My latest little project

[mayfly]

Thank you gentlemen!  I'm very pleased with them.  So much so that I filed a provisional patent on the speaker design, specifically the addition of the internal skyline diffuser  :headbang:

 

[rgand]

Well, that's certainly cool.  :icon_thumright:

 

[new-killer-star]

Yeah that is super cool, it really does look great!

I realize that you didn't build one set with and one without but are you able to tell or speculate on how the internal diffuser affects the sound?

 

[ghotiphry]

This is so far outside my realm of "do it yourself" capabilities, it's not even..  I can't... Um...  I am in awe.  First off, they look fabulous.  I can't help but think they sound as good as they look.  Let me know when you start mass production.

 

[ByteFrenzy]

Sweet !!!

 

[DarkPenguin]

They look so cool and the concept is great. Wonderful job.

Building an ICEpower module based amp now. Taking the easy (and low power) way out.

 

[stratamania]

The end result looks very good. A sound idea and project. (pun intended)

 

[mayfly]

Gentlemen,

After my escapades with measuring the THD of my various amp designs, and how much the performance of the 100W version took me by surprise, I figured that I should measure these loudspeakers.  The math (and box simulations) behind them is good and they do sound excellent - but you never know what is lurking behind the door unless you look behind the door.

Now to introduce my new toy: A Dayton Audio USB instrument microphone.  Here it is in action in my "acoustic chamber":

So I measured two of the speakers, and this is the result:

Not bad actually!  5db down in 70 to 90 Hz, but that could be the room messing things up.  But the crossover point (2.9k) looks very good with a very smooth transition.  And there is bass down there 

I am happy to report that they measure as good as they sound <phew!>

 

[Cagey]

Congratulations! I'm glad you got such good results! I know you put a lotta time/work into them.

 

[mayfly]

Thanks Cagey!  Yea it was a pile of work.  I like 'em though.

looking at the response I'm wondering if I should have kept that 3db boost below 100Hz ...

 

[Cagey]

As long as your ears are happy!

 

[mayfly]

Playing around more, it turns out that you can turn on this filter called "smoothing".  Essentially it takes the bumps out of the response.

Messed about last night and came up with some off-axis polar plots.  Almost like a real manufacturer  :headbang:

 

[BigSteve22]

Not quite sure what all that means, but to quote Kevin: "As long as your ears are happy!" If they sound anywhere a good as they look, you've got reason to be proud!  :icon_thumright:

 

[Pelagaard]

If you're not careful, people might start thinking you're some kinda engineer...

 

[Nando Vallart]

If you're not careful, people might start thinking you're some kinda engineer...

:laughing7:



Good job Mayfly!

 

[Kostas]

...Currently the stereo is run using a big crown PA amp, which is big and ugly.  I think for the short term we'll switch to the small 50W prototype and see how that runs.

Don't read if the purpose of your build was for both amps & speakers to be made exclusively by yourself. Personally I would have gone for Hypex modules inside the speakers. They are considered #1 by many people, even those who are AB fanatics start to understand class D has advantages and it's here to stay. I'm not sure but you'll probably wouldn't need massive or no heatsinks at all.

I'm using an inexpensive Crown XLS-1502 amp (300w/8ohm - 525w/4ohm) in my stereo setup, the technical measurements are nothing special but I saw significant difference driving the speakers compared to my previous 70 watt HiFi amp. There's no compression and distortion anymore when I raise the volume. It's good to have a powerful amp that can drive all speakers.

 

[mayfly]

I'm fairly sure that there is a Hypex or two in my future... Especially since the wife OK'd phase two of this little plan.

 

[DarkPenguin]

The ncore look pretty neat. Can make a pretty neat preamp out of some of their stuff, too.

 

[mayfly]

Hey Kostas!  You were right. There was a Hypex in my future:

 

[Kostas]

Nice, you got one or two modules?