Introducing Denotiva DIY speakers!

[Inertiaman]

His page has been up for sometime, dxt mon is 9 years old at this point. The fact that plans cost money is why people don't build his stuff, but imo worth the cost since they seem to perform better than most speakers. Plenty of average to poor free designs out there with active designers to pick from.

Yeah, the DXT-Mon 182 went up nearly 5 years ago. Although the DXT-Mon-RNX posted only ~ 18 months ago (fwiw, I'm about to begin a build of that model).

I actually don't mind his business model. Much preferred to Troel's approach where you have to buy the crossover kit from Jantzen, forcing you into boutique capacitors and also $150+ shipping fees. I like that Heissmann doesn't promote the expensive capacitor snake oil and you can source the components as you wish. I will say Troel's construction guidance is top notch, and that element is a bit lacking in Heissmann's plans.

 

[Inertiaman]

Suzie Q looks a lot like what a number of members seem to request. Is like the Mechano23 with a more serious woofer. Did not see post of horizontal heat map, but line plots look promising.

But at 22L vs 8L its nearly 3X the size of Mechano23, so a different beast despite sharing the same tweeter.

 

[RickS]

But at 22L vs 8L its nearly 3X the size of Mechano23, so a different beast despite sharing the same tweeter.

Yes, but an 8 inch woofer needs the volume or it is wasted. 22 liters is not all that big. Admittedly, it would be a larger bookshelf speaker but it is the tradeoff as it has decent sensitivity. Would agree it is a bigger beast. Mechano23 reminds me of my Zaph MTs, it probably is fine for nearfield or a surround speaker but a single small woofer is too limited for my purposes.

 

[RickS]

Yeah Suzie Q looks great. I actually have a pair of H2606 somewhere. Someday I might build a pair. Those Scans woofs are not cheap though. He designed it to be easy to construct, but the results don't indicate he had to compromise much in performance

Woofer is $130 each at Madisound. Seems a bargain for Scan-Speaker driver.

 

[Bryguy]

Woofer is $130 each at Madisound. Seems a bargain for Scan-Speaker driver.

Oh I don't question their value, but it's still pricey!

 

[Inertiaman]

Yes, but an 8 inch woofer needs the volume or it is wasted. 22 liters is not all that big. Admittedly, it would be a larger bookshelf speaker but it is the tradeoff as it has decent sensitivity. Would agree it is a bigger beast. Mechano23 reminds me of my Zaph MTs, it probably is fine for nearfield or a surround speaker but a single small woofer is too limited for my purposes.

Totally agree that the volume is appropriate to the driver and objective, and the result is a much less limited loudspeaker. Still half the size of the 45L 2-way from Troels that uses the 22W/8534G00 !! Was just pointing out the significant size difference probably puts the Suzie-Q and Mechano23 into different "buyer" demographics.

 

[RickS]

Oh I don't question their value, but it's still pricey!

All relative I guess, but after paying for the Purifi woofers, even the Wavecor seems a bargain.

 

[Bryguy]

All relative I guess, but after paying for the Purifi woofers, even the Wavecor seems a bargain.

Fair enough! Lol

 

[Ktacos]

How well does the dxt fit in the ~104mm nd25fw cutout?

 

[RickS]

How well does the dxt fit in the ~104mm nd25fw cutout?

Actually, mine is the other way around as the baffle was done for the DXT. Is an easy swap except the DXT has a thicker flange so use the ND25 with a substantial gasket.

 

[Ktacos]

Depth is fine, how about the diameter? I have a 104mm flange tower I've always wanted to change the tweeter in and the nd25fw doesn't go low enough.

 

[RickS]

Depth is fine, how about the diameter? I have a 104mm flange tower I've always wanted to change the tweeter in and the nd25fw doesn't go low enough.

same, as well as the screw holes.

 

[Audiomeisterei]

Since I had bothered to build the crossover, used it to confirm my sim even with the impedance dip. The sim was a good match but found another issue that will likely force out the Dayton ND25FW. Even at my fairly high (3 kHz) crossover point, it has a distortion peak around 1.3 kHz. I went back and looked at Amir's C-Note measurements (and my driver measurements) and confirmed it. I apparently overlooked it on a $100/pair speaker, but for Denotiva, am not willing to ignore. My planned crossover redesign might improve this slightly but unlikely to be better than the C-Note.


View attachment 388655

As I had it on the stand, gave it a quick listen and thought it sounds pretty good. It has a sharp distortion peak. May not be all that audible (as Amir did not complain either) but not up to my target and there are plenty of other tweeters to consider.

EDIT: turned out was mistaken about the tweeter, please see subsequent posts.

This might be a dumb question, but I’m a beginner, so please bear with me. I’ve decided to build a tested speaker kit that includes the AMTHR, SIG180, and SIG270 drivers (https://www.lautsprechershop.de/hifi/daydream_sig_270_en.htm). While I’m in the process of building the proper enclosure, I’d like to use RickS Denotiva’s crossover with an old enclosure I have on hand. The enclosure has an internal volume of 38 liters (1.35 ft³) and a circular port measuring 5.5 cm in diameter and 13 cm in length.

Would this setup work, or are there issues I should expect? It doesn’t need to sound perfect—the drivers from the old enclosure were destroyed at the last party, and they sound awful now.

 

[RickS]

This might be a dumb question, but I’m a beginner, so please bear with me. I’ve decided to build a tested speaker kit that includes the AMTHR, SIG180, and SIG270 drivers (https://www.lautsprechershop.de/hifi/daydream_sig_270_en.htm). While I’m in the process of building the proper enclosure, I’d like to use RickS Denotiva’s crossover with an old enclosure I have on hand. The enclosure has an internal volume of 38 liters (1.35 ft³) and a circular port measuring 5.5 cm in diameter and 13 cm in length.

Would this setup work, or are there issues I should expect? It doesn’t need to sound perfect—the drivers from the old enclosure were destroyed at the last party, and they sound awful now.

Interesting design. No, the Denotiva crossover is not appropriate. Are you not using the supplied one for the design?

 

[Audiomeisterei]

I think I didn’t explain my plan very well My goal is to build the new enclosure for the linked 3-way kit using my new laser cutter, which is set to arrive in a couple of months. In the meantime, I’d like to have a temporary working solution that performs acceptably. For this temporary setup, I plan to use the old enclosure with your 2-way crossover, connecting only the AMTHR and SIG180.

 

[RickS]

I think I didn’t explain my plan very well My goal is to build the new enclosure for the linked 3-way kit using my new laser cutter, which is set to arrive in a couple of months. In the meantime, I’d like to have a temporary working solution that performs acceptably. For this temporary setup, I plan to use the old enclosure with your 2-way crossover, connecting only the AMTHR and SIG180.

If temporary, would just use the existing crossover or the one supplied with the new design. Send schematic via PM if you want to disable high pass on the SIG180 until your tooling arrives.

 

[Audiomeisterei]

I dismounted the old crossover and created a schematic, but unfortunately, most of the component labels were not visible. All measurements were taken while the components were still soldered, and I don’t own an LCR meter to measure the inductance of the coils. :/ I was only able to measure the series resistance of the coils. I guess this doesn’t help much? The old crossover is a 3-way design, but the SIG270 won’t fit into the old enclosure, which is one of the reasons I thought of using your 2-way crossover as a temporary solution.

The new crossover is part of a German audio magazine (Hobby Hifi 1/2025) that isn’t available as an e-paper right now. I hope I can find it in a magazine store and buy it there tomorrow, and I’ll PM you the schematic then.

 

[kapes]

@RickS Any update on this speaker project? Was there a review of this speaker by Amir? Any update to plans of flatpack with baffle cutouts? Any updates on the version with Seas DXT tweeter?

 

[RickS]

I have a couple of Denotiva variants in the pipeline. Both are built but are stuck at the stage where I need to do the spins to design proper crossovers. As you may have read, I have had some diversion since. One was taking on the moderator role here but the major time sink was helping my son prep to sell his home. I also revisited my original subwoofer builds as a prominent member challenged me to compare sealed vs vented bass. Am now clear of that but am prepping my house for sale.

If you or other members want to start a project to complete a Denotiva design, am willing to move it to Directiva and help supply some drivers and support. However the project would need a dedicated project lead as I regret will not have time to take on that role again any time soon.

 

[kapes]

I'm not technically sound enough to take that role yet. I can help logistically in setting up vendors for you or for a potential group build to the community members. @TimVG or @617 might be the right persons, since they have contributed heavily to the r1 passive crossover.
Best of luck on your house sale. I'm also inclined to wait for you to free up and take this on again .