please comment on two way

[mazurek]

I am a real design novice, but thought it would be a cool thing to do (gotta constantly tinker).

I was looking at madisound and parts express, and think it would be fairly straightforward to design a 2 way from the following parts. (I initially wanted to go crazy and make a 3 way, but I don't have the knowledge).

http://www.madisound.com/accuton.html

Accuton C23-6 1.2 inch super-tweeter
Accuton C220-T6 8" woofer

I would buy a 1 cubic foot enclosure from parts express, and a premade crossover at 1600 Hz. Also, I would get one of those 2" diameter plastic ports, and some stuffing material.

The design is basically from looking at frequency response curves and sensitivities. Do I need to worry about anything like where the drivers should be laid out on the baffle, or will an aesthetically pleasing design be likely to work. Also, the crossover from parts express is rated for 8 ohm drivers, but the drivers are 6 ohm, will it still work? I don't know how to design crossovers, but imagine I could from a parts express kit.

 

[Swerd]

I was looking at madisound and parts express, and think it would be fairly straightforward to design a 2 way from the following parts. (I initially wanted to go crazy and make a 3 way, but I don't have the knowledge).

http://www.madisound.com/accuton.html

Accuton C23-6 1.2 inch super-tweeter
Accuton C220-T6 8" woofer

I would buy a 1 cubic foot enclosure from parts express, and a premade crossover at 1600 Hz. Also, I would get one of those 2" diameter plastic ports, and some stuffing material.

The design is basically from looking at frequency response curves and sensitivities. Do I need to worry about anything like where the drivers should be laid out on the baffle, or will an aesthetically pleasing design be likely to work. Also, the crossover from parts express is rated for 8 ohm drivers, but the drivers are 6 ohm, will it still work? I don't know how to design crossovers, but imagine I could from a parts express kit.

Mazurek
Please don't spend the kind of money those Accuton drivers cost and use a stock premade crossover. You may be very disappointed. At $210 per tweeter and $382 per 8" woofer, they are among the most expensive drivers I've seen. If you want to build your own and have no prior experience, you can do much better, and pay much less, by building a kit or following a design from someone who does know what they are doing. Ask, and I'll suggest some web sites.

Look at the 8" driver's frequency response curve, http://www.madisound.com/images/C220TSPL.gif, and you'll see a huge breakup peak that begins above 2 kHz and continues beyond 4 kHz. Peaks like that are common among metal and ceramic coned drivers, and they often require complex crossovers to filter out that noise. Your premade crossover at 1.6 kHz (probably a straighforward 2nd order design with a roll off of 12 dB/octave) is within 2 octaves of that peak. You will very likely hear that noise and it will sound harsh and piercing. Peaks like that can be filtered out by a very steep crossover (4th order or higher), or by a notch filter, but you still may hear the 2nd or 3rd order harmonic distortion from it. Many commercial speakers that feature metal drivers suffer from this problem to some degree. Have you ever listened to metal speakers, and are you sure you like their sound?

There is an alternative for a premade crossover. For $25 Madisound will provide a computer derived design for a 2-way speaker, provided that they sell the drivers. Click on the Catalog button on their web site, scroll down past the Miscellaneous heading, and look for the LEAP 4.6 Crossover Design Service link. It is not perfect, but it would likely be much better than a premade crossover. For a fee, I think they might also build you a pair of the crossovers too. But I really recommend that you look into other kits or designs. They have been computer designed as well as tested and tweaked by humans.

 

[WmAx]

I was looking at madisound and parts express, and think it would be fairly straightforward to design a 2 way from the following parts. (I initially wanted to go crazy and make a 3 way, but I don't have the knowledge).

http://www.madisound.com/accuton.html

Accuton C23-6 1.2 inch super-tweeter
Accuton C220-T6 8" woofer

Listen to Swerd. These drivers will not do you any good unless used within the context of their specific strengths, and then, only when integrated into a properly engineered loudspeaker design. It will be a waste of money to use these as a beginner project unless you are using said drivers in a pre-existing plan developed by a knowledgable designer.

-Chris

 

[mazurek]

Thank you very much for the advice. It looks like I may try out the Madisound Solist kit. I always have romantic notions of design, until I realize its a lot more complicated than I thought.

http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?cart_id=9274985.20436&pid=496

Are there any other good full range kits you know of in that price range? I decided my newish ML Mosaics are too sharp and give me a headache after a while, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to sell them and use the money to make some speakers.

 

[WmAx]

Thank you very much for the advice. It looks like I may try out the Madisound Solist kit. I always have romantic notions of design, until I realize its a lot more complicated than I thought.

http://www.madisound.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?cart_id=9274985.20436&pid=496

Are there any other good full range kits you know of in that price range? I decided my newish ML Mosaics are too sharp and give me a headache after a while, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to sell them and use the money to make some speakers.

While it's about twice your stated price range, you can basicly build what many people consider one of the world's highest fidelity loudspeakers for around $3500-$4000, if you so desired. But you did want to really make the effort pay off, right?

Consider the Linwitz Orion kit(By the legendary speaker/acoustics/crossover engineer, S. Linkwitz):

http://www.linkwitzlab.com/DIY products.htm

-Chris