Any Good DIY projects for center channel?

[Mike82]

Don't forget to order the crossover. If you use two drivers, then you need to double the box size, and I will have to calculate a new port. On the second driver the tweeter would not be used and I would have to design a network to feed the fill (second) driver.

That sounds great. I am planning on replacing my mains also in the near future and have been doing some research about that also. What I have come up with is the mains and center should have the same sounding sound if that makes sense. So my question i guess is will these match any other drivers sound close enough. Or would I have to go with this driver for my mains also.

Also being that the tweeter will not be used on the second driver do you think it would be a waste of money for what I would gain. I am very into clean sounding loud music and thats what I am trying to achieve is music that sounds good cranked up.

 

[TLS Guy]

That sounds great. I am planning on replacing my mains also in the near future and have been doing some research about that also. What I have come up with is the mains and center should have the same sounding sound if that makes sense. So my question i guess is will these match any other drivers sound close enough. Or would I have to go with this driver for my mains also.

Also being that the tweeter will not be used on the second driver do you think it would be a waste of money for what I would gain. I am very into clean sounding loud music and thats what I am trying to achieve is music that sounds good cranked up.

With that driver you have a step response (diffraction loss) with a small narrow enclosure. So the advantage of the second driver is to fill in the roll off below 500 Hz, which is generic to small narrow fronted enclosures. The sound of my center is very robust.

Now those SEAS drivers are very smooth, and will compliment any other very good speaker. My mains do not use the same driver, and yet the sound is seamless between the center and the mains.

That driver is quite good enough to design mains round if you want. You can design 2.5 way, like my center, or you could even design a three way like the KEF towers.

 

[Mike82]

Cool I think i am going to order two. Do I need to order 2 crossovers when I order I will one work for both.

Mike

 

[TLS Guy]

Cool I think i am going to order two. Do I need to order 2 crossovers when I order I will one work for both.

Mike

No you need one crossover. However I will have to design you the crossover for the second driver, as I use an active electronic crossover.

The other thing I need to do is get the porting right, unless you want to build the TL, which is by far the best solution. It gives such great uncolored speech and very natural dialog, as well as being a very good music reproducer.

The TL will work vertically or on its side equally well. I traveled to our Eagan home today. I have the disc that has the plans on it. I can get large plans printed off for you at Kinkos, if you want.

 

[Mike82]

No you need one crossover. However I will have to design you the crossover for the second driver, as I use an active electronic crossover.

The other thing I need to do is get the porting right, unless you want to build the TL, which is by far the best solution. It gives such great uncolored speech and very natural dialog, as well as being a very good music reproducer.

The TL will work vertically or on its side equally well. I traveled to our Eagan home today. I have the disc that has the plans on it. I can get large plans printed off for you at Kinkos, if you want.

I am wondering would i be better off just getting a active crossover right away. If I did that would I need to get the passive crossover in the kit at all. If you think that would be a better option could you recommend one that could run a 5.1 system. Because later on I would like to go that way with everything. Sorry if the questions are common sense I am new at this and trying to learn as I go here.

Also what is the TL build that you recommended.

 

[TLS Guy]

I am wondering would i be better off just getting a active crossover right away. If I did that would I need to get the passive crossover in the kit at all. If you think that would be a better option could you recommend one that could run a 5.1 system. Because later on I would like to go that way with everything. Sorry if the questions are common sense I am new at this and trying to learn as I go here.

Also what is the TL build that you recommended.

I don't think we want to get into designing an electronic crossover, that duplicates the SEAS passive one.

So go ahead and buy one crossover.

You then have the option of a passive or active network for the fill driver. Active is best, as it gives you total control over the amplitude of the fill signal. This is important, because boundary issues, resulting from placement of center speakers, modifies the magnitude of the fill signal required.

This is the aperiodically damped transmission line I designed for those drivers,

 

[shootermcgaven2]

Im wondering how the loki kit would compair to a pair of 600$ Kef IQ30s


how well would the loki's work as mains?

is it worth spending 200 on parts to make it a 2.5 way?

 

[TLS Guy]

Im wondering how the loki kit would compair to a pair of 600$ Kef IQ30s


how well would the loki's work as mains?

is it worth spending 200 on parts to make it a 2.5 way?

It would be very similar. Most including myself feel the SEAS driver is the better of the two.

You could make a total system using Lokis if you felt so inclined.

That SEAS driver is one of the best kept secrets around.

The SEAS driver lends itself to a lot of possibilities for the DIY enthusiast.

I think correcting the the step response with another driver is well worth while. This could be done with a different cheaper polypropylene driver if you used two isolated compartments in the enclosure. The SEAS driver also gives the possibility of making a three way enclosure.

I have been mentioning the strengths of the SEAS coaxial for some time. If there is interest I could work up a range of designs using this driver.

Most of the KEF IQ range could be duplicated.

 

[lsiberian]

Im wondering how the loki kit would compair to a pair of 600$ Kef IQ30s


how well would the loki's work as mains?

is it worth spending 200 on parts to make it a 2.5 way?

Definately. Most higher end speakers if you've noticed have two upper LFE drivers with one tweeter. The Seas nicely place the tweeter into the midrange eliminating alot of issues.

 

[lsiberian]

It would be very similar. Most including myself feel the SEAS driver is the better of the two.

You could make a total system using Lokis if you felt so inclined.

That SEAS driver is one of the best kept secrets around.

The SEAS driver lends itself to a lot of possibilities for the DIY enthusiast.

I think correcting the the step response with another driver is well worth while. This could be done with a different cheaper polypropylene driver if you used two isolated compartments in the enclosure. The SEAS driver also gives the possibility of making a three way enclosure.

I have been mentioning the strengths of the SEAS coaxial for some time. If there is interest I could work up a range of designs using this driver.

Most of the KEF IQ range could be duplicated.

I think those designs paired with dual Infinity Perfect MidVQs could make a very nice DIY system for anyone to put together. I personally love the Kef IQ series so it would be of particular interest to me.

 

[Mike82]

It would be very similar. Most including myself feel the SEAS driver is the better of the two.

You could make a total system using Lokis if you felt so inclined.

That SEAS driver is one of the best kept secrets around.

The SEAS driver lends itself to a lot of possibilities for the DIY enthusiast.

I think correcting the the step response with another driver is well worth while. This could be done with a different cheaper polypropylene driver if you used two isolated compartments in the enclosure. The SEAS driver also gives the possibility of making a three way enclosure.

I have been mentioning the strengths of the SEAS coaxial for some time. If there is interest I could work up a range of designs using this driver.

Most of the KEF IQ range could be duplicated.

I think I like this idea maybe making a three way box using the loki driver kit and use two other polypropylene driver to fix the step response. What polypropylene drivers would you recommend. I am thinking cost effective more doing it this way. But if you think it would sound much better by just going with the 2 loki drivers and the TL build and get a active crossover. I would probably do just do that.

 

[TLS Guy]

I think I like this idea maybe making a three way box using the loki driver kit and use two other polypropylene driver to fix the step response. What polypropylene drivers would you recommend. I am thinking cost effective more doing it this way. But if you think it would sound much better by just going with the 2 loki drivers and the TL build and get a active crossover. I would probably do just do that.

For a center, a TL really comes into its own, because the driver reinforcement is non resonant with a Qt of 0.5. Also the bass roll off is second order, rather than fourth order for a reflex enclosure. Honestly I have never heard a center speaker that comes close to performing like my TL center, no matter what it cost.

The electronic crossover for the fill driver, is first order at 250 Hz. I use modified Shure SR 106 crossover because I have had them lying around for a while, and they have a good quality case.

I have not researched or worked up a three way design round the SEAS coaxial yet. That would take me a little time. I have not even done a search for suitable drivers yet.

It seems we are getting some interest in this driver now, so I may put some designs together down the road.

 

[Mike82]

I think I am sold on the TL design with the two loki drivers. I will be ordering them this week if everything works out as planned. Hopefully put the cabinet together next weekend if all works out.

On a side note I had a guy come and look at my fronts today and got them sold. So i need to replace them before I can let them go. Any suggestions on them, I was thinking about doing a 3 way 2 mids 1 tweeter. Price would more a factor in them. I would say 300 dollars in drivers per side would be the max I could go.

I was going to see what your guys thoughts were on a kit like this http://www.parts-express.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=300-700&ctab=1#Tabs
After looking further into the drivers I found it uses 5 1/4 woofers I am not sure if it will sound that good

 

[lsiberian]

I think I am sold on the TL design with the two loki drivers. I will be ordering them this week if everything works out as planned. Hopefully put the cabinet together next weekend if all works out.

On a side note I had a guy come and look at my fronts today and got them sold. So i need to replace them before I can let them go. Any suggestions on them, I was thinking about doing a 3 way 2 mids 1 tweeter. Price would more a factor in them. I would say 300 dollars in drivers per side would be the max I could go.

I was going to see what your guys thoughts were on a kit like this http://www.parts-express.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=300-700&ctab=1#Tabs
After looking further into the drivers I found it uses 5 1/4 woofers I am not sure if it will sound that good

That's a great intro product. Many people prefer 5 1/4 woofers over 6.5" in a 2-way design. Paired with a subwoofer they would sound fine for most systems.

 

[Mike82]

I just found your post TLS_GUY on making good fronts for cheap to beat the recession. http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52319 Lots of great info thanks.

 

[TLS Guy]

I think I am sold on the TL design with the two loki drivers. I will be ordering them this week if everything works out as planned. Hopefully put the cabinet together next weekend if all works out.

On a side note I had a guy come and look at my fronts today and got them sold. So i need to replace them before I can let them go. Any suggestions on them, I was thinking about doing a 3 way 2 mids 1 tweeter. Price would more a factor in them. I would say 300 dollars in drivers per side would be the max I could go.

I was going to see what your guys thoughts were on a kit like this http://www.parts-express.com/pe/pshowdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=300-700&ctab=1#Tabs
After looking further into the drivers I found it uses 5 1/4 woofers I am not sure if it will sound that good

Here is your passive circuit for the fill driver.

If you want to go active, you could use the Behringer active crossover, however you would only be using one section of the crossover.

You could easily use this system for center and mains.

Your other alternative is to build the active crossover, it would involve one op amp chip per crossover for each fill driver. It would be a very simple circuit.

You need to PM me your address so I can have another set of TL plans made and send you a set.

 

[shootermcgaven2]

Bass reflex: 3 way system using a co-axial and 18cm woofers
The Hemi Rouge is a 3 way speaker using the T18RE/XFCTV2 co-axial driver for midrange and highs and the 2 L18RNX/P aluminium drivers for the bass.The combination presents an excellent image and soundstage due to the point source arrangement of the midrange and tweeter.The 3 way design ensures that the co-axial cone movement is kept to a minimum thereby alleviating any modulation issues that are common with co-axial designs.

found this

 

[TLS Guy]

Bass reflex: 3 way system using a co-axial and 18cm woofers
The Hemi Rouge is a 3 way speaker using the T18RE/XFCTV2 co-axial driver for midrange and highs and the 2 L18RNX/P aluminium drivers for the bass.The combination presents an excellent image and soundstage due to the point source arrangement of the midrange and tweeter.The 3 way design ensures that the co-axial cone movement is kept to a minimum thereby alleviating any modulation issues that are common with co-axial designs.found this

Interesting speaker. The others are available here through Madisound. I have pondered ding something similar.

SEAS now have a coaxial in their premium Excel range. You could likely make a really good speaker with that driver. I use all Excel drivers in my mains, and they are really good drivers.

There never has been a better time to be into DIY.

 

[shootermcgaven2]

Interesting speaker. The others are available here through Madisound. I have pondered ding something similar.

SEAS now have a coaxial in their premium Excel range. You could likely make a really good speaker with that driver. I use all Excel drivers in my mains, and they are really good drivers.

I like the look of the Magnesium Cone. wow they used a very small enclosure in their test box. i like the ideal of tiny speakers

 

[Guiria]

I am very interested in this concept of coaxial speakers for an entire 5 channel system (at least center and mains). It seems like building 3 of TLS_Guy's center channel TL design would make a great front soundstage.

I have always been interested in TL designs but the designing of said speakers is a little over my head. A TL that I could mount to the front wall is right up my alley of what I'm after for my future system.

Very cool thread.