Ok, here's my point of view on the whole plywood thing...
I finished building a replica of the plywood one with blue Dow foam boards. It's more rigid and thicker than Gatorboard, but still gives away a lot more than 15mm plywood.
I think I've narrowed down the boomy. boxy feeling of the plywood miniK 0.4x.
There is a LOT of energy in the 200-300Hz range. It comes out strong and too punchy. Sound is unbalanced and like I said, boomy and boxy.
Some of that energy is lost with the foam build. It is not as boomy or punchy as the plywood, so it feels more balanced. Vocals are also more natural.
And there is, I believe, the strength of the miniK... the amazingly balanced midrange of the TC9 comes out wonderfully, and voices are so nice. I understand why people get floored by this little speaker and design. Listening to a nice voice and good music behind is indeed very nice.
I would like to try a few things to improve the plywood miniK.
- Add more polyfill around the driver and the start of the line to see if it can tame some of that 200-300 energy.
- build another one, using 5mm plywood instead? Maybe some of the energy will also dissipate using thin plywood..
- ask X to change the miniK's tuning. I think that huge plateau that starts at 150, and gets too much energy at 200-300 could be tamed down by lowering the tuning. Lowering the tuning should flatten the low end of this speaker and spread the energy down the scale. It's just a supposition, and X would have to model it to see if it would help or not.
So, that's it for now...
Will come back later with some feedback on the stuffing changes in the plywood miniK.
I finished building a replica of the plywood one with blue Dow foam boards. It's more rigid and thicker than Gatorboard, but still gives away a lot more than 15mm plywood.
I think I've narrowed down the boomy. boxy feeling of the plywood miniK 0.4x.
There is a LOT of energy in the 200-300Hz range. It comes out strong and too punchy. Sound is unbalanced and like I said, boomy and boxy.
Some of that energy is lost with the foam build. It is not as boomy or punchy as the plywood, so it feels more balanced. Vocals are also more natural.
And there is, I believe, the strength of the miniK... the amazingly balanced midrange of the TC9 comes out wonderfully, and voices are so nice. I understand why people get floored by this little speaker and design. Listening to a nice voice and good music behind is indeed very nice.
I would like to try a few things to improve the plywood miniK.
- Add more polyfill around the driver and the start of the line to see if it can tame some of that 200-300 energy.
- build another one, using 5mm plywood instead? Maybe some of the energy will also dissipate using thin plywood..
- ask X to change the miniK's tuning. I think that huge plateau that starts at 150, and gets too much energy at 200-300 could be tamed down by lowering the tuning. Lowering the tuning should flatten the low end of this speaker and spread the energy down the scale. It's just a supposition, and X would have to model it to see if it would help or not.
So, that's it for now...
Will come back later with some feedback on the stuffing changes in the plywood miniK.
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perceval- once again, I think ur dimensions are incorrect. I am not sure what plan you are referring to when you said the width interior is 165mm. On the ones I've built it is 6 inches according to the plan, or 152mm. I superimposed mine next to yours with a close scale. Not only is the box shape different, the aperture is too. I found the lower midrange too high on mine as well. I was able to tame it by putting on an extra layer on the front and felt on the back of the aperture and weighting the whole thing down with a tile on top.
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First, what you are seeing is optical aberration from my cheap cellphone camera. The outsides of the picture are blown up. That's why it looks like that. Wider than it is in reality. Easy to spot if you look at the iPad Air behind... it is the 10" model.
The inner dimensions follow this post precisely:
drawing fo 0.4x
It does say to make the cabinet 165mm wide internally. I don't see anywhere it's mentioned 152mm...
I have felt on the back of the aperture on plywood model.
Glad to see that you thought the lower mid range was too pronounced and you were able to fix it.
The inner dimensions follow this post precisely:
drawing fo 0.4x
It does say to make the cabinet 165mm wide internally. I don't see anywhere it's mentioned 152mm...
I have felt on the back of the aperture on plywood model.
Glad to see that you thought the lower mid range was too pronounced and you were able to fix it.
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I just took a ruler to my actual 0.40x Karlsonator (the original one that started it all ). It measures 150mm internal width. That would result in a 10% volume increase and may explain the boominess.
Sorry I never caught the error in Blaide's plan. The mudjester one is probably better.
Sorry I never caught the error in Blaide's plan. The mudjester one is probably better.
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An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Built a pair of 0.53x with Dayton Audio PA-130's. Been running them for a while now. They sound nice, especially on vocals and acoustic guitars. Simple build using 12mm / 0.5 inch birch plywood. If someone is wondering, what the full-range sound is all about should most definitely try a pair of these.
And yes I have a pair of 12 inch Infinity subs in sealed boxes run by Behringer iNuke NU1000 DSP, which makes the sound even better.
EDIT: If the images won't open, try opening them on a new tab. Seems like google drive does not like to work perfectly with this forum. Or I have some problems with my internet skills.
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I'm on board to try a pair of these in wood. There's a lot of pages in this thread! I bought 4 of the TC9FD18-08 for another project, and then a friend of mine who owns a car/marine audio business saw what I was doing and he had 4 more that never made it into a customer project he was working on so he just gave them to me. So now, I have a small pile of these tiny drivers. He also gave me some wire and some wool/felt looking damping material scraps he had, like a little speaker building care pkg of sorts.
This is an intriguing looking design.
Is it required to read this entire thread, or could someone link me to the most pertinent links that I could use as a starting point, in the event there has been any changes made over time?
This is an intriguing looking design.
Is it required to read this entire thread, or could someone link me to the most pertinent links that I could use as a starting point, in the event there has been any changes made over time?
Here are some posts I noted when reading through the thread. Hope it helps:
Post 1: Plans
Post 32: Build Log No.1 - Glue Internal Dividers & Baffle
Post 33: Build Log No.2 - Glue Exterior Walls and Bracing
Post 54: Build Log No.2 (should be 3) - Stuffing & Glue Final Side Panel
Post 59: Build Log No.4 - Mounting Wing Panel & Completion
Post 141 – Kslot curve
Post 144 – Polyfill stuffing
Post 500 – First wooden build
Post 808 – Another wood build
In the quest for low-effort low frequency support, I remembered that I had a couple nothing-special 12" woofers that I parted out of some junk Technics speakers someone gave to me years ago. I also remembered that I had a couple 5 mH coils from a fullrange-plus-bass 2-way experiment I tried, also years ago.
So, slapped a woofer and coil up next to the mini Karlsonator and voi la! A little extra low end to help in the kitchen.
And it is barely visible behind the picture I have next to the mini-K (see my older post).
I think it helps just enough playing free-air on top of the kitchen cabinets. I couldn't find the second coil, so I'm just playing one for now.
So, slapped a woofer and coil up next to the mini Karlsonator and voi la! A little extra low end to help in the kitchen.
And it is barely visible behind the picture I have next to the mini-K (see my older post).
I think it helps just enough playing free-air on top of the kitchen cabinets. I couldn't find the second coil, so I'm just playing one for now.
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