I have finished the second take on my speakers this week. Drivers are all SB-Acoustics Satori. Two WO24P-8 9,5" woofers, MR16P-4 6,5" midrange and TW29DN-B soft dome tweeter. These are the absolute best drivers on the market of their size and type. Better than any Scan-Speak in pretty much every way.
It's an active system with digital crossovers and DSP with the Hypex FA123. These are some very high tech amplifiers their tech is often used in in very high end products.
Internal cabling is Sharkwire Musical Love. Completely isolated and damped pure silver wire! The absolute best.
I designed the cabinets myself from scratch. They took some some aesthetic inspiration from the Marten Tenor speakers. Further they are heavily braced and constructed from very high density 25 mm MDF. The top of the speakers is rectangular to make the baffle very slim around the midrange and tweeter and the baffle has chamfered edges for enhanced stereo imaging and reduced diffraction. The slanted sides also minimize standing waves in the midrange chamber. The rear wall of the midrange chamber is also slanted so there are absolutely no standing waves in the midrange chamber. The bass is really what it's all about. It's internal volume is 71 L which I found to be the optimal for these woofers. The woofers are mounted on the sides (in opposite directions) like on the KEF blade. The beauty of this is that the woofers cancel out each others movement. This way there is no resulting force acting on the cabinet in any direction. Heavily bracing the enclosure from side to side results in a very silent cabinet. The bass cabinets have a trick up their sleeves on the inside as well. There are baffles going going from the woofers to the walls in 45° increments. These split the bass enclosure up in multiple Chambers with no parallel walls. This results in very a complete lack of resonances and results in very well controlled bass. And because of the diverging shape of the baffles the prevent compression and enhance dynamics. Because the baffles are placed from side to side around the woofers they also make the enclosure extremely stiff from side to side so the woofers also can't shake the side walls. The midrange chamber and larger walls of the bass cabinet are lined with butyl damping to further prevent vibrations.
Crossover points are at 250 Hz and 2,5 kHz. I time aligned the drivers on the mm perfect in the DSP for perfect timing. I first measured the frequency response at 1 m in the middle of the room "anechoicly" and enhanced the frequency response. I then placed the speakers and measured the frequency response at the listening position and enhanced it.
I don't have pictures of the measurements but the great thing was that frequency response was exceptionally flat to begin with and optimisation to a linear response was very easy. Believe it or not but I got the response flat within 1 dB, with a intended 2 dB lowering from 4 kHz and above to take away some presence for a more natural tone. Picture of the measurments will follow tomorrow.
The result
I am a good friend with the people and owner of ultra high end audio store Listening Matters in The Hague. They sponsored my project and were very curious to the result. They let me put my speakers in their dedicated listening room and hook it up to a Grimm MU-1 (best audio streamer in the world) and €5K Furutech powercords and interconnect. After optimising the DSP and positioning of the speakers we went to listen.
Even though the great effort their and my own expectations were quite mild. Though we were all pleasantly surprised. Or rather shocked. The sound is just stunning. Bass is deep and just so well controlled and tight, yet powerful on demand. The mids natural and full and the highs are so good. Natural and just nothing to criticise. The entirety is just so tight and detailed. The soundstage is large with great imaging. Ben van Lelieveld, the owner of Listening Matters and part owner of high fidelity recording studio trptk l, who at the moment make some of the highest resolution and most lifelike recordings in the world, has been in the high end audio business for a long time and has heard the best of the best. And he doesn't just sell the expensive stuff. He truly has a lot of knowledge about how to achieve truly phenominal sound.
Even he was stunned by the result. He says he heard qualities in these speakers which he rarely hears, even in top of the line systems.
I myself was shocked by the systems performance. I had never expected it to sound this good. I often go to listen to some great systems at Listening Matters. Systems based on Wilson Audio, Kroma Audio and lately Dynaudio Confidence speakers with top of the line electronics. And my system is right up there with them. It fits right in between them.
I can conclude this project has worked out very well.
It's an active system with digital crossovers and DSP with the Hypex FA123. These are some very high tech amplifiers their tech is often used in in very high end products.
Internal cabling is Sharkwire Musical Love. Completely isolated and damped pure silver wire! The absolute best.
I designed the cabinets myself from scratch. They took some some aesthetic inspiration from the Marten Tenor speakers. Further they are heavily braced and constructed from very high density 25 mm MDF. The top of the speakers is rectangular to make the baffle very slim around the midrange and tweeter and the baffle has chamfered edges for enhanced stereo imaging and reduced diffraction. The slanted sides also minimize standing waves in the midrange chamber. The rear wall of the midrange chamber is also slanted so there are absolutely no standing waves in the midrange chamber. The bass is really what it's all about. It's internal volume is 71 L which I found to be the optimal for these woofers. The woofers are mounted on the sides (in opposite directions) like on the KEF blade. The beauty of this is that the woofers cancel out each others movement. This way there is no resulting force acting on the cabinet in any direction. Heavily bracing the enclosure from side to side results in a very silent cabinet. The bass cabinets have a trick up their sleeves on the inside as well. There are baffles going going from the woofers to the walls in 45° increments. These split the bass enclosure up in multiple Chambers with no parallel walls. This results in very a complete lack of resonances and results in very well controlled bass. And because of the diverging shape of the baffles the prevent compression and enhance dynamics. Because the baffles are placed from side to side around the woofers they also make the enclosure extremely stiff from side to side so the woofers also can't shake the side walls. The midrange chamber and larger walls of the bass cabinet are lined with butyl damping to further prevent vibrations.
Crossover points are at 250 Hz and 2,5 kHz. I time aligned the drivers on the mm perfect in the DSP for perfect timing. I first measured the frequency response at 1 m in the middle of the room "anechoicly" and enhanced the frequency response. I then placed the speakers and measured the frequency response at the listening position and enhanced it.
I don't have pictures of the measurements but the great thing was that frequency response was exceptionally flat to begin with and optimisation to a linear response was very easy. Believe it or not but I got the response flat within 1 dB, with a intended 2 dB lowering from 4 kHz and above to take away some presence for a more natural tone. Picture of the measurments will follow tomorrow.
The result
I am a good friend with the people and owner of ultra high end audio store Listening Matters in The Hague. They sponsored my project and were very curious to the result. They let me put my speakers in their dedicated listening room and hook it up to a Grimm MU-1 (best audio streamer in the world) and €5K Furutech powercords and interconnect. After optimising the DSP and positioning of the speakers we went to listen.
Even though the great effort their and my own expectations were quite mild. Though we were all pleasantly surprised. Or rather shocked. The sound is just stunning. Bass is deep and just so well controlled and tight, yet powerful on demand. The mids natural and full and the highs are so good. Natural and just nothing to criticise. The entirety is just so tight and detailed. The soundstage is large with great imaging. Ben van Lelieveld, the owner of Listening Matters and part owner of high fidelity recording studio trptk l, who at the moment make some of the highest resolution and most lifelike recordings in the world, has been in the high end audio business for a long time and has heard the best of the best. And he doesn't just sell the expensive stuff. He truly has a lot of knowledge about how to achieve truly phenominal sound.
Even he was stunned by the result. He says he heard qualities in these speakers which he rarely hears, even in top of the line systems.
I myself was shocked by the systems performance. I had never expected it to sound this good. I often go to listen to some great systems at Listening Matters. Systems based on Wilson Audio, Kroma Audio and lately Dynaudio Confidence speakers with top of the line electronics. And my system is right up there with them. It fits right in between them.
I can conclude this project has worked out very well.
Attachments
3wayaddict- this build looks fantastic! Please give us some more details. What volume for the woofers, what is their native response prior to dsp? What was the raw sensitivity of the woofers and the mid in the cabinet? I'm planning to build something similar, but only active between woofer and mid.
thanks for any info you can provide.
thanks for any info you can provide.
Dynaudio-Focal Auditor compact desktop loudspeaker
This is what I have gotten to build during this winter/spring time and it really needed to be done because the desktop area wasn't large enough to hold the former enclosures these midwoofers were in, and I got the chance to finish these in better looking beech veneer. Drive units are of automotive descent, Dynaudio mw160gt and Focal Auditor dome tweeter. Cabinet is made of 12mm particle board with double the thickness for the baffle. Crossover is an assymetrical one with 2nd order electrical for midwoofer and 3rd order electrical for tweeter and a single padding resistor.
general specs
enclosure: sealed 6.8 litres
sensitivity:86 dB/2.83V/1m
impedance: 4 ohm bass region, midrange/hf 6 ohm
freq.range: 60Hz(-10dB)-20kHz(0db)
xo point: about 2.5kHz
This is what I have gotten to build during this winter/spring time and it really needed to be done because the desktop area wasn't large enough to hold the former enclosures these midwoofers were in, and I got the chance to finish these in better looking beech veneer. Drive units are of automotive descent, Dynaudio mw160gt and Focal Auditor dome tweeter. Cabinet is made of 12mm particle board with double the thickness for the baffle. Crossover is an assymetrical one with 2nd order electrical for midwoofer and 3rd order electrical for tweeter and a single padding resistor.
general specs
enclosure: sealed 6.8 litres
sensitivity:86 dB/2.83V/1m
impedance: 4 ohm bass region, midrange/hf 6 ohm
freq.range: 60Hz(-10dB)-20kHz(0db)
xo point: about 2.5kHz
Attachments
I needed some sound in my basement workshop. I had an old pair of Vifa aluminum dome tweeters I wanted to re-use. I bought a pair of SB17MFC35-8 6.5 inch poly cone drivers. The box is 12 liter sealed.
Detailed thread Request Peer review of crossover
With some thoughtful advice from some of the forum members, I came up with a good crossover.
The results sound really good, considering I put about $200 into them.
Detailed thread Request Peer review of crossover
With some thoughtful advice from some of the forum members, I came up with a good crossover.
The results sound really good, considering I put about $200 into them.
Attachments
Here's a smallish MEH based on the b52 phrn 1014 horn.
Drivers are hf108r tf0410mr and 2x 8fg51
Measurements are taken at 15 degree increments, my work area is pretty small, so I can really only get out to about 45 degrees before I can't avoid wall reflections. First set of polars are unsmoothed with a 5ms pre/post gate in REW. Second set have a couple of PEQs to correct the 400-550hz region and are ERB smoothed.
XO is fir based using an analog devices devboard and a bunch of 7498 amp boards. I have a aurora dsp and some 3e audio amps in the mail to update when they get here.
Drivers are hf108r tf0410mr and 2x 8fg51
Measurements are taken at 15 degree increments, my work area is pretty small, so I can really only get out to about 45 degrees before I can't avoid wall reflections. First set of polars are unsmoothed with a 5ms pre/post gate in REW. Second set have a couple of PEQs to correct the 400-550hz region and are ERB smoothed.
XO is fir based using an analog devices devboard and a bunch of 7498 amp boards. I have a aurora dsp and some 3e audio amps in the mail to update when they get here.
Attachments
Last edited:
SBA-761
These are my Troels Gravesen designed SBA-761 speakers. Parts and assembled crossover came from Madisound. 18mm Baltic Birch cabinets were built by me in the garage. These sound phenomenal! Now I’m building an F6 to go with them.
These are my Troels Gravesen designed SBA-761 speakers. Parts and assembled crossover came from Madisound. 18mm Baltic Birch cabinets were built by me in the garage. These sound phenomenal! Now I’m building an F6 to go with them.
Attachments
Back to backless
I've been enjoying some original Satellite 1B speakers, bought recently.
Getting set to recap the around 40 year olds, so this pushed me into finishing up a mostly Scanspeak project, open backed with wings.
First order, it's a bit more work to get things sounding just right, but worth it to me.
Sloppy wiring, still needs tweaking anyways, by ear.
I've been enjoying some original Satellite 1B speakers, bought recently.
Getting set to recap the around 40 year olds, so this pushed me into finishing up a mostly Scanspeak project, open backed with wings.
First order, it's a bit more work to get things sounding just right, but worth it to me.
Sloppy wiring, still needs tweaking anyways, by ear.
Attachments
Hi everyone,
here is a 3 way system in transmission line. Wavecor WF15 woofer, Faital 3FE25 midrange, Hivi ribbon tweeter. 1.4khz and 8khz cut-off frequency (12db / 12db / 18db / 18db). I'm starting a series of measurements and adjusting the xover so it should look better.
For now the sound is excellent.
here is a 3 way system in transmission line. Wavecor WF15 woofer, Faital 3FE25 midrange, Hivi ribbon tweeter. 1.4khz and 8khz cut-off frequency (12db / 12db / 18db / 18db). I'm starting a series of measurements and adjusting the xover so it should look better.
For now the sound is excellent.
Attachments
Last edited: