I was planning on building a set of
Ascendant Audio Arbiter MTM speakers. However, since I have been unable to get ahold of them for
three weeks, I am going to give up on that idea. Plus, according to people on
their forum, they are sold out of the 6.5" Poly Mids, the main component in those speakers, and do
not plan on making anymore. I have had very positive experiences with Ascendant in the past. My Ascendant Atlase 12" subwoofer driver is one of the best built and best sounding drivers I have ever seen or heard. Recently, however, I have not been able to recieve
any customer service and their site has not been updated in over a month. I will withold final judgement for a later date but I need to build some speakers within the next two months if they are going to be used as my senior project.
So, I have been looking at Seas drivers, particularly the
L22RNX/P 8" and the
L18RNX/P 7" (or is it 6.5"... conflicting info between Madisound and Seas site).
Are these good drivers? They are both virually the same price. They appear to be of good quality. I know Seas has an excellent reputation.
If I go with the Seas drivers I would go with only one woofer in the mains instead of two. That leads me to another question. Having a center speaker with one (or two) 8" drivers would simply be too big for my current setup. My goal here is to have a matched set of three speakers for my front soundstage. If I made a center in an MTM alignment with, say, two smaller woofers, could I acheive a timbre matched system? Would it work to build the center just like the mains and set it on its side?
Now comes the tweeter choice. Both of those woofers go up to about 2000hz. Many of the Seas tweeters go down to about 2000hz. What would you recommend for a tweeter? A Seas model? Another brand? I don't want to go over $30 a piece for the tweeters as I am attempting to keep costs about the same as they were for the Ascendant set.
The recommended enclosure for the 8" woofer is 1.9^ft with a 2" FP at 4.3" long. Does that sound about right? I will try modeling it in WinISD but I'm not sure what the Xmax is. Seas gives "linear coil travel" and "maximum coil travel". Which one would be equivalent to Xmax?
The final issue is crossover design. I don't know how to design a crossover. I know there are kits, designs, and prebuilt crossovers available but I want the crossover to be just right. Also, the PDF specs sheet for both of the woofers says the following:
"The cone break up modes at higher frequencies call for special attention in the crossover design work."
What exactly is this "special attention"?
I know I'm getting in deep for my first DIY speakers but that is what I am trying to do. In using them as my senior project, I am supposed to challenge myself and strain my abilities.
Any advice would be appreciated.