| Kudos to Wayne for the 4pi and 3pi subs! [message #96111] |
Sun, 23 October 2022 10:16  |
pjanda1
Messages: 6
Registered: March 2021
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Esquire |
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I finally finished resurrecting some 4pis I bought from the partner of a late member here. They had some shipping damage and other issues, so I refinished them with padauk and Duratex (I ran out of time this summer and had another guy apply the veneer after I stripped the old veneer, sanded, etc). They are flanked by a pair of 3pi sub kits, but in different cabinets--16" sonotube with 6 2" ports. A bit more volume than the 3pi box. Very very cheap and easy to build!
I've been messing with audio for a while, and even started a little business selling single driver speakers. I've built quite a few amps, both tube and solid state. Wayne's designs are remarkable. Extremely efficient, capable of extraordinary dynamics and SPLs, but also extremely civilized, with very smooth response and great imaging. Basically, the best of everything you get from old-school high efficiency and modern audiophile skinny speakers. It is crazy to have speakers that are perfect in a home environment with high end sources and tiny tube amps that would also be very much at home hung in a bar and pushed day in day out by a giant Crown amp.
By way of comparison, while I was working on these, I was using a set of PA cabs with 811Bs and the same 2226H woofers tubed pretty similarly, through old Altec crossovers. Efficient, yes. Easy to listen to, no. They are going to be fun garage speakers, which is what I got them for. But for the house, the 811Bs are peaky, ringy, and have very little top octave. Wayne's horns crush them in every way but cool looks. Wayne's alignment and crossover also gives some nice midbass compared to other 2226H applications.
This pair of 4pis has the B&C compression drivers, JBL woofers, 1" or thicker MDF everywhere, and very high end crossover parts (foil inductors, boutique caps, the works, all from the previous owner). It is neat to have a high efficiency speaker that can resolve the differences good parts and amps make, but I don't know that you need to go all out on boutique caps and inductors--at least before you've put decent signal path caps in your source and amp. However, I highly recommend that folks seek out 2226H woofers. I see good sets, often in JBL PA cabinets, for as little as a couple hundred a pair locally. Of course, be sure they haven't been heavily used for live sound, or if they have, budget for a rebuild.
Wayne's cabinets also appear to be a steal. Had I known what a PITA stripping these would be, I'd have bought flat packs. His finished subs seem to be way too cheap, so I'd probably go that route were I doing it again. But, whatever you do for cabinets, the 3pi subs are PLENTY of performance. Unless you have space for horn subs, the newer sub drivers offer very little more, often for very much more cost. You'd be better off spending your space on money on more 3pis, in most cases.
Thanks again!
Paul
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