Another update before wet sand, polish and assembling.
The circles are painter's tape covers over the threaded insert holes.
This is the first time I have tried this so it is a learning/experimental curve. I had to experiment with different paints to find a combination that didn't lift/crinkle each other. Not able to buy lacquer paint which would have made things much faster and easier and vastly better drying times. I discovered that even different types of Rustoleum do not play well together.
Layers:
The circles are painter's tape covers over the threaded insert holes.
This is the first time I have tried this so it is a learning/experimental curve. I had to experiment with different paints to find a combination that didn't lift/crinkle each other. Not able to buy lacquer paint which would have made things much faster and easier and vastly better drying times. I discovered that even different types of Rustoleum do not play well together.
Layers:
- Minwax Polycrylic to seal the porous MDF
- Gray Rustoleum sanding primer
- Silver Rustoleum Hammered base color (Hammered holds the red top color much better than the Rustoleum Mirror)
- DupliColor Metalcast Anodized Translucent Red top color
- 2K Gloss Clear top coat (supposedly harder finish with better UV protection to prevent oxidation)
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My current project w/ Neo8:
Dual Neo 8 in mtm restricted dipole, Aurum Cantus AMT tweeter. Dual 8’’ Volt 220 in cardiode . To be assisted by two subwoofer towers w/ 6 x Seas 10’’ RO4Y each. Mini DSP Flex 8 including Dirac live to conduct the show.
Dual Neo 8 in mtm restricted dipole, Aurum Cantus AMT tweeter. Dual 8’’ Volt 220 in cardiode . To be assisted by two subwoofer towers w/ 6 x Seas 10’’ RO4Y each. Mini DSP Flex 8 including Dirac live to conduct the show.
Attachments
So where are you planning to crossover to the neo-8 array at? My understanding is that an array of 8 of them won't do well crossed at less than around 600Hz or so, which is much higher than the magnepan bass panels are normally crossed over. Please tell me work well down to 300-400Hz as I have a large number of them and was originally planning to do roughly what you are attempting, until I heard repeatedly that the neo-8 wouldn't work well crossed over lower than 600-700Hz....
@cab , I haven't heard of 600Hz limit before (or don't remember). In my previous posts, I described my experimentation with 2 and 4 drivers per side before proceeding to 9 drivers per side. I was running them down to 250-300Hz with steeper XOs with 4 drivers/side. Using shallow XO's would stress them at that range.
I am also using 64-bit convolution with 256K taps/driver so I am able to make some adjustments fairly quickly versus using passive components. This plus the steeper XO's appear to have worked for the protototypes and may be difficult or not possible with passive components.
I am wiring them up now and will be testing the longer array claims soon. 9 - Neo8's should be carrying @ half the load as the prototype which probably contributes to the longer array claims.
Spec Sheet
I am also using 64-bit convolution with 256K taps/driver so I am able to make some adjustments fairly quickly versus using passive components. This plus the steeper XO's appear to have worked for the protototypes and may be difficult or not possible with passive components.
I am wiring them up now and will be testing the longer array claims soon. 9 - Neo8's should be carrying @ half the load as the prototype which probably contributes to the longer array claims.
Spec Sheet
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I have 20 of these neo-8's, 6 neoplanar-24's, and just picked up a set of Carver Amazings with 4 30" ribbons plus an additional 4 extra 30" ribbons that need repair. I plan to do much as you have, which I mentioned earlier- use the magnepan 60" ribbon tweeter with a mid panel (have those listed above to choose from) in a narrow baffle. For bass I plan to use a AE dipole 18 on each side in an h frame. These can play up to 800Hz or better but I would like to cross them to the mids at 300hz or less. I will try each of the mid panels above and see which I like best. I also plan on building a 4 sub bass array for 80hz and below. I am on hold waiting for the new Hypex NCx500 amp to be released and will actively amp the system and use dsp crossovers and room correction. I will watch your efforts with great interest and hope to learn from your successes!
I have read through many threads about using the neo-8's and mostly what I took from them is that the neo-10 was a better choice as it will play lower but if you can get the neo-8 to perform well down to 250-300HZ, they may well work for me too!
Thanks again for your comments and opinions, greatly appreciated!
I have read through many threads about using the neo-8's and mostly what I took from them is that the neo-10 was a better choice as it will play lower but if you can get the neo-8 to perform well down to 250-300HZ, they may well work for me too!
Thanks again for your comments and opinions, greatly appreciated!
Update:
I have some runtime on the new Maggie mods. They are very clear and very detailed, even at very low listening levels.
Deep fore to aft and wide left to right sound staging provided the toe-in is correct. Width can vary from very narrow to wider than the room based on toe in.
Image is very stable sitting or standing. Sound around the room is very good. No head-in vice issues. I find myself listening to them at lower overall levels with more detail.
I have the new Mid/High FIR XO's dialed in and need to finish the Mid/Low and Low/Sub since the room got moved around from the original setup.
So far, I am very happy with the sound over stock. No regrets so far. Still making my way through my library searching for deltas.
I have some runtime on the new Maggie mods. They are very clear and very detailed, even at very low listening levels.
Deep fore to aft and wide left to right sound staging provided the toe-in is correct. Width can vary from very narrow to wider than the room based on toe in.
Image is very stable sitting or standing. Sound around the room is very good. No head-in vice issues. I find myself listening to them at lower overall levels with more detail.
I have the new Mid/High FIR XO's dialed in and need to finish the Mid/Low and Low/Sub since the room got moved around from the original setup.
So far, I am very happy with the sound over stock. No regrets so far. Still making my way through my library searching for deltas.
Some in room measurements taken at the listening position:
I still have some refinements to make to get rid of a few remaining warts.
Sound-stage is extremely precise and detailed. Very happy with the sound.
Still have some time alignment work to do between the separate baffles.
- RePhase Symmetric Linear Phase 96dB XOs at 50Hz, 250Hz and 3kHz (Kudos to RePhase)
- Biquad slight tilt house curve generated from REW's EQ function and output in CamillaDSP's yml format (Kudos to REW and CamillaDSP)
- 176.4kHz measurements made with REW through Alsa CDSP and CamillaDSP via REW's external chirp-gated sweep file playback function (Kudos to SeaShell)
- Time alignment done in both CamillaDSP and RePhase
- Each left and right channel consists of 3 separate baffles (Sub, Bass, Mid/Tweet)
- Measurements shown with a 6 cycle FDW.
I still have some refinements to make to get rid of a few remaining warts.
Sound-stage is extremely precise and detailed. Very happy with the sound.
Still have some time alignment work to do between the separate baffles.
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Those are my speakers mentioned in post 228. They are now fully broken in and sounding glorious. I had the cabinets painted with Mazda Ceramic Metallic paint which came out very nice. The cabinets are made from a polycarbonate composite.
I'm planning to replace the triple servo woofers with quads painted the same ceramic color. The triples have plenty of output, but since I doing new cabinets, I decided to go for the quads.
These are built using sixteen GR Research Neo3s and six BG Neo10s. I bought the NEO10s from PE when they got their last shipment. Danny Ritchie from GR designed the crossover which I built using copper foil caps (Miflex and Jupiter) and foil inductors (except for the notch filter which is built with lower cost parts). The NEO10s are rolled off at around 180Hz using an inline cap in front of the amps. They blend very nicely with the servo subs.
I'm driving these with a DIY parallel 300B SET amp which produces about 15W. Danny claims these are about 98db/w efficient, and they play plenty loud with these amps.
I'm planning to replace the triple servo woofers with quads painted the same ceramic color. The triples have plenty of output, but since I doing new cabinets, I decided to go for the quads.
These are built using sixteen GR Research Neo3s and six BG Neo10s. I bought the NEO10s from PE when they got their last shipment. Danny Ritchie from GR designed the crossover which I built using copper foil caps (Miflex and Jupiter) and foil inductors (except for the notch filter which is built with lower cost parts). The NEO10s are rolled off at around 180Hz using an inline cap in front of the amps. They blend very nicely with the servo subs.
I'm driving these with a DIY parallel 300B SET amp which produces about 15W. Danny claims these are about 98db/w efficient, and they play plenty loud with these amps.
GRS mid options: my use case would be an array of GRS planar drivers about 60” in height, covering 500 hz - up to at least 3 khz, although I might want to experiment with taking them up as high as c. 7 or 8 kHz. There would seem to be 3 options: PT 6825 8”, PT 6816 8“ slim version, or PT 5010 10”. Ignoring relative costs, I’d welcome peoples thoughts on which of the 3 would perform best across this frequency range.
@Jaytor Great build! I am curious if you still feel the need for all the room treatment I see in the picture? Is that for this speaker, or for some previous boxed speaker? I ask because in my living room about 1/3 of the walls is glas, not that much sound absorbing furniture either, but sounds very good indeed, which is a very nice overall characteristic of dipole systems.