Debating a LineArray

[kgveteran]

Hello, im debating, building a line array. I would like to try a design that has been built and tweaked. I mostly listen to folky male artist Ray LaMontaign, type music.
My room is a dedicated hometheater that sounds great, but i would like more. Im definitely doing two different systems. One audio two channel and my existing 7.1.4 theater.
I like vintage type gear, parasound has some great powerful solid states and theres tons of tube preamps too.
I was looking at the chb-50 build by markaudio just beginning to look around

[Jim Griffin]

Kgveteran,

I saw your posting on the CHR array posting a few days ago. For me the CHR-50 driver is not my favorite for a line array. While the performance of the CHR-50 is likely nice for an individual driver, the large diameter basket would yield a large center-to-center spacing between drivers for a line array made with this driver. As Planet10 suggests it would be nice for a rectangular basket version of the CHR-50 but that is not likely to happen.

An alternative full range driver (and a line array approach) may be my Modified CBT24 project. You can read about my efforts at:

My New Line Array--It's a Modified CBT24

I used a small 2.5 inch cone driver made by SB Acoustics as I explained in my postings for my project. The SB65 is a very nice rectangular frame full range driver which could be employed for a curved array as I did or a straight line array. You can search DIYAudio for a coupe of recent projects that use the SB65 in straight line arrays.

For my project I planned to use dual subwoofers to relieve the small drivers in the tower arrays from any low frequencies. The crossover at 125 Hz between the subs and towers uses the crossover inherent in a home theater receiver (I use a Denon AVR-X3600H in my latest iteration of my system). I use the Audyssey MultEQ XT32 feature in the Denon receiver for room correction which EQ blends the subwoofers and arrays.

As you can read about my project, my listening room is much like yours—large space with a vaulted ceiling. A CBT or a near field straight line array have the ability to mitigate room reflections from the floor and ceiling which enables you to hear excellent in-room sound. Also the ability of a line array or CBT to operate in the near field enables nearly constant sound within the listening room.

Good luck on your project and if you need assistance, please let us know.

Jim

[kgveteran]

Thanx Jim

[Scottmoose]

Just to second Jim's suggestion -if you've got the finances available, his CBT array is going to be one of the best options available, when supported with subs. Alternatively, one of the evergreen TC/TG9 array projects here will no doubt be a good bet. The CHN50 is a nice little driver but it's a larger unit than the SB, and the circular basket, while convenient, does increase the centre-to-centre spacing compared to it, or the TC/TG9. At 103mm it's not likely to be catastrophic (that's roughly the basket diameter of most 1in dome tweeters), but all other things being equal, the closer the better.

[bradleypnw]

Jim's physically curved CBT is most compatible with your amplification/vintage preferences. And if you overcome your vintage thing Jim's CBT will continue to work beautifully with better amplifiers.