Having issues with pics right now so will add when I can.
I have finally had the chance to tinker with my line arrays. Last year at the MWAF I picked up 50 of the Lavoce 3" full range drivers, I kinda had in the back of my head that I wanted to augment the low end so later on I purchased 20 of the P.E. 6 1/2 poly cone buyout buyout to try.
Late last year I put together a couple test boxes, 1 had 4 of the LaVoces and the other had 2 of the 6.5's. I ran them with a couple of the P.E. DTA 120's and a Minidsp. I was quite impressed with the combo and decided that is how I would proceed.
Fast forward to 6 weeks furlough and I have made good progress.
I decide to go with 24 of the 3" and 9 of the 6.5's per side. I had baffles made out of alum (4 1/2 x 80) for the FR drivers and put together a test box. I made a separate box to house 8 of the buyout woofers.
I finally had a chance to put together and listen to the system. The left side is running the full stack of 24 Lavoce and 8 woofers. The right side is is running last year's test boxes with 4 Lavoce and 2 woofers.
After spending about 4 hours with gain, delay and eq I had it dialed in to acceptable listening for my barn.
All I can say is WOW!!
I sampled just about all of my music collection and am amazed at the amount of detail that I have been missing.
Robbie Robertson's "Somewhere down the crazy river", Roger Water's "Radio Kaos" album and few others were sublime...
Marah, Martin Zellar, Gear Daddies, Beat Farmers all took on new life.
Can hardly wait to start building the final product.
Will post pics and update when I can.
I have finally had the chance to tinker with my line arrays. Last year at the MWAF I picked up 50 of the Lavoce 3" full range drivers, I kinda had in the back of my head that I wanted to augment the low end so later on I purchased 20 of the P.E. 6 1/2 poly cone buyout buyout to try.
Late last year I put together a couple test boxes, 1 had 4 of the LaVoces and the other had 2 of the 6.5's. I ran them with a couple of the P.E. DTA 120's and a Minidsp. I was quite impressed with the combo and decided that is how I would proceed.
Fast forward to 6 weeks furlough and I have made good progress.
I decide to go with 24 of the 3" and 9 of the 6.5's per side. I had baffles made out of alum (4 1/2 x 80) for the FR drivers and put together a test box. I made a separate box to house 8 of the buyout woofers.
I finally had a chance to put together and listen to the system. The left side is running the full stack of 24 Lavoce and 8 woofers. The right side is is running last year's test boxes with 4 Lavoce and 2 woofers.
After spending about 4 hours with gain, delay and eq I had it dialed in to acceptable listening for my barn.
All I can say is WOW!!
I sampled just about all of my music collection and am amazed at the amount of detail that I have been missing.
Robbie Robertson's "Somewhere down the crazy river", Roger Water's "Radio Kaos" album and few others were sublime...
Marah, Martin Zellar, Gear Daddies, Beat Farmers all took on new life.
Can hardly wait to start building the final product.
Will post pics and update when I can.
I'm wondering why you went with 24 FR drivers instead of 25.
With 25, you can wire them 5x5 and keep the same impedance as a single unit.
Unless you are doing some power shading with your arrays?
I have had the idea of making open baffle line arrays for some time now, one row of FR and one row of 6.5 woofers.
Will wait for the pictures! 🙂
With 25, you can wire them 5x5 and keep the same impedance as a single unit.
Unless you are doing some power shading with your arrays?
I have had the idea of making open baffle line arrays for some time now, one row of FR and one row of 6.5 woofers.
Will wait for the pictures! 🙂
Was taking a cue from the "Murphy Corner Line Array" and trying to reduce impedance and thus amp demand.
All the FSF-030's metered out to give me almost exactly 4ohm when wired in the 4x6 array.
After spending more money on drivers than my wife knew I did, I figured I should spend a bit less on amps
All the FSF-030's metered out to give me almost exactly 4ohm when wired in the 4x6 array.
After spending more money on drivers than my wife knew I did, I figured I should spend a bit less on amps
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I can understand that last point! 🙂
But, a good amp with plenty of headroom will really make them sing...
Can be an upgrade later on... no worries.
One step at a time!
But, a good amp with plenty of headroom will really make them sing...
Can be an upgrade later on... no worries.
One step at a time!
Here are a couple pics. One of the original test setup and the other is a working prototype with the full line.
Currently have 8 woofs, 4 opposing 4. Have the woofs bandpassed 60hz 48db on the low end and 150hz 12db on the upper.
It will be fun playing with this setup while I build the final cabinets.
Currently have 8 woofs, 4 opposing 4. Have the woofs bandpassed 60hz 48db on the low end and 150hz 12db on the upper.
It will be fun playing with this setup while I build the final cabinets.
Attachments
It has been a bunch of fun playing with the PE DTA amps but I decided to try the line with a KM1700 that I ordered awhile back.
Could not get anything listenable out of the PC or phone, so I ordered a bunch of 1/4" and xlr to rca connectors and an Art DI with DAC.
Just hit my door a couple hours ago so hopefully I can play around and get some decent sound out of the KM's
Could not get anything listenable out of the PC or phone, so I ordered a bunch of 1/4" and xlr to rca connectors and an Art DI with DAC.
Just hit my door a couple hours ago so hopefully I can play around and get some decent sound out of the KM's
Well I made some changes to the system and jad a chance to use the ART di DAC with the KM1700's
I split bass section and now have 4 of the woofers running per side. So 25 FR and 4 bass on the left and 4 FR and 4 bass on the right.
FR and bass each running an independent 2 channel amp (either 2 of the DTA 120's or 2 km1700's).
I also had a pair of older Magnepan MGSS1's that I can swap.out with the Lavoce lines as a comparison.
Running each of the maggies with 4 of the woofers and crossing at around 500hz gave (to my ears) an incredible sound. Very open and transparent. Switching from the dta's to the KM's gave what I will call a warmer and less shrill sound with more authority (headroom I think). But no more overall volume.
When switching the top end from the Maggie's to the LaVoce's, I wouldnt say it was better but very different.
I went from being in a sweet spot of incredible fidelity to being immersed by sound. The sweet spot was now a much larger area, not the same "sweet" but equally as engrossing.
The odd thing about the arrays is that I could place an unwired speaker just about anywhere between my listening position and the arrays and my mind would tell me that the sound was coming from that unwired speaker.
The soundstage is just incredible, you feel like you are at a live performance.
The difference in amps was about the same with the arrays as it was with the Maggie's.
Did forget to mention that I shifted the crossovers down to 150hz when listening to the arrays.
I split bass section and now have 4 of the woofers running per side. So 25 FR and 4 bass on the left and 4 FR and 4 bass on the right.
FR and bass each running an independent 2 channel amp (either 2 of the DTA 120's or 2 km1700's).
I also had a pair of older Magnepan MGSS1's that I can swap.out with the Lavoce lines as a comparison.
Running each of the maggies with 4 of the woofers and crossing at around 500hz gave (to my ears) an incredible sound. Very open and transparent. Switching from the dta's to the KM's gave what I will call a warmer and less shrill sound with more authority (headroom I think). But no more overall volume.
When switching the top end from the Maggie's to the LaVoce's, I wouldnt say it was better but very different.
I went from being in a sweet spot of incredible fidelity to being immersed by sound. The sweet spot was now a much larger area, not the same "sweet" but equally as engrossing.
The odd thing about the arrays is that I could place an unwired speaker just about anywhere between my listening position and the arrays and my mind would tell me that the sound was coming from that unwired speaker.
The soundstage is just incredible, you feel like you are at a live performance.
The difference in amps was about the same with the arrays as it was with the Maggie's.
Did forget to mention that I shifted the crossovers down to 150hz when listening to the arrays.