Again, excellent advice/suggestions. Thank you all.
Maybe some background information would help illustrate what I'm trying to achieve.
I've been playing my baritone semi acoustic/electric guitar with piezo pickups, through some transmission line cabinets, with Markaudio Alpair 11 ms drivers.
They are powered by a 30 watts AUDIOROMY FU29 tube amp. Very even and clear sounding, but in this baritone guitar situation, have just a bit too much low end for my taste. (They are my main music/tv speakers, and are perfectly fine for that, for now ...)
As I refused to tame the bass with EQ or other outboard gear/pedals/effects/preamps etc., and looking for a more concise/tamed low end, I decided to build smaller enclosures, for the Markaudio CHP-70 drivers.
Spherical they had to be
And on rods/stands, to bring them up to ear level, while sitting.
The clarity and evenness, is simply amazing. A much more manageable sound, more revealing, that requires less volume.
I also had no idea that baffle diffraction, or quasi lack therefore, would have such a dramatic effect. I'm very happy with the results.
BUT ...as these cabinets fall off sharply around 50-60 hz, I do of course now miss some low end ambiance.
Going back to the alpairs is not an option, as the "width" and "air" in those spheres is just too sweet.
Which brings me to the possibility of a subwoofer.
The main design constraint that I'm imposing on myself, is that it needs to be a single cabinet. I simply don't want two subs in my living room.
And the cabinet has to be a sphere. This is pure "design before function", I realize that, but the heart wants what the heart wants.
I'm not overly concerned with volume. This system will rarely see any outputs above a comfortable living room listening level. I want to softly cradle the lovely Markaudio CHP-70 soundstage from below, with a soft breeze of warm, barely there, low end
No EQ, or active mini dsp either.
After 30+ years of playing various stringed instruments through countless amps and cabs, I realize that a purist approach works best for me. EQ has always added this artificial layer, that is too distracting. There's nothing comparable to a system that effortlessly reproduces the "pure" sound of the instrument.
This got to be much longer than intended. I apologize.
Maybe some background information would help illustrate what I'm trying to achieve.
I've been playing my baritone semi acoustic/electric guitar with piezo pickups, through some transmission line cabinets, with Markaudio Alpair 11 ms drivers.
They are powered by a 30 watts AUDIOROMY FU29 tube amp. Very even and clear sounding, but in this baritone guitar situation, have just a bit too much low end for my taste. (They are my main music/tv speakers, and are perfectly fine for that, for now ...)
As I refused to tame the bass with EQ or other outboard gear/pedals/effects/preamps etc., and looking for a more concise/tamed low end, I decided to build smaller enclosures, for the Markaudio CHP-70 drivers.
Spherical they had to be
And on rods/stands, to bring them up to ear level, while sitting.
The clarity and evenness, is simply amazing. A much more manageable sound, more revealing, that requires less volume.
I also had no idea that baffle diffraction, or quasi lack therefore, would have such a dramatic effect. I'm very happy with the results.
BUT ...as these cabinets fall off sharply around 50-60 hz, I do of course now miss some low end ambiance.
Going back to the alpairs is not an option, as the "width" and "air" in those spheres is just too sweet.
Which brings me to the possibility of a subwoofer.
The main design constraint that I'm imposing on myself, is that it needs to be a single cabinet. I simply don't want two subs in my living room.
And the cabinet has to be a sphere. This is pure "design before function", I realize that, but the heart wants what the heart wants.
I'm not overly concerned with volume. This system will rarely see any outputs above a comfortable living room listening level. I want to softly cradle the lovely Markaudio CHP-70 soundstage from below, with a soft breeze of warm, barely there, low end
No EQ, or active mini dsp either.
After 30+ years of playing various stringed instruments through countless amps and cabs, I realize that a purist approach works best for me. EQ has always added this artificial layer, that is too distracting. There's nothing comparable to a system that effortlessly reproduces the "pure" sound of the instrument.
This got to be much longer than intended. I apologize.
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I'm looking at this for a possible crossover (top of google search)
Linkwitz-Riley 2-Way Active Crossover, Fully Assembled [XOVER-2] – Xkitz Electronics
and considering an isobaric push-pull configuration for the cabinet/drivers.
It's an option in my modeling software, and the idea of opposing drivers, pointing outwards of a sphere, is at least visually, quite appealing.
Not sure about the amp yet, as a subwoofer plate amp might not fit within my cabinet.
Or in others words, I wouldn't like the look of it
Linkwitz-Riley 2-Way Active Crossover, Fully Assembled [XOVER-2] – Xkitz Electronics
and considering an isobaric push-pull configuration for the cabinet/drivers.
It's an option in my modeling software, and the idea of opposing drivers, pointing outwards of a sphere, is at least visually, quite appealing.
Not sure about the amp yet, as a subwoofer plate amp might not fit within my cabinet.
Or in others words, I wouldn't like the look of it
Very nice spherical cabinets! Do you have a thread showing details of the construction. The spheres are indeed the least diffractive and give great imaging. Congrats on a beautiful speaker!
Just buy a powered subwoofer with built in crossover with adjustable frequency, amplitude, polarity. Feed it speaker level signals in and connect your satellite to the pass through out. So whatever amp you have is fine. The sub extracts the signal and combines to mono and powers the sub.
Something like this works superbly and $122 ready to go and delivered. These also accept RCA inputs if you have a spare one from your amp or preamp.
I have two of these in separate rooms and really like how well they work with my sealed (24L) main satellites (2 way 10F/RS225 FAST) that are down to 50Hz.
Polk Audio PSW10 10-Inch Powered Subwoofer (Single, Black) (Renewed) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07N2VB59H/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_921J292M47B48WMY2JY1
Just buy a powered subwoofer with built in crossover with adjustable frequency, amplitude, polarity. Feed it speaker level signals in and connect your satellite to the pass through out. So whatever amp you have is fine. The sub extracts the signal and combines to mono and powers the sub.
Something like this works superbly and $122 ready to go and delivered. These also accept RCA inputs if you have a spare one from your amp or preamp.
I have two of these in separate rooms and really like how well they work with my sealed (24L) main satellites (2 way 10F/RS225 FAST) that are down to 50Hz.
Polk Audio PSW10 10-Inch Powered Subwoofer (Single, Black) (Renewed) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07N2VB59H/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_921J292M47B48WMY2JY1
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Thank you. No thread, I'm sorry. It's basically stacked layers of MDF, routed on a CNC, and finished with nitrocellulose lacquer.
Very tempting, quick bang for the buck indeed. But, after having spent a good month making these spheres, I can't just put a particle board box next to them. My heart and pride won't allow it
I also think that, maybe wrongly so, that the Xkitz crossover would be a sonically superior solution to the internal polk one.
I'd gladly be shown wrong.
Spherical they had to be
And on rods/stands, to bring them up to ear level, while sitting.
They are certainly elegant and beautifully crafted. I might find it unnerving to have them staring at me, slightly cross-eyed though
It probably is 🤷🏼
Pick your poison kinda situation...
I wonder if going with a dedicated, standalone analog crossover, and then into an amp, would yield better results. Maybe the illusion of it would be enough
It's not that hard to do with a dual VC driver. Tandy/RadioShack had just such an add-on in the catalogue for ages.
My beloved is using one as her bass adjunct.
Stereo inputs and stereo outputs and running as a .5 woofer using a pair of large inductors.
I replaced the cheap Tandy coils with larger value ones with a much lower DCR and it works fine
My beloved is using one as her bass adjunct.
Stereo inputs and stereo outputs and running as a .5 woofer using a pair of large inductors.
I replaced the cheap Tandy coils with larger value ones with a much lower DCR and it works fine
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