Cadentia 3 Product Development thread / Audio First Designs

[101geo]

I'd say you know your skill level best.
I am nothing above an average garage hack woodworker and making the box any size I want would be easy for me.
If you have even minimal skills you should be okay, just take your time and measure 3 or 4 times and cut once so to speak.
I have speakers I made that have ports on the top, bottom even sides, fitting it should be no issue.

The only thing that might be awkward would be the front panel. The baffle attaches to it. in a very specific way and replicating it may not be straightforward. The bracing and filling/damping would have to be thought out carefully too.

 

[ROOSKIE]

@staticV3: can you explain the cause why the Cadentia 3 reaches incredibly good 8.92 with perfect (reaching 14 Hz) subwoofer(s) and eq
only tied by the small Genelec 8030C (8.97) or the Genelec 8331 (8.93),
but the Blade 2 Meta reaches only 8.58?

I'm not sure exactly why you are asking but since I enjoy talking about the score.
It has been discussed already the Harman score, while very accurate in the correct context, was never meant to be handled as so granular.
We really should be at most rounding to the nearest 1/2 number. Even that is really asking more from the data then is actually there.
Mic variations, variations in humidity, temperature, air pressure and normal driver and crossover component tolerances could easily cause scores to vary by 0.5pts or even more.
If a speaker is 8.23 on a given measurement set, we could round down to 8 even, then take any speakers that are in the confidence range from 8, which I think is +/-1 here and include them as near equals at least in terms of actual user preferences when blind tested.
So a calculated 8.23 could be an actual 7-9 and all speakers in this range have strong potential to be the preferred one.

Obviously there are other factors not considered by the score that may be very important (dispersion is a huge one, along with ultimate clean SPL capability) and the score itself doesn't apply to nearfield, tower speakers, or high SPL playback. The score was generated in a clinical setting at I believe a modest 80db.
I listen louder then that often and we do not hear in a linear fashion especially in the bass regions so it has not been tested whether a different model is needed even for simply louder playback.
I imagine that since we hear a 5-6db increase in bass as doubly loud but a 10db increase is required for the same perception of doubly loud in the midrange that the 80db model is not correct for loud playback.

Personally I enjoy the score because it is fun, reading the complete data set is far more rewarding and informative for actually buying and designing.
The score is valuable and overvalued all at once.

There is just no point in analyzing 0.3 and 0.5 score variations as they are more noise then anything else.

Also I want these speakers, the kit that is. What is holding me back is that tweeter. Generally I prefer hard domes and most of the time my favorite speakers have metal domes but that is really hard to parse out as I like some speakers with soft domes very much and my BMR speakers are wonderful as well with the RAAL tweet. That said what a great kit, I must resist! (but can I?)

 

[suttondesign]

Hi Harry,

Do you think it’s feasible to diy a speaker grill to this design? Also do you know what the price will be like once presale is over?

possible, but bad idea. with such superlative measurements, you can only screw up directivity anything that has a frame. look for another speaker if you dont like the look. or maybe just pull an acoustic fabric sock over the whole thing.

 

[TubeNoob]

possible, but bad idea. with such superlative measurements, you can only screw up directivity anything that has a frame. look for another speaker if you dont like the look. or maybe just pull an acoustic fabric sock over the whole thing.

I love the look! It because I have a baby on the way, so I’d only use the grilles once the baby got to the curious and pokey age

 

[Trangbar]

@Audiofirstdesigns_Harry Are you still on schedule for shipping the kits for late January? I built my speakers stands and they are getting lonely ;-)

 

[101geo]

What is holding me back is that tweeter. Generally I prefer hard domes and most of the time my favorite speakers have metal domes but that is really hard to parse out as I like some speakers with soft domes

TX tweeter is classed by SB as hard dome isn't it?

 

[Audiofirstdesigns_Harry]

@Audiofirstdesigns_Harry Are you still on schedule for shipping the kits for late January? I built my speakers stands and they are getting lonely ;-)

Hi there! Unfortunately I am still waiting for the front baffles to arrive (the factory had some issue with their spray paint workshop and the production was massively delayed). Everything else are here and I am packing whatever I can pack already. A little bit frustrating but fingerscross they arrive next week!

 

[Trangbar]

Hi there! Unfortunately I am still waiting for the front baffles to arrive (the factory had some issue with their spray paint workshop and the production was massively delayed). Everything else are here and I am packing whatever I can pack already. A little bit frustrating but fingerscross they arrive next week!

View attachment 507411

That is unfortunate, but these things happen. Thanks for the update and good luck with the packing! Looks like you will be busy.

 

[willverduzco]

Hi there! Unfortunately I am still waiting for the front baffles to arrive (the factory had some issue with their spray paint workshop and the production was massively delayed). Everything else are here and I am packing whatever I can pack already. A little bit frustrating but fingerscross they arrive next week!

View attachment 507411

No worries on the delay, and thank you for the update, Harry! Truly eager to build my set!

 

[Audiofirstdesigns_Harry]

Baffles arrived today! Hurrayyyyyy!

Gonna be really busy the following days doing the final packing...

 

[Trangbar]

Wonderful news! And earlier than you thought. Happy packing!

 

[Paffi]

I wish I could hear them!

 

[willverduzco]

Erin's review is live now, and as expected, substantial praise is given to the wide soundstage, extremely low distortion, and overall linearity.

The only real concern he aired was a slight lack of attack due to a shallow dip in the upper midrange. In the video, he suggests running a single PEQ band to compensate: 2.5kHz, +1dB, Q=1.0

 

[kharan]

Honestly, that's super interesting because that dip on-axis is nearly perfectly compensated by the off-axis yielding an almost neutral PIR response. Very informative on how he hears things.

 

[IngMishael]

Erin's review is live now, and as expected, substantial praise is given to the wide soundstage, extremely low distortion, and overall linearity.

The only real concern he aired was a slight lack of attack due to a shallow dip in the upper midrange. In the video, he suggests running a single PEQ band to compensate: 2.5kHz, +1dB, Q=1.0

great review

 

[Audiofirstdesigns_Harry]

Erin's review is live now, and as expected, substantial praise is given to the wide soundstage, extremely low distortion, and overall linearity.

The only real concern he aired was a slight lack of attack due to a shallow dip in the upper midrange. In the video, he suggests running a single PEQ band to compensate: 2.5kHz, +1dB, Q=1.0

Thanks for sharing here!

I made a comment under the video but somehow I can't see it publicly... but I do wanna mention here regarding the mild dip on-axis around 2.5kHz.

When I was tuning the crossover design, I was mostly targeting a super smooth down-tilted in-room response, but if I made the on-axis completely flat, the in-room response curve would have a tiny bump around that region. So after a few months of listening, I settled on the current design, just because if I can't make something perfect, as a designer's preference, I would rather have a sound signature a touch more on the relaxed side. You can really listen to these for a whole day with no fatigue. For the DIY kit customers, if you want to try out Erin's preferred tuning without using EQ, but "physically", you can simply replace one of the capacitors on the crossover or solder a small one on top in parallel to increase the value (contact me for the details), then you will get almost the same response like what Erin showed after the EQ.

 

[IngMishael]

Thanks for sharing here!

I made a comment under the video but somehow I can't see it publicly... but I do wanna mention here regarding the mild dip on-axis around 2.5kHz.

When I was tuning the crossover design, I was mostly targeting a super smooth down-tilted in-room response, but if I made the on-axis completely flat, the in-room response curve would have a tiny bump around that region. So after a few months of listening, I settled on the current design, just because if I can't make something perfect, as a designer's preference, I would rather have a sound signature a touch more on the relaxed side. You can really listen to these for a whole day with no fatigue. For the DIY kit customers, if you want to try out Erin's preferred tuning without using EQ, but "physically", you can simply replace one of the capacitors on the crossover or solder a small one on top in parallel to increase the value (contact me for the details), then you will get almost the same response like what Erin showed after the EQ.

that's great to hear. might have to ping Erin about the missing comment so he can pin it

 

[WeekendWarrior]

Thanks for sharing here!

I made a comment under the video but somehow I can't see it publicly... but I do wanna mention here regarding the mild dip on-axis around 2.5kHz.

When I was tuning the crossover design, I was mostly targeting a super smooth down-tilted in-room response, but if I made the on-axis completely flat, the in-room response curve would have a tiny bump around that region. So after a few months of listening, I settled on the current design, just because if I can't make something perfect, as a designer's preference, I would rather have a sound signature a touch more on the relaxed side. You can really listen to these for a whole day with no fatigue. For the DIY kit customers, if you want to try out Erin's preferred tuning without using EQ, but "physically", you can simply replace one of the capacitors on the crossover or solder a small one on top in parallel to increase the value (contact me for the details), then you will get almost the same response like what Erin showed after the EQ.

I can see the comment and the replies to it which in case you can't see them are all complimentary and appreciative of you explaining your design choices

 

[xftan]

hi harry ，我来自大陆，写的是简体字唔知你睇唔睇得明，最近有关注你对三路书架箱，有三个问题 ，原本想发私信但发送失败。

第一，音箱脚架高40cm ，高音喇叭离地应该只有不到90cm高，而正常座椅耳朵离地面超过1米高，对唔正个喇叭。

第二，看了YouTube 的评测，看到中高音略有凹陷，你回应如果填平凹陷，在房间聆听又会凸起来，diy 可以根据客户要求填平凹陷，成品无提到，我想比较平直的直线，外国人的测量方式好像是轴向和你说讲的房间聆听两个模式我又不知道有什么区别。

第三我房间只有5米x5米大小，做了简单的声学处理，不知道能否消化9寸的低音。

 

[IngMishael]

hi harry ，我来自大陆，写的是简体字唔知你睇唔睇得明，最近有关注你对三路书架箱，有三个问题 ，原本想发私信但发送失败。

第一，音箱脚架高40cm ，高音喇叭离地应该只有不到90cm高，而正常座椅耳朵离地面超过1米高，对唔正个喇叭。

第二，看了YouTube 的评测，看到中高音略有凹陷，你回应如果填平凹陷，在房间聆听又会凸起来，diy 可以根据客户要求填平凹陷，成品无提到，我想比较平直的直线，外国人的测量方式好像是轴向和你说讲的房间聆听两个模式我又不知道有什么区别。

第三我房间只有5米x5米大小，做了简单的声学处理，不知道能否消化9寸的低音。

@Audiofirstdesigns_Harry