Preliminary report
The suspense is over and another hard fought Battle of the Titans has ended. The contest went fairly well and the competition as well as the calibre of the entries really has risen to new levels. I overheard the judges talking among themselves and there seemed to be general agreement that there hadn't been a bad speaker in the whole lot. Before anyone objects, it's true that my speakers hadn't been judged yet at the time I caught this :^)
I was pretty busy (I only got about 12 hours sleep in the three days leading up to the contest) and didn't get to hear many of the speakers..........Darn it! The two that I did have a chance to hear were pretty good.
The first one I really got to hear was John Nail's MTM speaker which used a pair of 4.5 inch Vifa/ JBL midbass woofers (the 12 ohm version) paired to a Seas 27TFFC tweeter. John used a 3rd order Butterworth electrical (4th order acoustic) crossover @ 3,000 Hz. In his entry form the cost of components is listed as $185.00 total. As an aside, it was a very attractive speaker, finished in his preferred super-duper porch paint. I didn't write down what brand, etc., but I'm going to find out from him what he used.
The only other speaker that I got to hear long enough to form any opinion of was the entry by those border-jumpers: Edward West and Rick Morgen. Ed lives on the US side and Rick is on the Canadian side of the border.
While they protested that their speaker was a test mule, I thought that it exuded a certain form-follows-function charm that is so often overlooked. This was a Real Man's speaker, a full blooded, raw, unapologetic statement of Aural Testosterone with none of that paltry, panty waisted WAF accounted for. On behalf of all male speaker builders, I would like to thank them for bringing us to our senses, reminding us that the only thing that really matters is the sound. (The sound of my wife's complaining usually!)
I thought that the use of cement blocks to support the mid/treble module was especially enchanting, well OK, at least it works:^)
Ed and Rick used an Aurum Cantus G2 ribbon tweeter, a PHL 1120 midrange (in a damped transmission line) and for the woofers they used one Lamda Acoustics TD15s (sealed) per side.
They used a Butterworth 3rd order, crossing over @ 400Hz and a Linkwitz-Riley 4th order @ 4,000Hz.
Their entry form stated that the approximate cost of all the components totaled $1420.00 USD.
Ed West is a real fan of DSP networks, so he had to completely design an analog crossover for the contest as we don't allow Bi or Tri-amping. The results were very good however, it sounded natural and unstrained at volume levels beyond those that I would ever use.
All together we had 16 entries.
The winners of their respective classes were:
Fullrange under $100
Todd Lee's Bi-Pole Radio Shack 1354a's with a Passive Radiator.
Fullrange over $100
Doug Nash used Fostex FE108EZ Sigma 4 inch drivers
2-Way under $250
Mike Valeri used a 2nd order modified Butterworth (frequency not stated) with a 3/4 inch Vifa tweeter and a Dayton 5.25 inch "Classic" midwoofer
3-way under $350
Mike Valeri, using a Dayton 8 inch "Classic" woofer, Dayton 5.25 inch "Classic" mid and a Seas 3/4 inch tweeter ( model not listed). All this was held together by a modified Butterworth 2nd order crossover (frequency not listed).
3-way over $350
Edward West and Rick Morgan
(see comments above)
Kit Speaker under $175
Terry Olson (it's me!)
DR-1 designed by Dave Rosgaard.
Vifa/JBL 4.5 inch midwoofer crossed over to a Audax TMO20J3 (3/4 inch) tweeter using a series crossover. (2nd order tweeter and 1st order woofer).
Best Sound of the Show
This went to Mike Valeri for his 2-way under $250 entry.
(BTW: The DR-1 that I built was the runner-up. Kudo's to Dave Rosgaard!)
So there are the results, I've got to go for now but stay tuned. Hopefully someone took some pictures that can be posted.
Best Regards,
TerryO
The suspense is over and another hard fought Battle of the Titans has ended. The contest went fairly well and the competition as well as the calibre of the entries really has risen to new levels. I overheard the judges talking among themselves and there seemed to be general agreement that there hadn't been a bad speaker in the whole lot. Before anyone objects, it's true that my speakers hadn't been judged yet at the time I caught this :^)
I was pretty busy (I only got about 12 hours sleep in the three days leading up to the contest) and didn't get to hear many of the speakers..........Darn it! The two that I did have a chance to hear were pretty good.
The first one I really got to hear was John Nail's MTM speaker which used a pair of 4.5 inch Vifa/ JBL midbass woofers (the 12 ohm version) paired to a Seas 27TFFC tweeter. John used a 3rd order Butterworth electrical (4th order acoustic) crossover @ 3,000 Hz. In his entry form the cost of components is listed as $185.00 total. As an aside, it was a very attractive speaker, finished in his preferred super-duper porch paint. I didn't write down what brand, etc., but I'm going to find out from him what he used.
The only other speaker that I got to hear long enough to form any opinion of was the entry by those border-jumpers: Edward West and Rick Morgen. Ed lives on the US side and Rick is on the Canadian side of the border.
While they protested that their speaker was a test mule, I thought that it exuded a certain form-follows-function charm that is so often overlooked. This was a Real Man's speaker, a full blooded, raw, unapologetic statement of Aural Testosterone with none of that paltry, panty waisted WAF accounted for. On behalf of all male speaker builders, I would like to thank them for bringing us to our senses, reminding us that the only thing that really matters is the sound. (The sound of my wife's complaining usually!)
I thought that the use of cement blocks to support the mid/treble module was especially enchanting, well OK, at least it works:^)
Ed and Rick used an Aurum Cantus G2 ribbon tweeter, a PHL 1120 midrange (in a damped transmission line) and for the woofers they used one Lamda Acoustics TD15s (sealed) per side.
They used a Butterworth 3rd order, crossing over @ 400Hz and a Linkwitz-Riley 4th order @ 4,000Hz.
Their entry form stated that the approximate cost of all the components totaled $1420.00 USD.
Ed West is a real fan of DSP networks, so he had to completely design an analog crossover for the contest as we don't allow Bi or Tri-amping. The results were very good however, it sounded natural and unstrained at volume levels beyond those that I would ever use.
All together we had 16 entries.
The winners of their respective classes were:
Fullrange under $100
Todd Lee's Bi-Pole Radio Shack 1354a's with a Passive Radiator.
Fullrange over $100
Doug Nash used Fostex FE108EZ Sigma 4 inch drivers
2-Way under $250
Mike Valeri used a 2nd order modified Butterworth (frequency not stated) with a 3/4 inch Vifa tweeter and a Dayton 5.25 inch "Classic" midwoofer
3-way under $350
Mike Valeri, using a Dayton 8 inch "Classic" woofer, Dayton 5.25 inch "Classic" mid and a Seas 3/4 inch tweeter ( model not listed). All this was held together by a modified Butterworth 2nd order crossover (frequency not listed).
3-way over $350
Edward West and Rick Morgan
(see comments above)
Kit Speaker under $175
Terry Olson (it's me!)
DR-1 designed by Dave Rosgaard.
Vifa/JBL 4.5 inch midwoofer crossed over to a Audax TMO20J3 (3/4 inch) tweeter using a series crossover. (2nd order tweeter and 1st order woofer).
Best Sound of the Show
This went to Mike Valeri for his 2-way under $250 entry.
(BTW: The DR-1 that I built was the runner-up. Kudo's to Dave Rosgaard!)
So there are the results, I've got to go for now but stay tuned. Hopefully someone took some pictures that can be posted.
Best Regards,
TerryO
Re: Preliminary report
We heard those... they have a little bit of iBone Mountain in them....
🙂
dave
TerryO said:
We heard those... they have a little bit of iBone Mountain in them....
🙂
dave
We heard those... they have a little bit of iBone Mountain in them....
dave
Yes indeed, and it made all the difference! I wonder if that should have been on the entry form?
TerryO
dave
Yes indeed, and it made all the difference! I wonder if that should have been on the entry form?
TerryO
I have a few snapshots that I should be able to put up tomorrow.
I had a wonderful time. I heard some really nice speakers and met some even nicer people. I too did not get to listen to nearly as many speakers as I wanted, but that's entirely the fault of meeting so many nice people 🙂
I did get a good listen to Ed West and Rick Morgan's 3-way winner and Mike Valeri's 2-way overall winner side-by-side (both sounding excellent, by the way). I must say that I was amazed at how good Mike's little 2-way sounded in comparison. I came away feeling very good about anyone who is building small two-way speakers and thinking they might be missing something. I think if done right, they are not missing much of anything above the bottom octaves and some tradeoff in volume and sheer "you are there" effect.
My one disappointment was that there were not more single driver speakers present. I figured with DIY, there would be plenty but not so. Oh well. I hope I represented the single driver flag with honor. I got a few very positive comments on my X-baffle design and one "I can't believe you get that sound out of that little speaker." That alone was worth it. That made me happy.
Doug
I had a wonderful time. I heard some really nice speakers and met some even nicer people. I too did not get to listen to nearly as many speakers as I wanted, but that's entirely the fault of meeting so many nice people 🙂
I did get a good listen to Ed West and Rick Morgan's 3-way winner and Mike Valeri's 2-way overall winner side-by-side (both sounding excellent, by the way). I must say that I was amazed at how good Mike's little 2-way sounded in comparison. I came away feeling very good about anyone who is building small two-way speakers and thinking they might be missing something. I think if done right, they are not missing much of anything above the bottom octaves and some tradeoff in volume and sheer "you are there" effect.
My one disappointment was that there were not more single driver speakers present. I figured with DIY, there would be plenty but not so. Oh well. I hope I represented the single driver flag with honor. I got a few very positive comments on my X-baffle design and one "I can't believe you get that sound out of that little speaker." That alone was worth it. That made me happy.
Doug
Taperwood said:
*Me too 🙁 I thought there would have been way more single driver concepts as well...though, I guess I did benefit from there not being more 😀
I heard those Sigmas in the X Baffle and I did wish for a more diversified sonic workout, I mean hey, this is as close as I'll prolly ever get to a speaker of this calliber. Mostly vocals w/ light musical accompniment. I'll be honest, a lot of the music wasn't my cup o' tea. But still, a great piece of art; easily, the best looking speaker. The type of speaker you'd expect to see for sale on the web. I do hope there are photos.
I would have liked to hear more speakers than I did, but over all, there wasn't a bad speaker in the house. I loved that PHL midrange/G2 ribbon tweeter combo; they were seemless. One of my projects includes a wide band mid and hearing this speaker just reinforces my line of thinking. The MTMs by John Nail were real giant killers though, with good bass response and detailed imaging, from a smallish speaker.
I wanted to get mine hooked up to that luscious, Genesis tube amp, but I was up against the clock as I was going to be late for a cookout (Lamb-Kabobs). When I got home, we listened to my bipoles out on my deck, (with my certificate proudly displayed) and lo and behold, they weren't just some piece of junk I had laying around anymore.
BTW: the FIM discs are stellar
I had a blast and I'm chomping at the bit for the next one.
Thanx to all,
Todd (aka 3LockBox)
3-LockBox said:
Thank you for your kind words, Todd. Yeah, sorry about the music selection. My CD had 19 tracks on it, but I was too shy to walk back up front to get the remote to change them, and I also should have asked people their preferences. That was my fault. I had everything from techno-pop and rock to the vocal world music that I initially played, which I shamelessly played to the speaker's strengths, by the way 🙂
Being new, I was not quite sure how things worked. Next time, I think a diverse three song selection would be a good way to start.
Doug
Geek said:
Holy Smokes!!!! How'd that happen?
In my incredibly poor memory I can only remember three people that were judged worthy of elevation to the title of an Audio God.
Phil Bamberg, God of Crossovers
Rudy Blondia, The Blond God of Ribbons
Dave Dlugos, The Living God of Garage Sales
I might suggest that a far worthier choice would be Greg Monfort (GM).
Best Regards,
TerryO
Taperwood said:
Geek Wisdom for the day:
When building WHS, make sure to bring a dolly, lest those of lighter designs will surely make note of on public forums 😀
I'm sorry to have missed it. I spent this years travel budget on the Victoria one.
Hmm, looking at the judge's room, I have a problem. I see two comfortable chairs, and one hard plastic one. I would be interested to see if there is a correllation between the chair each judge was sitting on and their resultant marks for the system under test.
Fundamentally flawed.
😀
Fundamentally flawed.
😀
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