Wife as first customer of hubby's designed DIY speaker, priceless... for everything else there's (insert your preferred choice of payment method)
Took me 2 years to get to this - the cheap XO's were sitting on top of the XPS foam cabinets. Now premium quality components on XO (polycaps, air core, non inductive resistors), mounted inside cabinet. It makes for a much nicer looking and sounding speaker. It's hard for someone like me, who used to make a new speaker every week or two, to commit to a real wooden cabinet and permanently attached XO. Glad I did it though. So, lesson for me is if a speaker lasts over 6 months in listening position as main speaker - get some real cabinets for it and move on.
That's a good rule, X!
Wife as first customer of hubby's designed DIY speaker, priceless... for everything else there's (insert your preferred choice of payment method)
Agreed! That's quite a testament.
...great lab view and eye candy thanks sharing.... I know that a spring cleaning is due soon.
Who will do that cleaning
first speaker customer or yourself.
Similar experience here, I am finishing the setup in our new house. My main speakers in living room are this FAST with modified dimensions as bigger vented MDF enclosures built to fit precisely into wall-to-wall Ikea bookcase (thanks, xrk971, for your kind support!!!), quality components original XO and four-sided dagger vented on far end (ca 1/10 opening), volume complying RS-225 datasheet for vented box. Looks extremely tidy in the bookcase and the sound is a dream! My wife is really hard to impress but she is listening much louder now as she used before ;-)! Brothers in Arms, Soldiers of Fortune...and best of all for her - no speaker cable chaos visible
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The enclosure is around 39 liters (without dagger) with a 2.5in port 7.75in long. Calculated F3 is around 32hz.Thanks for the feedback and glad your wife likes them too. What volume did you end up with and vent size? Must make some pretty deep bass as a BR then. Any photos?
I wanted this to be the final speaker in our living room and did not want to live next years with a feeling I could do better ;-), so went for premium components (10F/8424, Mundorf caps, cemented resistors, good coils on PCB, nice binding posts). The enclosure is built flush with the bookcase and reinforced internally with two double crosses on both sides of the RS225. 0.75in sound dampening sheets are applied everywhere (was quite a challenging surgery to glue them behind the dagger ;-), stuffed afterward according your recommendations with the "poor man's Sonofil" (famous Ikea STAN pillow filling). Powered with ICEPower 125ASX2 amp. Sorry, I was too eager to hear them to take photos on the way ;-), just final result.
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Very nice work MBA! That huge port must put out some bass! No baffle step either! You might want reduce padding resistor in xo if you think vocals and HF are not enough. I had to attenuate the 10F by -5dB to balance with baffle step loss. I would say this speaker is close to a true 87dB sensitive since wall mounted.
I am perfectly satisfied with the vocals. The amp has enough power reserve and even when I tried to play really loud (would never listen that loud normally and checked if no neighbors were nearby , the house was vibrating but the sound was absolutely clean. Now I can hear how some CDs are poorly mixed and I am becoming more finicky about the music source. So time has come for a new music server!
, the house was vibrating but the sound was absolutely clean. Now I can hear how some CDs are poorly mixed and I am becoming more finicky about the music source. So time has come for a new music server!
diy is fun hobby and we can do whatever we like, but conclusions as above makes me raise a eyebrow and inform you that lope for a 1st order filter sum perfect as linear phase within the systems pass-band, but that only happens in electric domain or in acoustic domain by using a coxial driver, in acoustic domain as soon as there is spacing between summing bands you get a mess of strange looking tilted lopes and or multiple lopes, can 100% tell that transient perfect great looking triangle xrk971 show is only present exactly at design axis and moving microphone a little bit will show radical changes especial because design is two normal open point sources without any guides to control and form a specific controlled dispersion pattern, also changing that microphone position just a little bit will immediately reveal metal woofers breakup nasty's because in passive circuit no one here has taking care of it probably because of complexity and costs.
Don't say all this to bash this design but only to help we base conclusions on as much facts as possible so builders can learn about compromises and what they actual listen to before conclude CDs are poorly mixed, well in that xrk971 named it a Ref Monitor probably don't help here either but he had it up running with other XO schemes down the road that probably leaned up better at distances as a reference monitor but my guess is running it with 1st order passive you need to listen it near field exactly at design axis to claim it a reference.
A visual overview is below how 1st order behave when distance between summing bands are exactly 1/4 wave, first attachment should show tweeter vertical above woofer so flip it around if actual speaker is turned upside down and for your case its only a 90º flip, second attachment show a different even order XO slope scheme and other spacing that will bring such two open point sources without guides to sum almost perfect vertical acoustic dispersion.
Lately heard a story about one audio guru that as soon he noticed speaker system was a 1st order XO system he immediately responded okay then we have to sit on the floor
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It's a good thing my head height doesn't change when I sit or stand to listen to the music as you notice that the nominal design axis height, it is 0dB for all frequencies. Actually, in use, there is really no noticeable polar lobing effects when moving about the room - the sound is smooth and no real problems with these effects - which are all well-known limitations of conventional non-coaxial speaker designs. If there were, they would have bothered me and I would not still have these speakers as my main ones now for over 2 years.
Although for a lateral placement like MBA shows, there may be more noticeable difference with lateral room position.
Actually, in use, there is really no noticeable polar lobing effects when moving about the room - the sound is smooth and no real problems with these effects - which are all well-known limitations of conventional non-coaxial speaker designs. If there were, they would have bothered me and I would not still have these speakers as my main ones now for over 2 years.Although for a lateral placement like MBA shows, there may be more noticeable difference with lateral room position.
Funny how that works, huh?
Good gear really makes a difference, it's a blessing and a curse. On one hand, good quality recordings sound absolutely amazing, and music becomes so much more "real" feeling, and engaging... On the other hand, poor material is almost unlistenable at times, necessitating tracking down lossless material, better software, and maybe even a new DAC to spit it out correctly. It can easily spiral out of control and become a whole new ordeal.
Man do I miss the days when I didn't have standards
Same happens with amps. I used to listen to TPA3116 Class D for years. Happy as a clam. Then I start making Class AB and Class A amps, and improve on Class A amps, and then the source becomes important, the speaker wiring is important (I measured this myself - otherwise would not have believed it), but I compare two 25w amps side by side. My trustworthy SMSL 36A pro vs my new ALPHA 20. Absolutely night and day, the detail, the soundstage, the bass authority - all so much better on the good Class A amp (one with very low global feedback, and ideal harmonic profile distortion).
Well, with worse speakers I liked most of my CDs which is not the case anymore now. Maybe they are rather poorly produced as mixed, I do not know. And some of the CDs I cannot listen to anymore as they lack dynamic, some are noisy etc...
I just listen with my (normal, untrained) ears, do not evaluate with rocket science.
Spring cleaning has started... I got some nice stands for my speakers - should have gotten long ago. Nice solid aluminum base plates and extruded aluminum column with spikes or rubber feet. Very solid. The higher placement of the speakers is quite nice.
Just a CD player, the ALPHA 20 amp, the Aksa Lender preamp for volume control, and an APA-150 Class AB amp for the subwoofer when needed.
Just a CD player, the ALPHA 20 amp, the Aksa Lender preamp for volume control, and an APA-150 Class AB amp for the subwoofer when needed.
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