Cool project! So, when you mount the drivers, will they be bolted to the outer shell only or to the inner shell only? Or to both shells? Just wondering.
I was planning on just attaching to the outer cabinet, but you bring up an interesting point, in that it wouldn't be that difficult to decouple the woofer and just attach it to the inner cabinet.
It's only on the outside right now, I'm not sure that I need it on the inside, but I may line it later. The cabinets are face down, with the mdf backs gluing at the moment, but I will test it as soon as I can stand it up. The mid enclosure is extremely rigid due to it's shape.
I started to work through the grill issues. I'm not sure if I'm going to try and meet the cat378's waveguide with a waveguide in the grill or bring the tweeter forward and flush it up with grill front. The difficult part is trying to meet the built in guide and continue on semi seamlessly. I took some measurements, because I wanted to know the z axis offsets, as I have some leeway to move the individual drivers in or out. It turns out that there is a 2cm difference between the mid and tweeter, so that point is moot because moving the tweeter back that much would be a headache.
Here's the first polar, the on axis response is fairly flat, but obviously the off axis is garbage, complete shit.
This is a bit of revision, it's getting better.
The edges of the wg aren't perfect, because the mdf is paper thin at the inner edge and the final iteration will have to be soaked with epoxy to give it some strength.
The Faital mid is low distortion, it was reading below .2% the whole way and there were a spot or two that I saw .09%. The measurement was take at .75m.The snapshot of this graph sucks, but you get the idea. These things will play stupid loud.
They have a clean midrange, but they aren't quite there just yet, close but not quite. For lack of a better term, they need a sense of refinement, but they are a fun speaker, everything is listenable with them, even fairly poor recordings, no fatigue. This is just a preliminary run in order to confirm that this driver combo will work, and it is with the wg insert. I still need to test with the tweeter brought out flush before continuing the woodworking portion.
Here's the sim for you guy's that like to see em'.
The bass hump is partially the room, and there is some phase "badness" in the 3.5k to 5k range, both of which I have corrected but not tested yet. I'll post results in the coming days, when I have tested the results. Oh, and if you hate expensive crossovers, look away, because this thing takes some big copper to facilitate the low woofer to mid crossover point.
Well, I have been applying finish to these guy's and I just realized that I pulled a "dumbass" and veneered them the same way instead of mirror image. Oh well, way to late now to fix it.
I'm finally getting back to these. Since I have drivers with three different mounting hole patterns, I'm a little torn on which way I want to mount the woofer, not that it really matters since these are getting grills, but I'm throwing it out to you guy's, whatcha think?
Comments
Cool project! So, when you mount the drivers, will they be bolted to the outer shell only or to the inner shell only? Or to both shells? Just wondering.
I was planning on just attaching to the outer cabinet, but you bring up an interesting point, in that it wouldn't be that difficult to decouple the woofer and just attach it to the inner cabinet.
I threw some bracing in these that would be difficult/impossible to due through the woofer hole once the backs are installed.
Got Rubber?
Time to start closing up the back.
Is it in the inside of the mid chamber too?
InDIYana Event Website
Wolfy's Photobucket
It's only on the outside right now, I'm not sure that I need it on the inside, but I may line it later. The cabinets are face down, with the mdf backs gluing at the moment, but I will test it as soon as I can stand it up. The mid enclosure is extremely rigid due to it's shape.
I started to work through the grill issues. I'm not sure if I'm going to try and meet the cat378's waveguide with a waveguide in the grill or bring the tweeter forward and flush it up with grill front. The difficult part is trying to meet the built in guide and continue on semi seamlessly. I took some measurements, because I wanted to know the z axis offsets, as I have some leeway to move the individual drivers in or out. It turns out that there is a 2cm difference between the mid and tweeter, so that point is moot because moving the tweeter back that much would be a headache.
Here's the first polar, the on axis response is fairly flat, but obviously the off axis is garbage, complete shit.
This is a bit of revision, it's getting better.
I made one grill with a changeable tweeter cut out, that way I can try different configurations without building a new grill each time.
The edges of the wg aren't perfect, because the mdf is paper thin at the inner edge and the final iteration will have to be soaked with epoxy to give it some strength.
The Faital mid is low distortion, it was reading below .2% the whole way and there were a spot or two that I saw .09%. The measurement was take at .75m.The snapshot of this graph sucks, but you get the idea. These things will play stupid loud.
Here's a better distortion graph.
I worked on these a bit.
The dip about 1K was necessary to deal with the buching off axis.
Very nice graphs! How do they sound?
They have a clean midrange, but they aren't quite there just yet, close but not quite. For lack of a better term, they need a sense of refinement, but they are a fun speaker, everything is listenable with them, even fairly poor recordings, no fatigue. This is just a preliminary run in order to confirm that this driver combo will work, and it is with the wg insert. I still need to test with the tweeter brought out flush before continuing the woodworking portion.
Here's the sim for you guy's that like to see em'.
The bass hump is partially the room, and there is some phase "badness" in the 3.5k to 5k range, both of which I have corrected but not tested yet. I'll post results in the coming days, when I have tested the results. Oh, and if you hate expensive crossovers, look away, because this thing takes some big copper to facilitate the low woofer to mid crossover point.
Well, I have been applying finish to these guy's and I just realized that I pulled a "dumbass" and veneered them the same way instead of mirror image. Oh well, way to late now to fix it.
I did the same thing with some tweeters in a build , they were not mirrored but still sounded decent. These are SHARP Nick !!!
Your mistakes are my best work!
Thanks guys. It's definitely not the end of the world, but it was a dumb mistake.
I have never thought about mirroring my veneer - I try to always match the sides like you did here. Hmm - might have to try mirroring them next time
I was thinking the same thing!
Yep, mirroring looks better, but maybe it's just a personal thing.
Now we can't unsee it...
I know!!!!! But now you guy's are in the same boat as me.
Sinking slowly....
InDIYana Event Website
Wolfy's Photobucket
Not really slowly.
I wouldn't worry about it. It's impossible to see both sides of the same cabinet at the same time. Plus, that veneer is just gorgeous!
It's not a bug, it's a feature: meant to call back to yester-year when we didn't even mirror driver offsets!
At least you can't tell which is left and which is right...
InDIYana Event Website
Wolfy's Photobucket
I'm finally getting back to these. Since I have drivers with three different mounting hole patterns, I'm a little torn on which way I want to mount the woofer, not that it really matters since these are getting grills, but I'm throwing it out to you guy's, whatcha think?