I would recommend that, it's a good thing that Seas offers you the choice of a non ferrofluid model.
I wouldn't worry much about the power handling, they keep this rating on the very safe side, if you filter from 2.5Khz the power handling will increase slightly. The peak power handling is very high, so things will not go wrong quickly (I suppose you will notice distortions before it will break and I figure you won't play disco levels full time on them).
The impedance curve shows that the tweeter has a minimum impedance of 5 ohms and a maximum of 12 ohms, I think the 6 ohm version will be ok to use with an 8 ohm PL18...
Note that the filter components will use slightly different on this tweeter than an 8 ohm version. With a 12 db/oct filter the capacitor will have to be almost double and the oil almost half the value. This becomes important if you are going to copy an existing schematic....
I wouldn't worry much about the power handling, they keep this rating on the very safe side, if you filter from 2.5Khz the power handling will increase slightly. The peak power handling is very high, so things will not go wrong quickly (I suppose you will notice distortions before it will break and I figure you won't play disco levels full time on them).
The impedance curve shows that the tweeter has a minimum impedance of 5 ohms and a maximum of 12 ohms, I think the 6 ohm version will be ok to use with an 8 ohm PL18...
Note that the filter components will use slightly different on this tweeter than an 8 ohm version. With a 12 db/oct filter the capacitor will have to be almost double and the oil almost half the value. This becomes important if you are going to copy an existing schematic....
Yes, I think these babies are gonna rock!
But also will have very good definition, excellent dynamics (better than most ESLs) good imaging and very good dynamic power handling....in potency offcourse...
After getting the filter right...
What kind of amplification will you use?
What kind of cabinet will you build? (floorstanding or bookshelves...)
Tips:
-Round the edges of the cabinet well, especially round the tweeter area, this improves the radiation behavior. Or better to place the tweeter in a smaller cabinet and put it on top..(not to small because it WILL produce quite low freq. for a tweeter, you don't want it to sound thin...)
-place the drivers very near eachother (some designs have the woofer edge covering a part of the tweeter frontplate, or some diyers cut a piece out the tweeter frontplate).
-you can glue a thin (about the thickness of the tweeter frontplate) sheet of wood covering the baffle with cutouts the size of the 'outer' size of the tweeter (and maybe woofer). Or you can have it vertically drilled out offcourse. This will decrease the bafflestep a little, the rest can be solved by tilting the speaker a little. Remind that the voice coils should be aproximately the same distance from your ears.
-DO NOT get anthusiastic on the volume knob for at least 100 hours of runtime! I know this is hard, but many people wreck speakers or at least shorten the life expectancy by not letting them break in properly!! Afterall the PL18 is a papercone and can be folded around the voice coil area, the suspension should be softened-out over time. Don't be to wussy on them either, afterall they break in quicker if they have to work a little...
-Use electrolitic caps for the woofer and mkt's on the tweeter for a start, coils with core for the woofer and aircores for the tweeter.
Later on you can choose an aircore for the woofer and at least MKP caps for the tweeter. The woofer section doesn't benefit much from better quality caps than good (smooth foil) electrolitc caps (bipolar offcourse!)
-Get inspired by filter schematics of other designs sharing the same (kind of) drivers.
-Make them bi-wired!
-Don't use stock connections of bi-wire terminals to link them together! (if you don't bi-wire or bi-amp right away with them, use a small piece of speaker wire instead).
Have a good build!
But also will have very good definition, excellent dynamics (better than most ESLs) good imaging and very good dynamic power handling....in potency offcourse...
After getting the filter right...
What kind of amplification will you use?
What kind of cabinet will you build? (floorstanding or bookshelves...)
Tips:
-Round the edges of the cabinet well, especially round the tweeter area, this improves the radiation behavior. Or better to place the tweeter in a smaller cabinet and put it on top..(not to small because it WILL produce quite low freq. for a tweeter, you don't want it to sound thin...)
-place the drivers very near eachother (some designs have the woofer edge covering a part of the tweeter frontplate, or some diyers cut a piece out the tweeter frontplate).
-you can glue a thin (about the thickness of the tweeter frontplate) sheet of wood covering the baffle with cutouts the size of the 'outer' size of the tweeter (and maybe woofer). Or you can have it vertically drilled out offcourse. This will decrease the bafflestep a little, the rest can be solved by tilting the speaker a little. Remind that the voice coils should be aproximately the same distance from your ears.
-DO NOT get anthusiastic on the volume knob for at least 100 hours of runtime! I know this is hard, but many people wreck speakers or at least shorten the life expectancy by not letting them break in properly!! Afterall the PL18 is a papercone and can be folded around the voice coil area, the suspension should be softened-out over time. Don't be to wussy on them either, afterall they break in quicker if they have to work a little...
-Use electrolitic caps for the woofer and mkt's on the tweeter for a start, coils with core for the woofer and aircores for the tweeter.
Later on you can choose an aircore for the woofer and at least MKP caps for the tweeter. The woofer section doesn't benefit much from better quality caps than good (smooth foil) electrolitc caps (bipolar offcourse!)
-Get inspired by filter schematics of other designs sharing the same (kind of) drivers.
-Make them bi-wired!
-Don't use stock connections of bi-wire terminals to link them together! (if you don't bi-wire or bi-amp right away with them, use a small piece of speaker wire instead).
Have a good build!
What do you think is the best wood to build my cabinets. Some persons suggest me to use baltic birch plywood. The problem is that I want to round off edges to limit diffraction. I don't think I'll be able to do it with plywood... Maybe I can't build them with MDF and covered them with fancy wood.
I'm also not really sure about what to cover the inside walls with. Some persons use a special sealer, mix of glue and ciment, carpet or the kinda isolation stuff that looks like egg shell... What you think about all these ?
The other thing is about bi-wiring. Will I need to use a 4 channels amp. like the one you gave me the link: 41hz.com ? These amp are pretty interesting for the specs and prices;-)
Thank,
REALFLEO
I'm also not really sure about what to cover the inside walls with. Some persons use a special sealer, mix of glue and ciment, carpet or the kinda isolation stuff that looks like egg shell... What you think about all these ?
The other thing is about bi-wiring. Will I need to use a 4 channels amp. like the one you gave me the link: 41hz.com ? These amp are pretty interesting for the specs and prices;-)
Thank,
REALFLEO
Hi,
http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Tempo.html
Use the the technique described here for bevelled edges :
http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Auriga.html
But use stock 3/4" MDF and 3/8" MDF, also use a 0.6 tweeter offset.
/sreten.
http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Tempo.html
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Use the the technique described here for bevelled edges :
http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Auriga.html
But use stock 3/4" MDF and 3/8" MDF, also use a 0.6 tweeter offset.
/sreten.
You can use bitumen paint (have some at home, I'll look up the brand and post a photo later.
The egg stuff is excellent, the call this pritex (this material is open pored, don't be foolish to use packaging material as that is closed pored).
The AMP9 is very interesting from 41hz.com, I'm going to order one soon to compare with my Audiodigit mc4x100 as I suspect the sound is better...(my amp32's sound really fantastic...)
The egg stuff is excellent, the call this pritex (this material is open pored, don't be foolish to use packaging material as that is closed pored).
The AMP9 is very interesting from 41hz.com, I'm going to order one soon to compare with my Audiodigit mc4x100 as I suspect the sound is better...(my amp32's sound really fantastic...)
v-bro
Have you ever read that web site: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~jcgl/Scots_Guide/audio/biwire/Page1.html
When you talk about biwired, you prolly mean connected with two distinct cable like picture2. Can I use instead a 4 channels amp, like the amp9, and connect each driver on a different channel.
Can I use normal crossover design and just connect the HF and LF to different terminal to make it biwired or I have to use different crossover design ?
What do you think about building the cabinet in MDF and cover the enclosure with hardwood to have a nice finish ? Have you ever work with Baltic Birch Plywood ?
Thanks,
REALFLEO
Have you ever read that web site: http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~jcgl/Scots_Guide/audio/biwire/Page1.html
When you talk about biwired, you prolly mean connected with two distinct cable like picture2. Can I use instead a 4 channels amp, like the amp9, and connect each driver on a different channel.
Can I use normal crossover design and just connect the HF and LF to different terminal to make it biwired or I have to use different crossover design ?
What do you think about building the cabinet in MDF and cover the enclosure with hardwood to have a nice finish ? Have you ever work with Baltic Birch Plywood ?
Thanks,
REALFLEO
Hi Realfleo,
the theory on that site is only on bi-wiring, on bi-amping (as I implied in an earlier post). Bi-amping has much more advantages over bi-wiring (with bi-amping you GET bi-wiring added), bi-wiring only adds the choice of using different cable qualities for the woofers and tweeters (but many people don't care much about cable quality at all..).
In comes another advantage, you can filter the signal before it goes into the power amp. On my speakers I use L-R-C filters (meaning a coil, a resistor and a capacitor per channel), in my car I use R-C filters, this saves a lot of money and trouble because the coil in a filter like this has to be a very large value. There's only one minor disadvantage to R-C and that is a drop of one or two dB (when values are chosen right).
Amp9 should be a very good choice, I'm going to buy one or two myself soon...can't wait to compare it with my audiodigit MC4x100 (using same chip). I have a hunch that Amp9 will teach the latter a lesson (especially taken the price in perspective..).
MDF is my choice of material, keep in mind that applying hardwood will raise resonances (and raise frequency of cabinet resonances) and it might be a good idea to apply some bitumen panel damping. Many people favor plywood though, it tends to give a loudspeaker more of a kind of character, where I prefer neutrality.. Though I think Birch plywood is among the less resonant kinds... I think if it looks nice you can give it a shot, if it suffers from resonances you can often solve this afterwards with the bitumen...
Here are a couple of links that can help building a filter to put before your amp.
R-C:
http://www.t-linespeakers.org/tech/filters/passiveHLxo.html
(look at the low values! You can buy expensive parts and have a good quality filter still for a very low price!)
L-R-C:
http://www.marchandelec.com/ftp/xm46man.pdf
Here are pictures of my system:
(just scroll down a bit....)
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=77411&perpage=10&pagenumber=10
the theory on that site is only on bi-wiring, on bi-amping (as I implied in an earlier post). Bi-amping has much more advantages over bi-wiring (with bi-amping you GET bi-wiring added), bi-wiring only adds the choice of using different cable qualities for the woofers and tweeters (but many people don't care much about cable quality at all..).
In comes another advantage, you can filter the signal before it goes into the power amp. On my speakers I use L-R-C filters (meaning a coil, a resistor and a capacitor per channel), in my car I use R-C filters, this saves a lot of money and trouble because the coil in a filter like this has to be a very large value. There's only one minor disadvantage to R-C and that is a drop of one or two dB (when values are chosen right).
Amp9 should be a very good choice, I'm going to buy one or two myself soon...can't wait to compare it with my audiodigit MC4x100 (using same chip). I have a hunch that Amp9 will teach the latter a lesson (especially taken the price in perspective..).
MDF is my choice of material, keep in mind that applying hardwood will raise resonances (and raise frequency of cabinet resonances) and it might be a good idea to apply some bitumen panel damping. Many people favor plywood though, it tends to give a loudspeaker more of a kind of character, where I prefer neutrality.. Though I think Birch plywood is among the less resonant kinds... I think if it looks nice you can give it a shot, if it suffers from resonances you can often solve this afterwards with the bitumen...
Here are a couple of links that can help building a filter to put before your amp.
R-C:
http://www.t-linespeakers.org/tech/filters/passiveHLxo.html
(look at the low values! You can buy expensive parts and have a good quality filter still for a very low price!)
L-R-C:
http://www.marchandelec.com/ftp/xm46man.pdf
Here are pictures of my system:
(just scroll down a bit....)
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=77411&perpage=10&pagenumber=10
Ok so do you use an amp(+ pre-filter) for woofers and another one for tweeter ? I think I can decide this later...
I think the important during the cabinet conception is to have individual terminals for tweeter and woofer so I can have the option of bi-amping right ? Can I use a crossover like these(link) and just connect woofer and tweeter filter to individual terminal ?
http://www.lalena.com/Audio/Calculator/XOver/Help.aspx
About the cabinet material. If I use 0.5" MDF + hardwood maybe it will not raise the resonance too much ? I would use Baltic Birch plywood but I want to routed all the edges of the cabinet to limit diffraction and don't think that'll be possible with plywood... that's why I want to cover it.
Instead of using paint can I cover internal walls with a layer of 4mm thick bitumen and thick carpet tiles like this guy:
http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/dd8.html
Thanks,
REALFLEO
I think the important during the cabinet conception is to have individual terminals for tweeter and woofer so I can have the option of bi-amping right ? Can I use a crossover like these(link) and just connect woofer and tweeter filter to individual terminal ?
http://www.lalena.com/Audio/Calculator/XOver/Help.aspx
About the cabinet material. If I use 0.5" MDF + hardwood maybe it will not raise the resonance too much ? I would use Baltic Birch plywood but I want to routed all the edges of the cabinet to limit diffraction and don't think that'll be possible with plywood... that's why I want to cover it.
Instead of using paint can I cover internal walls with a layer of 4mm thick bitumen and thick carpet tiles like this guy:
http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/dd8.html
Thanks,
REALFLEO
Offcourse you can use a filter like that, it's either the choice of:
1.passive filter after ampas in your link)
-components will have to handle high power.
-you need coils and caps (and maybe resistors to attenuate tweeter)
-the filer will be in the box (you can connect several amps, the result will be more universal)
-because the high power the components will have to handle they will be operated near their limits easily.
2assive filter before ampas in my link)
-components are very small and won't have to handle high power.
-you need resistors and caps, attenuation can be handled with a potmeter (or fixed resistor, I use a ladder attenuator).
-The filter will have a separate box, or can be put in the amp (it is very small and can be soldered directly on a switch to switch it off if the amp
is used for different speakers).
-even high quality components are cheap because the low values.
-easier to tailor make, you can buy bulk packs of components and can make filters very easily for future projects.
-good way of learning to work with filters (if you want to make more in the future, you can make very low frequency filters cheaply and easy).
3:active filter before amp:
-the signal will go through op-amps in most designs. (therefore not recommended to my opinion).
-very easy adjustment of frequencies and levels.
0.5" mdf seems rather thin, or will the thickness be added by the hardwood?
I don't understand as to why you think the plywood can't be rounded? I think it looks beautiful!
Bitumen sheets work wonderfull, as long as you stick it to the walls tightly...about the thick carpet, I would use different materials to experiment with. To find what you like best...
1.passive filter after amp
as in your link)-components will have to handle high power.
-you need coils and caps (and maybe resistors to attenuate tweeter)
-the filer will be in the box (you can connect several amps, the result will be more universal)
-because the high power the components will have to handle they will be operated near their limits easily.
2
assive filter before ampas in my link)-components are very small and won't have to handle high power.
-you need resistors and caps, attenuation can be handled with a potmeter (or fixed resistor, I use a ladder attenuator).
-The filter will have a separate box, or can be put in the amp (it is very small and can be soldered directly on a switch to switch it off if the amp
is used for different speakers).
-even high quality components are cheap because the low values.
-easier to tailor make, you can buy bulk packs of components and can make filters very easily for future projects.
-good way of learning to work with filters (if you want to make more in the future, you can make very low frequency filters cheaply and easy).
3:active filter before amp:
-the signal will go through op-amps in most designs. (therefore not recommended to my opinion).
-very easy adjustment of frequencies and levels.
0.5" mdf seems rather thin, or will the thickness be added by the hardwood?
I don't understand as to why you think the plywood can't be rounded? I think it looks beautiful!
Bitumen sheets work wonderfull, as long as you stick it to the walls tightly...about the thick carpet, I would use different materials to experiment with. To find what you like best...
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