Scan-Speak speakers and X-over

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#21
Grataku:

I noticed they were making the Thor kit in the current issue of AudioXpress.

I ran down to the only newstand that I know of that sells AXP
and they were out. Did they give a review of the finished product? or is it "Stay tuned for the next issue for listening impressions"
 
#22
It was not a review, but a "how to" on how to make great looking finished speakers. They used oak. I am a little concerned about using oak in my project. I think I will stick with MDF and paint them a gloss piano black with lots of clear coat.
 
#23
Mark,
I walked into tower records today for the first time in ages and I noticed they have a collection of hiFi mags including audioxpress.
Tried that?

I haven't been buyin audioxpress for a while though. I got turned off by the articles they were publishing the whole 2nd half of last year. Now it looks like things are starting to move up again. Nonetheless, by the time Nelson's article get out there they are ancient history and they are really the only innovating articles coming out.
 
#24
grataku said:
James,
you are probably right about the Midwfr being what they are. The solen xover may give you a good starting point and maybe after you bust your behind building the cabinets you will convince yourself that the sound coming from your speaker just rules.
I didn't suggest northcreek ( the only kit company I can really recommend) because you would probably end up paying the same as if you bought the totems.
You seem to be thinking that if you use great drivers you are going to get a baseline of good sound no matter what you do for the Xover. That couldn't be farther from the truth! The xover really is 95% of the speaker.
At the most, with good drivers, you will probably notice some instruments being reproduced very nicely with low distortion against the poorly imaged and unbalanced mess that are the rest of the frequencies. Don't believe me? Read what should be referred to as the 'case study' for all diyers on audioxpress last year the MTM kit using the 18w8545 and revelator tweeter from speaker city reviewed by D'Appolito.
At this point I would lower the overal 'bar' of the project, buy cheaper drivers and maybe try a well-established kit to see what you get before investing a lot of money in super drivers without the Xover that they deserve. How about the ariel project??
Click to expand...


Reading your posts on this thread made me do a lot of thinking. I even went and auditioned a pair of active Genelecs this weekend. But in the end, I come back to the same thoughts... Let's say you take a pair of great proven drivers, that you know work very well together. You build a sealed box to put them in, or maybe open baffle. This is becuase, let's say, you want to keep the project as simple as possible. The valume of the sealed box, I think, should not be a complicated design parameter to come up with... You place the two drivers on the front baffle in such a way that has been proven by other maybe comercial designs. Close together, and parhaps off-center from one another. Further, you use a high end 2 way active crossover. Let's say the budget is up to USD 1,500 for a 2 way crossover for one speaker. This way you get a fairly high end device. Finally, you use very clean amplifiers to drive the whole thing. How can you go wrong? (this is not an argument, but a question.... I am trying to understand wether or not to do this) You may end up spending the same ammount or even more then you would buying a pair of similar comercial units. However, can you not build an even better pair. From what I understand, most concerns are taken care of. Driver placement and integration, phase alignment, crossover... The only thing you will have to tweak is maybe the crossover frequency and the amplifier gain.... I like building stuff, but my #1 concern is great sound. I am trying to decide weather to build a system or just to buy a pair of Genelecs, which will cost me USD $4,000. Please advise.
 
#25
Just what you are looking for :

There is a kit by sole (www.solen.ca) called the Ultimate Revelation.

Here is a small cut and paste from their site:

"The Ultimate Revelation is a two way floor standing D'Appolito bass reflex enclosure.
This is the best sounding two way period!
The image and the bass response are incredible.
Frequency response 35Hz to 30KHz
Efficiency: 90.5db 1w/1m.
The tweeter is the D2905/9700 28mm silk dome, based on the Revelator.
The Woofers are the 15W/8530K01 Revelators,
long stroke 5.5 inches with treated and choped paper cone.
The crossover is a third-order Butterworth at 1.8kHz with zobel and L-pad."

I guess this is more or less what you are looking for, right?
The only but is that it the impedance drops to 3 ohms, so make sure that your amp will be able to cope with it....

If you need something else, just drop me a line and I'll get back to you.

And by the way, if you build them, don't forget to go to the Thread called " Loudspeaker projects and kits REVIEWS" and add your grain of sand to it!

Good luck!!!
 
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