Hi,
I'm looking at options for a small near-field desktop speaker options, mainly for low listening levels or medium, not looking into shaking the house, and I want a small speaker / baffle so it doesn't take too much space in my desk, right now I'm looking into two options, both of them will be run with a sub-woofer, the Voxel mini sub by Paul Carmody or maybe one of those 8" kits from Parts Express with a DSP enable amplifier
The speakers will be placed relatively close to the back wall, around 20 cms, so I'm leaning towards design that are not affected by the close wall too much
Option 1
Mark Audio Alpine 7MS in the Sealed Single Surround box, it is not explicit, but I suppose that Scott had been involved with the design of a lot of the plans in Mark Audio site (the 18 mm multiply recommendation sounds familiar), so I trust the design
Option 2
This random project in Parts Express gallery of a miniature open baffle speakers, it seems simple enough and the guy who design it sounds like his know a little bit about speaker design
Something that I always wanted to try is an open baffle, but for now (and a few years), I won't have space to get one of those cool looking, 2 15" woofer OB designs that are loved around here
And I also like the Mark Audio option because is as simple as it gets, but won't satisfy my OB itch
What are your thoughts about the miniature open baffle project?
Thanks
Alex
Edit : Grammar Fix
I'm looking at options for a small near-field desktop speaker options, mainly for low listening levels or medium, not looking into shaking the house, and I want a small speaker / baffle so it doesn't take too much space in my desk, right now I'm looking into two options, both of them will be run with a sub-woofer, the Voxel mini sub by Paul Carmody or maybe one of those 8" kits from Parts Express with a DSP enable amplifier
The speakers will be placed relatively close to the back wall, around 20 cms, so I'm leaning towards design that are not affected by the close wall too much
Option 1
Mark Audio Alpine 7MS in the Sealed Single Surround box, it is not explicit, but I suppose that Scott had been involved with the design of a lot of the plans in Mark Audio site (the 18 mm multiply recommendation sounds familiar), so I trust the design
Option 2
This random project in Parts Express gallery of a miniature open baffle speakers, it seems simple enough and the guy who design it sounds like his know a little bit about speaker design
Something that I always wanted to try is an open baffle, but for now (and a few years), I won't have space to get one of those cool looking, 2 15" woofer OB designs that are loved around here
And I also like the Mark Audio option because is as simple as it gets, but won't satisfy my OB itch
What are your thoughts about the miniature open baffle project?
Thanks
Alex
Edit : Grammar Fix
Your constraints dont mix well with OB, which need to be far out and away from any back wall. Why not try a Cornu spiral, which is kind of a flat box that against against a back wall nicely?
Hi,
I saw that usually a big baffle is needed in OB to get some bass, but I was curious about that one because of the supposed 50hz to 20khz response
Those Cornu Spiral looks interesting but is totally impractical for me (the resulting speakers should be easy to store)
I saw that usually a big baffle is needed in OB to get some bass, but I was curious about that one because of the supposed 50hz to 20khz response
Those Cornu Spiral looks interesting but is totally impractical for me (the resulting speakers should be easy to store)
A smaller baffle can work near-field on a desk because the desk acts as a baffle extension (making it functionally larger) and when you get near a dipole the full cancellation doesn't develop. My old desk speakers used a 6.5 inch woofer in this kind of configuration, and they would also play down to around 50 Hz to reasonable levels.
Near-field also helps because the speaker doesn't need to play as loudly, so a lot of loss for equalization is more acceptable.
As jjasniew said, the proximity of the wall behind the speakers is a concern for a dipole. If you want to investigate that, you can mock something up very simply and see if it bothers you. Fome-Cor, cardboard, whatever is good enough for this kind of testing. It doesn't have to be pretty or inert.
Near-field also helps because the speaker doesn't need to play as loudly, so a lot of loss for equalization is more acceptable.
As jjasniew said, the proximity of the wall behind the speakers is a concern for a dipole. If you want to investigate that, you can mock something up very simply and see if it bothers you. Fome-Cor, cardboard, whatever is good enough for this kind of testing. It doesn't have to be pretty or inert.
Thanks for the explanation, I was under de impression that openbaffle was more forgiving about placement, but it seems that is for sidewalls, not for the back wall
So I suppose it is just better to go for a standard baffle given the placement
Thanks
So I suppose it is just better to go for a standard baffle given the placement
Thanks
Desktop dipoles don't need to have bass if a sub (or two) with high xo is employed. The dipoles, however, should be elevated to ear height above the desktop for proper radiation and stereo imaging. Back wave can be suppressed by applying foam rubber over the back of the driver, and on the wall if necessary.
The small desk at the foot of my bed against the wall has a pair of 8" vintage fullrange speakers in small shallow open-back boxes i.e. OB-U. However, I use the detached back angled to bounce rear-wave up toward the ceiling, plus stuffing/absorbers and a little passive EQ.
On a small desk at the foot of a different bed but far away from walls, I have these:
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...rkaudio-alpair-5-2-in-evansound-3-75l.393909/
On a small desk at the foot of a different bed but far away from walls, I have these:
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/...rkaudio-alpair-5-2-in-evansound-3-75l.393909/
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Thanks for all of your responses, taking into account the positioning constraints and the fact that I will use those speakers 2 or 3 months a year (wouldn't make sense to spend too much on them, even less making any speaker that needs a sub) I ended up going with the true and tested Overnight Sensations from Paul Carmody with 3/4" Eucaliptus Plywood and decent crossover components (all Jantzen Z-Standard caps, Wirewound 1% resistors and air core inductors) and will be powering with the Fosi Audio V3 (which sounds quite nice and it's not expensive at all)