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2,5 way tower speaker kit diy project

biniek

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Hi
Could you pleae recommend any interesting diy project?
Im looking for something with two 18cm midwoofers and detailed tweeter
Something like Seas Bragi but in tower version
It will play in 25m2 room
Budget is max 500-700$ for drivers only
Thank you
Best regards!
 

Rick Sykora

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Several come to mind, but within budget and drivers available, suggest SB Acoustics Arya 2.5.:)
 

voodooless

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Several come to mind, but within budget and drivers available, suggest SB Acoustics Arya 2.5.:)
Those are not 18cm drivers.

18cm (7”) is pushing it a bit to mate with a tweeter though. Better get a waveguided tweeter with that.
 

Rick Sykora

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Those are not 18cm drivers.

18cm (7”) is pushing it a bit to mate with a tweeter though. Better get a waveguided tweeter with that.

Ok, but if going to split hairs over a centimeter, need to ante up! ;)
 
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biniek

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17cm woofers are also ok tbh :)
Speakers will be driven by push pull tube amp 25W so it would be great if they will be quite easy to drive
 

voodooless

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This may fit:


No idea if it is any good.. haven’t seen the measurements.

Edit: found some:
1673096168126.jpeg

Not too bad. Not sure if your budget is per speaker or for the pair? Otherwise, this blows it ;)
 
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biniek

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This project looks like my end game speakers but its out of budget unfortunately
Maybe next year
 

bluefuzz

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Speakers will be driven by push pull tube amp 25W so it would be great if they will be quite easy to drive
Troels Gravesen has several designs that may fit the bill. He is a big fan of low power tube amps so many of his designs will work with that kind of amp.
 

Rick Sykora

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Dumdum

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I’d do exactly what I have in my workshop

Sb17nrx2c35 8ohm x2 and an sb19st c-0004 tweeter in each… I have excellent bass in a workshop 4x the size you describe, I also have an sb26stac tweeter but the 19 is soooo good and has excellent dispersion and off axis response

I run them active (1 driver of each not a 2.5) and manage them with a mini dsp 2x4hd and a car audio genesis series 3 4 channel which is very much uprated
 

Rick Sykora

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D!sco

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You may find these interesting:


However, if I understand correctly, they are 2-way and not 2.5-way. Does that make a difference?

Jim
I would love to see some CSS speakers on the klippel. DIY with OEM drivers could be a winner.
 

Thorsten Loesch

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Hi
Could you pleae recommend any interesting diy project?

Start from scratch and do it yourself.

First, don't go 2.5 Way, go for a true 3-way design with an active Sub. Or fully active.

Second, use low distortion drivers.

I like Wavecor or purifi 6.5" as midrange, obviously the Wavecor WF182BD04 costs a lot less. Tweeter, again Wavecor TW030WA12 is a good balance of high quality design and lowish cost. It should be possible to find a 2-way project with these drivers. Use a relatively low crossover frequency, for a number of reasons ` 1.2kHz is a good choice. Woofer in a sealed enclosure for Qt=0.7 filled with rockwool or basotect. For the Wavecor that looks like ~ 6 liters sealed, giving ~0.7 Qt and 80Hz -3dB point, so crossover should be at least 160Hz or higher.

Using a minidsp DSP crossover is an option. In this case Aliexpress offers both replica's of John Linsley Hood's Class A designs with up to 25W per channel (not exactly "low distortion" by ASR standards, but good enough in my books) or LM3886 based units (these will likely cost less and have a bit more power). Use these for MF & HF. Class D has come a long way but I still think classic linear Amplifiers are preferable for low to medium power in Mid's & Highs.

Third, use big woofers.

Add a pair of the biggest bass drivers you can fit in the sides of the speaker, I'd probably go for 12" to 15" arranged in "force cancelling" arrangement. Remember 10" and smaller is for girly men. Use a sealed enclosure and a big amplifier and suitable EQ to get the correct flat response. I'd shoot for 0.7 Qt again.

If we stick to Wavecor a pair of SW312WA03 look the part, give them at least 1kW/2Ohm Amplifier, Class D is fine. It should be crossed over below 250Hz, so around 200Hz or so crossover, matches perfect with our Midrange. A box for two of these needs around 120 Liters and will give 42Hz -3dB Point.

For extra points use 3pcs in 180 liter total with the third driver in the back of the woofer section and inverted in polarity. This will create a cardioid Woofer system with theoretically no rear output.

Perhaps a nice setup would be a stereo Linsley Hood Class A 25W X 2 per side for MF/HF, backed up by a TPA3255 based Stereo Class D Amp for the bass. Amplifiers stacked behind the speakers,short speaker cables and long interconnect cables.

Personally I would use likely use passive LCR line level crossovers for MF & HF and active "Op-Amp Grave" as LF EQ (Linkwitz Transform), Crossover (derived subtractive crossover with passive 1st order HPF for the MF section) and LF semi-parametric EQ (at least 4 Bands, 8 bands preferred). One can of course go all DSP, but I'm oldfashioned.

A lot of the electronics DIY can be based on designs found at RoD Elliott's site:

https://sound-au.com/p-list.htm

I'd say building an active or semi-active (amplified woofer) setup like this will kill most commercial or similar kit speakers out there, especially if build as Cardioid Woofer setup.

Thor
 

LTig

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17cm woofers are also ok tbh :)
Speakers will be driven by push pull tube amp 25W so it would be great if they will be quite easy to drive
Then you should not go for a2,5 way because in the lows (where the most energy is needed) the amp has to drive 2 woofers in parallel. Go for a 3 way with efficient drivers in 8 Ohm.
 
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biniek

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Hi what is your opinion about these two projects? Are they well designed and worth consideration?


Thanks
 

Thorsten Loesch

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Hi what is your opinion about these two projects? Are they well designed and worth consideration?

Hmmm, neither is that easy to drive.


If anything, I'd fancy this more. But I feel using a Wavecor TW030WA12 would be a better tweeter, also allowing a lower crossover point.

A 20cm + HF 2-Way is a mainstay of the 70's & 80's and work well enough as a single speaker to not make a subwoofer mandatory but are limited to modest size apartments. Something like this done using modern drivers might be really good.

If we take a classic "80's" style in a 20 liter sealed enclosure the WF223 manages 37Hz F3, really good. Using a reflex system can extend LF lower in a larger box.

As it is advisable to include around 3dB baffle loss compensation when placing the speaker not near walls (in the 80's these speakers would sit in a bookshelf, essentially back to the wall) getting only 84dB/W/m means a big power amp is desirable. If we aim for 85dB SPL at -20dBFS & 3m listening distance means 2,5W per Channel operation power (for 85dB) and 250W output for full output (105dB Peak 3m).

Using a smaller midrange and offloading all bass (below say 200Hz) to an active woofer section would be better IMNSHO.
Alternatively going for a passive 3-Way speaker with > 90dB/2.83V sensitivity would be a better match for a power constrained Amplifier.

Using WF182BD04 (8 Ohm Bass/Mid) and TW030WA12 makes a good 8 Ohm Mid/Hi system for (say) 200 - 300Hz crossover point and can produce 88dB/2.83V/1m. By making the woofer section powered we can decouple LF system sensitivity and MF system sensitivity. The actual crossover point should be made so it matches the baffle loss, so we can simply turn up the woofer a bit to compensate.

Ultimately a practical system often ends up with something that is a lot like a Wilson Watt/Puppy (early versions) with Dual Woofers (8" - 10") and a small 2-Way on the top of that.

Bi-amping W/P with a big solid state amp on the "Puppy" Woofer and a Tube Amp on the "Watt" and a simple first order line level crossover worked rather well, FWIW.

Adding an EQ for room modes to the active woofer section allows a "purist" passive System for MF & HF with a tube amp in front (and suitable Pre/DAC etc.), while allowing to compensate the worst room interaction problems.

Thor
 

Wolf

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I will adamantly state that no Wavecor thus far will ever sound better than the classic SS Rev 9900. It is 30 yrs old, and still state of the art in performance.

I have heard Dan's design there, and he is still having some personal complaints in integration. So, he is not fully happy yet. That said, they were not bad by any stretch, just not fully optimized.
 
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