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The Quarters
Early in my diy speaker hobby days and just before Y2K, I purchased the same Focal drivers a friend of mine had used in a build that I was impressed by. I had a LEAP crossover designed by Madisound and precision ports ready to go. These were going to be my "nice" living room speakers, but I was just out of high school. Being the indecisive person I am, I could never seem to land on a final design especially since I didn't have a proper living room to call my own along with the fact that I'm not much of a wood worker to build a cabinet to do the drivers justice. Time marches on and the drivers have sat waiting for their moment. We are in the process of tearing down and building a new home, so finally after a quarter century the drivers will have a proper home.
I'll call them The Quarters.
Comments
What drivers? 5k013?
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The Quarters will be a 3-way active design utilizing a pi5 running CamillaDSP with a DAC8X in between a Wiim Pro and some class D amps.
Drivers:
Tweeter: Focal TC120K
Mid: Morel MDM 55
Woofer: Focal 8V416J
The original LEAP design was a 2-way, but thought the MDM 55 would be a good fit at least visually.
I plan on having an 8.2uF cap in line with the tweeter and a 68uF cap in line with the mid for any DC offset and/or DSP mistakes. Initial crossover points will be around 900Hz and 3-5kHz.
Sounds like a killer system. Any ideas on the class D amps?
I'll be utilizing the Menards 12" x 4' x 5/8" acacia boards. I bought them a while back and I hope there are not splitting issues at the ends like others have noted.
Rough cabinet dimensions are 38" tall x 10.5" wide x 13.25" deep.
Here are some shots from the current CAD mockup:
Class D amps will be comprised of diy modules I have on hand. I'm thinking ICEpower 50asx2 for the tweeter and mids and either an ICEpower 125asx2 for the woofers or a 3E audio TPA3255. I installed electrical boxes, one for each speaker, in the living room wall that have two 14 AWG - 4 conductor wires in each that run to the basement below where the electronics will live. The Wiim Pro remote communicates via bluetooth low energy so it should work from the living room. The visual goal is to have speakers that plug into the wall via speakON cables that are controlled by a remote and/or phone.
Did you try out the DAc8X with Pi5 and camilla DSP? Any thoughts - i was also looking at this combo but haven't pulled the trigger yet. If not, can you please post your thought once you do.
Why do you need the Wiim Pro if you using Pi5 - Pi5 has OS with phone apps that should get you going.
Hi Ani,
I have the pi5 and DAC8X up and running with CamillaDSP, but have yet to connect it to amps as I don't have a project area in my current living arrangement. I have used CamillaDSP for several projects and really enjoy it. The reason for the Wiim is to provide the family with an easier to use and more robust interface which will include a remote. I have had some odd volume changing issues when switching to and from spotify in Moode and the family doesn't want to have to use a phone.
I haven't finalized the braces yet, but I think I'll add one behind the woofer shaped to accommodate the magnet. Any suggestions or considerations I may have overlooked?
Here are some very crude measurements I took of the drivers in the apartment, levels not matched:
Black = Woofer
Red = Mid
Yellow = Tweeter
???
XO points look like approx 400 and 2.8KHz but hard to tell for sure at this point.
Just some passing thoughts . . . Looks like a potentially killer build.
makes, sense. How are you going from Wiim Pro to Pi5? When you get everything setup, coupld you kindly write about your experience on the DAC8x? I suupose you were using a HDMI sound card to get multi channel audio out earlier?
Thanks for the kind words guys, I just need to make sure the project gets off the ground this time.
Great question Ani! I did leave that piece out. I'm using a hifime S2 digi to capture the toslink output of the Wiim. One potential issue is that the hifime S2 digi doesn't have automatic sample rate conversion like some other more expensive options, but I can set the Wiim to a sample rate I believe. Here is a great tutorial that I followed to set this up: https://github.com/mdsimon2/RPi-CamillaDSP
In past projects, I have used a Motu M4 for 4 channel output.
While the DAC8x is unbalanced, you could invert another set of channels to create balanced out if needed.
Thanks for the link and the explanation. So the Motu was getting 4 ch usb out, was asking as few people were suing HDMI to 7.1 sound extractor. Read the use case on the DAC8x, 8 ch unbalanced or 4 ch balanced with a little bit of jerryrigging!
Great project, complete is soon and let us know your thoughts, both on the speakers and the Rpi / DAC8 chain!
I plan on having some means of easily moving these from listening to stored position like some leveling casters which will add some height so I'm going to reduce the cabinet height to 36". The internal volume will be near 1.8 ft^3. I know it depends on the listening furniture, but what height do folks typically shoot for when it comes to the listening axis/ear level? Here is the woofer modeled in 1.8ft^3.
36-40 is pretty common, IME.
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You can keep height down, and add short slightly angled stands (aim tw to listening distance ear height). Doesn’t take much of an angle. i.e.
Mine are 30.5 inch ht with a tilt of ~4.5 degrees, 4 legged stands
Project underway!
OK, where are you hiding the CNC Router?
Awesome work!
Thanks guys, that is one cab glued with some of the cnc'd braces in for fit testing. With the butcher block boards being only 5/8 in thick, I planned on many braces. I was thinking of gluing some thin hardboard to the inside walls between the braces to help with cab resonance as well as help keep the boards from splitting or warping. Thoughts? During construction I'm staying with a friend and this is his shop. I think I'll have to pick up my own CNC for my garage.
those are looking great
One cab has the braces glued in.
Second cab now has its braces.
Those are some nice flat slabs of walnut wood under those good looking cabinets, too.
Good eye Steve. Those are 3" thick slabs I had cut from an oak tree that fell due to some crazy storms back in 2013. They have drying for a decade and will be put to use in the new house as the dining table, coffee table, and mantle.
OAK - OK, the patina makes it look like walnut sapwood.
I have a bunch of 100 YO 2" slab walnut up in the shed on the hill but it is kinda bent from improper storage stacking and has powder post Beatle beetle infestation - look at yours on the lower left of the pic above - looks like boring bug dust pile - you may want to have that stuff kilned before use like I need to do to mine.
I need to cut mine into shorter lengths so the bend isn't so pronounced, plane them and stick them in an oven @180* overnight to kill all the bugs then I will have some useable interesting wood . . .
(Edited to remove any perceived slight against John, Paul, George or Ringo).
Will the powderpost beetle eat into the heartwood or just the sapwood?
If the wood is old/dry/seasoned enough they will bore into any of it except for some African species of wood.
I just pulled a board from the pile in the pole barn that came out of a shipping crate from Africa that looks like less dense walnut heart wood and not one single insect hole in it at all - been out there for 15 years too - wish I had more - gonna use it for the edges of cabinet baffles and paint it with black Duratex then round-over the edges on the router to expose that rich purple-ish brown wood underneath . . .
Thanks for pointing that out Steve. What's interesting is that those three boards have only been sitting in the shop for a month.
They have been working on that board longer than that - you are welcome.
Keep posting progress pics - I love it.
I was able to get the backs cut, cnc'd, and glued on today.