My first build and i want to do something near impossible i think ...

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Firstly i would like to say hello to the forum.
I'm Meshach, I have listened to hifi all my life and have decided to maybe start building.

The idea started 2 days ago when I accompanied a friend to buy a set of Spendor D7's. Whilst speaking with the seller i noticed some home built speakers and told they are from a company IPL Acoustics. Returning home with curiosity i have been googling for almost 30 hours over the past days to find out more.

I have been lead to two thing ... Horns and Transmission lines.
Wilmslow Audio make a kit i'm very interested in, the WA: TL15.
Then i started reading here about horns, so tried to find out how to craft such things from wood. This is where i found OMA the 300,000 USD speakers and thought ... can i not copy those ? rather than fashion the conventional flared horn ?

Ultimately the plan being to use the TL15 enclosures for the bass and craft some " cones like the OMA's " and use them for everything else.
Making it a 3 way speaker but using horns for everything but bass.

Am I stupid to think this is viable ? Or even worth doing ???

I currently have as a set up.
2x Cyrus X Power amps used as monoblocks
2x Cyrus PSXR
Audiolab M_Dac
Linn Majik 140 speakers.

For me to upgrade what i have will cost a good few thousand sheckles.
Brand names don't impress me.. Sound does ... If i'm going to spend lots of sheckles to upgrade my hifi, i want the best that can be got, created, bought lol.

What do people suggest ? if i were to say the budget will be 10k GBP.
I will need to make speakers first and then eventually i will try to make some monoblocks. ( also as a sub question, is it possible for me to make some monoblocks that will out perform why i have now ? )

Thank you if you have actually read this post ... and i thank you even more if you reply !!!

Any info/help is very welcome and very precious to me. :D
 
What is it about your current setup that you're unhappy with?

Reading around, it looks like your speaker manufacturer has a DSP box already. Presumably that has the right preset for your speakers. It'd be more channels of amplification, but there are serious benefits to proper multi-amping of speakers - NOT just connecting amps to the passive crossovers inside the speakers.

Chris
 
Thank you for your reply.

There is nothing wrong with my current setup, but i'm intersted to find better !!! :D

I have the option to quad amp each speaker if i wanted, they have 4 posts at the back for quad wiring ( madness as far as im concerned, unless its for some fancy active crossover )

Basically I want more and i want to build it ! ( and i got this new fascination for horns lolo )
 
Thank you for your reply.

There is nothing wrong with my current setup, but i'm intersted to find better !!! :D

I have the option to quad amp each speaker if i wanted, they have 4 posts at the back for quad wiring ( madness as far as im concerned, unless its for some fancy active crossover )

Basically I want more and i want to build it ! ( and i got this new fascination for horns lolo )

Quad amping with an active crossover (and passive crossovers completely bypassed) is a good way to improve sound quality.

However, it sounds like you're looking for something different.
I'd try a Frugel Horn Mk3 with an Alpair 7.3 and see what you think. Not particularly expensive, but it'll be a very different presentation to what you're used to.

Another thing to try would be a full-scale horn loaded system, but that would require lots of amplifier channels, processing, and definitely a measurement setup with someone experienced.

Chris
 
Ok...

Fatmarley.
Post 3 ... Most complicated thing i have read so far this year .... But no leads me to think.
If i genuinly intend on building speakers, firstthing i must understand is how crossovers are made and tuned. Therefore i may aswell buy testing equipment, make some active crossovers and attack my Linn speakers :D
In the future when i come to build my " array lol " the cross overs i build will also be used.
Thank you for the link to the wilmslow thread, i will read all of it in due course.

Lojzek.

They horns / cones on those speakers are exactly what i want to make !!!! Excellent !!!

Thank you all for your replies.

Meshach
 
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
Paid Member
Does anyone know what the inside of the TL15 looks like. I strongly suspect that this is a classic line and not properly modeled.

And i would avoid their flat-paks unless they can make you one out of good plywood. 18mm ply would outperform the 25mm MDF in the standard kit and be a whole lot friendlier to your back.

The Volts are well regarded drivers (i have never seen one), but the smaller Volts we have looked at for TL-loading have not been that well suited.

And with a 15” driver in a proper TL you will need the right room to support it.

My preference is for less XO… i am a big fan of FR drivers and WAWs (Woofer Assited Wide range).

dave
 
And with a 15” driver in a proper TL you will need the right room to support it.

That's often the case but it's not because of the size of the driver, it's because of peaks in the low frequency response. Even a huge 21" driver will sound fine, just as long as the low frequencies are flat in room. I don't know what the Volt models like in that box though...
 
I did have an idea from another thread, A guy tried to make verticaly folded sub using different size tubes, like a meagphone stood on end. He came into resonance problems due to using straight sided pipe of different diameter.
My plan would be to try the same thin but make it from a horn / cone cut into 3 sections.
( i suppose it would look somewhat like an omi directional speaker )

Reason i would do this is to achieve a set of speakers that are purely rear loaded, wooden tapered polygon / horn / cone based. ( i think the term is rear loaded, im still learning .. lol )

What should i call these wooden horn / cone / tapered polygon things ?

meshach
 
Firstly i would like to say hello to the forum.
I'm Meshach, I have listened to hifi all my life and have decided to maybe start building.

The idea started 2 days ago when I accompanied a friend to buy a set of Spendor D7's. Whilst speaking with the seller i noticed some home built speakers and told they are from a company IPL Acoustics. Returning home with curiosity i have been googling for almost 30 hours over the past days to find out more.

I have been lead to two thing ... Horns and Transmission lines.
....................
Making it a 3 way speaker but using horns for everything but bass.
......................
Am I stupid to think this is viable ? Or even worth doing ???


What do people suggest ? if i were to say the budget will be 10k GBP.
I will need to make speakers first and then eventually i will try to make some monoblocks. ( also as a sub question, is it possible for me to make some monoblocks that will out perform why i have now ? )

Thank you if you have actually read this post ... and i thank you even more if you reply !!!

Any info/help is very welcome and very precious to me. :D

Go for it Meshach !!!
Love your idea !!!
Difficult but not impossible !!

Paulo
 

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Oh and by the way, my home is Wales, in the UK but i spend most of my time in spain,
where the houses mainly consist of much larger rooms than that of the terraced houses in Welsh mining valleys.
My plan would be to use the garage under the house and build a dedicated listening room.
I was going to ask about this at a later date, what the best shape would be, should i make 1 million little wooden pyramids and stick them to the walls, so on ... lol

Also, one of the reasons for all this is because i have alot of time on my hands due to a motorcycle accident 5 years ago rendering me disabled. So it kills about 4 birds with one stone.

Good sound
Save money
Educate my self
Give me something to do
 
frugal-phile™
Joined 2001
Paid Member
A guy tried to make verticaly folded sub using different size tubes, like a meagphone stood on end. He came into resonance problems due to using straight sided pipe of different diameter.

A horn is really in the same family as TLs, but usually have little or no damping. His horn had resonances because the horn was to small and acts like a TL at teh lowest frequencies. Without damping it wil of course have ripple as the undesired harmonics get out the mouth.

To get proper bass out of a horn it need to be big. Taking the room into considation, one can use it to advantage to shrink the actual size but retain the effective size.

dave
 
NPower ! what a beautiful speaker !!

Something has sparked my interest though, how did you make the flared horn to the left of the speaker ? Do you make the petals with a flair and then angle the edges ? Its a shape i just can't get my head around fabricating ...

thank you
 
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