Posting this because it was surprisingly successful.
The cones are cut to size with scissors after marking with a ballpoint resting on one of the driver boxes (which happened to be about the height of the bottom part that needs to be removed so the remaining top part has the right diameter to fit behind the driver).
Holes poked through the cones with a screwdriver.
Wires inserted and cut to length with scissors. Drivers are wired 3S2P to get nominal 6R impedance.
Drivers chained together with stainless steel plates and cable ties.
Wires soldered to drivers and binding posts.
Some damping material added into cones. I used some PVC anti slip mat from co-op.
Cones hot glued to drivers.
Suspended from ceiling hooks with speaker wire.
Sound is surprisingly good.
Edit: I thought they needed a sub but then I found the tone control on the little amp I was using and turned up the bass a bit.
The cones are cut to size with scissors after marking with a ballpoint resting on one of the driver boxes (which happened to be about the height of the bottom part that needs to be removed so the remaining top part has the right diameter to fit behind the driver).
Holes poked through the cones with a screwdriver.
Wires inserted and cut to length with scissors. Drivers are wired 3S2P to get nominal 6R impedance.
Drivers chained together with stainless steel plates and cable ties.
Wires soldered to drivers and binding posts.
Some damping material added into cones. I used some PVC anti slip mat from co-op.
Cones hot glued to drivers.
Suspended from ceiling hooks with speaker wire.
Sound is surprisingly good.
Edit: I thought they needed a sub but then I found the tone control on the little amp I was using and turned up the bass a bit.
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Nice build, kiss principle. Pioneer TS-G1310F would be cheaper, construction like fostexWhy not OB, car speakers have high qts and again cheaper, no box...
I tried with and without the cones. The cones definitely help a lot to get down further towards the bass frequencies.
I chose the 3 way drivers because they had a good rating on Amazon and the comments about sound quality were promising. I didn’t see the G1310F because I was searching for 4” drivers.
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I noticed that. Next time I’d put the woofer in the middle and make it a cross.
I picked up a couple of car stereos from the local scrapyard for £5 each and I’m using the first one to drive the line array and implement the crossover then feeding the stereo subwoofer output to the aux input of the second and using that to drive the woofers.
I set the crossover of the first stereo at 120Hz with 2nd order filters and added 12dB boost for the sub channel. I’m not using the crossover of the second stereo. The woofers are wired in series for 8R. EQs are all flat. The volume control of the first stereo controls volume and the volume control of the second stereo acts like a bass tone control and is about right when set to 24.
I’m running the stereos from a 2nd hand PC power supply with a single 12V rail capable of 72A. The stereos have 10A fuses so that is more than enough.
I have a Bluetooth aux adapter plugged into the first stereo as a source so I can play audio from my phone, laptop or desktop. The stereo also has radio and a CD player built in which are working.
I set the crossover of the first stereo at 120Hz with 2nd order filters and added 12dB boost for the sub channel. I’m not using the crossover of the second stereo. The woofers are wired in series for 8R. EQs are all flat. The volume control of the first stereo controls volume and the volume control of the second stereo acts like a bass tone control and is about right when set to 24.
I’m running the stereos from a 2nd hand PC power supply with a single 12V rail capable of 72A. The stereos have 10A fuses so that is more than enough.
I have a Bluetooth aux adapter plugged into the first stereo as a source so I can play audio from my phone, laptop or desktop. The stereo also has radio and a CD player built in which are working.
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I wired the car stereos up with the switched 12V wire of the second and the power to the BT adapter connected to the blue and white striped remote turn on wire of the first so the second stereo and the BT turn on automatically when the first stereo is turned on.
Sound is a lot like listening on a good pair of headphones. The line arrays create a nice big image. I’m really pleased with it.
A few thoughts on potential improvements:
Maybe put some sand in the cones inside the woofer buckets for extra damping.
I think the sound is good enough that it might be worth trying with some higher quality drivers.
The tweeters are currently driven inductively from the midrange coils but the first car stereo can be configured with a three way crossover so it would be possible to bi-amp the tweeters and midrange using the front and rear channels of the first car stereo.
The two woofer drivers per channel are currently wired in series and the woofers are driven from the front L and R channels of the second car stereo. It would be possible to run the four drivers individually using both the front and rear channels to double the power available.
Sound is a lot like listening on a good pair of headphones. The line arrays create a nice big image. I’m really pleased with it.
A few thoughts on potential improvements:
Maybe put some sand in the cones inside the woofer buckets for extra damping.
I think the sound is good enough that it might be worth trying with some higher quality drivers.
The tweeters are currently driven inductively from the midrange coils but the first car stereo can be configured with a three way crossover so it would be possible to bi-amp the tweeters and midrange using the front and rear channels of the first car stereo.
The two woofer drivers per channel are currently wired in series and the woofers are driven from the front L and R channels of the second car stereo. It would be possible to run the four drivers individually using both the front and rear channels to double the power available.
Thanks.
As it is currently, the middle of the line array is at head height when sitting so I’m in the sweet spot when working at my desk. If I stand up, I lose a bit of treble.
Extending the line up to the ceiling would help with that I guess but it’s also possible to just raise them up a couple of feet by tying the wires a bit shorter.
My new location doesn’t have convenient holes through oak beams to hang my speakers from so I stuck them to curtain poles and made them freestanding. I had the curtain poles in the loft and used them at the length they happened to be. They don’t reach the floor but are stuck in both places where the buckets are joined in the middle.
The hanging solution had the nice property that all the speakers including the woofers fell into precise alignment under gravity with all the drivers centered on a common axis. The standing solution isn’t naturally precise which is a disadvantage. Also the woofers are farther from the tweeters.
The previous room had pretty good acoustics because there was a bed in it. The new room is empty so there’s a lot of echo. This changes the sound so much I can’t really make a comparison with the old configuration. Still sounds pretty good though, even in the empty room.
WAF still sub-zero though I expect. I might have to make a couple of tall cylinders out of the curtains and hide the speakers inside.
The hanging solution had the nice property that all the speakers including the woofers fell into precise alignment under gravity with all the drivers centered on a common axis. The standing solution isn’t naturally precise which is a disadvantage. Also the woofers are farther from the tweeters.
The previous room had pretty good acoustics because there was a bed in it. The new room is empty so there’s a lot of echo. This changes the sound so much I can’t really make a comparison with the old configuration. Still sounds pretty good though, even in the empty room.
WAF still sub-zero though I expect. I might have to make a couple of tall cylinders out of the curtains and hide the speakers inside.
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Curtain cylinders cheaper and less effort than divorce + remarry but kind of you to offer thanks
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I tried draping curtains over them. First attempt looked a bit KKK. Lace makes them less sinister. A perfect geometric cylinder would look pretty good I think. Not sure I can be bothered with that though. The material has noticeably improved the room acoustics.
