convert 2-way bookshelf into 3-way tower?

[Swerd]

So angling the front vs. the back would be the way to go to time align the drivers? How critical is that, I'm thinking not very since 95% of speakers are built on a vertical plane.

Building a cabinet so the drivers are time aligned is more difficult, as you can see in those plans. In theory it seems to be a good idea, but it is unclear whether people can hear any difference between speakers that are time aligned and those that aren't. So in the absence of any clear evidence for or against it, the deciding factor may be how hard it is to build the cabinet.

Remember that time aligned drivers are also phase aligned, if they have crossovers that generate 1st order acoustic roll off curves for the drivers. It is much easier to build speakers that are phase aligned, but not time aligned. A standard rectangular design will work with 4th order Linkwitz-Riley crossovers. The drivers will be in phase with each other, but 360° out of time with each other. To my ears, these are fine.

Another advantage for cabinets without 90° corners is that non-parallel cabinet sides minimize standing waves inside the cabinet due to internal reflections.

 

[Guiria]

So for all you seasoned wood workers out there what is the best way to make straight, accurate, non 90 degree cuts? I have or have access to a table saw, circular saw, jigsaw, and router.

 

[Swerd]

So for all you seasoned wood workers out there what is the best way to make straight, accurate, non 90 degree cuts? I have or have access to a table saw, circular saw, jigsaw, and router.

As usual, with woodworking there is more than one way to do it, and it depends on what tools you have.

If you have a table saw, you can buy a taper jig. Amazon lists many more, but I linked that one because the picture shows how it works. As always, practice using this method before you try cutting your workpiece.

I don't own a table saw. Instead, for long cuts, I use a circle saw and a home made straight edge guide. For any cut, 90° or other, I layout in pencil the cut lines on my work piece. Then I clamp on the edge guide to line up with the pencil line and make the cut. I've never tried a non 90° angle, but I don't see why it wouldn't work with some practice.

I usually cut my pieces a bit over sized, so that when I glue the cabinet box together there is about ¼" or less hanging over at the edge. I trim that off with a router and a flush trim bit. In my hands that seems to work better than trying to be precisely accruate cutting a large work piece.

 

[Guiria]

Finally got around to pricing everything out and the total cost is a little out of budget. I ended up with a total around 350.00 for xover parts and woofers.

Seems like I could use my existing xover between mid/tweet and get an active setup between the midrange and bass woofer for close to 350.00. To Wmax credit this was already suggested at the beginning of the thread.

I could splurge and pay for the build but I'll need to think about it a little more...opportunity cost of the non-allocated funds

Then the question in my mind has arisen that how much better would my custom 3-way tower be vs. something like the Tritrix MTM TL build?

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-702

For only 200 bucks it has me thinking.

The joys of speaker building

 

[Guiria]

After sleeping on it a few nights I think I will still proceed with the build. One question though, are the 16 gauge air core inductors critical? If not I would rather use 18 gauge Jantzen air core inductors from parts express.

 

[Guiria]

Are there any good tower designs out there for roughly 250.00 in component parts cost? I've looked but not had much luck...Just exploring some options. I found this build on the parts express project showcase:

http://www.parts-express.com/projectshowcase/indexn.cfm?project=CopperProject

Anyways that's just an example of something I could be interested in. I don't necessarily have to go 3-way.

On my current proposed design, spending $120.00 on 6 caps has me dragging my feet.

 

[dkane360]

I was thinking of doing the tritrix but somehow adding a sub and make it a 3 way. I think that would be pretty interesting. My potential layout would be keeping the top sealed, and adding a side facing sub in the lower section. The front is to thin (6") for anything of normal sub size. Am I crazy? Lol. I don't have the technical prowess to get the specifics of which sub would work best and in what sized compartment, or how to design the crossover though. If someone worked out the plan, we could both benefit

 

[Guiria]

I was thinking of doing the tritrix but somehow adding a sub and make it a 3 way. I think that would be pretty interesting. My potential layout would be keeping the top sealed, and adding a side facing sub in the lower section. The front is to thin (6") for anything of normal sub size. Am I crazy? Lol. I don't have the technical prowess to get the specifics of which sub would work best and in what sized compartment, or how to design the crossover though. If someone worked out the plan, we could both benefit

Unless you were going to add a subwoofer that could dig into the low 30's it doesn't seem worth it given there is the TL version of the tritrix that has an f3 in the 40's. That is definitely doable but I would think the best person to integrate a sub into the sealed version of the tritrix would be Curt Campbell over at the partsexpress tech-talk forum. He's the guy that designed the tritrix. He is also a regular participant of htguide (which seems like it's all parts-express gear as well) forums as well. I think for detailed questions about the tritrix you'd get more answers on those forums.

If you do figure it out let us know...sounds interesting.

 

[Guiria]

After much internal debate on what to do I have decided to wait on this project until I can afford to do the proposed project converting my DIY bookshelves into a DIY 3-way using the Peerless 10" 830668 drivers. All the other builds I looked into just felt like a compromise to me that I didn't want to make. The proposed 3-way done right would make a terrific speaker in my book so I'm going to wait until I can do it right.