Big and colorful or invisible speaker?

[SGiniS]

I'm building two big diy speakers and this made me wondering about the color.

I always liked white or grey speakers for a seamless integration into the room/disappear effect (with just a few details to catch the eyes). However some speakers are beautiful or too massive to hide, so it may be worth make them the center piece of your room.

I'm kinda curious, which path did you chose?

photo, explanations or feedback received by others would be welcomed

 

[Osvaldo de Garay]

I have 3 Karlson's, two of them 15"+4" and one 12"+4" made of my own, usind reconed/repaired speakers from middle 70's. They are well visible, important, but no necesarily the point of attention focus.
What I mean, is that there are separated speakers for low and high freqs, but made coax thanks a short pieces of "fat" wires.

 

[marin.weigel]

DIY full-range line-source (2x 25 Visaton FRS 8 M), REW inversion method convolution speaker/room correction

 

[SGiniS]

I admit I underestimated how much white can hide a big speaker. It's very well integrated!

Thanks @Osvaldo de Garay too! my speakers will be a column of boxes kinda like yours but higher. It's a 15" subwoofer + 12"inch fullrange coaxial (being a single fullrange woofer it has of course less flat higher frequencies, but it has been mesured/created by a professional and it's a pleasure to listen to it).
I'm focusing on low and mid-bass physical sensation for this project.
I have planned to try a coaxial like the one you did in the future, but I'll start with easier projects for the moment because it's still out of my league and I have so much to learn before I can do something like this.
So it's a very good news to know boxes are not doomed to become the only thing you see into the room!

 

[SGiniS]

DIY full-range line-source (2x 25 Visaton FRS 8 M), REW inversion method convolution speaker/room correction

View attachment 548651

That's also a very interesting and integrated approach!
Sorry for the noob question, but did you hide a subwoofer somewhere or how did you dealed with sub 100hz frequencies?

 

[Mart68]

Voted

Clearly visible but it's not too much predominant into the room​

But really it's a toss-up between that and the last option. Large room but large speakers. Visitors tend to comment immediately so might be wishful thinking on my part. But the whole living room is festooned with equipment, two systems, two stacks and a third stack of spare gear. Plus some more hidden behind one of the speakers.

Room aesthetic is 1970s and you can't really do that properly without some big speakers - as Grandpa Simpson would say, it was the style at the time.

 

[SGiniS]

Great point, I agree that it may be difficult to say wheter the questions about the sound system are linked to his visibility or just out of curiosity because most people are not used to them.

Can I ask if personally after a while big/visible speaker made you wish in some degree for a more discrete speaker?

 

[Mart68]

Great point, I agree that it may be difficult to say wheter the questions about the sound system are linked to his visibility or just out of curiosity because most people are not used to them.

Can I ask if personally after a while big/visible speaker made you wish in some degree for a more discrete speaker?

No, but I've almost always owned what any civilian would call 'Big speakers' over the last 40 years.

I gave away a TV to a work colleague who'd just got divorced and had nothing. She came round to collect it. When she walked in first thing she says is 'What are those? Loudspeakers? Why do they have to be so big? That's ridiculous!'

And those were about half the size of what I have now.

Good sound is important to me, more important than aesthetics.

 

[Osvaldo de Garay]

Thanks @Osvaldo de Garay too! my speakers will be a column of boxes kinda like yours but higher.

I'm glad to share sime simple ideas and that they may help other guys.

I have planned to try a coaxial like the one you did in the future, but I'll start with easier projects for the moment because it's still out of my league and I have so much to learn before I can do something like thiS...

Those K couplers fill my humble home (~40m²) with electronic music with (officialy) 6W RMS (TDA2030 x 3 running @ +/- 14VDC, Rl = 6Ohm. K's are traditionally very effective thanks its increased radiation resistance. Note that I never could increase the volume pot to more rhan one half its way, it results unsoportably loud.

So it's a very good news to know boxes are not doomed to become the only thing you see into the room!

My dad (RIP) made his own when I still didn't exist using 8" drivers made locally (LEEA speakers). He used an amp with AD161/162 pair at middle 70's.

 

[sergeauckland]

I've always liked loudspeakers that looked like what they were, large wooden boxes. Whilst at University, I had a pair of very large Goodmans bass-reflex loudspeakers, then shortly after my marriage in the early 1970s, I bought a pair of IMF TLS50IIs, which pretty much set the tone for the rest of my life. I've had KEF105.2s, various Meridian Actives, and now a pair of B&W 801Fs in my main system. So quiet, anonymous loudspeakers aren't my style, but equally, they have to look like pieces of furniture, as they are part of the décor, not audio sculptures or alien constructions.

Whether it's because of the era I was in my formative years, but the 1970-1980s aesthetic is what I feel most comfortable with.

S.

 

[Mart68]

Whilst at University, I had a pair of very large Goodmans bass-reflex loudspeakers,

These are what I had at University and for a few years after:



In a 7' x 12' student accomodation 'cell'. It was the '80s though. The red pin-striping gives the game away there.

 

[SGiniS]

Those K couplers fill my humble home (~40m²) with electronic music with (officialy) 6W RMS (TDA2030 x 3 running @ +/- 14VDC, Rl = 6Ohm. K's are traditionally very effective thanks its increased radiation resistance. Note that I never could increase the volume pot to more rhan one half its way, it results unsoportably loud.

That's exactly why I'm building such big speakers, not to play very loud, but because I'm very interested in high efficiency speakers

 

[mhardy6647]

Mine are not small... but they aren't terribly colorful (visually, that is), either.

 

[SGiniS]

they have to look like pieces of furniture, as they are part of the décor, not audio sculptures or alien constructions.

I get the approach. I admit I usually like the other way around, when the speaker is looking like art, so to kinda justify their presence (this in my mind make them pop less to the eyes).

Can I ask you if when speakers are like pieces of furniture, as they are part of the décor, you manage to make them more "stealth"to the eyes of others or if you still get questions as soon as someone else enter the room?

 

[Osvaldo de Garay]

Most people ignore the difference between good listening and loud listening.
I remember an Aiwa ad showing a cigarrete lighter blowed by a speaker. Ridiculous, wind is very different from audio waves and acoustics. But stupids like those foolery. My K's are being used every day from 25 years ago and I don't need more than a watt to normal listening. However, I dream to build a 18" K, but far from my actual pocket flow and room space.

 

[SGiniS]

Mine are not small... but they aren't terribly colorful (visually, that is), either.

I've used those kind of speakers too, but since I was still getting lot of questions anyway I started guessing there is no way to really hide a speaker unless doing inwall/inceiling speakers. I have to admit however the photo posted by @marin.weigel a few post back made me reconsider that, maybe it's possible. If I was looking for a speakers disappearing into the room I would definitely try line array speakers (floor to ceiling + small speakers work very well and i'm sure they provide a very nice and interesting sound experience!)

 

[Mart68]

have to admit however the photo posted by @marin.weigel a few post back made me reconsider that, maybe it's possible. If I was looking for a speakers disappearing into the room I would definitely try line array speakers

His do blend in well.

I think if you have a mostly white room any white speaker, even a large one, would become visually insignificant.

 

[wadude]

Still driving a pair of ‘76 Advents, twice refoamed. We bought them for thirty bux forty years ago. They may not be beautiful but have been described as “handsome.” In context they manage to be sizable yet appropriate. The walnut veneer and the beige linen impart a furniture aesthetic and they are positioned close to the wall so they aren’t claiming useful space. The lows are nice and the highs are smooth, could be a bit more transparent in the mids. Time to put on some music!

 

[marin.weigel]

That's also a very interesting and integrated approach!
Sorry for the noob question, but did you hide a subwoofer somewhere or how did you dealed with sub 100hz frequencies?

The answer to your question is in post #474 of that thread.
Scroll up to #461 and down to #479 to see/read more...

 

[Koeitje]

In a style that matches your interior.