Fred, great room at LSAF & enjoyed your post about recent projects. That TRT looks like a great project, though I'm sure effiency isn't the best. At any rate, as a respected speaker guy, I've got a question for you - seems like your projects are all box speakers and not any open baffle stuff. Have you tried OB and not liked it?
Wayne Parham Messages: 18748 Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
Sorry to jump in before Fred gets a chance, but did you listen to John Busch's open baffle speakers at LSAF? How 'bout Brad Baker's Hawthorne speakers?
I did listen to the Hawthorn setup, very nice. I wanted to get to John's room, but we had to leave earlish on Sat, and the room wasn't open. I did hear it 2 years ago, so was looking forward to it. I've played with OB a fair amount, so I was curious about Fred's box-only approach. I keep thinking I should drag a pair of OBs back from the garage to my 2nd floor listening room, maybe this weekend I will. The one's I have handy use a vintage EV SP-12B on top (I'm guessing close to 100db efficent) and a Parts Express 15" IB on the bottom - which needs to be bi-amped of course. Room for such a set up is kind of limited, so I'm a bit hesitant to do all the work just to find out it needs more space. In my mind one of the good things about the EV SP-12b's is that it is a single driver (does need a bit of top end help) so it does not have the horn that the Hawthorn setup uses, thus no crossover either. Sweet way to go.
Wayne Parham Messages: 18748 Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
Gotcha. Just the opposite for me - I heard the Busch dipole but not the Hawthorne.
For me, I was surprised at the bass of the Busch system. Dipoles aren't known for bass output but this one went pretty deep. I suspect that's largely because he was using essentially a subwoofer on the bottom with a big, big coil. The dipole's inherent 12dB/octave slope was compensated with lots of displacement and an electrical filter. Whatever it was that made it that way, it sounded nice.
AudioFred Messages: 377 Registered: May 2009 Location: Houston
Illuminati (1st Degree)
SteveBrown wrote on Wed, 08 July 2009 12:51
Great project! Bet your wife loved those!
So how do/did you like the sound? Did you use any equilizaton to boost low end?
My wife was ok with them until I tried to move them witin the room with the celing fan running. Bent the attachment bracket of one fan blade. I didn't use eq becaue I have a subwoofer. Sold them to my much younger nephew, who has them in his new house with 16' ceilings. His wife is ok with them, and all his friends think they are way cool.
The sound was somewhere between ok and good. When you build an array using $3 drivers you're not going to get high end sound.
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