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DIY audio: what are you building?


Paul Spencer

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Thank you Paul and 56 for your information and indulging my ignorance. Is there a reason this driver doesn't use a wave guide similar to other CDs I've seen recently? Particularly those in the econowave thread? Again, sorry for what I am sure are very basic questions.

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It's probably a compression driver with an integrated horn. Compression drivers are the more flexible devices as you get to choose the waveguide, but the advantage here is in not having a transition. The connection between the two is critical and where they are manufactured as one it can be done with greater care. However that creates a "take it or leave it" driver.

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In a few days will be finished 4 units of these:

Clearly I know very little about the technicalities, so I won't comment, but aesthetically, I love them. I'd very interested to learn the process behind building them.

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It is Paul.

It is like the other projects of mine....dedications,sweat and hard work to make beautiful projects.

This is a closed enclosure of 9,3 litres,maded to work into a nice "small-medium" home cinema setup.The driver is a Visaton 6,5" full range but can be replaceble with a coaxial driver or adapted to 2 ways with a "bullet" supertweeter on top of enclosure.....sky is the limit.

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It is Paul.

It is like the other projects of mine....dedications,sweat and hard work to make beautiful projects.

This is a closed enclosure of 9,3 litres,maded to work into a nice "small-medium" home cinema setup.The driver is a Visaton 6,5" full range but can be replaceble with a coaxial driver or adapted to 2 ways with a "bullet" supertweeter on top of enclosure.....sky is the limit.

WOW! Just WOW!

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There are some really awesome builds in this thread. Now if you don't mind some beginer's work. This is my first true sub build, a Rythmik F15. I just did it during the holiday season.

Don't want to do a long post in this thread. Here is a link for the build.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27939[/ATTACH]

Edited by hotjt133
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Thanks Paul. My next project would be to replace the Tannoy with GR research OB7. It would be a considerably more difficult build than a sub box, but its hard to resist the temptation of the open baffle sound :)

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If you can build that sub, I'm sure you'll do just fine. I'm going the other way myself. I've been an open baffle fan for a while, but I'm now getting all the things I liked about OB without the downsides. For me it was the big sweet spot and spacious imaging.

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There are a few of them. Firstly, dipole roll-off which reduces efficiency. For a while I used a pair of Vifa P17 midwoofers down to about 80 Hz and it wasn't a big issue. You could make it even less of an issue with more suitable drivers. Secondly, the trade off between baffle width and again the dipole roll off issue. Thirdly, the added complexity. On the more subjective side, imaging tends to be less sharp and it appears to be the price you pay for the very large sweet spot and spacious sound. At times I've felt they aren't the best for voices on movies as the vocal images tend to be artificially stretched. This is unfortunate because in many ways the massive sweet spot would otherwise make open baffle great for HT.

At a big audio event last year we had 3 rooms set up. One had some small fullrangers on valves, another had open baffles running on MiniDSP and the other was a large efficient DEQX active system with multi subs. Two of the systems had a one seat sweet spot. One of them included a 3 seat couch in it's sweet spot. I'll let people guess which was which.

The contrast in moving between them was probably the last nail in the coffin for me. I heard in the OB system a very familiar sound, despite quite different drivers and room. I recognised the OB traits immediately. I've fallen out of love with the sound.

The big time and phase aligned active system was really impressive. There was a seat marked X where everything came together. The most impressive imaging I've heard happened in that spot! I've heard so many different systems it's hard to point out anything as best, but in terms of imaging this one was the clear winner. I may have been swayed by some trippy tracks, but wow. Sounds started moving towards me until they were coming from arms length in front of me. Hello imaging!

I went home and started working on my system in a different direction.

I'm not trying to put you off. There will always be niches because people like the sound of a particular type of speaker and sometimes we just like the idea or concept. There is a lot to like about OB and I think there are a lot of guys out there who are OB fans, they just don't know it yet.

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Thanks Paul. Your point of movie dialog issue is something I haven't come across. For music the wide sound stage is addictive, however if the voice can't be pin pointed in movies that would be a big negtive, cos this speaker will be used for HT as well.

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I don't know if your experience will be the same as mine. Also, I think that problem would go away if you treat the front wall heavily, but it might also take away things you like. I believe the big sweet spot comes from strong front wall reflections, and gives a deeper sound stage. Unfortunately that effect is applied to everything, and when it comes to voices is isn't a good thing in movies. It's certainly something you could experiment with. With OBs it's probably a good idea to still treat the room.

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Also I was a big fan of OB and...maybe I'm still...a little.

I owned Supravox 215RTF Bicone full range,augmented with 2 x Eminence Alpha 15 per side,active for woofers (check my pics here).

I like them very much but like Paul sais very very well, is a tribute to pay.The streched image and so called "mixed" soundstage in medium listening rooms was an issue (25m2);but the details was impressive.

I think the radial horns or waveguides,careful maded will came with more balance sound and best image for the records.I enjoy Altec horns and also Tannoy alnico motors dualconcentrics very much and the experiments is allways fun.

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