Living Room Center Channel

[fuzz092888]

New thread for my musings on a new center channel. My big center will be going into the movie room and my center utilizing the driver @TLS Guy sold me is in the bedroom so I find myself requiring a third center channel. The Philharmonics will be in the living room once the tweeters have been repaired by Dennis so ideally I'm looking for something that will match those.

I've been ruminating on:

The ER15 center kit from meniscus
The Statement II kit from meniscus
A custom kit from Selah Audio using either RAAL 70-10 or RAAL 70-20
.....................Something else???

After I figure out a kit I'll decide on all the other stuff, but I'm leaning towards a walnut or mahogany I think.

Any feedback or suggestions are welcome.

 

[fuzz092888]

Well, not being one for sitting around and musing, I made a choice. Rick from Selah got back to me and after a few e-mails put a deposit down on a custom designed center using the 70-10. Will be a WMTW with 6.5" woofers and a 4.5" mid. Should be interesting and a bit smaller than the enormous Source Center I'm currently using in the living room..................although not by much.

My directive from the woman was something smaller......she should have specified how much

 

[TheWarrior]

I love the RAAL ribbons, but side by side to a Beryllium tweeter, I felt the compression was audible (subtle, very very nit picky, but audible) and am actually having madisound help me with the crossover for a center channel I've been working on for my Phil 3's. Haven't learned all the formulas yet so I am going to use their CAD and engineer's help to complete the design for a 3 way in a sealed cabinet. F3 is expected to be around 50 hz. Parts cost could easily be $2k.

I will be testing the speaker outdoors following CTA 2034 so I'll be able to tell you exactly how effective the crossover is, and will use it to further my education as I keep learning and tweaking. They are just back logged currently so it could be another month to get the design.

 

[slipperybidness]

What happened to your tweets????

 

[Alex2507]

Is there a PE cabinet the ER15 center could go in? That would work for the 'more than perpetual presswood' crowd.

 

[fuzz092888]

I love the RAAL ribbons, but side by side to a Beryllium tweeter, I felt the compression was audible (subtle, very very nit picky, but audible) and am actually having madisound help me with the crossover for a center channel I've been working on for my Phil 3's. Haven't learned all the formulas yet so I am going to use their CAD and engineer's help to complete the design for a 3 way in a sealed cabinet. F3 is expected to be around 50 hz. Parts cost could easily be $2k.

I will be testing the speaker outdoors following CTA 2034 so I'll be able to tell you exactly how effective the crossover is, and will use it to further my education as I keep learning and tweaking. They are just back logged currently so it could be another month to get the design.

I've only heard one Be tweeter and it sounded no better or worse than the RAAL's. For two ways, I've never heard any compression from the 70-20 (had a Dennis designed Salk built MTM Center with 70-20 XR) and that was at ear bleeding levels. The center Rick is designing for me is a 3 way with the 70-10. He's not sure on the other drivers just yet, possibly the satori's. Rick, like Dennis, are very familiar with the RAAL's and have a bunch of designs with them. I explained my performance goals to him and I trust what he'll design. I think he said I'm looking at like 24 x 12 x 12 for size so I highly doubt he'll be designing something that big that won't be able to get loud.

Definitely interested to see what you and they come up with. Should be cool having someone else doing a custom center at the same time.

 

[fuzz092888]

What happened to your tweets????

When I talked to Dennis he said he's seen this before and we came to the conclusiong that the "temperature controlled" storage facility wasn't and that the humidity must have been wayyyyy too high in there as well as temperature. The little black part above the ribbon started to peel away causing one tweeter to become completely nonfunctioning and the other tweeter looked like it was definitely headed that way.

 

[fuzz092888]

Is there a PE cabinet the ER15 center could go in? That would work for the 'more than perpetual presswood' crowd.

Nah, no cab would work for the ER15 center that I know. Rick is sending me the cabinet plans sometime next week I think, but the actual kit won't be sent for another week or two after that so I'll have time to get things together. Plus, with my brand new handy dandy basement workshop I'll have the time and space to actually finish this center and start chipping away at all the unfinshed subs. Although, at this point I'm really glad I never finished any of them because I've moved so many times that they are chipped, scratched, scraped, gouged, and just generally in pretty rough shape.

I need to rebuild the cab for the dual opposed UXL's, build a cabinet for the 21" subs, and when one or both of those is finished I need to sand and fill the heck out of the cabinets the LMS Ultras are in before I can do anything with them. lots of projects, but one's that I'll actually be able to get to now that I'm a homeowner.

 

[Alex2507]

basement workshop

You mean future 2 car garage ... congrats in advance.

 

[fuzz092888]

You mean future 2 car garage ... congrats in advance.

Nah, my plans for a garage are on the side of the house.........3 bay. So one of those bays can be the workshop

 

[fuzz092888]

So Rick got back to me and it looks like the mid and the woofers will all be SB Acoustics Ceremic Cone drivers.

 

[fuzz092888]

Got some specs back from Rick. 23.5" wide by 11" tall by 12" deep. Need to figure out what material I'm building it out of.

 

[KEW]

Got some specs back from Rick. 23.5" wide by 11" tall by 12" deep. Need to figure out what material I'm building it out of.

A good HVAC ductwork guy could fab that in sheet metal for you in about 1/2 an hour!

I wonder what Corian would cost! Pretty sure the glue they use ends up giving the strength as if it was milled out of a solid block. I'm also pretty sure a router will mill it very clean (but verify) so you can use mechanical joinery to lock the relative positions when gluing.

 

[Verdinut]

So Rick got back to me and it looks like the mid and the woofers will all be SB Acoustics Ceremic Cone drivers.

That driver looks amazing. SB Acoustics transducers are very well made and perform very well indeed. I haven't used a driver with a ceramic cone, but I have been using one of their 5¼ inch mid-woofers to reproduce mid frequencies in a three-way system and as woofers in two-way bookshelves, which I use as surrounds in my HT system. They have a very smooth response.
The RAAL ribbon tweeter is without any doubt an excellent driver. I am using Airborne Air Motion Ribbons in my system with amazing results. Ribbons have a wider horizontal dispersion than most dome tweeters and usually cost less than most of the best domes.

Keep us posted and let us know when this interesting project has come to fruition with your initial listening impressions.

Cheers,

 

[Verdinut]

If I had the room, I might be tempted in venturing to build a three-way system using two 8 inch SB23CACS45-8 woofers, two SB15CAC30-8 5 inch midwoofers and a ribbon tweeter.

BTW, those woofers will give a response with an F3 at 27Hz in a properly ported enclosure. That's indeed amazing for an 8 inch woofer.

 

[fuzz092888]

A good HVAC ductwork guy could fab that in sheet metal for you in about 1/2 an hour!

I wonder what Corian would cost! Pretty sure the glue they use ends up giving the strength as if it was milled out of a solid block. I'm also pretty sure a router will mill it very clean (but verify) so you can use mechanical joinery to lock the relative positions when gluing.

That would be sweet. Although I'm not sure where I would be able to get the corian or get it milled.

I've always wanted a CNC machine and have been eyeing the buildyourcnc kits since they were a kickstarter. Ah someday........

 

[fuzz092888]

If I had the room, I might be tempted in venturing to build a three-way system using two 8 inch SB23CACS45-8 woofers, two SB15CAC30-8 5 inch midwoofers and a ribbon tweeter.

BTW, those woofers will give a response with an F3 at 27Hz in a properly ported enclosure. That's indeed amazing for an 8 inch woofer.

Hmm, I wouldn't mind an F3 that low. Although I know this center won't have that. This is a sealed center so I'm hoping Rick comes back in the mid 40's or so. Just low enough for a smooth transition to the sub. Although the sub needs some additional EQ for sure. Even with Audyssey MultEQ 32 it needs a little extra EQ to help extend the response into the teens-20's. We shall see.

 

[KEW]

That would be sweet. Although I'm not sure where I would be able to get the corian or get it milled.

I've always wanted a CNC machine and have been eyeing the buildyourcnc kits since they were a kickstarter. Ah someday........

I was thinking hand/table routing when I said milled. You may have to move slower because of the density of the Corian, but it should cut very clean because there is no grain to worry about and many plastics are self-lubricating.
When you said workshop, I assumed woodworking, but that is a sloppy assumption!

A friend built a 3 axis CNC router using 80/20 materials and I did the programming for it. But that was 20 years ago and I don't remember much else other than we used a DeWalt laminate trimmer. It was for work - custom cutting the holes in Freightliner dash switch panels so it had the right number of switches instead of having blank plugs in holes for accessory switches the buyer did not order.

 

[fuzz092888]

Received the finalized center channel drawings from Rick the other day. Just sent the final payment and hopefully he’ll be shipping by the end of the week.

 

[lsiberian]

It'll be interesting to see how this turns out.