Purveyor; a dynamite small 3-way with concussive tendencies....

Wolf

Now that InDIYana 2022 is post-op, I figured I post the details to this little marvel that impressed quite a few last weekend.
The name is appropriate, as Purveyor means to "provide what is required or necessary".

Goals:

• Use a 0.23ft^3 knock down cab with a 3-way. This meant very careful driver selection, and a W-T/M orientation.
• Make it easy to assemble for those with fewer tools. All but tweeters are surface mount.
• Make it more affordable compared to most 3-way designs.
• Yield great performance for the modest cost. All drivers have a magnetic shorting turn via a cap or ring.
• Make a simplistic 3-way xover that is easy to assemble and would fit in the box with all of the drivers.

Drivers:

• Peerless SLS 5" P830945; This is working in a 6 ltr net volume to produce F3/10 of 52/38. It also has higher sensitivity than ANY other 5.25" that can accomplish this bass extension feat. Being that, it has a lower Zmin above tuning at 150Hz of 2.3 ohms. This means the woofer lowpass coil has to be an air-core, and I was able to yield a Zmin of 2.6 ohms without speaker wires. This means it should be of a roughly stable 3 ohms by the amplifier sight, and a fairly stable 4 ohm load over all. It's a very minute area, and approaching 0 in terms of phase. Aluminum shorting ring, and long Xmax.

• To accomplish this response in a small box such as this, there is no way you can use a port and tune low enough. It is just not possible. I was able to fit the SB Acoustics SB15SFCR-00 5x8" PR on the back of the cab. This involved using a midrange chamber of specific orientation to allow the PR to fit, albeit offset in one direction horizontally. 2x 0.5" x 1/8" thick washers and a stainless steel Allen-head M6x1 bolt were used to tune the PR to roughly 20Hz.

• The Dayton Audio PC83-4 was used as the midrange. Being this is a 4 ohm driver, the xover landed at 650Hz to meld with the woofer to both keep impedance and xmax in check. Being the woofer is a 5.25", the off-axis response is really not impacted heavily. The tweeter and it landed at 5kHz, and the 83 has good enough off-axis response to make this just fine and keep the vocal range centered in the mid driver. The 83 also has a very benign breakup, likely due to its coated woven fiber cone, and it sounds fantastic. A decent xmax and copper cap keep it clean. 1 ltr sealed is all it needed, and this is a benefit here to give the woofer all the volume I could. (I used this midbass in the OSFA blue tooth speaker, and really liked its qualities. I also paired it with the following tweeter as a 2-way. I liked the results.)

• The Dayton DSN25F-4 Designer Series 1" was chosen to finish off the top 2 octaves, 5k+. Paired with the PC83-4, the acoustic offset seems to be really similar, the CTC is small, and the frame is tiny. Sensitivity is 95dB, so it is heavily padded -13dB, and is loafing with a very easy living. On axis, there is a small rise at 12kHz of about 3dB, but most won't notice it. Just above the tweeter axis about 15* or +4", the rise disappears and the response is really smooth and flat. A copper cap keeps it clean. FF damps the Fs. Possible bonus? These tweeters have been known to be slightly leaky. If yes- then the midrange is in a slightly aperiodic box. If not- it does not impact the performance. Of note; I had a bad unit and PE replaced it. They are on back-order until July currently.

Place all into blender and pulse 3 times....

I included the sim as I've not taken a final impedance plot yet and it should be very close.

Thanks for looking...

Wolf

Xover points were 650/5k, not as pictured in the last sim-snap.
Xover board is 6" x 6.25". I ended up upgrading to the Cebo caps on the tweeters after the photo was taken. Much better, IMO.
Current prices:
P830945 = 36.98
PC83-4 = 12.98
DSN25F-4 = 18.98
SB15SFCR-00 = 35.70
Denovo 0.23ft^3 knock-down box = 26.98

Xovers as built: ~$115.20 each. I used the $4.00 75uF caps from ApexJr, and est a $1/resistor. The rest of the amounts are from Meniscus' website.

Total/cab comes to $247.14 including the cabinet, or $494.98; not bad for a compact 3-way! (My cost was $300 from discounts, salvaged upwound coils, used and free drivers, FWIW.) Most of the time, by the time you have xovers factored in with drivers on a 3-way, you're already in the $500+ category without even thinking about cabinets.

Mitchell_Cote

Cool. Thanks for sharing.

Steve_Lee

I was hoping you would drop the particulars on these and you did not disappoint.

Thanks for another interesting design, Wolf!

6thplanet

One of a few small scale speakers that sounded well above average at the InDIYana meet. Nice job Ben!

Wolf

Thank you!

I did have some practice. I built the Xenoliths awhile back in the same box volume using the DC160S/W3-315E/XT25SC50, but they just didn't dig all that deeply. The F3 was closer to 60Hz, and the xover HAD to be mounted on the backs externally. It was a good result as far as builds go, but I feel the Purveyor are both better and more of a success.

joeybutts

Those heavy SLS woofers are one of my favorites and a fantastic woofer in my novice mind. I use them crudely in table top radios and the 6” always shocks people.

Highly interested in building this design Wolf, great alternative to many other designs including sound bars and bose systems, most likely way better than budget 5.1’s in small spaces.

Wolf

Glad you like what you see, JB! I'm enjoying them. They are not as good as the Attitudes, but that is to be expected with a box 1/4 the volume.

ugly_woofer

These were good sounding fun little speakers.

Wolf

6thplanet

Well that's a neato paint job🤘🏼

Billet

Looks and sounds great. I like the sideways orientation.

Wolf

What I saw that I liked when perusing stripes online was a Dodge Charger with racing stripes of gold and the car was a really nice raspberry or dark cherry. Looked great to me so I transferred that onto the black. It needed something besides just basic gloss black.

Colors are Krylon 18kt gold and Rust-Oleum chameleon pink/gold.

Base is Rust-Oleum chalkboard followed by VHT Night Eyes. Clearcoat is Duplicolor 1k.

I did rub out the finish using McGuire's compound and polish and then followed up with Turtle Wax Ice wax.

Thanks to Nick for the help! I don't know that I could have done it without his guidance.

PWRRYD

Are you entering these in the under $300 class at MWAF?

Wolf

Yes I am, Craig. Why do you ask?

PWRRYD

The P830945 is MOQ of 500 pieces.

$34.02 x 500 = $17,010.00 >> $300.00

Wolf

Pretty sure I can use the $34.02 price point. I didn't even know that one had gone MOQ yet. I checked it last week and it had not yet. I guess another one bites the dust in availability.

ugly_woofer

Disqualified?

Wolf

There has never been any in stock requirements at MWAF,Dayton DIY, or PE sponsored Speaker Design Competition to my knowledge. I know you're just ribbing me. 🙄

Wolf

It looks like it is still available overseas but I don't know for how long.

PWRRYD

You'd be crying a river if it were someone else in the competition doing it when you weren't. Just saying...

Wolf

You mean retail price, got it. I feel the need to make it as accurate as possible for EVERYONE, and will use the higher per-item retail value (under current MOQ) and not the $34.02 I paid as described earlier in the thread whe purchased. Either way, I'm still well under the $300 mark.
Yes, I would feel jipped or slighted if someone is playing unfairly. So should other people. Wouldn't you? Cheating is cheating. Why are you raking me over coals for upholding fairness? Everyone should strive for goodness and live by the golden rule.
I've seen people enter MWAF with:

• sale prices
• what they paid
• coupons or discount prices
• buyout cost

Level playing field is regular retail per item. I did not purchase 500 of these, nor did I use 500 of them.

Wolf

Correction, they were $36.98 in June when I added them up before, not $34.02. That is still listed as regular single item price. That is what should be used.
I have no idea where Craig got $34.02.

PWRRYD

The 4+ price is listed as $34.02 each, so if you had to buy the MOQ of 500 pieces of that driver you would most certainly get the lower 4+ price of $34.02. It's really not that different than using sale prices or buyouts.

I'm not raking you over the coals and not saying you are puposefully cheating. I'm saying you would be totally belly aching about it if someone else had an entry with MOQ drivers. Kinda like you were two posts above regarding your four bullet points. Were they allowed to compete by PE? I assume they were.

If you truly want to uphold fairness, strive for goodness, and live by the golden rule then I strongly suggest you contact whomever at PE is in charge of MWAF and advise them that one of your projects' drivers is now MOQ (and possibly was before you submitted your entry). If they allow it then none of your competitors have the right to piss and moan about it. You competed fair and square per the rules. If you don't do that then everyone should use whatever drivers they wish and no one cries.

Wolf

I wouldn't care if somebody used an moq driver if they forked over for it. That's just an availability thing it has nothing to do with this event. When I registered a couple weeks ago it hadn't gone moq yet. I can send Jill an email I have no problem doing that, but there is no reason to do so. I just don't see the problem with using an moq driver if somebody wants to use one and they've got one on the shelf. If it's gone moq there is no problem. It's something that used to be available and they are allowed to use them. As long as a price is quantifiable as defined in the rules, there is no restriction there. Yes my design was accepted when registered.

At InDIYana, it is of course different at times, but that is not the SDC/MWAF.

jhollander

There's always been a bunch of NLA and buyout drivers at MWAF events. I heard one guy say he used prices off of eBay. Fortunately the same mind set that doesn't follow contest rules also doesn't follow speaker design rules.

Wolf

The biggest case in point I can remember, was when someone used a set of Vifa PL18 woofers that were on buyout for 25 bucks and Retail was close to $100.

Tom_S

PL18s for $25! How long ago was that deal and how did I miss that?

Steve_Lee

Permitting a DSP class would render all drivers equal . . .

6thplanet

There is a DSP class, Unlimited.

Wolf

@Tom_S said:
PL18s for $25! How long ago was that deal and how did I miss that?

It was probably about 2008 or 2009.