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What's your DIY speaker 'ultimate design'?

NewbieAudiophileExpert

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For me? It would be a 3 way speaker with a 4-5 inch midrange and a 1 inch tweeter (concentric/coaxial design) with a 6-8 inch high excursion woofer, in a bookshelf style, with the mid/tweeter separated into two separate chambers.. with a quality crossover, and hermetic seals all over the place.

Both parts would have their own ports, and a suitable mechanism to 'seal' the port to make possible adjustments of the port.

Essentially we would be looking at a large(er) bookshelf speaker with the power and frequency response of a tower - one day i hope to make this vision a reality.
 
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NewbieAudiophileExpert

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Passive or active?
Great question - it could be either now that i think of it, but for the sake of respecting your question, my example is that of a passive speaker, since designing a bi or tri amplifier is difficult in my eyes.
 

abdo123

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To me that’s a speaker with a 45Hz Q=0.5 box tuning with a 12db/oct roll-off. This way i would still need a subwoofer but i wouldn’t need bass management.

On axis response within +/-3dB

Controlled but wide horizontal directivity (60deg)

Controlled but narrow vertical directivity (20-30deg)

Sensitivity of at least 90 db/W

And enough excursion for my needs.
 

LTig

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Great question - it could be either now that i think of it, but for the sake of respecting your question, my example is that of a passive speaker, since designing a bi or tri amplifier is difficult in my eyes.
Get a Mini-DSP as digital crossover and several stereo or multi channel power amps. The remaining task is to design the crossover and any delays if such needs arise.
 

alex-z

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Take the coaxial from a KEF Reference 1 Meta, pair it with quad Purifi 6.5" woofers, in-wall, active 4 way crossover.

That will definitely be staying a hypothetical build for many years.
 

abdo123

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Take the coaxial from a KEF Reference 1 Meta, pair it with quad Purifi 6.5" woofers, in-wall, active 4 way crossover.

That will definitely be staying a hypothetical build for many years.
There is really no need for Purifi drivers when the midrange is being played by something else.

That’s what makes them special.
 

alex-z

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There is really no need for Purifi drivers when the midrange is being played by something else.

That’s what makes them special.

Even for bass frequencies, their distortion is lower than virtually all other 6.5" drivers.

And while using 8 or 10" woofers from another brand might beat them, that would worsen the directivity just slightly, even at 300-400Hz. This is a hypothetical "ultimate speaker", not what someone would actually create.
 

Rednaxela

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Don’t know about ultimate, but I’ve always been fascinated by this project.

Seems doable, well documented, technically sound, and the result may quite blow me away.

I could see myself taking it on out of sheer curiosity.
 
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NewbieAudiophileExpert

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From the ground up - I would agree.

BTW, sounds a bit like Kali IN-8 right?
Yeah but i'd use better quality components - like a decent excursion mid and a high excursion woofer (think the top dayton line or the other sub from tangband).
To me that’s a speaker with a 45Hz Q=0.5 box tuning with a 12db/oct roll-off. This way i would still need a subwoofer but i wouldn’t need bass management.

On axis response within +/-3dB

Controlled but wide horizontal directivity (60deg)

Controlled but narrow vertical directivity (20-30deg)

Sensitivity of at least 90 db/W

And enough excursion for my needs.
This is a language that i do not understand.
Get a Mini-DSP as digital crossover and several stereo or multi channel power amps. The remaining task is to design the crossover and any delays if such needs arise.
which one would you recommend that i look at ?
Don’t know about ultimate, but I’ve always been fascinated by this project.

Seems doable, well documented, technically sound, and the result may quite blow me away.

I could see myself taking it on out of sheer curiosity.
What makes it so fascinating? I like the idea of a 20 - 17000Hz freq. resp., especially since i can only hear up to 16750ish hertz anyway.
 

Rednaxela

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What makes it so fascinating?
What I like about it is the relative simplicity of the concept, and how it’s made to work through careful analysis. I guess with these, looks can be a bit deceiving but it’s actually quite a refined loudspeaker.

The project also made me understand for the first time what directivity is, why it is a challenge, and why one would care about it.

Finally, despite all the limitations of listening to speakers on line, I cannot help but be excited by what I hear in their short demo video on YouTube.
 

Rednaxela

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I like the idea of a 20 - 17000Hz freq. resp., especially since i can only hear up to 16750ish hertz anyway.
Not at all an expert, but I understand that the best sub bass usually does not come out of main speakers because of inherent placement limitations. At least this is something I learned from this video.
 

AwesomeSauce2015

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Basically my version of the Danley Hyperion. -- In wall / fake wall baffle of course

Per "speaker":
Dual 18" sealed B&C subwoofer drivers handle from <30hz - 140hz, 3-way Synergy horn (4x10", dual-driver coax compression driver) from there up.
Active x-over, and the biggest amps possible.

And for the dedicated subwoofer duties (parts for one cabinet, I'd probably have 2): Dual B&C 21" ported, from 50hz down, with >6kw each.

But I'll never actually build something like that due to practicality, it'd be enormous and insanely overkill for any domestic environment.
 

Jazzman53

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I built my own speakers for over 40 years--the last 14 years were dedicated to ESL's exclusively. Three years ago I built my dream speakers, and I no longer feel the need to build anything more. However; I still maintain my DIY speaker website and I freely share my drawings.

The Jazzman MkIII is a wire-stator hybrid ESL with an OB woofer. The speaker is bi-amp'd using a DBX Driverack Venu 360 DSP/crossover.

The unique feature is the 15-segment frequency/phased array stators which electronically bend the wave front to give wider and smoother dispersion than a curved ESL, or even most conventional speakers. Imaging and clarity are downright spooky-real.

Details and build photos are shown here: Jazzman's DIY Electrostatic Loudspeaker Page

Grill off 2022.jpg
 

fineMen

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Not at all an expert, but I understand that the best sub bass usually does not come out of main speakers because of inherent placement limitations. At least this is something I learned from this video.

Intermodulation affects the lower mids the most - according to my personal hearing threshold. So, even if unusual it would be good to cut the band 30Hz .. 600Hz in half. Weighing in the square rule for excursion on one hand, and support by a ported design on the other, a good cross over point would be about 200Hz or so.

The econowave project delivers a very narrow dispersion. It would need for less "critical" but more enjoyable listening some added diffuse sound. I experimented with a mono (!) treble speaker, that additionally energizes the room from about 1kHz on. It is a dipole oriented such that the null aims at the listener. Results were very good, a nice, still engaging sound with still enough localisation. I rebuild the prototype orderly now. Again, it is supported by a not-sub bass up to 180Hz.
 

Adi777

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Some person from Poland have Open Baffle with 8x 18". Nice ;)
 
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