Hey everyone!
Long time lurker, have never got around to joining or posting :headbanger: terrible, i know.
It was only fairly recently that i started getting into decent quality sound (i was always happy to just listen to the music). As a Christmas present my old man got me a pair of Phillips desktop speakers, odd tube shaped things, but they were a definite step up from hours of listening to iPod supplied earphones.
The audio bug soon grabbed hold of me, and i started to become more and more critical with regards to the quality of the systems i was listening to. We organised one of the Litil speaker systems that Jim Gore was providing at one point, along with one of the small "Class T" amplifiers to drive them.
The building of the speakers was definitely a learning experience. Accurate table saw use, veneering, crossover building, French Polishing, routering...and a lot of fun too, along with developing a healthy respect and fear for power tools.
What lovely little speakers! Friendly mid-range, surprising clarity, and frankly astonishing bass quality for the size of driver involved. Only possible failings were lack of volume and necessity of near-field listening. Many an hour spent at my desk, listening to a wide range of music when i was supposed to be working on school projects.
A couple of months ago, i had recently started looking after a student bar at Wits, and they were in need of a sound system. After a bit of looking around, nothing seemed to be worthwhile for the kind of budget i had available to me, so my dad kindly lent me a pair of Electrovoice EVM15B drivers, some old cabinets as well as an Audiolab 8000A integrated amp. The 15" drivers needed some treble, so i went off to Zakspeed and bought a pair of Audiopipe ATX-3720 bullet tweeters.
The Electrovoices and Audiopipes were brutally forced into the old cabinet. No attempt was made to improve aesthetics, have correct crossover points, or cabinet modelling. Off they went to please the masses of drunken students, powered by the Audiolab amp.
A lucky fluke happened with the setup! The sound was actually not too bad, considering the fact that it was slung together in the space of 2 hours, and the room that they were placed in had much to be desired.
Eventually, it seems that they were a touch overpowered for a student bar, and we were starting to get noise complaints and threats of being closed down. As I was quite fond of them, i quickly retrieved them and brought them back home. In a fit of curiosity driven experimentation, i hooked up the "Class T" amp from my Litil speakers to the FrankenBoxes, and was happily surprised at the sound!
The tweeters were crisp and slightly airy sounding, the mid-range was warm and defined, bass was totally non-existent. hmmm, seems new cabinets are in order...i downloaded WinISD pro, filled in as many driver parameters as i can, and set off.
The cabinets that seemed to work best for the supplied drivers were 220 litre and ported. This wouldn't really work, as placement would have been in a bedroom, and would have made furniture placement a problem. I then started fiddling with ideas of sealed cabinets, dropped the size drastically to 23 litres, and include an active subwoofer. My old man took a look at all of the modeling, gave me some tips and suggestions about filters and frequency drop-offs, and i think i have something that might work
Long time lurker, have never got around to joining or posting :headbanger: terrible, i know.
It was only fairly recently that i started getting into decent quality sound (i was always happy to just listen to the music). As a Christmas present my old man got me a pair of Phillips desktop speakers, odd tube shaped things, but they were a definite step up from hours of listening to iPod supplied earphones.
The audio bug soon grabbed hold of me, and i started to become more and more critical with regards to the quality of the systems i was listening to. We organised one of the Litil speaker systems that Jim Gore was providing at one point, along with one of the small "Class T" amplifiers to drive them.
The building of the speakers was definitely a learning experience. Accurate table saw use, veneering, crossover building, French Polishing, routering...and a lot of fun too, along with developing a healthy respect and fear for power tools.
What lovely little speakers! Friendly mid-range, surprising clarity, and frankly astonishing bass quality for the size of driver involved. Only possible failings were lack of volume and necessity of near-field listening. Many an hour spent at my desk, listening to a wide range of music when i was supposed to be working on school projects.
A couple of months ago, i had recently started looking after a student bar at Wits, and they were in need of a sound system. After a bit of looking around, nothing seemed to be worthwhile for the kind of budget i had available to me, so my dad kindly lent me a pair of Electrovoice EVM15B drivers, some old cabinets as well as an Audiolab 8000A integrated amp. The 15" drivers needed some treble, so i went off to Zakspeed and bought a pair of Audiopipe ATX-3720 bullet tweeters.
The Electrovoices and Audiopipes were brutally forced into the old cabinet. No attempt was made to improve aesthetics, have correct crossover points, or cabinet modelling. Off they went to please the masses of drunken students, powered by the Audiolab amp.
A lucky fluke happened with the setup! The sound was actually not too bad, considering the fact that it was slung together in the space of 2 hours, and the room that they were placed in had much to be desired.
Eventually, it seems that they were a touch overpowered for a student bar, and we were starting to get noise complaints and threats of being closed down. As I was quite fond of them, i quickly retrieved them and brought them back home. In a fit of curiosity driven experimentation, i hooked up the "Class T" amp from my Litil speakers to the FrankenBoxes, and was happily surprised at the sound!
The tweeters were crisp and slightly airy sounding, the mid-range was warm and defined, bass was totally non-existent. hmmm, seems new cabinets are in order...i downloaded WinISD pro, filled in as many driver parameters as i can, and set off.
The cabinets that seemed to work best for the supplied drivers were 220 litre and ported. This wouldn't really work, as placement would have been in a bedroom, and would have made furniture placement a problem. I then started fiddling with ideas of sealed cabinets, dropped the size drastically to 23 litres, and include an active subwoofer. My old man took a look at all of the modeling, gave me some tips and suggestions about filters and frequency drop-offs, and i think i have something that might work
