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Which DIY speakers would you like to see reviewed?

Vote for your favorite DIY speaker to be tested

  • Bagby Adelphos/Kairos

    Votes: 38 15.7%
  • Bagby Helix Dome MT

    Votes: 26 10.7%
  • Bagby SB Revolution Mini

    Votes: 28 11.6%
  • Campbell-Holtz Micro Statements

    Votes: 17 7.0%
  • Carmody Overnight Sensations

    Votes: 31 12.8%
  • Carmody Speedster

    Votes: 28 11.6%
  • Dayton Audio C-Notes

    Votes: 30 12.4%
  • Heissmann DXT-mon

    Votes: 67 27.7%
  • Linkwitz LXmini

    Votes: 119 49.2%
  • Seas Loki

    Votes: 42 17.4%

  • Total voters
    242
OP
Rick Sykora

Rick Sykora

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Hi folks! Have some new news on the DIY front...

Rick Craig has designed a speaker in honor of Jeff Bagby and I offered to build one. It is called Integrity and is different than his Selah Audio offerings as it will be sold as a more typical DIY kit. A portion of sales will benefit Jeff's family and will be available shortly. @amirm has agreed to test it and I am just completing the build. Integrity is a compact, reasonably-priced 3-way design using the SB Acoustics 5x8 passive radiator.

Will be starting a build thread so you can see what is involved and Rick will supply more details shortly.
 

maverickronin

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Using these drivers there is a lot of potential here, but it's a shame they don't use any form of waveguide. I predict a hump in the DI will be present this way.

I'm in the middle of designing a speaker with the same drivers (aluminium version), but using a 6" waveguide, designed by Augerpro.

When it's done, I'll be sharing my results on the forum :)

They could also cross that tweeter over a lot lower than 3k too.

NbuoJv1.png


Here's the vanilla aluminum (non ceramic coating) version.
 

Mudjock

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Using these drivers there is a lot of potential here, but it's a shame they don't use any form of waveguide. I predict a hump in the DI will be present this way.

I'm in the middle of designing a speaker with the same drivers (aluminium version), but using a 6" waveguide, designed by Augerpro.

When it's done, I'll be sharing my results on the forum :)

I'll be interested to see what you come up with. I've heard the Bromos along with a few other SB ceramic based designs. The Bromos were underwhelming. The best I have heard to date are the Keramiskas, which are available as a drivers + crossover kit (no cabinet) at Meniscus Audio.
 

dwkdnvr

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Hi folks! Have some new news on the DIY front...

Rick Craig has designed a speaker in honor of Jeff Bagby and I offered to build one. It is called Integrity and is different than his Selah Audio offerings as it will be sold as a more typical DIY kit. A portion of sales will benefit Jeff's family and will be available shortly. @amirm has agreed to test it and I am just completing the build. Integrity is a compact, reasonably-priced 3-way design using the SB Acoustics 5x8 passive radiator.

Will be starting a build thread so you can see what is involved and Rick will supply more details shortly.
I've watched the discussion on techtalk, and am intrigued by the design. Interesting budget allocation - expensive(ish) woofer and budget/"high value" mid/tweet. I actually just got the SB21 and SB10 drivers although not specifically to reproduce this design.

I'm guessing your cabinet is less elaborate than the 'reference' version. :)
 

dwkdnvr

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I'll be interested to see what you come up with. I've heard the Bromos along with a few other SB ceramic based designs. The Bromos were underwhelming. The best I have heard to date are the Keramiskas, which are available as a drivers + crossover kit (no cabinet) at Meniscus Audio.

The Bromo seems to have the same problem as every SB kit I've seen so far - xover is too high. It's tough enough to get a reasonable directivity match between a woofer and a non-waveguided tweeter, but pushing the xover up into the 3kHz realm makes it impossible to avoid off-axis flare.

I've come close to picking up the Keramiskas on several occasions. A lot of people seem to echo the feeling that they're great sounding speakers. Modestly priced, too. I have a fair bit of stuff on hand to measure/test, but depending on how that pans out I haven't ruled out just getting a pair to use as the M/T in my 3-way design.
 

Feanor

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After kicking around with Amir on how I can help make palatable to him, we want to get your thoughts on how ASR might support DIY speaker reviews.

Here is the initial proposal:

...

As an example, I have build several Zaph ZA5 designs. They are available as kits from Madisound without cabinets. A kit for pair of ZA5.2 MTs is about $292 (with binding posts) and pair of cabinets would be about $50 (from PE). So, assuming free shipping to me, the total cost is about $342. For ASR testing, we would only build one, so would be $171 and then my cost to ship to Amir would add another $50. So total cost for supplying one ZA5.2 speaker to ASR would be roughly $271. Updated to reflect actual shipping cost
...

Ww
I'd like to see a review of the Zaph ZA5 for which I've heard various positive comments.

I would also like to see a review of the Zaph Audio ZRT ("Zaph Revelator Towers") -- I'm not unbiased: I built a pair myself and I think they are great (subjectively speaking) ... http://www.zaphaudio.com/ZRT.html

The drivers and crossovers came from Madison. The cabinets are finished versions of a "flat pack" towers from Part Express; (I don't have a table saw so the bought cabinets were the most practical solution).


DSCF0514(x) - SML.jpg
 

Lorenzo74

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No Ikea Eneby yet?

eneby-bluetooth-speaker__0620934_PE689800_S5.JPG
Excellent value/price ratio.
tweeter
twin woofer
dsp, digital crossover, Eq
amplifier class d
enclosure
nice grill
At least close to the cost of bare components.
90€...
I measured response down to 45Hz...
 
OP
Rick Sykora

Rick Sykora

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I've watched the discussion on techtalk, and am intrigued by the design. Interesting budget allocation - expensive(ish) woofer and budget/"high value" mid/tweet. I actually just got the SB21 and SB10 drivers although not specifically to reproduce this design.

I'm guessing your cabinet is less elaborate than the 'reference' version. :)

yes, my cabinet was targeted to allow construction without a router. My build will use a precut front baffle as we wanted to ensure the test speaker closely matched the prototype. I do not have the woodworking skills to recess the SB10, so Rick investigated flush mounting. The impact appears minimal from his test.

I have never owned a passive radiator design, but am considering this one for when we downsize. It has impressive bass for a small enclosure. Still doing some fine tuning but plan to start posting build over the weekend.
 

Ericglo

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I won't quote everyone. I didn't realize the Bromos would garner any interest.:)

Using these drivers there is a lot of potential here, but it's a shame they don't use any form of waveguide. I predict a hump in the DI will be present this way.

I'm in the middle of designing a speaker with the same drivers (aluminium version), but using a 6" waveguide, designed by Augerpro.

When it's done, I'll be sharing my results on the forum :)

Interesting design. Why not use the ceramics?


I did notice the high crossover, but I think all of the SB kits have a high crossover. Not sure why they do that.

I looked at the Keramiskas. It is only using a ceramic woofer. I would be interested to hear the ceramic tweeter. The measurements look good.
 

Jukka

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Effects of horns

Inspired by the recent Ocean Way review, I thought that different kinds of horns would be nice to have tested with a same tweeter. Look at the selection of horns here: Eighteen sound. If you buy one of their tweeters (like this one) one of each horns that fits, you can measure the overall effects of them horns. Start with XT1086 if I'm doubt.

If you care, add a 10" mid-woofer (10NMB420). A design can be found here: Ruutinassakka, finnish only sorry, but the xo schema is a pic with values. Build only one to stay on budget. These are PA drivers, so it would be nice to have them tested.
 

dwkdnvr

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Effects of horns

Inspired by the recent Ocean Way review, I thought that different kinds of horns would be nice to have tested with a same tweeter. Look at the selection of horns here: Eighteen sound. If you buy one of their tweeters (like this one) one of each horns that fits, you can measure the overall effects of them horns. Start with XT1086 if I'm doubt.

If you care, add a 10" mid-woofer (10NMB420). A design can be found here: Ruutinassakka, finnish only sorry, but the xo schema is a pic with values. Build only one to stay on budget. These are PA drivers, so it would be nice to have them tested.

Tjhe 18sound combo (Xt1060+ NSD1095) have reportedly been measured by Troels and Kimmo (VituixCad author). This isnt the original page, but the measurements are reflected here: http://www.htguide.com/forum/showth...-a-new-project&p=635313&viewfull=1#post635313 . Like many 1" compression drivers, top-octave response above 10k is a problem, but from 1.5k to 10k it's pretty remarkable. The reported distortion is amazing - 2nd order at -50dB, everything else below -80dB. The pair runs about $300, so comparable to hi-fi Beryllium tweeters.
 
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Rick Sykora

Rick Sykora

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I am anxious to test his stuff so one of you needs to step up to buy and build it. :)

Bit beyond the budget! :eek: Maybe we should start with his X-LS Encore.

A few members have posted requests for it already.
 

amirm

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Bit beyond the budget! :eek: Maybe we should start with his X-LS Encore.

A few members have posted requests for it already.
Yes, I didn't realize he was asking for that specific model. I like to validate what he is doing with minimum budget for now. For anything higher up, I would think he would donate a sample for testing.
 

ta240

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Bit beyond the budget! :eek: Maybe we should start with his X-LS Encore.

A few members have posted requests for it already.

That would be interesting because it gets reviews like NRD saying how amazing it is and yet it is fairly inexpensive. And I'm still really baffled (speaker pun) by Danny's comment in his latest video where he says get gets asked often how that speaker compares to common 'budget' speakers like the RP600 (upgraded). He said it doesn't compare to the common budget level speakers at all because it is "kind of in a different class". He then hints at how it is better and higher end but he doesn't come out and say it is better. Typically, if something really can't be compared because it is higher end then that means it is better.. right? All the audio clips and reviews they've done have really expensive open baffle subwoofers hooked up along with the cheap DIY kit. So the $250 speaker kit is playing along with well over $2000 in subwoofers...
 

Abe_W

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I am anxious to test his stuff so one of you needs to step up to buy and build it. :)

I have a pair Amir....It would be a godforsaken pain in the neck to haul these and get them to you...I am in Kansas btw....i assume you live 2000 miles away from me!
 

amirm

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I have a pair Amir....It would be a godforsaken pain in the neck to haul these and get them to you...I am in Kansas btw....i assume you live 2000 miles away from me!
I only need one. :) Can you do a quick estimate with UPS ground to see what it cost you to send it to me? I will cover the return shipping. And members may be able to donate to offset your shipping cost.
 
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