To determine box tuning I simply measured the impedance minimum frequency by putting a resistor in series with the amp and measuring the frequency where the current was maximum. Perhaps this is not good enough.
When I tried to calculate the minimum impedance I got a high figure of 11ohms. I may have made a mistake in the measurements but I haven't had a chance to repeat them.
I placed a batt of insulation on the brace between the horn and woofer. This makes a tight seal sitting on the window brace. Could this be causing an over damping of the alignment and suppressing mid bass? There aren't any issues with transient response. The dynamics these will produce are eye opening. The horn and B&C driver pair are so clean and detailed that even at high levels there is no listening fatigue. These will eat most HI Fi speakers for lunch and not even belch when it comes to dynamics.
The sound is quite good with them in the corners. I am getting bass impact with the subs that will rattle your teeth. I have listened to a lot of different styles of music and am very happy with many aspects of the sound. They are very different than what I had which were dipole in the mids and had wide horizontal dispersion in the highs. I'm still getting used to them but one thing is for certain. They sure are a lot of fun. Being able to play loud and clean without listening fatigue or worrying about damaging a 20W rated tweeter is bringing some new pleasure back to listening again.
Thank you for the PI designs and your support for us DIYers.
I had a friend visit yesterday to hear the Pi 3 setup. He brought his laptop and music he is familiar with. My system consists of a Mac Mini, sending USB music via Pure Music to a DBlabs Tranquility DAC into a 250w/ch W4S STI500 integrated. The Pre outs are feeding a crossover /EQ to a faithful Hafler DH220 driving a pair of sealed 15" Dayton series 2 subs. The Pi 3s, running full range, are in the corners firing up the long wall and angled in at about 40 degrees. Subs are in the opposite corners behind the listening position.
My friend has had a lot of great sounding equipment over the years and he likes his music loud. He brought his torture test tracks with him.
We only had about 90 minutes but he was able to thoroughly test the system in that time. The 3's passed every test without missing a beat. He played a lot of new music and blues that I am not familiar with. Some of the bass tracks were extremely loud and deep.The system handled them without problem. Even at extreme volumes the sound remained easy to listen to without harshness or any sense of compression or distortion.
Other than the fantastic dynamics, we both thought that they were very transparent and revealing without being "bright" sounding. Wayne has done a great job at voicing these speakers. All the familiar vocals sounded natural and uncolored. This was one thing I was worried about. I can highly recommend the Eminence 4012HO woofer. It can pump out some serious volume and does not muck up the midrange. I also recommend that you brace the cabinets really well. I cannot hear any problems related to cabinet resonances. The BandC250/290C horn is also capable of excellent resolution, delicacy and an overall clean and clear presentation.
Unlike many audio products out there these speakers live up to their promise and perform at a very high level in a real room.
I needed to add the PI logo to the speakers but the black decals that Wayne sent me wouldn't work on my basic black color scheme. I stuck them to a piece of 1/8" mdf and used a scroll saw to cut out wooden versions. I painted them gold and then added a couple of coats of clear. Here are some pictures.
These speakers continue to impress me. They sound great with everything I play on them and have the dynamics and grain free highs that make listening fun and fatigue free. The corner placement and constant directivity design really have solved some problems in my room that other speakers could not.
The gold PI logo just tells what I feel about Wayne's design: gold nugget. I especially agree with your saying "Wayne did a great job voicing the speakers even though I do not have the 3 Pi. I can confirm with what he did with 7 Pi speakers.
I am enjoying music again after years of being unhappy with the sound in my room. That is the bottom line on these. If I had the space I would have built the corner horns. The sad part is that I looked at the PI speakers years ago and decided to try something else. I have tried a few different things to get good sound in this room, including Newform 645s which had a wide horizontal dispersion 45" ribbon tweeter and GR research OB7's which are dipole in the midrange. I finally came back to look at the PI site and dug into all the technical information on the designs. It made sense and the end result has performed exactly as I'd hoped.
Those speakers look seriously good. Thanks for reporting back, and for the eye-candy.
And congratulations on your build!
Thanks Wayne. I made a few decisions during the build that made it harder for me, but the end results weren't too bad. I still plan to build new tops for them and paint the horn flanges to improve the appearance a bit. Maybe this summer when it's warm enough to paint out in the garage. I'll probably invest in some nicer feet or spikes as well. Right now I am still going through my music collection and enjoying it very much!
I am enjoying music again after years of being unhappy with the sound in my room. That is the bottom line on these. If I had the space I would have built the corner horns. The sad part is that I looked at the PI speakers years ago and decided to try something else. I have tried a few different things to get good sound in this room, including Newform 645s which had a wide horizontal dispersion 45" ribbon tweeter and GR research OB7's which are dipole in the midrange. I finally came back to look at the PI site and dug into all the technical information on the designs. It made sense and the end result has performed exactly as I'd hoped.
Me too. I knew about Wayne's corner horns a long time ago. But only recently I started by reading about Geddes horns, and then Seos horns, and finally Pi horns. Wayne did a great job answering diyers' questions and made the most sense to me such as that he pays a great deal of attention to the room environment in his design of the H290C horn.
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