Hivi 3.1A DIY Speaker With Sehlin Mod Review

[Beanman]

I have a Minidsp shd. Can I use this to beat it into shape or is the mod necessary for the best possible sound? Thanks in advance.

 

[Mudjock]

On Amir's initial post on page 1, he indicates the filter settings he chose to apply to Mod 4, which you can definitely implement with Minidsp. If you are starting with the factory crossover, that's a different story. You can, to some extent "beat it into shape", but you might have some issues in the crossover region due to the less than optimal handoff between drivers. DSP won't fix that. If you are starting with Mod 4, 5 or 6, then MiniDSP should be able to get you to what you want.

 

[Beanman]

Thank you. Thats what is was looking for

 

[Reydepancakes]

Update for those who wondered. Received package today. The amazon listing from the new distributor states this now includes the "perfectionist" crossover. Quick look at the crossover box contents - this is not true. It is the same as the original stock.

As such, will be buying the following parts to start building Mod #5. Using the Jantzen coil as no other 18 awg coil is currently available. The resistors cost an extra dollar but meh why not. I may still try to find a poly 68uF cap or move up to mod 6 but the extra cost doesn't quit seem worth it at this point, especially with mod 4 reviewing so well.

 

[dr_mick51]

I used Jantzen Standard capacitors for the mid woofer and tweeter. Those are a step up compared to the Dayton Audio (Bennic) capacitors. And put some small film caps as bypasses as well. Those Russian Paper in Oil capacitors sound very good, or the CDE 940C capacitors.

 

[Reydepancakes]

I used Jantzen Standard capacitors for the mid woofer and tweeter. Those are a step up compared to the Dayton Audio (Bennic) capacitors. And put some small film caps as bypasses as well. Those Russian Paper in Oil capacitors sound very good, or the CDE 940C capacitors.

Interesting - may have to consider a way to swap out capacitors easily in the future. I see the snap in posts screw in, I wonder if I can get just get some long stand offs that screw in.

I built the boxes. Note the bevel was crooked on one piece and I tried to file it to be close to the 45 it is supposed to. When I taped the all up and put it together, not quite perfect. I subsequently probably over clamped them and had to clean up the edges later. Not a big deal as I’m sure its all within 1-2mm.

One thing I did I haven’t seen done - I bought some 10mm 2mm thick neo mags from amazon and press fit them into the stock speaker grill holes. Then drilled similar holes in the grills for a magnetically attached grill. I know theoretically this could affect sound quality but I quesioned it would be any more than the adjacent magents within the drivers themselves.

 

[direwolf08]

Looks great! Seeing those pictures is bring back memories of building these with my son. Was such a fun project.

 

[Beanman]

Seems that way. It does have me questioning if the circuit location or the component value which is correct on the packaging. I believe it's the inductance rating as just by eyeballing it, the .6 seems to have a few more windings than the other. Don't think there's a good way to measure these inductors with a typical multimeter.

Did you find out which goes where? I am confused too.

 

[Reydepancakes]

Regarding the instructions - They aren't great, use best judgment and the videos. Notable errors I've seen so far:
-pictures of the MDF layout show the glue up with the crossover mounting posts on the wrong side of the cabinet.
-I also noticed the mislabelled bags of the inductors. I'm assuming the inductance value is correct but the "L2" or "L3" is not and the manual has it correct. The inductors themselves have no labels. I also eyeballed and agreed but clearly not a great technique. Wish I tried measuring reistance before soldering them in.

Cabinets are nearly done. One more coat of danish oil. First time veneering. Not shown are the minor imperfections seeping glue, mini patch repair, and a corner I accidentally sanded through the veneer on the back. Great reminder to everyone that mistakes are what make it DIY and woodworking is how you recover/hide basic mistakes.

Ended up ordering poly caps which I'm waiting for. Deciding on grill fabric for the magnetic grill covers. Ordered an ia255.1 RSL amp which I think should be fine for nearfield. Ordering Rythmik L12.

Accounting for materials, tools, time, and labor? DIY isn't cheap but I am very much enjoying this project. Should be a nice upgrade from the Klipsch ProMedias...

 

[direwolf08]

The veneer looks awesome! I used medium walnut Danish Oil to finish my veneer as well (my veneer was figured Imbuya). You're going to love your first listen!

 

[Reydepancakes]

They are done.


Few more notes:

-soldering stranded wire sucks and was messy. I made it work but hope nobody sees it. I tinned the wired to the drivers, which then wouldn't fit. I snipped a gap, bent, slid them in, then soldered. Definitely go easy on the heat on the mid - didn't realize the terminal is directly connected to a piece of plastic. This was all hampered by the total wires being too short, 6 more inches from the company would have saved some strife

-the provided stuffing works. Does get a bit tight around the drivers. Used the cut guide from their YouTube video. This leaves gaps in the top I went back in and filled with the extra.

-if you use the crossover posts you'll have extra screws, the manual never adequately says where these crossover screws are supposed to go and I saw no holes for them.

-speaking of crossover mounts, one of the threaded inserts was without threads... Ended up pressing the plastic clip in.

-used electrolytic capacitor because I became impatient waiting for shipping.

-only the tweeter gasket is the exact right size, the rest take finagling



The rsl ia255.1 works well for these. Rythmik has all the l12s backordered till November so no sub for now.



Now just need to find a neat grill fabric. If anybody has a source please let me know. Got some sample fabric before figuring out they required 5 yard minimum... I wouldn't mind acoustic panels but this seems too matchy.

 

[Reydepancakes]

Took it to heart

 

[direwolf08]

They look amazing, excellent job! How do they sound, and why is your answer ‘fantastic’?

As for speaker cloth, the gray looks really nice. I think tweed or linen would look great too. Linen would make them look very KLH Model 5 and a cool blend of retro and modern.

 

[AlesM]

Hello everyone,

I just finished my HiVi Swans 3.1. in oak massive front and high gloss metallic black cabinet.
I redo the crossover from Mod 4 to Mod5 and they are amazing. Totally different and so much better as MOD1.

Whe I connected them to amplifier HTA100 is listening to them an addiction .

I wanna upgrade to MOD 6 but tha parts are a bit expensive, so I thought to myselve to make different aproach.

For price of crossover parts you get two new midbass drivers. So I thought I would made flor standing speakers.

Here I am asking for suggestions what ported cabinet to built.

1. dubble volume and both woofers in same cabinet
2. separate cabinet one driver in 0.63 cf cabinet other in 1.3cf cabinet (as suggested)
3. one cabinet in 2.3cbf cabinet

what would be changes to crossover. My idea is simply to connect them parallel.

any ideas are welcome, calculations even more.

 

[ROOSKIE]

Hello everyone,

I just finished my HiVi Swans 3.1. in oak massive front and high gloss metallic black cabinet.
I redo the crossover from Mod 4 to Mod5 and they are amazing. Totally different and so much better as MOD1.

Whe I connected them to amplifier HTA100 is listening to them an addiction .

I wanna upgrade to MOD 6 but tha parts are a bit expensive, so I thought to myselve to make different aproach.

For price of crossover parts you get two new midbass drivers. So I thought I would made flor standing speakers.

Here I am asking for suggestions what ported cabinet to built.

1. dubble volume and both woofers in same cabinet
2. separate cabinet one driver in 0.63 cf cabinet other in 1.3cf cabinet (as suggested)
3. one cabinet in 2.3cbf cabinet

what would be changes to crossover. My idea is simply to connect them parallel.

any ideas are welcome, calculations even more.

Just get a subwoofer or 2. Far better bass. I would forget about adding extra 6" drivers. If you DIY them you can make some really full range speakers. Power the subs with their own amp, active cross between the subs and your monitors and you wont need to work out passive mods. You will still have fun blending the subs in as that is actually a project. Make sure you can measure and analyze what you are seeing
And/Or get a PEQ and you can play tuning that speaker way if you like listening for small variations in sound.
You can also use the PEQ for room adaptation below 400 or so hrz.

In terms of adding 2 woofers. Are you talking about paralleling them with the current woofers? Don't, you will have a sub 2ohm load. The system already dips below 3ohms with strong phase angles in high energy zones with the mods you have made to the xover.

Adding the extra drivers would require mods to the crossover and you would likely want to replace the existing woofer with a 8ohm woofer and parallel 2, 8ohm woofers.
You would need good measurements of the frequency response of the final design in box to get a great crossover. I wouldn't want to just calculate one. Though with the available stuff posted online depending on your design you might do alright with importing and calculation/modeling.

Have fun whatever you decide

The 8ohm version of the HiVi woofer is on sale at Madisound for $36 each, though I still suggest making a couple 8-12" subs in 'stands' for the monitors rather than extra 6's to have your towers be really potent.

Hi-Vi L6-8R 6" Woven Cone Woofer with Phase Plug, 8 ohm

Hi-Vi L6-8R 6" Woven Cone Woofer with Phase Plug, 8 ohm

www.madisoundspeakerstore.com

Something like this but the sky is the limit and the subs could be side firing to keep the cabs narrow.

 

[sychan]

I wanna upgrade to MOD 6 but tha parts are a bit expensive, so I thought to myselve to make different aproach.

For price of crossover parts you get two new midbass drivers. So I thought I would made flor standing speakers.
[...]
what would be changes to crossover. My idea is simply to connect them parallel.

It took some work to get to mod5 on that speaker kit, and Scott Sehlin (who did the different mods) was already pretty experienced designing speakers and crossovers. I don't think you are going to be able to just drop in a new pair of midbass drivers, make an easy/cheap mod to the crossover and get something that sounds even close to better.

 

[Mudjock]

Hello everyone,

I just finished my HiVi Swans 3.1. in oak massive front and high gloss metallic black cabinet.
I redo the crossover from Mod 4 to Mod5 and they are amazing. Totally different and so much better as MOD1.

Whe I connected them to amplifier HTA100 is listening to them an addiction .

I wanna upgrade to MOD 6 but tha parts are a bit expensive, so I thought to myselve to make different aproach.

For price of crossover parts you get two new midbass drivers. So I thought I would made flor standing speakers.

Here I am asking for suggestions what ported cabinet to built.

1. dubble volume and both woofers in same cabinet
2. separate cabinet one driver in 0.63 cf cabinet other in 1.3cf cabinet (as suggested)
3. one cabinet in 2.3cbf cabinet

what would be changes to crossover. My idea is simply to connect them parallel.

any ideas are welcome, calculations even more.

I'd like to chime in a little on this concept. 1st of all, the woofers are 4 ohms. Two in parallel would create a 2 ohm load, which would be challenging at best for most amps. The more common approach in this case would be to connect the two woofers in series. In that scenario, you would be buying all new crossover parts for the woofer circuit (as a general rule, the impact would be to double the inductor values and halve the capacitor values. That would get you somewhat close, but there would still have to be additional tweaking to get the midrange to integrate effectively with the two woofers. Also, you wouldn't really gain any additional bass extension - just power handling.

All in all, it would be more expensive to add the woofer than do mod6. That said, I'm not really sure mod6 will have a major impact either. I currently am using mod5. As suggested above, adding a subwoofer or dual subs that could also serve as stands for the 3.1's is likely to be a better option overall if you want to take things to another level.

 

[svosprey]

The good thing about the mod is that the circuit board that comes with the kit can be used. 7 of the 12 components are changed. I think someone posted a picture of which components are changed. If I can find it, I will post it. Otherwise, I will have to make one.

Update: The kit now come with the mod components for the "perfectionist" mod. I just bought a pair and they had a $70 dollar off coupon! Delivered with tax $300 10/11/2023.

 

[svosprey]

Oops. Just added to the review:

Update: The kit now come with the mod components for the "perfectionist" mod. I just bought a pair and they had a $70 dollar off coupon! Delivered with tax $300 10/11/2023.

 

[Reydepancakes]

Update: The kit now come with the mod components for the "perfectionist" mod. I just bought a pair and they had a $70 dollar off coupon! Delivered with tax $300 10/11/2023.

If your experience is like mine and everybody else, the amazon listing is just wrong. It does not come with the mod components.