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Anyone Europeans here who built the LXmini?

abdo123

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I ‘m really curious about the whole experience building it. Difficulties .etc

Also I live in Belgium so if you would have me over to give them a listen i will provide divine quality beer! :p
 

Adam_M

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I'm not European (so I can't help you out with a listen) but I can comment that building them is (well - should be, if I didn't go rogue with the materials, attached) exceedingly easy.

Making a clear acrylic funnel instead of buying a plumbing part in particular involved turning a mold on a lathe, molding a flat sheet of acrylic over that - preparing the now-angled edge so they fit flush for gluing, squaring and smoothing the top and bottom (without rounding over the edges, and finally sizing the height correctly so the outside diameters of the funnel and vertical tube matched. I could have probably built a couple pairs of LXMini's in the time it took me to do that.

Built of the specified materials, they would be the easiest speakers to build I've ever built (of dozens, including the LX521's too) - it's certainly easier than slapping a box together. Being off by 1mm in some dimension (other than perhaps the FR-Woofer location relationship) isn't going to make or break this speaker, where on a box speaker it means you've got to get the wood filler out and hope it doesn't telegraph through the finish.

They are tolerant of non-optimum placement or listening heights too. These are in my kitchen, and I listen standing up more often than not. Are they as nice in this application as they are sitting in the dedicated room? Of course not - but they well exceed the listenable threshold.

...And one interesting note about this particular configuration. Before I put felt pads on the feet, the speakers coupled to the floor joists below and transmitted quite a lot of vibration (presumably because of the woofer orientation) which made the bass seem WAY more impactful. Fun. Not necessarily better, but fun.
 

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somebodyelse

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I have a pair originally built by a friend using the kit from magiclx512. He'd not built speakers before and didn't have any difficulties assembling the kits, but he has made quite a lot of other stuff in the past. Having looked at the plans they should be relatively easy to build even without the kit if you have any aptitude for making things. I think I saw a list of various international equivalents for the plumbing parts on the oplug forum. You can scratch build as @Adam_M has (nice job with the acrylic!) or 3D print an alternative to the pipe coupling.

Much as I'd love the beer, travel to the UK probably isn't great right now, and who knows what will happen at the end of the year?
 
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abdo123

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I'm not European (so I can't help you out with a listen) but I can comment that building them is (well - should be, if I didn't go rogue with the materials, attached) exceedingly easy.

Making a clear acrylic funnel instead of buying a plumbing part in particular involved turning a mold on a lathe, molding a flat sheet of acrylic over that - preparing the now-angled edge so they fit flush for gluing, squaring and smoothing the top and bottom (without rounding over the edges, and finally sizing the height correctly so the outside diameters of the funnel and vertical tube matched. I could have probably built a couple pairs of LXMini's in the time it took me to do that.

Built of the specified materials, they would be the easiest speakers to build I've ever built (of dozens, including the LX521's too) - it's certainly easier than slapping a box together. Being off by 1mm in some dimension (other than perhaps the FR-Woofer location relationship) isn't going to make or break this speaker, where on a box speaker it means you've got to get the wood filler out and hope it doesn't telegraph through the finish.

They are tolerant of non-optimum placement or listening heights too. These are in my kitchen, and I listen standing up more often than not. Are they as nice in this application as they are sitting in the dedicated room? Of course not - but they well exceed the listenable threshold.

...And one interesting note about this particular configuration. Before I put felt pads the feet, the speakers coupled to the floor joists below and transmitted quite a lot of vibration (presumably because of the woofer orientation) which made the bass seem WAY more impactful. Fun. Not necessarily better, but fun.

you have an LXmini in your kitchen? o_O There are children dying in Africa! (Just kidding).

Thank you for sharing your experience!
 

The Messiah

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No joke about belgian beer being divine. Probably the best in the world (after Guinness of course :))
 

Burning Sounds

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If it wasn't for this Covid business I would fly you over here for some of that divine Belgian beer. Unfortunately, by the time we are out of this mess we will no longer be European (well, I still will be as I have an Irish passport, too, thank goodness).

Anyway, I built mine from the MagicLX521 kit, but it wouldn't be too difficult to build from scratch. The Magic kit has some nice custom parts that make things neater, hides some of the wiring and screws etc.

It's a wonderful little speaker (I have LX521s, too) with an exceptional soundstage. You wouldn't be disappointed by the LXMini.

Here's some pics from another thread - https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...living-with-linkwitz.11278/page-2#post-330382
 
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abdo123

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If it wasn't for this Covid business I would fly you over here for some of that divine Belgian beer. Unfortunately, by the time we are out of this mess we will no longer be European (well, I still will be as I have an Irish passport, too, thank goodness).

Anyway, I built mine from the MagicLX521 kit, but it wouldn't be too difficult to build from scratch. The Magic kit has some nice custom parts that make things neater, hides some of the wiring and screws etc.

It's a wonderful little speaker (I have LX521s, too) with an exceptional soundstage. You wouldn't be disappointed by the LXMini.

Here's some pics from another thread - https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...living-with-linkwitz.11278/page-2#post-330382

Can you tell me what you’re using to power it up? Did you have to do any Further DSP other than what is provided by linkwitz?
 

somebodyelse

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In my case it's UCD180s and an opamp implementation of the Pass analog crossover - my friend was as much interested in it as a project and learning experience as he was the end result. I've got some rebuilding in the pipeline and will probably change to DSP of one sort or another, but I'm still playing with options. If I was starting from scratch now I'd probably go for FusionAmps - cheapest way I know to get the nCore boards for DIY, and they come with DSP hardware. If you need a cheaper option the amp modules and DSP board from 3E should work, but you might have to do the filter design yourself.
 

somebodyelse

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How does that work?
In Pass's LXMini crossover article you'll see that it was initially modeled as an opamp circuit. The diyaudiostore kit page has a few other handy links on the subject, and his Burning Amp 2017 presentation has more background. The topology isn't far off the Elliot Sound Products Project09 crossover board so he used those rather than making his own (only so many new things to learn in one project!) We used measurements with REW to check it was behaving as intended, which picked up a few assembly errors.
 
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abdo123

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In Pass's LXMini crossover article you'll see that it was initially modeled as an opamp circuit. The diyaudiostore kit page has a few other handy links on the subject, and his Burning Amp 2017 presentation has more background. The topology isn't far off the Elliot Sound Products Project09 crossover board so he used those rather than making his own (only so many new things to learn in one project!) We used measurements with REW to check it was behaving as intended, which picked up a few assembly errors.

My crossover knowledge is close to zero, the fully built ASP nelson pass is around 1000 euro. While the MiniDSP SHD is a little bit over that (1200 euro).

Knowing that the analog option is not as good as the DSP option, and considering how flexible the SHD is (and how good it measures) I don’t understand why someone would get the Nelson Pass or build something similar.
 

somebodyelse

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People have different goals, and different ideas of 'good'. Pass talks a bit about demand for his style of amp from certain markets in the Burning Amp presentation. In this specific case I think the goal was to have fun learning a bit about analog electronics and testing methods, and to have something quite nice at the end of it, not to have the best measuring or most cost effective system off the shelf. I would have gone with DSP but it wasn't my project, although I was happy to help out.
 

Burning Sounds

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Can you tell me what you’re using to power it up? Did you have to do any Further DSP other than what is provided by linkwitz?

The LXMini was originally in my music room so all my early listening to it used a fanless PC running JRiver, Mytek ADDA8x192 8 channel DAC and Nakamichi AVP1 7 channel power amp (very similar to the old Emotiva UPA7). X-overs, EQ were done in JRiver DSP. I already had this equipment so didn't have to buy anything new for the LXMini.

I've since moved the LXMini to the house where they are either side of a large screen TV in the living room. A Squeezebox Touch provides the music source (I have several other Squeezebox clones around the house) to a Benchmark DAC1 HDR which feeds a MiniDSP 2x4HD and then to an Audiolab 8000x7 7 channel power amp. Other than the MiniDSP 2x4HD I already had this gear. I could bypass the Benchmark and just use the volume control on the MiniDSP 2x4 to avoid a double conversion, but it sounds fine to me as it is. They are in a good sized room (about 12m x 5m) with a high ceiling and fire across the room. With their omni/cardiod/dipole radiation pattern there is a good soundstage wherever you sit on the sofa. The nice thing about this setup is I can swing the speakers around to fire down the room when I want to have a more critical listen to music as they have more breathing room this way.

I haven't taken any measurements in the house so no further DSP other than the original settings.
 

tomchr

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European, but not living in Europe. I drink Leffe from the liquor store around the corner... :)

Anyway. I built two pairs of LXmini. One pair for me and one pair for a friend (also named Tom). They're pretty easy to build. The hard part is cutting the PVC pipes. I went slightly overboard, learned to use a router, and routed the wood pieces with some more eye-friendly shapes. I also suspended the tweeter pipe on some Delrin risers that I cut from tubing. I might still have some of those risers around if any of you are interested.
I also used setscrews with some Delrin spacers to hold the tweeter in place inside its tube. I didn't like the kludge SL implemented and wanted something that would just disappear visually.

I powered the LXmini with a 4-channel Modulus-86 powered by a Power-86 and an Antek AS-3222 transformer. That worked very well, though I did find an improvement when I switched to the Modulus-286. I think with the 6 dB peak in the woofer filter, you do want a little bit extra power in the woofer channel. I think SL originally recommended 80 W for the woofer and 40 W for the tweeter.
In my friend's amp I integrated the MiniDSP 2x4 crossover. That worked very well and is still in daily use. I built it in 2015.

I like the LXmini. They're quite good for a $500 DIY speaker. Mine now serve on TV duty while my KEF R700 are used for music listening.

Tom
 

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Paccidat

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I ‘m really curious about the whole experience building it. Difficulties .etc

Also I live in Belgium so if you would have me over to give them a listen i will provide divine quality beer! :p

I live "north" from you and built the LX521magic kit from germany. Excellent fabrication quality en rather easy to build. Be sure to get suitable glue . I used soudal Fix-all Turbo after 3 failed attempts with other glue.

It is well worth the while! It sounds really great! (I used a flowerpot from Intratuin to cover the ugly rubber coupler.
 

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abdo123

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I live "north" from you and built the LX521magic kit from germany. Excellent fabrication quality en rather easy to build. Be sure to get suitable glue . I used soudal Fix-all Turbo after 3 failed attempts with other glue.

It is well worth the while! It sounds really great! (I used a flowerpot from Intratuin to cover the ugly rubber coupler.

Do you think they're a good choice for a room with no treatment or special shenanigans?

I'm considering getting them for daily use with a TV in a living room.
 

Paccidat

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Do you think they're a good choice for a room with no treatment or special shenanigans?

I'm considering getting them for daily use with a TV in a living room.

Yes, that is exacly one of the ways I use them. In a "hard" L-shaped room with little to no damping they area fine, but it could be better with some more absorbing surfaces. However be sure to place them away from the walls at a minimum of 0.8, ideally 1 meter. I use them for TV as well and have replaced a 5.1 set with these. The imaging is rather good, as it still seems voices come right from the centre. At least one person in my household could not believe the old center speaker was not functional any more. I have to admit that it can not replace the surround speakers, but I do not miss them.
 
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abdo123

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Yes, that is exacly one of the ways I use them. In a "hard" L-shaped room with little to no damping they area fine, but it could be better with some more absorbing surfaces. However be sure to place them away from the walls at a minimum of 0.8, ideally 1 meter. I use them for TV as well and have replaced a 5.1 set with these. The imaging is rather good, as it still seems voices come right from the centre. At least one person in my household could not believe the old center speaker was not functional any more. I have to admit that it can not replace the surround speakers, but I do not miss them.

when you say 1 meter, do you mean the actual wall or the first reflective surface (my wall is basically one giant book case and wooden cabinets).
 

Paccidat

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It is about reflections , so yes the first reflective surface. But it is not law written in stone, it will just give better results. It will also sound fine closer to that " wall" , but is may be less spatial.
 
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