Playing with OB speakers

[pjblakey]

An update of my open baffle tinkering.
After hearing the Vifa NE149 in the Finalists, I decided to create new baffles for my "Notions".
Each speaker now comprises 2 GRS 10" subs, Rs225-8, Ne149-4 and the little Dayton 5/8" silk dome tweeter. Crossovers are LR4 at 100hz, 500hz and 6000hz using a minidsp per channel.
Using Symasym amps for the low end and 3116d2 amps for the upper, these have improved significantly.
The Vifa midrange/woofer is one heck of a speaker. Tonal quality, clarity, dynamic and smooth. Off axis, the apparent notch in the advertised frequency charts at about 2.5khz just about disappears. Best dynamic driver midrange I have heard. Snare drum, cymbals strings, voice are quite stunning.
Peter

 

[Chris Osborne]

I recently put together a pair of 4 way, open baffle speakers using mostly existing drivers that I have had for a while.
After reading in depth about 2 prominent designs, I decided to knock together something that would somewhat pproximate similar results.
I am not disappointed with the results, and believe they are worthy of cabinet finishing.
The lower mid/upper bass driver is a Vifa P21 taken from my long serving Centaurs. The upper mid is a Tang Band 3" fullrange with a Dayton 5/8" dome on top. The lower bass is handled by a pair of 10" GRS woofers in a W frame format. Bass amplification is provided by an older PE subwoofer plate amp, and the upper ranges use a YL 50wpc D class amp.
A 2x4 minidsp is used for crossovers and Eq. Xover points are 100Hz and 700HZ with a 4.7uf inline cap on the dome tweeter.
Pretty good performing arrangement for a smallish, 15' x 13' room.
Best bass I have achieved in my room after many, many attempts at diffeent sub arrangements.
And cheap, too. Thought I would share.
Peter

Sorry to resurrect an older thread as my first post here but as I was researching information to put together a system for the new speakers I acquired, I was surprised to find what appears to be the exact ones I have here, lol. So I'm reading the thread and taking in what information I can. Peter, do you by chance remember the wattage of the plate amp you used to power the subs? I have one but not sure it will be enough at 100 watts. It came out of a Polk PSW110 so I'm not even sure it will handle the 4ohm load from all four subs. 🙏

Chris

 

[pjblakey]

I think the platecamp was rated at 125w/4ohms, which was fine for my small room.

 

[Chris Osborne]

I think the platecamp was rated at 125w/4ohms, which was fine for my small room.

Thanks! Maybe this will work for the time being then.

 

[Chris Osborne]

I think the platecamp was rated at 125w/4ohms, which was fine for my small room.

Do you think the crossover on a plate amp is sufficient for tuning the subs or is a DSP necessary to get them right? I ordered a 300 watt Dayton for the subs and plan to use the 100 watt Polk amp for the midbass drivers with a passive crossover on the mids and highs.

Chris

 

[pjblakey]

Definitely use a dip for leveling room nodes etc.

 

[pjblakey]

Dsp

 

[pjblakey]

Chris,
if you can find some 26” apogee ribbons, they are worth playing with.

 

[Chris Osborne]

Chris,
if you can find some 26” apogee ribbons, they are worth playing with.

I would really love to get the ribbons for sure and that's my plan going forward. For now this is sounding fairly nice to my ears. For whatever reason I wasn't able to get the 10" subs sounding right so I went back to the 6.5" baffles for subs and they sound incredible! Have a plate amp wired to each panel and the mid-bass, mids, & highs running off the receiver with a three way crossover. I know it isn't up to high standards but I'm happy for the time being.🙂