Having built one of his designs I'm huge fan of Troels. He has something to fit most musical tastes and budgets.
Regards,
Dan
I never heared his SB builds, but i use these drivers also a lot the last years and they are great, on the level of Scanspeak and Seas, but a lot cheaper and more bang for the buck. SB and Faital are now my favorite brand of drivers. I've use Scanspeak before (my main speaker still got a scanspeak woofer) and they are great, but with SB on the market expensive for what they give. I would also look at speakers of both brands and look what fit you best.
And it's true, A lot of SB drivers are very easy to cross, my last SB driver crossover i designed (a 2 way standmount) has 6 parts, 2 caps, 2 coils and 2 resistors for the lpad of the tweeter. This was on measurements in cabinet (by the builder that is not me) based and flat between 35hz and 19kHz within 3dB and phase aligned in simulation. The CR still need to be build by the builder (who asked me to do the crossover). If his measurements were done right, i'm relative sure the real response will be very close.
You could consider something with an unusual cabinet design to take advantage of your skills, like this:
https://www.speakerdesignworks.com/exclamations
The tweeter is NLA, but I love the idea of building something which isn't just a box. No way could I do it of course...
Or this: scroll to the bottom of the page to see some cool builds
https://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/floorstanding-speakers/tarkus
Geoff
https://www.speakerdesignworks.com/exclamations
The tweeter is NLA, but I love the idea of building something which isn't just a box. No way could I do it of course...
Or this: scroll to the bottom of the page to see some cool builds
https://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/floorstanding-speakers/tarkus
Geoff
Well sticking to my leaning for a simple, large 2-way option in addition to the Aphel and A26/Makako, I notice Troels just posted a new design quite similar to the Aphel but with a bigger cabinet http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/SEAS-22.htm
Crossover looks simple, no ugly stepped baffle and the drivers are on the reasonable/budget side.
Crossover looks simple, no ugly stepped baffle and the drivers are on the reasonable/budget side.
I know there were interesting kits designed by German DIY magazine staff, both Hobby HiFi and Klang & Ton, yet I can't point to a particular one. I'll look if I can find some.
edit: Just found a new open source kit Gema by SB Acoustics.
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In regard to SBA kits, there is an interesting info on ARA kit improvement done by
Hobby HiFi in comparison to SBA version, and the difference was notably positive.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-diy-3-way-speaker-design.52968/#post-1921065
I'd be glad to see how Gema kit scored in the Hobby HiFi lab.
Can any of the German members ask Herr Timmermanns to evaluate the SBA Gema kit, perhaps?
Hobby HiFi in comparison to SBA version, and the difference was notably positive.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-diy-3-way-speaker-design.52968/#post-1921065
I'd be glad to see how Gema kit scored in the Hobby HiFi lab.
Can any of the German members ask Herr Timmermanns to evaluate the SBA Gema kit, perhaps?
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I have noticed that most of these cabinets are built by just gluing them together. Normally I would construct the main cabinet structure by dowelling the joints, or biscuit jointing. Is there any reason why this isn't done when building speaker cabinets? I am assuming it's perhaps just to keep costs down as biscuit jointers aren't cheap, but surely there aren't any reasons why doweling or biscuiting the joints would affect the performance of the speaker?
I tend to dowel joint my cabinets as they are a super strong way of connecting, and when done accurately, makes glueing up the cabinet so much easier as it's all aligned accurately and no slipping and sliding on wet glue.
I tend to dowel joint my cabinets as they are a super strong way of connecting, and when done accurately, makes glueing up the cabinet so much easier as it's all aligned accurately and no slipping and sliding on wet glue.
It is definitely preferable to use better joinery. I suspect most people don't know how to use a jointer / biscuits and dont have the access to the machinery. Dowels are much easier with a proper centering plug and drill bit.
I have even used predrilled screws to hold glued boards together, then either removed them after or just left them on if they were to be covered up by veneer or other wood.
I think people tend to rush on the cabinet construction, because they want to get to the fun part of listening and tweaking the sound.
I know I spent 6 weeks or so building my towers, which used 2 layers of birch bending ply on each side to achieve a thick curved side panel. Made a lot of mistakes on the first one. Made a lot less on the second. And I am definitely itching to rebuild them from scratch now that I know the process.
For anyone who want to start doweling their joints, I can highly recommend this very affordable and very high quality jig from Bangood, it is super accurate and simple to use once you have watched it in use and it makes sense. This Dutch guy reviews a lot of chinese wooodworking tools and he highly rates it and shows how to use it in this you tube video. I use it with 8mm dowels which are perfect for 18mm+ stock.
Enclosure corners mainly face bending forces from panel vibrations. Using dowels or biscuits doesn’t reinforce those corners that much if at all compared to a good glue joint. Better is the extensive use of bracing.
We will have to respectfully disagree on that front - a dowelled and glued joint is a LOT stronger than just a glued joint. Glued and dowelled would be the way to go for me....and of course the bracing too, everything helps.
MDF is not very structural. Adhesive is stronger than dowels or screws - especial in that crappy material. I imagine it could help in plywood but I doubt that there are many joint failures to remedy.
Without a doubt, using dowels and fingers for aligning panels has resulted in a better joint for me. Finger joints on the sides and top means they are perfectly aligned when I go to install the front and rear, and dowels to locate the front and rear holds them straight while I clamp them down. Anything that makes glue-up easier and requires less sanding is worth it to me.
I demolished quite a few builds through the years. Even with plywood often the ply breaks and the glue joint holds. Same for mdf and fiber board. For positioning I use a simple trick: nails with cut-off heads and good clamps. Plus
We use a nailer with set pins and Woodglue II. You cannot see the pins once the box is finished.
Then there's always IPL
https://iplacoustics.co.uk/IPL HI FI &AV.htm
Still using my M3TL transmission lines that I built in the late 1990's
It's far from optimized (a bit boomy in my small room), but still sounds fine to me. But now I'm using active crossovers (minidsp 2x4HD) and 2 Rotel stereo amps and a Rotel preamp.
My next set of speakers will be a pair of Linkwitz LXMini kits when I've saved the cash.
https://iplacoustics.co.uk/IPL HI FI &AV.htm
Still using my M3TL transmission lines that I built in the late 1990's
It's far from optimized (a bit boomy in my small room), but still sounds fine to me. But now I'm using active crossovers (minidsp 2x4HD) and 2 Rotel stereo amps and a Rotel preamp.
My next set of speakers will be a pair of Linkwitz LXMini kits when I've saved the cash.
I've got these monitors new in box...probably not gonna get around to using them...
SBA MW19 Monitor
SBA MW19 Monitor