In case anyone building these is using @wineds PCB boards, these little shock/anti vibration grommets fit the mounting holes nicely.
M3 - 6.6m
M3 - 6.6m
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Small 2-way speakers with linear on-axis and power response characteristics (Scan Speak and SB Acoustics drivers). H&V off-axis measurements included
- Thread starter XMechanik
- Start date
Nice find thanks.
HighFutility
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How much power can these speakers handle before distortion/cone excursion/port chuff takes over? Could they be used in a home theatre 5.1 surround setup?
sebastian k
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I don’t think the question is about power handling, but rather about SPL. amirm's review gives us a good indication of what the Mechano23 is capable of. Is that enough for you? Only you can answer that.
How large is your room? How far are the speakers from your listening position? And most importantly: what SPL are you aiming to reach at that position? I think the Mechano23 can be a lot of fun, but in a large room, they probably won’t hit reference level.
Another important consideration for a home theater setup is speaker placement. Oftentimes, on-wall speakers are necessary—and since the Mechano23 has its bass reflex port on the back, that could pose a challenge.
As for distortion, XMechanik has suggested a way to reduce it even further.
Regarding port noise, there have been multiple discussions in this thread with the general consecus that a larger (or second) port would be beneficial.
I just "finished" (raw MDF for now, veneer probably coming later this year) my pair of Mechano23, and I wanted to give a huge thanks to XMechanik for this incredible design.
How large is your room? How far are the speakers from your listening position? And most importantly: what SPL are you aiming to reach at that position? I think the Mechano23 can be a lot of fun, but in a large room, they probably won’t hit reference level.
Another important consideration for a home theater setup is speaker placement. Oftentimes, on-wall speakers are necessary—and since the Mechano23 has its bass reflex port on the back, that could pose a challenge.
As for distortion, XMechanik has suggested a way to reduce it even further.
Regarding port noise, there have been multiple discussions in this thread with the general consecus that a larger (or second) port would be beneficial.
I just "finished" (raw MDF for now, veneer probably coming later this year) my pair of Mechano23, and I wanted to give a huge thanks to XMechanik for this incredible design.
a4eaudio
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The SB13PFC 5" woofer in 8 Liters tuned to 45Hz will handle about 25 watts before hitting xmax. At that level, a single speaker will produce roughly 94dB anechoic. If you look at Amirm's review, the distortion at 96dB is labeled "Woofer now unhappy", which is consistent with the box modelling.
carbidetooth
Active Member
Oh, cool! What sort of material are you using?
I'm using both epoxy and polyurethane resins. Since each baffle uses about 26 ounces of resin I am trying the cheaper stuff first. Both are plenty rigid.
carbidetooth
Active Member
I'm very interested in your results...please keep us updated. I have a bit of mold making experience in the marine world with polyester resin and some pour experience with epoxy that went way wrong.
HighFutility
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Hey, Thanks for the recommendation. I scooped these up and put them to use. Sometimes the screw took off the lower portion but I got the job done in the end.
It can be pretty tricky. At least with routing MDF you don't have to consider minor shifts in ambient temperature!
I will probably offer some of these up at some point to recoup some project expense. I might make matching rear port tubes at some point too.
Very true, but there is this tricky thing called outer vs inner diameter on the circle router jig.
It took a small collection of baffles to realize it wasn’t my jig that was broken - lol.
Those molded baffles look very cool BTW!! Super interested in your final results.
Routers can do all sorts of kooky things even when you set things right. I really wanted to get the tolerances right. I think I nailed the woofer.Very true, but there is this tricky thing called outer vs inner diameter on the circle router jig.
It took a small collection of baffles to realize it wasn’t my jig that was broken - lol.
Those molded baffles look very cool BTW!! Super interested in your final results.
Attachments
Yes they can, but in my instance it was 100% operator error - lol.
That is just about perfect, not sure it gets any better than that!!
you bet, glad they worked! I used a #6 pan head screw which fit in the grommet nicely without tearing it up.
benjamelon
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@XMechanik Your design is fantastic, and I appreciate the effort and openness you've shown and encouraged in the community here. It really is one of the cooler projects I've seen, and it's wonderful to see so many people interested in continuing those efforts. That being said, in order to be properly open source, this project needs enveloped under some sort of open source license. What license, if any, are these designs and drawings released under? If they aren't currently licensed, could you please consider adding an open source license to this project? For example, I'm partial to the CERN OHL licenses for my PCB projects. The Open Source Hardware Association has a great Best Practices for Open Source Hardware guide that explains the CERN licenses and which one you may want to choose.
- Thread Starter
- #578
Thanks a lot. A while ago, I was trying to figure out some formalization of what "open source" means in this case. I was considering using one of the Creative Commons options. Those CERN licenses also look interesting, although I would have to read them a bit more carefully since the topic is generally quite new to me.
HighFutility
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Hey, im looking to build my second pair. Looking for some insight into my modification. After some tinkering around, I came up with the following. This modification still does not account for x-over and the volume of the drivers' take-up. I was going to double baffle the front, however I really like the small form factor of the speakers and do not want to increase the depth by another 17-19mm, (3/4 birch vs MDF). This time around, I was going to build it out of Baltic birch and maybe round off all the corners to give the March Audio Sointuva look.
Regarding the window brace, it's going to be a 17mm wide brace all around. I am actually going to use MDF for this because of the cost.
Does this look okay?
Edit 1: Should I undersize the brace by 1mm on LxW to account for the space glue will take up? 2mm total.
Regarding the window brace, it's going to be a 17mm wide brace all around. I am actually going to use MDF for this because of the cost.
Does this look okay?
Edit 1: Should I undersize the brace by 1mm on LxW to account for the space glue will take up? 2mm total.
- Thread Starter
- #580
One possible drawback i can think of is distribution of internal modes. As the height becomes close to depth the frequencies of relevant modes start to overlay:
for comparison, the modes of the original box:
On the other hand, internal modes didn't turn out o be a problem in the original design (due to heavy damping) so perhaps this won't be a big problem here either.