes - I have access to the ICEpower OEM modules. Dont bother to ask, I wont sell you any)
     
    StigErik

    StigErik

    Member
    2008-02-21 12:30 pm
  • #18
    ttan98 said:
    Nice speakers, looks you design from ground up, just curious how long does it take to finish the project?
    Click to expand...


    Thanks! I started the design work i May 2007, and the speakers were playing in my room in september. Most of the time was actually spent waiting for the cabinets to come back from painting....

    The design was a rather fast process, since its just a variation of things I've made before.... Like the Griffin model 1 (seen below)
     

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    ttan98

    Member
    2006-04-04 11:24 am
    Melb
  • #19
    StigErik said:



    Thanks! I started the design work i May 2007, and the speakers were playing in my room in september. Most of the time was actually spent waiting for the cabinets to come back from painting....

    The design was a rather fast process, since its just a variation of things I've made before.... Like the Griffin model 1 (seen below)
    Click to expand...


    It is pretty fast, looks like you must at least some technical background speakers design right or someone assist you?
     
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