Thanks to Terry, Dave, the judges and all the other volunteers and speaker builders the contest was a great event. It is the only contest I know of with blind testing of the speakers, so that is really special.
I almost didn't make it. I worked all day Friday till 1 AM and then all morning Saturday and completed my crossover at 12:30 Saturday afternoon. I made it to the contest an hour late. Saturday at 11:30 AM I found two errors in one crossover, one fatal. A disconnected resistor in the 50 Hz series notch drove the impedance to less than 1 ohm! After sweating bullets for half an hour I found it. With that fixed I hauled off to the contest.
The schematic for the new speaker.
Having run out of time one error remained in one speakers tweeter circuit that made the impedance rise, so it was no threat to any amplifier. I setup at the public listening area and listened to the completed speakers for the first time. They worked, and actually sounded OK. One of those club speaker cables was mislabeled, so they were connected out of phase at first. There's always something.
My new three way bipolar speakers in the public listening area played for the first time.
Just in case the new speakers sucked, I also brought a pair of two way speakers I built in 2023 using LS3/5 monitor cabinets along. They look so generic, no one really looked at them sitting there.
Most of these guys produce some professional looking results.
Left to right: Dave's winning 3 way? The really nice towers from Portland, Jay Hope's speakers.
Jay Hope's speakers.
As you can see in earlier posts, there were some other greats speakers. I should have taken more pictures. It was fun talking to the people that showed up. A guy I talked with briefly brought a great pair of speakers up from Portland, OR. Unfortunately they didn't get played in the public area. In the public listening area I heard several speakers I thought sounded better than mine.
In the end, in blind listening tests, the judges scored my small two way monitors higher other two way speakers in the contest, so that was a surprise. I expected the bass produced by a few of the vented models would have prevailed. The little monitors even out scored the new large 3 way speakers I spend the past three months designing and constructing. My new 3 way speakers placed second in the 3 way category despite the crossover error in one tweeter. One of the judges noted the flaw in the high frequencies.
Here's a picture of the winning two way speaker.
I'm out of the shop and back to posting non-sense on the web today.
I almost didn't make it. I worked all day Friday till 1 AM and then all morning Saturday and completed my crossover at 12:30 Saturday afternoon. I made it to the contest an hour late. Saturday at 11:30 AM I found two errors in one crossover, one fatal. A disconnected resistor in the 50 Hz series notch drove the impedance to less than 1 ohm! After sweating bullets for half an hour I found it. With that fixed I hauled off to the contest.
The schematic for the new speaker.
Having run out of time one error remained in one speakers tweeter circuit that made the impedance rise, so it was no threat to any amplifier. I setup at the public listening area and listened to the completed speakers for the first time. They worked, and actually sounded OK. One of those club speaker cables was mislabeled, so they were connected out of phase at first. There's always something.
My new three way bipolar speakers in the public listening area played for the first time.
Just in case the new speakers sucked, I also brought a pair of two way speakers I built in 2023 using LS3/5 monitor cabinets along. They look so generic, no one really looked at them sitting there.
Most of these guys produce some professional looking results.
Left to right: Dave's winning 3 way? The really nice towers from Portland, Jay Hope's speakers.
Jay Hope's speakers.
As you can see in earlier posts, there were some other greats speakers. I should have taken more pictures. It was fun talking to the people that showed up. A guy I talked with briefly brought a great pair of speakers up from Portland, OR. Unfortunately they didn't get played in the public area. In the public listening area I heard several speakers I thought sounded better than mine.
In the end, in blind listening tests, the judges scored my small two way monitors higher other two way speakers in the contest, so that was a surprise. I expected the bass produced by a few of the vented models would have prevailed. The little monitors even out scored the new large 3 way speakers I spend the past three months designing and constructing. My new 3 way speakers placed second in the 3 way category despite the crossover error in one tweeter. One of the judges noted the flaw in the high frequencies.
Here's a picture of the winning two way speaker.
I'm out of the shop and back to posting non-sense on the web today.
Did you get Covid?
Je croyais que le tyran prodige venu de l'Est avait rendu cela illégal.
You rebel you.... get well if so... drink beer otherwise. Well, drink beer regardless.
Funny, at the very beginning, when Covid started, in December, I bought us some bunny suits - you know, the clean room variety.
As a joke.
So, about 10 months later, we flew to Seattle and some fool got on the plane wearing a bunny suit.
Should I wear a bunny suit to BA24? I mean, I've spent lots of time wearing those so I know you can hear clearly through them, but I've never done any critical listening.
Does a bunny suit impose a notch or low pass filter to our hearing?
Is it safe to solder when wearing a bunny suit?
TonyEE has brought up an important item that demands clarification : "Is it safe to solder when wearing a bunny suit?" The obvious advantages are so well known that it would seem pointless at this time to even continue on this topic! If you have to ask, you obviously are not ready for the "Big Time!"
I'd venture the cheapest DSP Dayton sells doesnt sound as good as passive components, each providing equal functionality. Has something to do with going forth and back from the digital domain a second time...
Pretty sure I finally got it by traveling on a plane, from Seattle to Alberta. Regardless of my N95 masking attempts, which included this skin glue-on affair, where I had to shave for it to stick.
Long before I obtained some bunny suit hats, pressure fed that via a battery powered pump / HEPA filter arrangement, That wasnt going to work seated on a plane...
Did he ever. His name is Byron and he should have won the competition, hands down.
Oh gawd, him again? Last time I spent with him was on Vancouver Island. He made me late for dinner, talking the virtues of Jimmy Buffett. I had no idea. What the heck?
All the speakers I heard were pretty impressive both from fabrication and sound. I've added some more pictures from my dSLR camera, although they are reduced in quality due to the site restrictions. If I had to pick a favorite of what I heard, it would be the open baffels that have the pointy top with 5 drivers each and a separate subwoofer. However, the walnut ones were pretty good too and looked incredible. Dave's crazy looking dipole speakers were also amazing having equivelent speakers playing on both sides (front and back), not to mention the crazy crossover circuit. I only heard 5 or 6 of them so that's less than half of what were being judged.
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@Cal Weldon you're right, Byron was definitely in the running.
I didn't get my camera out during the event, so I've borrowed some shots.
The top scores from the judges -
Overall winner: Dave Rosgaard with a 3-way design at 259 points
Runner-up: Dana Olson with a 2-way design reaping 252 points
3rd place Byron Taylor with a 2-way design gaining 241 points
Honorable mention Tim Forman with a 2-way design at 231 points
Dave's 3-way consists of a Seas 10" woofer, Seas 4" midrange, and a 3/4" Audax tweeter in a 60 liter box, with a resistive rear-firing vent. Series crossover, 3rd and 4th order electrical. Cabinets are bubinga with rosewood edges.
Dana's 2-way was inspired by the venerable LS3/5a but uses modern drivers. The faceplate is 3D-printed and has a built-in waveguide for the tweeter. If I recall correctly, it consists of a 5" SB Acoustics mid-woofer and a 1" Visaton tweeter in a sealed box. Pretty impressive full sound for the size.
Byron's 2-way mid-towers got good comments from the judges.
Tim's 2-way uses Seas Prestige drivers in a sealed box.
In all, there were 15 or 16 entries. All sounded good, some better than others. Competition was tough - DIY is getting better all the time.
I didn't get my camera out during the event, so I've borrowed some shots.
The top scores from the judges -
Overall winner: Dave Rosgaard with a 3-way design at 259 points
Runner-up: Dana Olson with a 2-way design reaping 252 points
3rd place Byron Taylor with a 2-way design gaining 241 points
Honorable mention Tim Forman with a 2-way design at 231 points
Dave's 3-way consists of a Seas 10" woofer, Seas 4" midrange, and a 3/4" Audax tweeter in a 60 liter box, with a resistive rear-firing vent. Series crossover, 3rd and 4th order electrical. Cabinets are bubinga with rosewood edges.
Dana's 2-way was inspired by the venerable LS3/5a but uses modern drivers. The faceplate is 3D-printed and has a built-in waveguide for the tweeter. If I recall correctly, it consists of a 5" SB Acoustics mid-woofer and a 1" Visaton tweeter in a sealed box. Pretty impressive full sound for the size.
Byron's 2-way mid-towers got good comments from the judges.
Tim's 2-way uses Seas Prestige drivers in a sealed box.
In all, there were 15 or 16 entries. All sounded good, some better than others. Competition was tough - DIY is getting better all the time.
Attachments
It was kinda cool to see the old CSS 125 drivers. They were great to work with.
I've only seen older Asian ladies solder when wearing bunny suits in the lab. Their skills amaze me.. I had one of them actually resolder a micro USB connector for me. Can you imagine that? In a bunny suit, with a microscope.. what skill. I would have burned down the lab.
And SMD.... perhaps that's why my soldering skills are so rusty. You can't compete with an older Asian lady in a bunny suit with microscope in the lab.
A humbling experience.
That's why I asked.