Im looking to build a pair of speakers for the old lady...shes taking up my stereo time with her music, so Ive decided she needs her own pair lol. Im contemplating the Pioneer B20 mated to a Pioneer AHE60 horn tweeter. First, would this be a decent tweeter to pair with the B20? The price is certainly attractive. Second, whats a good cabinet design? It doesnt need to have tons of bass, as she listens to mostly country and light rock music. Id prefer a floorstander, but wouldnt discount bookshelves. She prefers floorstanders because she wants to put smaller pictures on top of them. Does this FR + tweeter combo look like a winner? Any other tweeters I should be looking at? Whats an ideal frequency to bring the tweeter into the mix? Thanks guys!
IME, women have much better HF hearing than men, so tend to prefer billiard table smooth sounding HF from ~2 k with a steep roll-off above ~15 kHz, so a piezo horn would be about the last thing I'd use since it will require a lot of EQ/damping to get right enough to ensure it wouldn't offend any of her friends even if its inherent shrillness didn't bother her.
Wide BW paper or planar diaphragm tweeters are your friends in a WAF situation and cheap too! For extra points, couple the speakers to a tube amp liberated from a 50s-60s era stereo console. Better yet, use its drivers also if available.
Since the B20 would be covering some of this BW, a TL seems the best overall choice for this app, so will be plenty big enough to be a floor-stander.
GM
Wide BW paper or planar diaphragm tweeters are your friends in a WAF situation and cheap too! For extra points, couple the speakers to a tube amp liberated from a 50s-60s era stereo console. Better yet, use its drivers also if available.
Since the B20 would be covering some of this BW, a TL seems the best overall choice for this app, so will be plenty big enough to be a floor-stander.
GM
'Haste makes waste' as they say. 
It looked like a piezo and the first review mentioned 'hiss' like a piezo, so I'm thinking it might as well be one in this app, but being a horn loaded dome, it may be fine with just some mouth edge damping or grill cloth stretched across it. Only one way to know for sure though.
GM
It looked like a piezo and the first review mentioned 'hiss' like a piezo, so I'm thinking it might as well be one in this app, but being a horn loaded dome, it may be fine with just some mouth edge damping or grill cloth stretched across it. Only one way to know for sure though.GM
Ive been actively searching out an EL84 SE Maggie amp for her as well, but theyre a tad pricey in my area. I feel itll do good in the smallish (16 x 12) space this system will be used in. I'll probably throw together a passive preamp and feed it with an iPod attached to a line-out dock. Back OT, whats a good planar to go with the B20? Any good enclosure designs somebody can show me?
http://www.zillaaudio.com/b20-mod.htm
Scroll down to see some fun projects others did with the B20... they seem to easily match up with different types of tweeters (dome, cone, piezo) but i have not seen anyone use a planar tweeter yet.
B20s work in simple sealed boxes all the way up to interesting pipes. I even think they work well on open baffles along with bass help.
Zilla
Scroll down to see some fun projects others did with the B20... they seem to easily match up with different types of tweeters (dome, cone, piezo) but i have not seen anyone use a planar tweeter yet.
B20s work in simple sealed boxes all the way up to interesting pipes. I even think they work well on open baffles along with bass help.
Zilla
Dunno, the ones I was remembering appear to be long gone now, so Google is your friend, though this $5 ribbon might work with a small inductor in series and use a by-pass cap if it sounds too dull for her.
A wide range of B20 designs have been posted around the net, though I see Nelson Pass's TL has made a bit of a comeback around here.
GM
Well...looks like we have to scratch the floorstander idea. She wants something smaller that can be used with her computer, so the speakers should be small. They will need to have some bass, so Im thinking a 4" driver in a 7L Dayton cab from Parts Express. Im going with the premade cabs because my woodworking skills are less than ideal, and shes nitpicky about asthetics. Which drivers work well with that enclosure? I have no problem going to a 3" driver as long as the bass is there. Im hoping I can get 65 to 75Hz on the low end with these cabs, but will step up to the next size if need be. Thanks everybody!
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I'd leave the CHR-70 in 7 litre sealed... if you can stretch to 9 litres CHR-Ken has been getting consistently positive reviews. 4 ohms only.
High efficiency 4" that will work decently in such a small box are scarce. The Fostex FE127e works will in such a milliSize enclosure
You'd have to find someone with a spare pair stashed in a closet or get one of the sets of FE127eN i have.
dave
High efficiency 4" that will work decently in such a small box are scarce. The Fostex FE127e works will in such a milliSize enclosure
You'd have to find someone with a spare pair stashed in a closet or get one of the sets of FE127eN i have.
dave
You can take a look at the Parts Express project gallery.Parts-Express.com - Project Showcase Index: Browse Through Speaker Building Projects From The Last Four Years
I built these and am quite surprised by the amount of bass.
Parts Express DIY Project
I've also built a pair of the FE127 Fonkens, which also do bass well. I'm willing to bet that if Dave at Planet 10 says the CHR-70 will work, then it WILL work.
Mike
I built these and am quite surprised by the amount of bass.
Parts Express DIY Project
I've also built a pair of the FE127 Fonkens, which also do bass well. I'm willing to bet that if Dave at Planet 10 says the CHR-70 will work, then it WILL work.
Mike
Sorry to say it buddy, but you are doomed. Unless you can deliver something that is at least twice as nice as what you've got, she won't buy it. Of course, the catch is that you've committed yourself to forever listening on the second rate system. Then again, the plus side is that your missus has good taste in audio gear. I'll respect you both in regards to that.
Good luck.
Im definitely going with the CHR-70s. Im going to go sealed as Dave says. The bass shouldnt be much of an issue as the old lady usually listens to country. Im thinking maybe building a chip amp to go along with it eventually. Right now, theyll be powered by a NAD C350.
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Sorry to say it buddy, but you are doomed. Unless you can deliver something that is at least twice as nice as what you've got, she won't buy it. Of course, the catch is that you've committed yourself to forever listening on the second rate system. Then again, the plus side is that your missus has good taste in audio gear. I'll respect you both in regards to that.
Good luck.
Dont be jinxing me now Ty LOL.
My Fonkens really sing my LM3875 chip amp from Audiosector.com. I don't know if the CHR-70s will, but I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents.
Mike
Dave, that's a really great photo.
>>> I think I may just pick up a Dayton APA150 to run the Mark Audios.
It's a decent amp. Honestly, i don't miss my old Aragon at all. I almost bought another but decided to get another T-amp instead. But solid state, tube or T-amp doesn't seem to muck up the overall goodness of many of these full range drivers... tho i do prefer Fostex running off T-amp or tube.
Zilla
>>> I think I may just pick up a Dayton APA150 to run the Mark Audios.
It's a decent amp. Honestly, i don't miss my old Aragon at all. I almost bought another but decided to get another T-amp instead. But solid state, tube or T-amp doesn't seem to muck up the overall goodness of many of these full range drivers... tho i do prefer Fostex running off T-amp or tube.
Zilla
I love tubes for horns and full-rangers, but for other speakers, like my Large Advents and Dynaco A25s...they sound damn good through solid state equipment.
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