A Speaker that Kicks Butt in Large Spaces

[freddi]

a little K-tube the size of the old Transylvania Power company makes a good tweeter or helper tweeter.

Karlson's X15 speaker was introduced in 1965 and first had a mini - "klam" driven by a 3 inch fullrange speaker. The next model had a pipe with parabolic slot.

Some of the Karlsonators, and certainly Karlson's K12 would easily adapt to an internally mounted K-tube, so an "X12" (augmented with capable subwoofer) could make an ideal small and punchy substitute for a horn system

[freddi]

has anyone here worked recently with the Karlson klam projector? - Sometimes they are fun. It would be a good idea to have removable aperture "wings" so selection of aperture could be made for best overall sound.

Some damping material may be needed. My klam15 sounds fine with a hard front chamber bur a copy of the Weiss Rocket, has significant reflections and stuff bouncing & splattering around in its front chamber.

Here's a drawing from Tiggersound. I wonder what the inner set of aperures is supposed to accomplish - ?

[xrk971]

A few years ago I made a Klam for a TC9FD and it sounded terrible - like a tunnel. Maybe not meant for smaller drivers?

[freddi]

seems like my 15" klam is listenable up close with no damping material its front. A klam 10 with botched (too tight) aperture has a lot of reflection problems - but sounds pretty good as long as one is back say 6 foot or more. I think with a more open aperture, a 10" klam might be pretty good. Whether they do what K said = ? Their vertical pattern seems good and if one were overhead , could sound pretty good sitting right under it.

I spoke only once to Jess Oliver on the phone. He said that neither he nor Karlson were good salesmen.

The rear of AP100/Magna Clam tapers to a height of only 15.5" external - so the driver would be tilted to get it
into the cabinet.

I'm tempted to have Jesse build another klam10 as my klam12 is too heavy to lift with atrophy and hernia.




Magna Clam / AP100 was basically an upscaled Karlson APX Asymmetric Projector / Oliver Phase IIII Projector



Carl said the little AP9C celing speaker was very good

and the AP100 (also sold as Jess Oliver's "Magna Clam") really stuffed an Altec 421 into a small back chamber. They were instaled at Radio City Music Hall back in the day. There was a K-tube in the front chamber and resistive vent between the front and back chamber.


AP9C was made of stamped steel with some curve to its cavity per the final installment of Karlson's "Acoustic Transducers"



my previous builder went by wing radius given by Carl Neuser but the pivot reference must not have been right
so the aperture came out "tight". I'd love to open it up but am afraid it will look bad if I try with a jigsaw.

Maybe I could cut it with a little circuilar saw to approximate that Tiggersound sketch aperture -?

The old pleated surround Beta10cx was pretty strong in this thing .

[freddi]

- what do you folks think of using a curved panel/ "reflector" per Fig.6. of Karlson's final speaker patent?


how would you position the reflector in the sketch below? Would you make the cabinet bit higher "this" ?

[freddi]

I divested some $ for 6.5" drivers in (shallow ??) hopes to come up with a decent little K6.5 midrange module. It ideally would cover say 300- 3KHz but probably more like 2K on the top , meeting a K-tube.

IF scaled directly from Karlson's originals it would be as below.

- woinder what might be done to get one reasonably smooth without
resorting to damping the front chamber ? There's front cavity shape,
port type/aspect to play with. A stub could be placed at the very top
or a notched shelt port. It would be interesting to knoiw the effects of small holes bored into the front aperture plate.



SCALED K-COUPLER FOR 6.5 INCH SPEAKER. USING 12MM PLYWOOD

0.43 SCALE K15
WIDTH = 0.43X 21 = 9 INCHES INTERNAL ~ 10 INCHES EXTERNAL
DEPTH = 0.43x 16.5 = 7 INCHES INTHERNAL = 8 INCHES EXTERNAL
HEIGJHT = 0.43X 31.5 = 13.5 INCHES INTERNAL = 14.5 INCHES EXTERNAL
INTERNAL VOLUME SANS BAFFLE/PORT AND DRIVER ~ 850 CUIC INCHES
SO ROUGHLY 765 CUBIC INCHES SANS DRIVER. 765/3 = 255
SO REAR CHAMBER ~ 510 CUBIC INCHES/ FRONT CHAMBER 255

6.5/12x SCALE k12 ~0.54 SCALE
WIDTH = 0.54x 15.25 = 8.25" INTERNAL = 9 INCHES EXTERNAL
DEPTH = 0.54x 12.25 = 6.615" INTERNAL = 7.6" EXTERNAL
HEIGHT = 0.54x 24 = 13" INTHERNAL = 14 INCHERS EXTERNAL
INTERNAL VOLUME SANS BAFFLE/PORT BOARDS AND DRIVER ~707 CUBIC INCHES
SO ROUGHLY 637 CUBIC INCHES SANS DRIVER. 637/3 ~212 CUBIC INCHES
SO REAR CHAMBER ~424 CUBIC INCHES/ FRONT CHAMBER 212 CUJBIC INCHES

6.5/15 SCALE X15 = 0.43
WIDTH = 0.434X 19 = 8.17" INTERNAL = 9 INCHES EXTERNAL
DEPTH = 0.43X 12.25 = 5.25" INTErNAL = 6.25" EXTERNAL
HEIGH T= 0.43X 26.5 = 11.4" INTERNAL = 12.4" EXTERNAL
INTERNAL VOLUME SANS DRIVERS AND BAFFLE/PORT BOARDS ~ 489 CUBIC INCHES
425 CUBIC INCHES = ROUGH ESTIMATE SANS WOOD. 425/3 1 1415.
SO REAR CHAMBER ~ 283 CUBIC INCHES AND FRONT CHAMBER ~141.5 CUBIC INCHES

[xrk971]

Anthony Bisset made some 0.43x scales K15’s and used with 6.5in B&C pro coaxial. I think he had a see through acrylic aperture. He said they sounded nice - played loud and filled a party easily. There was some phasiness when twisting your head - so output phase seems variable with position - to be expected for a diffraction lens I suppose.

[freddi]

thanks X. Do you know if he deleted the front shelf? I don't want to be left out on the CX part so ordering these Eminence made 6CX w.38oz magnet

[xrk971]

We used the front shelf.