A Speaker that Kicks Butt in Large Spaces

I cut a 3" hole in the top of that slender "K8" - blocked the horizontal slot port and loaded it with the old stamped frame Nirvana 8. My AN8 pair's parameters changed quite a bit as when that crappy goop used on the surrounds dried, it stiffened the suspension enough to raise Fs by a half octave. One poster says turpentine will soften it again.


Look at this crazy input impedance for AN8 in this cabinet vs the other (unmodified) cabinet with the much different 1772

why might Z be elevated above 15 ohms in the tuning region ?

I like Fostex 206 and 1772 more than AN


eubnft1.gif
 
thank you freddi for all your sharing. If it werent for you plugging away at k-coupled speakers i probably would have stayed happy with transmission line speakers and ignored how drums never sounded natural on them. Thanks to you and X's models i now enjoy full range speakers that sound natural on drums. They may not have "grab" but changing to 10inch speaker drives would stop them being full range
 
Founder of XSA-Labs
Joined 2012
Paid Member
thank you freddi for all your sharing. If it werent for you plugging away at k-coupled speakers i probably would have stayed happy with transmission line speakers and ignored how drums never sounded natural on them. Thanks to you and X's models i now enjoy full range speakers that sound natural on drums. They may not have "grab" but changing to 10inch speaker drives would stop them being full range

Good to hear that you like the sound of your K's. What is your setup - driver and box size? Photos?
 
I have been a follower of your work. It started as a 0.4 karlsonator which nicely widened the sweet spot for stereo image. Freddi's descriptions of the K reminded me of how live performances of lion dances should sound like. Drum beats should carry a weight instead of the roll we often hear in bass reflex speakers. Of course a 2 inch speaker no matter how much amplifier power we run through it cannot have the heart stopping power of a 10 inch that Freddi's experience says we need.
 
regarding a 10", I need to investigate a "K10" a bit more by measuring various drivers in the 0.62X K15 cabinet including
Nirvana Supuer10. It has run: Nirvana Super 8, Beta10cx and FE206 so far. It will get a run with Delta10a
to compare to an older "K10" size cabinet.

I'd like to stay near a 2-2.2 cubic foot external bulk for a 10" K-coupler. If too small, then the cavity peak
around 210Hz could dominate

my older "K10" - output wise, there's not a lot given up versus the 115BK 15"| K-coupler

Acoustic's 115BK has a tapered rear chamber which might be a bit smoother in response than Karlson's X15 - I don't know if that
would transfer to a smaller cabinet or not.

I just about bet if 4-Delta10a were put into a cabinet about the size of K15 and driven with
about 1KW peak, that there would be pretty good "hit"

cAG0sDb.jpg


K10 Delta10a vs K12 pym1298 (~same as Kappa12a) You can see Eminence's 1.2mH lowpass
inductor isn't sufficient to quell Delta10a's peak before rolloff.
SS9xTFz.gif[

K10 Delta10a vs Acoustic Control 115BK EVM15L
58BKiku.gif
 
Last edited:
I'm eying a 10" for either a nice punchy K/X10 or Karlsonator 10

what's the best K that can be done with this speaker? I know it should work fine in a stock Karlson 12


Def_Driver Bass guitar 10 | Eminence 10 Qts=0.23, 3mm xmax, fs=52.22, 97.7dB
SD=366.1cm2
fs=52.22Hz
Mms=25.6g
Qms=2.94
Qes=0.230
Re=4.33ohm
BL=11.99Tm
Le=0.74mH
 
Founder of XSA-Labs
Joined 2012
Paid Member
I'm eying a 10" for either a nice punchy K/X10 or Karlsonator 10

what's the best K that can be done with this speaker? I know it should work fine in a stock Karlson 12


Def_Driver Bass guitar 10 | Eminence 10 Qts=0.23, 3mm xmax, fs=52.22, 97.7dB
SD=366.1cm2
fs=52.22Hz
Mms=25.6g
Qms=2.94
Qes=0.230
Re=4.33ohm
BL=11.99Tm
Le=0.74mH

Here you go Freddi - 0.67x scale K15 has less extension but is punchier and flatter response.

0.67x Scale K15:

616938d1495125875-speaker-kicks-butt-large-spaces-k15-0.67x-bass10-fr-2.83v.png


0.83x Scale Karlsonator:

616939d1495125875-speaker-kicks-butt-large-spaces-k7a-bass10-fr-2.83v.png
 

Attachments

  • K15-0.67x-Bass10-FR-2.83v.png
    K15-0.67x-Bass10-FR-2.83v.png
    13.5 KB · Views: 355
  • K7A-Bass10-FR-2.83v.png
    K7A-Bass10-FR-2.83v.png
    13.8 KB · Views: 365
FANTASTIC ! Many Thanks - that Karlsonator alignment has great bass extension- -Look at that same driver in the 0.7X Classic - If the rear chamber were only 6 liters as
in the sim below, predicted xmax would only hit 4.2mm at 28.3v below the passband and about 3mm at 100Hz.

15mm BB can be flexy but this thing is pretty well braced

B7SsGMT.jpg
 
Last edited:
I don't have "money" - rather - re-appropriate clothes money, etc. on K's :p

TheJessMan can saw pretty good - the corners on my 0.62 scale K15 "K10" have flawless lock-miter joints. Unfortunately, the cutouts are only large enough for Eminence's stamped frame woofers, so leaves out my Eminence B102, Beyma 10G200, and P-Audio cast basket 10s


I don't have mobility to get formcore - I can see where it might be better than plywood for small builds as its lossy and doesn't seem to trap the mids so much which could cause high Q resonances (does that make sense ???)

5/8" Baltic birch is pretty good as long as there is a lot of bracing. The back panel and wings of this
little K could stand some bracing. An 8 cubic bulk horn was made mostly of 5/8" BB and is pretty rigid.

vnHnxao.jpg
Ax8lAFK.jpg
 
Last edited:
WOW. thats a beauty. if you don't want to mar the finish on that by using foamcore and a hot glue gun i totally get you. must be nice to have enough money to get all those speaker drives. but not all you mentioned in earlier post model as well as the guitar 10 data you gave so i thought you might like to tweak it a bit to see how it goes. i am really glad X introduced his models and showed how he does foamcore. there is a joy to experimenting as well. thank you X
 
There are 3 chambers in the 0.62 K. Rear chamber 48.2 lit top chamber 24.6lit and front chamber 39.5lit. reduce top chamber from 24.6 to 15.6 lit. for the ports between rear and top chamber use 2 pieces of 2inch pvc pipe 3cm long. for the port between top chamber and front chamber use a 2inch pvc pipe 3 cm long. Good luck and good hunting
 
That K10's external dimensions are 14"W x20.5"H x 11.4" deep for a total external bulk of ~1.85 cubic feet or ~52.3 liters.. I think K15's external bulk is about 7.3 cubic feet X 0.62^3 ~1.74 cubic feet - so reasonably close to "0.62" scale.

Figure out what re-tuning, etc to try with this volume and I might be able to do
something. There's really not much back volume total for a 10 inch speaker so I think it would run best with low Q PA type.


K15 by Carl's estimation

vf = 2.3 cu ft ~18.2 liter front chamber for this K10
vb = 4.0 cu ft ~28.3 liter total rear chamber for this K10 (before driver displacement)
sb = 32 sq. inches (1956 spec - original port was 40sq.in.)
sf = 222 sq inches ( aperture area - is that about right for K15?)

I could black part of this 0.62X cabinet's port with Beta 10cx and there little change on a graph - but
subjectively it sounded "neutered"
 
Last edited:
- guess Vb rear total (bottom plus top chamber) going by scale is more like 27 liters before driver displacement. I my try to mount my Nirvana Super 10 stamped frame and Celestion TF1020. It did fairly well with FE206EN Someone with a good - flexible test-K might be able to optimized things pretty fast. It could have variable rear chamber volume, a hinged speaker baffle to experiment with tilt, pieces to experiment with chamber shape and reflector type, removable port panel for experiments, adjustable rear shelf/lowpass gap.
 
wow Freddi. huge communication gap. your actual dimensions 0.6*0.6*0.57=0.205 volume. can you please get me or give me link for actual bass 10in driver because now actual volume of driver cone and magnet is significant portion of rear chamber. also not many drivers model well in X's models. This particular driver models a bit like TC9FD with drooping high freq output. most of others you listed had no high freq out in X's model. Thank you for your trouble/effort