HiFiRuss71
Distinguished Member
My word, it feels like putting on a very old slipper being back on a forum and in this sub-forum in particular. However, outing an intention publicly is a great motivation for getting it done, so here we go...
By the way, even when I was reviewing on here, I liked to tell a story so for those unfamiliar, I don't do short.
I cannot be arsed with speakers AND subs any more. I've been running a pair of Klipsch Forte IIIs underpinned by a pair of 15" 96L sealed DIY subs. Performance, not to mention SPL capability has been epic but it's too many 96L boxes to look at. So I removed the subs, had a rejig of the speakers and you know what? I don't really miss them.
I've heard myself say it in the past - How subs lower the demands on the main speakers and amps, lowering distortion, etc, etc - but when your speakers have 12" bass drivers and do 96dB off one Watt and are frankly deafening by the time you're using a whole 16W (and yet the bass drivers have barely visible travel) you realise this dogma is really for stand mounted or floor-standing arrays of 6" mid/bass dog whistlers...
Clearly the Klipsch aren't delivering something on their own, or a build wouldn't be on the cards. They're not doing two things:
One. They have a 15" passive radiator. Even once EQ'd with Dirac live, the 36dB/octave PR roll-off delivers a pretty much brick wall drop at 35Hz. Don't get me wrong, 35Hz off big drivers has a natural power and easy grip that no 8" or less driver can aspire to make felt in the same way. They feel a LOT deeper than a paper 35Hz suggests, but when they're done, they're done,
Two. When the subs were present (crossed at 80Hz in 2.2 and in reality, taking the PRs out of the equation) it kicked that much harder. Visceral is a word I've heard used. As I've long since grown out of surround sound movie demo pieces (!) and am very much more a music listener, there really isn't much sub-30Hz info even in some much vaunted bass-demo music pieces and no, I can't be arsed with them any more either.
Don't get me wrong; we get up and dance in the living room to 70s funk/soul/disco at club SPL levels, so I'm not pretending we're being some sort of straight laced audiophools. Yes, we like it to sound good, but it also has to feel good!
Basically it's all about a large diaphragm moving air efficiently (No replacement for displacement, etc) going deep enough and punching hard at all frequencies. And thus, this project is born.
I've built a dozen plus subwoofers, but also speakers both passive and active/DSP. The speakers didn't make it on here for commercial reasons, but I'm unshackled by all of that now. This is not my first DIY rodeo, but because of the scale it could get expensive fast, because big physical volumes mean big materials bills, so I'm looking at some 'alternative' finishes borrowed from other arenas. As it stands the spec looks like this:
Yep! You read the vinyl wrap right. Have you seen what the car boys are doing with stuff that can survie years of weather?
Watch this space!
Russ
By the way, even when I was reviewing on here, I liked to tell a story so for those unfamiliar, I don't do short.
I cannot be arsed with speakers AND subs any more. I've been running a pair of Klipsch Forte IIIs underpinned by a pair of 15" 96L sealed DIY subs. Performance, not to mention SPL capability has been epic but it's too many 96L boxes to look at. So I removed the subs, had a rejig of the speakers and you know what? I don't really miss them.
I've heard myself say it in the past - How subs lower the demands on the main speakers and amps, lowering distortion, etc, etc - but when your speakers have 12" bass drivers and do 96dB off one Watt and are frankly deafening by the time you're using a whole 16W (and yet the bass drivers have barely visible travel) you realise this dogma is really for stand mounted or floor-standing arrays of 6" mid/bass dog whistlers...
Clearly the Klipsch aren't delivering something on their own, or a build wouldn't be on the cards. They're not doing two things:
One. They have a 15" passive radiator. Even once EQ'd with Dirac live, the 36dB/octave PR roll-off delivers a pretty much brick wall drop at 35Hz. Don't get me wrong, 35Hz off big drivers has a natural power and easy grip that no 8" or less driver can aspire to make felt in the same way. They feel a LOT deeper than a paper 35Hz suggests, but when they're done, they're done,
Two. When the subs were present (crossed at 80Hz in 2.2 and in reality, taking the PRs out of the equation) it kicked that much harder. Visceral is a word I've heard used. As I've long since grown out of surround sound movie demo pieces (!) and am very much more a music listener, there really isn't much sub-30Hz info even in some much vaunted bass-demo music pieces and no, I can't be arsed with them any more either.
Don't get me wrong; we get up and dance in the living room to 70s funk/soul/disco at club SPL levels, so I'm not pretending we're being some sort of straight laced audiophools. Yes, we like it to sound good, but it also has to feel good!
Basically it's all about a large diaphragm moving air efficiently (No replacement for displacement, etc) going deep enough and punching hard at all frequencies. And thus, this project is born.
I've built a dozen plus subwoofers, but also speakers both passive and active/DSP. The speakers didn't make it on here for commercial reasons, but I'm unshackled by all of that now. This is not my first DIY rodeo, but because of the scale it could get expensive fast, because big physical volumes mean big materials bills, so I'm looking at some 'alternative' finishes borrowed from other arenas. As it stands the spec looks like this:
- 175L nett volume
- 34Hz port tune delivering a marginally sub 30Hz in-room response at 100dB(SPL) plus.
- 18 Sound 15W750 mid/bass driver
- 18 Sound XT1464 60x40deg dispersion horn
- Tweeter TBC - Suffering analysis paralysis on this, but either 18S ND1480 of Faital Pro HF1440...
- 800Hz LR4 acoustic crossover
- Hypex FA123 DSP plate amps
- Hypex IR RC kit
- 18mm Medite MDF carcass with 36mm front baffle. 12mm (or even 9mm) internal bracing
- 4mm sound deadening applied to all internal panels
- Leather effect vinyl wrap to front, back, top & bottom.
- 9mm MDF/hardboard side cheeks vinyl wrapped in 'exotic' wood and gloss lacquered
- Vintage conical furniture legs to elevate and layback speaker by 2.5deg
- Chrome!!!
Yep! You read the vinyl wrap right. Have you seen what the car boys are doing with stuff that can survie years of weather?
Watch this space!
Russ