After seeing the success of Directiva,
But knowing the price, I wanted a nice small pair of passive bookshelf speakers for use in the second living room. I didn't need massive SPLs (if you need more SPLs the Directiva is much better - however that build is DSP XO + Multi Channel amplified). The Revel M105's looked like the business. As I am all the way down in NZ we cant easily get Revel speakers here. There is one dealer that brings them in to order but I'd end up paying way more than they are worth. So without a model to clone, I set out to make a copy. Here's what I've come up with, and I'm posting the design up free for non commercial use. (I think if I were in the US I would've just ponied up for an actual pair, but no fun right?)
Grain of salt and Disclaimer: All measurements made with 4.5ms gating spliced to NF at 550hz as per @napilopez amazing guide HERE. Spin measurements are also not taken at 2.83V so sensitivity should not be taken from spin measurements, but I did take a 2.83V/1m sweep to capture sensitivity. I use a combination of focusrite solo and EMM6 mics and a UMIK1 for captures and confirmation. Software used is the awesome REW and VituixCAD. Just like music producers don't need multi million dollar studios but can now make amazing music in their bedrooms, one can now make a rather good speaker in the garage with that software.
I also am by no means an established speaker builder - so please wait for peer review or ask here if you desire to build this speaker (as you will see later, I doubt many will want to copy this build, and its more of a prototype at this stage, I may make changes to the cabinet yet)
Preference Rating as built (per VituixCAD, I would imagine not quite so high through a klippel NFS)
SCORE: 6.4
SCORE w/sub: 8.2
Sensitivity: 81dB (as this is a full 6db BSC design, the woofer is 87dB half space)
Frequency response: +/-1.5dB 48Hz-12kHz
Frequency response: +/-3.0dB 42Hz-18kHz (I believe the acoustic lens/phase plug that revel has in their M105 waveguide allows the boost in the top octave to get flat to 20khz)
Even though the sensitivity is low, theoretically the max SPLs if crossed to a sub would be the same as the M105, just with a bit more power required. I was too scared to do a 102db sweep and 96db was as high as I went. I may do one later but start from 100hz on up to protect the woofer. I know the SB26 tweeter can do 103db.
You'll have to excuse the raw MDF finish and use your imagination here - I will apply a veneer/stain/polyurethane once the MDF has climatized to the house.
Cabinet Dimensions
External: 200W x 320H x 350D
Internal: 164W x 284H x 282D - gross around 13L. Less drivers, port and brace gets you around 12L.
Woofer 25mm from frame edge to bottom, 20mm between woofer and waveguide and 25mm between waveguide and top. All vertically centered.
Front baffle is from 30mm MDF - Why 30mm? 1. Allows me to run it across a router table with a 1"/25mm roundover bit and provide the roundover. 2. Strength. 3. The 25mm radius allows easier application of veneer as smaller radii are harder unless you go normal sharp edge - no roundover. See summary for more on this.
All other pieces 3/4"/18mm MDF. One full brace with holes running side to side, front to back between the woofer and tweeter.
I use screws for extra strength and to ensure lining up of panels when gluing and stop slipping. This is optional.
Also remember to chamfer the back of the woofer hole to let it breathe.
Rear Port is 50mm/2inch at a length of 210mm or 8 and a bit inches, placed roughly behind the tweeter.
Drivers
Woofer: SB15NBAC30-8 (yes, 8 ohm, more later in impedance) available from madisound HERE
Tweeter: SB26ADC-C000-4 available from madisound HERE
Waveguide: augerpro (on DIYA forum) available from somasonus HERE - please, if you use these, consider a donation to the author - his contribution to the art is worthy. Select the 5" sb26 and you can get printed from either xometry.com or i.materialise.com, or your local friend with a 3D printer! I have pictured the 6.5 version I also have but this build uses the 5 inch waveguide. More information can be found at diyaudio, search waveguides.
Note: 6.5 inch waveguide shown above, not used for this build.
Simulation and Crossover
The simulated preference rating w/o sub is 6.95! (wishful thinking)
Note the simulated padding resistor for the tweeter is 3.3 ohms however it is 4.5 ohms as built - I often run into this with vituixCAD and I need to add 0.5 to 1 ohm to my final builds in the high frequencies. Probably a problem with my measurement rig. Either way, you can adjust this value to your taste. Too hot up top? Make it 5 or 5.5 ohm. Like more sizzle? Try the 3.3 ohm. If you're building these I would hope you at least have a UMIK to measure the final result. Driver phase matching isn't affected too much.
The crossover uses third order electrical circuits to achieve 4th-order Linkwitz-Riley slopes on both drivers and one massive advantage is that the waveguide moves the tweeter back into the cabinet allowing for a nice phase matching between the drivers, i.e. time alignment, without a stepped or sloped baffle or asymmetric crossover slopes. The series LCR network before the woofer is required to bring down the baffle boost you get around 1khz with such a small baffle.
The inductors are all air core and the 100uf cap is electrolytic, and I don't care what brand or type you use so long as they measure up. That's been proven here at ASR. Here is my haphazard crossover. It don't need to be pretty, but you cannot butt inductors up next to each other. Google speaker inductor placement.
Here we go - As built Measurements
Spin (note: not at 2.83V)
On axis + LW
Directivity
Typical 2-way vertical XO holes above and below 20 degrees - usual caveat to stay on tweeter axis applies
2.83V Sweep and Inverted tweeter check
Impedance
Note I used the 8ohm woofer whereas I believe revel use a 4 ohm version (back when they used SB drivers) as @amirm measurements dip down below 4 ohms. The reason I went for the 8 ohm woofer is it modelled a bit deeper (more bass) at the cost of efficiency. The maximum SPLs between the two woofers are theoretically similar due to X-MAX so crossing to a sub and using high power class D the 8 ohm woofer seemed like the better choice to me. Also another reason why this isn't a clone but a copy.
Distortion @ 86dB SPL
Distortion @ 96dB SPL
As you can see, 96db is really starting make the little woofer sweat. In addition to this - I believe there is quite a bit of port chuffing noise (both at 86 and 96dB), that can likely be reduced by using a flared PE precision port or similar. At this stage I only used a bit of PVC pipe with no flared ends. Don't use non flared port ends kids. Air likes to be caressed into a hole not forced.
However crossing to a sub at 80-100hz would sort a lot of this distortion out and make the mid-bass much clearer and greatly reduce IMD in the woofer. The same could be said for the M105 I would've thought.
Estimated in room response
Drivers Near Field Response:
Now here is where some more problems show up - but remember this is an M105 copy, and I believe the M105 has the same problems as you will see - even though Amir conveniently(j.k.) did not measure the port output.
Heres my build with our old mate port resonance. I don't think it is audible, and because the port is to the back, even less so. I think this might drop away slightly with a flared port. But almost every commercial speaker has it to some degree, including I suspect the M105 see my comments on Amir's measurements here in green;
Food for thought anyway.
BOM 1 speaker as at writing - or why you might just buy a M105 instead
Woofer - $80.50
Tweeter - $54.40
Waveguide - $ - Varies - free (your own 3d printer?) to 100USD ea. Shop around. Looks like $45 EUR/ $50USD SLS print at i.materialise and $95 USD SLS print at xometry.com. Prices also fluctuate a bit so keep an eye out.
Crossover parts, terminal cup and port (all parts express) - $88.02. I used the precision port with the big flares in this price. Match inductor DCR's
MDF - ?? varies
Finishing ?? varies
Total - ~$272 ballpark per speaker depending on where you get waveguide plus MDF as I'm not sure the cost in your area, and however wild you want to go with a finish. As you can see this is creeping up for a DIY small bookshelf speaker but nowhere near directiva levels, but this is not directiva at all. It has good directivity, just won't go as loud or sound as clear at high volume. Considering a M105 is now going for $825 USD ea, this could be worthwhile. Certainly was for me down here in NZ, even with all the freight costs.
Summary, thoughts, and listening impressions
This speaker sounds as you would imagine, probably just like an M105 or pretty close, pretty mfn good for a lil bookshelf. I remember finalizing the crossover and my ears having an ahh moment when everything clicked. The bass from this woofer is great, I was surprised at how deep this thing goes, and the tonality of the whole speaker just sounds correct. Obviously up to a certain volume level. But its certainly loud enough for the room it is in and sounds perfect. Unfortunately I don't have a M105 to compare it too which I would love to do. As you might suspect, yes I just sat there for days going through the music collection with a big smile on my face. Once the volume gets up quite high you can hear a slight reduction in sound quality as the woofers excursion is muddying up the midrange.
What might I change?
These are a full 6db baffle loss design and are rear ported. They get a massive front wall in room gain, so bringing them away from the walls is almost a requirement. I would like to try a taller, less deep cabinet with a front mounted port. It probably wouldn't affect this crossover much to have the cabinet slightly taller. The problem though is front porting will create a peak with the port resonance as opposed to a dip so some more port work may be required. Or perhaps keep the port on the back and do a lesser baffle step correction say 3db allowing closer wall placement and letting the room gain do more lifting below 100hz.
Also, if you weren't able to do the round-overs I suppose one could use a 1" or even 3/4" front baffle and the crossover should still work, I suspect the problem would be the on axis diffraction might show up a bit more, just like it does on the M105 with its flat front baffle. See here M105 spin showing a 3db bump at 5kHz, where my build is not so severe on axis:
So I think the roundovers are optional. Maybe test before and after, see if you can hear the difference.
But overall I'm very happy with the speaker and plan to finish the cabinet and just keep enjoying it.
Open to comments, compliments and complaints - I know how much the audio community loves picking apart designs. Thanks for reading.
But knowing the price, I wanted a nice small pair of passive bookshelf speakers for use in the second living room. I didn't need massive SPLs (if you need more SPLs the Directiva is much better - however that build is DSP XO + Multi Channel amplified). The Revel M105's looked like the business. As I am all the way down in NZ we cant easily get Revel speakers here. There is one dealer that brings them in to order but I'd end up paying way more than they are worth. So without a model to clone, I set out to make a copy. Here's what I've come up with, and I'm posting the design up free for non commercial use. (I think if I were in the US I would've just ponied up for an actual pair, but no fun right?)
Grain of salt and Disclaimer: All measurements made with 4.5ms gating spliced to NF at 550hz as per @napilopez amazing guide HERE. Spin measurements are also not taken at 2.83V so sensitivity should not be taken from spin measurements, but I did take a 2.83V/1m sweep to capture sensitivity. I use a combination of focusrite solo and EMM6 mics and a UMIK1 for captures and confirmation. Software used is the awesome REW and VituixCAD. Just like music producers don't need multi million dollar studios but can now make amazing music in their bedrooms, one can now make a rather good speaker in the garage with that software.
I also am by no means an established speaker builder - so please wait for peer review or ask here if you desire to build this speaker (as you will see later, I doubt many will want to copy this build, and its more of a prototype at this stage, I may make changes to the cabinet yet)
Preference Rating as built (per VituixCAD, I would imagine not quite so high through a klippel NFS)
SCORE: 6.4
SCORE w/sub: 8.2
Sensitivity: 81dB (as this is a full 6db BSC design, the woofer is 87dB half space)
Frequency response: +/-1.5dB 48Hz-12kHz
Frequency response: +/-3.0dB 42Hz-18kHz (I believe the acoustic lens/phase plug that revel has in their M105 waveguide allows the boost in the top octave to get flat to 20khz)
Even though the sensitivity is low, theoretically the max SPLs if crossed to a sub would be the same as the M105, just with a bit more power required. I was too scared to do a 102db sweep and 96db was as high as I went. I may do one later but start from 100hz on up to protect the woofer. I know the SB26 tweeter can do 103db.
You'll have to excuse the raw MDF finish and use your imagination here - I will apply a veneer/stain/polyurethane once the MDF has climatized to the house.
Cabinet Dimensions
External: 200W x 320H x 350D
Internal: 164W x 284H x 282D - gross around 13L. Less drivers, port and brace gets you around 12L.
Woofer 25mm from frame edge to bottom, 20mm between woofer and waveguide and 25mm between waveguide and top. All vertically centered.
Front baffle is from 30mm MDF - Why 30mm? 1. Allows me to run it across a router table with a 1"/25mm roundover bit and provide the roundover. 2. Strength. 3. The 25mm radius allows easier application of veneer as smaller radii are harder unless you go normal sharp edge - no roundover. See summary for more on this.
All other pieces 3/4"/18mm MDF. One full brace with holes running side to side, front to back between the woofer and tweeter.
I use screws for extra strength and to ensure lining up of panels when gluing and stop slipping. This is optional.
Also remember to chamfer the back of the woofer hole to let it breathe.
Rear Port is 50mm/2inch at a length of 210mm or 8 and a bit inches, placed roughly behind the tweeter.
Drivers
Woofer: SB15NBAC30-8 (yes, 8 ohm, more later in impedance) available from madisound HERE
Tweeter: SB26ADC-C000-4 available from madisound HERE
Waveguide: augerpro (on DIYA forum) available from somasonus HERE - please, if you use these, consider a donation to the author - his contribution to the art is worthy. Select the 5" sb26 and you can get printed from either xometry.com or i.materialise.com, or your local friend with a 3D printer! I have pictured the 6.5 version I also have but this build uses the 5 inch waveguide. More information can be found at diyaudio, search waveguides.
Note: 6.5 inch waveguide shown above, not used for this build.
Simulation and Crossover
The simulated preference rating w/o sub is 6.95! (wishful thinking)
Note the simulated padding resistor for the tweeter is 3.3 ohms however it is 4.5 ohms as built - I often run into this with vituixCAD and I need to add 0.5 to 1 ohm to my final builds in the high frequencies. Probably a problem with my measurement rig. Either way, you can adjust this value to your taste. Too hot up top? Make it 5 or 5.5 ohm. Like more sizzle? Try the 3.3 ohm. If you're building these I would hope you at least have a UMIK to measure the final result. Driver phase matching isn't affected too much.
The crossover uses third order electrical circuits to achieve 4th-order Linkwitz-Riley slopes on both drivers and one massive advantage is that the waveguide moves the tweeter back into the cabinet allowing for a nice phase matching between the drivers, i.e. time alignment, without a stepped or sloped baffle or asymmetric crossover slopes. The series LCR network before the woofer is required to bring down the baffle boost you get around 1khz with such a small baffle.
The inductors are all air core and the 100uf cap is electrolytic, and I don't care what brand or type you use so long as they measure up. That's been proven here at ASR. Here is my haphazard crossover. It don't need to be pretty, but you cannot butt inductors up next to each other. Google speaker inductor placement.
Here we go - As built Measurements
Spin (note: not at 2.83V)
On axis + LW
Directivity
Typical 2-way vertical XO holes above and below 20 degrees - usual caveat to stay on tweeter axis applies
2.83V Sweep and Inverted tweeter check
Impedance
Note I used the 8ohm woofer whereas I believe revel use a 4 ohm version (back when they used SB drivers) as @amirm measurements dip down below 4 ohms. The reason I went for the 8 ohm woofer is it modelled a bit deeper (more bass) at the cost of efficiency. The maximum SPLs between the two woofers are theoretically similar due to X-MAX so crossing to a sub and using high power class D the 8 ohm woofer seemed like the better choice to me. Also another reason why this isn't a clone but a copy.
Distortion @ 86dB SPL
Distortion @ 96dB SPL
As you can see, 96db is really starting make the little woofer sweat. In addition to this - I believe there is quite a bit of port chuffing noise (both at 86 and 96dB), that can likely be reduced by using a flared PE precision port or similar. At this stage I only used a bit of PVC pipe with no flared ends. Don't use non flared port ends kids. Air likes to be caressed into a hole not forced.
However crossing to a sub at 80-100hz would sort a lot of this distortion out and make the mid-bass much clearer and greatly reduce IMD in the woofer. The same could be said for the M105 I would've thought.
Estimated in room response
Drivers Near Field Response:
Now here is where some more problems show up - but remember this is an M105 copy, and I believe the M105 has the same problems as you will see - even though Amir conveniently(j.k.) did not measure the port output.
Heres my build with our old mate port resonance. I don't think it is audible, and because the port is to the back, even less so. I think this might drop away slightly with a flared port. But almost every commercial speaker has it to some degree, including I suspect the M105 see my comments on Amir's measurements here in green;
Food for thought anyway.
BOM 1 speaker as at writing - or why you might just buy a M105 instead
Woofer - $80.50
Tweeter - $54.40
Waveguide - $ - Varies - free (your own 3d printer?) to 100USD ea. Shop around. Looks like $45 EUR/ $50USD SLS print at i.materialise and $95 USD SLS print at xometry.com. Prices also fluctuate a bit so keep an eye out.
Crossover parts, terminal cup and port (all parts express) - $88.02. I used the precision port with the big flares in this price. Match inductor DCR's
MDF - ?? varies
Finishing ?? varies
Total - ~$272 ballpark per speaker depending on where you get waveguide plus MDF as I'm not sure the cost in your area, and however wild you want to go with a finish. As you can see this is creeping up for a DIY small bookshelf speaker but nowhere near directiva levels, but this is not directiva at all. It has good directivity, just won't go as loud or sound as clear at high volume. Considering a M105 is now going for $825 USD ea, this could be worthwhile. Certainly was for me down here in NZ, even with all the freight costs.
Summary, thoughts, and listening impressions
This speaker sounds as you would imagine, probably just like an M105 or pretty close, pretty mfn good for a lil bookshelf. I remember finalizing the crossover and my ears having an ahh moment when everything clicked. The bass from this woofer is great, I was surprised at how deep this thing goes, and the tonality of the whole speaker just sounds correct. Obviously up to a certain volume level. But its certainly loud enough for the room it is in and sounds perfect. Unfortunately I don't have a M105 to compare it too which I would love to do. As you might suspect, yes I just sat there for days going through the music collection with a big smile on my face. Once the volume gets up quite high you can hear a slight reduction in sound quality as the woofers excursion is muddying up the midrange.
What might I change?
These are a full 6db baffle loss design and are rear ported. They get a massive front wall in room gain, so bringing them away from the walls is almost a requirement. I would like to try a taller, less deep cabinet with a front mounted port. It probably wouldn't affect this crossover much to have the cabinet slightly taller. The problem though is front porting will create a peak with the port resonance as opposed to a dip so some more port work may be required. Or perhaps keep the port on the back and do a lesser baffle step correction say 3db allowing closer wall placement and letting the room gain do more lifting below 100hz.
Also, if you weren't able to do the round-overs I suppose one could use a 1" or even 3/4" front baffle and the crossover should still work, I suspect the problem would be the on axis diffraction might show up a bit more, just like it does on the M105 with its flat front baffle. See here M105 spin showing a 3db bump at 5kHz, where my build is not so severe on axis:
So I think the roundovers are optional. Maybe test before and after, see if you can hear the difference.
But overall I'm very happy with the speaker and plan to finish the cabinet and just keep enjoying it.
Open to comments, compliments and complaints - I know how much the audio community loves picking apart designs. Thanks for reading.
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