Pluvia 11 based sphere speaker project

[ppataki]

Now that I am finished filling my living room with 'space balls' I have decided that I will do the same with our bedroom/home office upstairs

The project will be almost the same as the one above but with the difference that this time I will use Markaudio Pluvia 11 (the chrome color version) instead of Markaudio CHN110
I absolutely love the CHN110, I just want to experiment further - I have never tried the Pluvia range before, I am simply curious

Today I got the Ikea salad bowls, the drivers shall arrive next week

I will keep posting the progress, as usual
Stay tuned!

 

[ppataki]

A quick update while I am making progress with the build
- the drivers unfortunately won't arrive this week but next week only
- I have figured out the question of the speaker stands; again I will be using another Ikea product which is actually a plant stand made of bamboo too (just like the salad bowls used for the cabinets)

See some preliminary pictures attached about setup variations
I will probably paint the speakers white and the stand black - but this is to be decided yet

 

[ppataki]

The drivers have finally arrived!

In my opinion they look beautiful

If I wanted to compare them with the CHN110 I would say that the magnet is definitely bigger (and thus heavier) and the basket is not made of steel but plastic
The screw-holes have a different design and so do the connectors

I am progressing well with the cabinet (essentially it is the same as with my previous project so I will not repeat those pictures here)

I will report back once the 'balls' are put together (hopefully end of this week)

 

[Saponetto]

"Nobody goes Ikea for getting things they sold, but for what these things could become", or something similar, is the Ikea-Hack mantra!
Have luck with your project!

 

[ppataki]

I am happy to report that the build is complete!

Some photos:

See below some recordings about how it sounds with no DSP except for a low shelf (anyway that is a must-have for closed cabinets)

3 new items by Peter Pataki

photos.app.goo.gl

Next step is to perform some measurements and optimization with Dirac and co.
I will post those too when ready
Any questions/comments please don't hesitate

 

[ppataki]

And now the measurements!
Please note that the placement in the room is not ideal, I have huge room-mode induced dips and therefore distortion in those areas as already highlighted in the previous project.

All measurements were made at MLP (around 80cm), L+R channels, 1/12 smoothing

Let's start with the no correction/DSP measurements:

Actually it does not sound as bad as it seems
However, note the phase curve....I would say it is near-textbook

Distortion as mentioned is there due to the room mode dips:

Step:

GD:

Waterfall:

Wavelet:

Now let's see the Dirac corrected graphs:
(note that I did not apply any low-shelf pre-Dirac in the signal path; I have tried it and it will make the low-end look much nicer but distortion kicks-in so I decided not to do that)

Note the Peak Energy time curve.... I think it looks pretty good!

Overall I am really satisfied with the results and subjectively speaking with the sound too!
Unfortunately the room/placement in the room ruins the performance but I was aware of that based on past experience
I might consider adding a sub but since I mainly use my bigger system in the living room I am not sure if I am going to spend more money on this one - will see

For those who are interested I will post more videos about the post-DSP sound and I consider this project to be finished!
One remark on that: on top of Dirac I also apply other DSP tools to elevate the highs (which get muted when optimizing the FR to flat - this is normal with full range speakers) and also to boost the lows
Those were not part of the measurements I have posted above

Any questions/comments please shoot

 

[ppataki]

Finally some videos post-DSP (Dirac fully flat + some other VST plugins to 'voice' to taste)

3 new items by Peter Pataki

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[7Tiger]

View attachment 372450

Nice finish Chalk paint ? What kind of tool did you use to get such texture ?

 

[ppataki]

Nice finish Chalk paint ? What kind of tool did you use to get such texture ?

Thank you!

I used ultra matte white chalk paint - this one
For the texture I used a superfine roller, like this one