Recommended DIY Speakers for Zen Amp

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Hewie

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Joined 2002
#1
Can anyone make any recommendations on a DIY speaker project or kit that will make a good match for a Zen. My hopes were to find an existing design or a kit with the following characteristics: 2-way, MTM or TM, simple box construction (ie no TL design), >92 dB, 8 ohm nominal for around $500, but the beast doesn't seem to exist.


Thanks for any info.
Dave
 
#2
Hewie said:
MTM or TM, simple box construction (ie no TL design), >92 dB, 8 ohm nominal for around $500
Click to expand...

None of these are run-of-the-mill suggestions:

What about the Adire Audio HE10.1? The T & the M are closer than usual, BR box, 95 dB efficient, quite a bit less than $500 ($300).

For nominal 8 ohms any MTM will require 2 4 ohm in series - hard to find -- or 2 16 ohm in parallel which may well be harder yet to find.

Another would be a Fostex FE168S + a T. You can put it in a BR and the tweeter really only needs be a superT (if you find you need one at all)

And what about taking a design for an MT, that has a T that is padded down at least 3 dB, then use 4 Ms (MTM+MM on the front) to get 6 dB more level and any further gain by not having to deal with bafflestep loss. You can do it bipolar or as a 2.5 way. The Adire Kit 81 is a possible example (i was at their website -- an easy one to grab). Plus Adire would probably be helpful with getting the XO mods right.

dave
 
#8
Thanks for the input. Some ideas I certainly hadn't considered, but gives me some further options to think about. Along these same lines, does anyone know power delivered into 4 Ohms with the baseline design?

thanks again,
dave
 
#10
bob12345678 said:
What about the Mothaudio Cicada driver? With a 94 db/watt
sensitivity and a 12 ohm impedence this might be a good match
for the ZEN.
Click to expand...

The Zens work better with low impedance speaks - they deliver more (badly needed) power that way. 12ohm speakers are not the best match. The Parker Audio 95's are a 2 Ohm speaker designed specifically for the Zens and preliminary reports/opinions are very good. I believe the have a 30 day money back trial/guarantee.
 
#11
bbaker6212 said:
The Zens work better with low impedance speaks - they deliver more (badly needed) power that way. 12ohm speakers are not the best match. The Parker Audio 95's are a 2 Ohm speaker designed specifically for the Zens and preliminary reports/opinions are very good. I believe the have a 30 day money back trial/guarantee.
Click to expand...

Hey brad,

I think we are talking different Zens here. Him Pass Zen, you Decware Zen :^)

dave
 
#13
Al. M. - the keeper of the DIY ProAc 2.5 website tried his clones with an Aleph 3 and claimed results were not so good. My buddy drivesve his 2.5's with a VAC Ren-30-30, 300B push pull and they are wonderful. Go figure. Probably not Zen material.
 
#15
Just a thought...

When looking for speakers for low power amps, as well as looking at the sensitivity, you also need to look at the load impedance graph. A speaker that looks relatively effecient on specs, can have an impedance response that swings all over the place, and this will challenge low powered amps.
 
#16
As "pinkmouse" has stated a impedance plot of the speaker would be a very useful tool in speaker selection. In addition... a responce plot/graph would be very useful in accessing the speaker responce in terms of flatness. It is not uncommon to plot a speaker and find that it has hot spots at crossover or unusual peaks or valleys.

Joe
 
#18
ok, thanks all


I want to know something:
if I drive some low efficiency speakers with a zen (I'm thinking about the proacs 2.5), would it only be less loud that with a big amp, or would the sound quality be worse?

volume isn't a problem, I don't like listening loud
 
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