2: The Peerless – Vifa TC9 combo
The excellent Peerless SLS 830669 - 12" Woofer was retained as the heart of the Manzanita speaker. The Seas tweeter was replaced with the very good Vifa TC9FD18-08, 3.5" full range doing upper mid/tweeter duties. Many drivers were tried; the Vifa 3.5" is a winner for sound quality, cost and integration with the design.
On the same baffle we now have the Peerless 12” woofer and the Vifa/Peerless full-range. The TC9FD mates well with the 12” woofer and has all the midrange needed. The low pass portion of the crossover remains unchanged with a 20mH inductor as the only element. The high pass section is modified to suit the full range driver, with attenuation, high pass with a frequency shaping trap. The integration between drivers is now better than ever.
It is suggested to buy a small range of resistors to tune the tweeter attenuation and trap sections to your room.
Tweeter position should be mirrored left and right.
The excellent Peerless SLS 830669 - 12" Woofer was retained as the heart of the Manzanita speaker. The Seas tweeter was replaced with the very good Vifa TC9FD18-08, 3.5" full range doing upper mid/tweeter duties. Many drivers were tried; the Vifa 3.5" is a winner for sound quality, cost and integration with the design.
On the same baffle we now have the Peerless 12” woofer and the Vifa/Peerless full-range. The TC9FD mates well with the 12” woofer and has all the midrange needed. The low pass portion of the crossover remains unchanged with a 20mH inductor as the only element. The high pass section is modified to suit the full range driver, with attenuation, high pass with a frequency shaping trap. The integration between drivers is now better than ever.
It is suggested to buy a small range of resistors to tune the tweeter attenuation and trap sections to your room.
Tweeter position should be mirrored left and right.
Attachments
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3: The GFS 15 and the addition of the Ultra
The ever-rising cost of the Peerless 830669 woofer led to a search for an affordable woofer that worked well in the design and not hurt the wallet. The desire of many for a floor standing baffle also drove the choice of a new woofer. Enter the Parts Express GRS-15PF-8 15" woofer and a larger baffle. The GRS 15 is a suitable mate for the Manzanita project with its high Qts, low price and surprisingly good sound quality. Working with the TC9FD as a mid-tweeter, we are back to an excellent and affordable duo.
Baffle dimensions for the Manzanita utilizing the GRS woofer increased to 17” W x 29” H to accommodate the larger woofer frame. See baffle drawing and crossover in the post above.
The floor standing version of the Manzanita, dubbed “Ultra” uses a much larger baffle with the dimensions growing to 25.5” W x 48” H with full length 5.5” deep wings . The larger baffle increases the operating efficiency by around 3 db and extends usable bass response into the upper 20’s.
The low pass crossover remains the same, 20mH iron core inductor, the high pass retains the same number of parts while being adjusted slightly to suit the new woofer and baffle size. See the schematic. As always, we suggest buying a small range of resistors to fine tune the tweeter response to your room and your ears. 7, 8 and 9 ohms for the high pass pad, 10, 15, 20 and 25 ohm for the trap resistor. An optional trap can be added to the woofer, consisting of 15uF in parallel with 0.4 mH.
Going forward.
What’s in store for the next ten years? That’s hard to predict, but coming up soon there will be some baffle and side wing tweaks that will help extend the bottom end response a little, as well as improving overall efficiency. Stay tuned!
The ever-rising cost of the Peerless 830669 woofer led to a search for an affordable woofer that worked well in the design and not hurt the wallet. The desire of many for a floor standing baffle also drove the choice of a new woofer. Enter the Parts Express GRS-15PF-8 15" woofer and a larger baffle. The GRS 15 is a suitable mate for the Manzanita project with its high Qts, low price and surprisingly good sound quality. Working with the TC9FD as a mid-tweeter, we are back to an excellent and affordable duo.
Baffle dimensions for the Manzanita utilizing the GRS woofer increased to 17” W x 29” H to accommodate the larger woofer frame. See baffle drawing and crossover in the post above.
The floor standing version of the Manzanita, dubbed “Ultra” uses a much larger baffle with the dimensions growing to 25.5” W x 48” H with full length 5.5” deep wings . The larger baffle increases the operating efficiency by around 3 db and extends usable bass response into the upper 20’s.
The low pass crossover remains the same, 20mH iron core inductor, the high pass retains the same number of parts while being adjusted slightly to suit the new woofer and baffle size. See the schematic. As always, we suggest buying a small range of resistors to fine tune the tweeter response to your room and your ears. 7, 8 and 9 ohms for the high pass pad, 10, 15, 20 and 25 ohm for the trap resistor. An optional trap can be added to the woofer, consisting of 15uF in parallel with 0.4 mH.
Going forward.
What’s in store for the next ten years? That’s hard to predict, but coming up soon there will be some baffle and side wing tweaks that will help extend the bottom end response a little, as well as improving overall efficiency. Stay tuned!
Attachments
Isn't there a typo re the resistors when compared to the schematic? Or is there a typo in the schematic?
I see schematics for the Vifa/Peerless combo and the Manzanita Ultra with Vifa and GRS. The description suggests that the Vifa and GRS on standard baffle (not Ultra / floorstander ) do not use either of the two versions shown - there is a baffle drawing, but no schematic. Can you post that version as well?
Thanks
Rob
Thanks
Rob
GRS - Vifa TC9FD crossover values
RCO3.... need to check my notes... know I have them... just need to locate them.
Sorry if it does not appear to be in previous threads.... for some reason I thought it was.. After 10 years there's been too many different projects to remember.
It may take me a couple of days. My memory tells me 8 ohm pad and 15 ohm on the high pass parallel trap. We shall verify. John
RCO3.... need to check my notes... know I have them... just need to locate them.
Sorry if it does not appear to be in previous threads.... for some reason I thought it was.. After 10 years there's been too many different projects to remember.
It may take me a couple of days. My memory tells me 8 ohm pad and 15 ohm on the high pass parallel trap. We shall verify. John
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I've been looking around and can't seem to locate a parts list for the crossover for this TC9FD version of the Manzanita and the attached schematic in this post? Can someone point me to it if it is in a post somewhere? Or correct me if I'm wrong, this is what I've figured out so far:
L1 low pass portion as PE #266-960
L2 as PE #257-328
C1 as PE #027-236
R1 as PE #005-8
R2 as PE # 005-4.5
Am I on the right track here?
Well, they are up and running.... they sound fantastic with one... ONE caveat... they just don't seem to have much attack, I hear everything but unless I really crank them up, I don't feel much. Is there anything I can do? Maybe placement? I'm a bit limited as I have a fireplace in the middle of the house and the speakers are in *the hallway* so to speak,
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
I finally got the pair of my Manzanita-inspired "active Charlita" speakers up and running and made some final adjustments to the crossover. I will be bringing these to Burning Amp (NOV 12th in San Francisco) along with a multi-pattern subwoofer that changes its response pattern from monopole to cardioid to dipole between 20Hz and 200Hz. A Linux based DSP crossover system does the audio processing, with audio I/O via a pro-audio 8-ch ADC + 8-ch DAC unit.
Here is a pic of the trio:
Here is a pic of the trio:
Thanks!
Yes, those are the parts. Also available at Madisound.
I'd hesitate to use the 14 AWG inductor for L2, I used an 18 gauge. I don't see the need for the 14 gauge inductor here, but maybe John has some trick up his sleeve. We'll ask him. I know he's fond of big inductors.
In general, Open Baffle doesn't have the impact that box speakers do, unless you get to very large baffles and woofer surface area. It's a different sound. But playing around with the distance to the wall can make a difference in how much mid-bass you hear. If you can, within the limitations of your room, try different distances to the wall behind.
Cool! Have fun at B.A. - wish I could go. We expect a report.