Meet My DIY Super Planars - the best speaker $2K speaker ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[HuenEye]

This is my first thread here and I thought it would be cool to shake some things up by posting such a 'daring' thread title.

I've been in the audio hobby for 67 years, when I was 5 YO, thanks to my late Dad who was an audio aficionado and who introduced me into the wacky world of audio and sound. I born in NYC just like my Dad. NYC in the 1950s and early 60s was the audio capitol in the USA. Empire, Marantz, Fisher, McIntosh, Harmon Kardon, Stanton, Pickering and others were manufacturing audio in NYC.

I was never happy with my AR2as especially after I started going to concerts and I heard how live rock n' roll music sounded. So in 1968, when I was 16, I built my first set of speakers with the help of neighbors and one of whom was an audio engineer for RCA back in their glory days of audio.

I used bass guitar speakers, a mid horn and a tweeter horn just like they had at the concerts. With the help of Mickey Rosenstein, the audio engineer, I was introduced to crossovers, inductors, caps and resistors and how to 'voice' a speaker. Now I heard rock music they way it sounded in concert!!!!!!! Harry Johnson, my next door neighbor showed me how to design and build an enclosure. BTW, Harry helped install the original radio masts on the Empire State Building back in the 1930s!!!!!!!

Fast forward about 50 years later and I started to design and build speakers in 2014 in my retirement to sunny Surprise AZ.

My first pair, a set of OB speakers didn't perform well so I moved on to design more 'traditional' speakers but always with some kind of trick implementation. I next built a speaker that had 2 cabinets in one both built to the golden ratio. A bass section and the mid range section to which I added on top the tweeter. I had both 4 and 8 Ohm (@2500) taps for the tweeter depending on its ohms. I used this speaker to test tweeters. I have lots of tweeters!

And on and on the experimentation went.

I came up with the 'Super Planar' after lots and lots of research.

I build 'modular' speakers starting with a bass cab that also serves as a speaker stand. In this instance it is 2 12" woofers in a 'force cancellation' design that one of my many loudspeaker design books recommended and showed why. Less distortion, much tighter bass and NO VIBRATIONS which allows lighter speaker enclosures.

I own Maggies but unfortunately they don't work in my room due to all of my equipment. I've owned Maggies on and off since 1979. And then I saw those GRS planar drivers on PE and my brain clicked. Why not try those new GRS drivers in an OB MTM configuration?

I chose a 2nd order crossover design based on the results I got from my DATS3. I did lots and lots of experimentation with other 'orders' but the more caps and inductors in the circuit the worse the 'electrical' phase became and resistance anomalies abounded. Simple was better and those Zobel circuits I added only made things worse.

Did you ever read a speaker tech review by John Atkinson? Did you pay attention to the phase/resistance issues those 'expensive' speakers have? And how hard they are to drive because of all the crap they load into the crossover circuits! It's not the drivers but the crossovers which introduce the anomalies.

The Super Planar is crossed at 250Hz and 4000Hz. I wanted the entire vocal range to be reproduced by one driver or in my case, 2 drivers, to avoid phase issues. Attenuation is 10dB on the mids and 6dBs on the tweeter. I put that much attenuation in so that the bass becomes louder and more balanced. I use only 'balanced attenuators'.

After breaking in for 200 hours the woofers came into their own and all I can say is WOW!! The planars took about 100 hours!

Everyone who has heard these speakers have been blown away!!! It's my room, all my equipment and the speakers to bring out the best of of what my system can sound like and of course the 'voicing'.

These speakers resurrect the dead! SRV, Rory G, The Who, etc etc, all sound like they are playing in my room!!! BTW, these speakers can get up to 127dB at my listening position w/o distortion as I overbuild all my speakers. Louder than any concert I've been to including The Who!

And my inspiration

 

[HuenEye]

Damn, I forgot to post a photo of my modules which are all placed on my bass box. It's like having several sets of speakers in my room w/o the hassle of needing lots of room for all of them.

The 2 way on the top can either be full range or have a HP @250 to blend in with the bass cab. Not seen are my DIY subs which use 2x12" subs in a force cancellation setup. To drive the subs I use a cigarette sized 24V Class D amp with a 15 amp power supply which is all controlled by a Velodyne SMS.

And a pic of my favorite group from the 1960s

 

[shadyJ]

Looks like nice speakers, but the frequency response curves make them look pretty bass shy. The midrange and treble look well-controlled.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

The FR look pretty good from ~ 200Hz up.

Just need subs to cover 20Hz - 200Hz.

 

[TLS Guy]

Damn, I forgot to post a photo of my modules which are all placed on my bass box. It's like having several sets of speakers in my room w/o the hassle of needing lots of room for all of them.

The 2 way on the top can either be full range or have a HP @250 to blend in with the bass cab. Not seen are my DIY subs which use 2x12" subs in a force cancellation setup. To drive the subs I use a cigarette sized 24V Class D amp with a 15 amp power supply which is all controlled by a Velodyne SMS.

And a pic of my favorite group from the 1960s

As Shady says you have a severe problem at crossover at 250 Hz. If you are going to cross that low you really need to use an active crossover and four power amps. I have been doing this longer than you have. 400 Hz is really the lower limit for a passive crossover. You have around a 10 db drop below crossover. At 250 Hz there is a lot of power there. It is not feasible to pad that down with passive resistors. It will generate far too much heat.

That design has potential, but that 250 Hz crossover needs to be active.

 

[Kingnoob]

This is my first thread here and I thought it would be cool to shake some things up by posting such a 'daring' thread title.

I've been in the audio hobby for 67 years, when I was 5 YO, thanks to my late Dad who was an audio aficionado and who introduced me into the wacky world of audio and sound. I born in NYC just like my Dad. NYC in the 1950s and early 60s was the audio capitol in the USA. Empire, Marantz, Fisher, McIntosh, Harmon Kardon, Stanton, Pickering and others were manufacturing audio in NYC.

I was never happy with my AR2as especially after I started going to concerts and I heard how live rock n' roll music sounded. So in 1968, when I was 16, I built my first set of speakers with the help of neighbors and one of whom was an audio engineer for RCA back in their glory days of audio.

I used bass guitar speakers, a mid horn and a tweeter horn just like they had at the concerts. With the help of Mickey Rosenstein, the audio engineer, I was introduced to crossovers, inductors, caps and resistors and how to 'voice' a speaker. Now I heard rock music they way it sounded in concert!!!!!!! Harry Johnson, my next door neighbor showed me how to design and build an enclosure. BTW, Harry helped install the original radio masts on the Empire State Building back in the 1930s!!!!!!!

Fast forward about 50 years later and I started to design and build speakers in 2014 in my retirement to sunny Surprise AZ.

My first pair, a set of OB speakers didn't perform well so I moved on to design more 'traditional' speakers but always with some kind of trick implementation. I next built a speaker that had 2 cabinets in one both built to the golden ratio. A bass section and the mid range section to which I added on top the tweeter. I had both 4 and 8 Ohm (@2500) taps for the tweeter depending on its ohms. I used this speaker to test tweeters. I have lots of tweeters!

And on and on the experimentation went.

I came up with the 'Super Planar' after lots and lots of research.

I build 'modular' speakers starting with a bass cab that also serves as a speaker stand. In this instance it is 2 12" woofers in a 'force cancellation' design that one of my many loudspeaker design books recommended and showed why. Less distortion, much tighter bass and NO VIBRATIONS which allows lighter speaker enclosures.

I own Maggies but unfortunately they don't work in my room due to all of my equipment. I've owned Maggies on and off since 1979. And then I saw those GRS planar drivers on PE and my brain clicked. Why not try those new GRS drivers in an OB MTM configuration?

I chose a 2nd order crossover design based on the results I got from my DATS3. I did lots and lots of experimentation with other 'orders' but the more caps and inductors in the circuit the worse the 'electrical' phase became and resistance anomalies abounded. Simple was better and those Zobel circuits I added only made things worse.

Did you ever read a speaker tech review by John Atkinson? Did you pay attention to the phase/resistance issues those 'expensive' speakers have? And how hard they are to drive because of all the crap they load into the crossover circuits! It's not the drivers but the crossovers which introduce the anomalies.

The Super Planar is crossed at 250Hz and 4000Hz. I wanted the entire vocal range to be reproduced by one driver or in my case, 2 drivers, to avoid phase issues. Attenuation is 10dB on the mids and 6dBs on the tweeter. I put that much attenuation in so that the bass becomes louder and more balanced. I use only 'balanced attenuators'.

After breaking in for 200 hours the woofers came into their own and all I can say is WOW!! The planars took about 100 hours!

Everyone who has heard these speakers have been blown away!!! It's my room, all my equipment and the speakers to bring out the best of of what my system can sound like and of course the 'voicing'.

These speakers resurrect the dead! SRV, Rory G, The Who, etc etc, all sound like they are playing in my room!!! BTW, these speakers can get up to 127dB at my listening position w/o distortion as I overbuild all my speakers. Louder than any concert I've been to including The Who!

And my inspiration

Building speakers is way too challenging for me , but nice ! Are you running subs too ?

 

[HuenEye]

As Shady says you have a severe problem at crossover at 250 Hz. If you are going to cross that low you really need to use an active crossover and four power amps. I have been doing this longer than you have. 400 Hz is really the lower limit for a passive crossover. You have around a 10 db drop below crossover. At 250 Hz there is a lot of power there. It is not feasible to pad that down with passive resistors. It will generate far too much heat.

That design has potential, but that 250 Hz crossover needs to be active.

I have no padding on the bass section just a LP. The low amount of bass as recorded by REW does not represent how much bass I hear! I use a Velodyne SMS to measure bass performance and its measurements are very different than what I see with REW.

I have 2 DIY subs using 12" subs in a force cancellation position to bolster the bottom when needed.

 

[isolar8001]

Why are there huge pics of rock stars posted along with the discussions on this thread ?
I think the OP stated what he likes...he doesn't need to post pics like we don't know who they are.

No wonder he doesn't notice the bass is lacking in his speakers....there sure isn't much bass to be had in any of the music he is referencing.

 

[TLS Guy]

Why are there huge pics of rock stars posted along with the discussions on this thread ?
I think the OP started what he likes...he doesn't need to post pics like we don't know who they are.

No wonder he doesn't notice the bass is lacking in his speakers....there sure isn't much bass to be had in any of the music he is referencing.

I have no padding on the bass section just a LP. The low amount of bass as recorded by REW does not represent how much bass I hear! I use a Velodyne SMS to measure bass performance and its measurements are very different than what I see with REW.

I have 2 DIY subs using 12" subs in a force cancellation position to bolster the bottom when needed.

A lot of your problem is that you have not provided BSC I suspect. To make those an outstanding speaker you need to bi-amp them with and electronic crossover and variable BSC so you can tune it properly to the room and its position in the room.

 

[Teetertotter?]

He is obviously very excited and very proud of his accomplishments.