My un-named tower project...almost finished

[mattp]

Hey all,

Just thought I'd share my newest project. These were a fairly budget friendly design I wanted to try and I finally got to start on them last weekend. They are using the Dayton Classic 6-1/2" 4 ohm woofers, A Peerless buyout 850102 midrange and a Dayton ND28F-6 tweeter. The boxes are 40" tall, 7-1/2" wide and 12" deep. The woofer chamber is separate and is about 1.1 cuft tuned to about 38 Hz. I used red oak veneer and two coats of Minwax Polyshades American Chestnut stain. The stain was actually applied with a sponge...and it worked very well! Both enclosures are done, I just wired and loaded one up so I could get in box measurements and get the crossovers finalized, hence the wires coming out of the port. The woofers were supposed to be stacked with the port on the bottom...but when you're cutting holes at 2:30 in the morning you tend to screw things up.

Oh, and if anyone has ideas on decent crossover points feel free to share. I have only had experience with the tweeter and that was in a small two way bookshelf system. I haven't measured anything yet, but I will post PCD files and all that later in the week.

[hulan]

That's a great looking build!

[arlis_1957@yahoo.com]

highly reccomend going to bed early and starting at 5am. looks nice. glad to your building.

[johnnyrichards]

Any problems with those buyout spikes breaking unexpectedly? I know one member was saying they were very fragile.

I have several sets, they seem alright to me.

[mattp]

Thanks for the comments. I've used the spikes for a few projects and never had any issues. These cabs are probably 40-50 lbs and they don't budge under that weight, I'd say they would be good for at least twice that.

[Paul Carmody]

The woofers were supposed to be stacked with the port on the bottom...but when you're cutting holes at 2:30 in the morning you tend to screw things up.

That's an odd screw-up--though I shouldn't judge, I've messed up more than my share of baffles. Anyway, nothing wrong with working at 2:30 am; I do some of my best work then. :)

[mattp]

Alright, here is the second go on the crossover. The first one wasn't bad but there seems to be a slight shrill at the crossover point with these tweeters. I noticed this on my last project using these as well and clearly you can't cross these any lower than 3k without using at least a third order network.

I only changed about 4 components on the whole network, completely changing only the high pass making it a third order. I've only had a couple of hours to listen to them but these changes made all the difference in the world. These have a very laid back sound, but have incredible dynamics when called upon. The Peerless midrange hasn't dissappointed at all and is right up there with one of the best mids I've personally used, especially for the price. The high end rolls off slightly above 10k which helps with the warm sound I'm sure, but doesnt take away from the detail one bit. The woofers...well, they're Classic 6-1/2's. Crossed at about 500 Hz much of the midrange junk is taken care of and these have suprising amounts of punch and bottom end. No complaints so far, I might update in a few days if there are any real changes (I'm not expecting much).

All measurements were taken in-box using Clio. I'm not sure what is wrong with everything below 200Hz, most likely The A/C we had on during the testing. This also showed up when the tweeter was measured but I deleted everything out of the text file below about 360Hz.

[mattp]

Wow 470 some views an only 6 comments? Have I been too hard on you guys? I hope I didn't scare everybody away :( I'm just a mod lookin for some lovin!!! :D

I'm starting to think if it doesn't involve an RS driver nobody cares!! LOL no I'm kidding. I'm actually going to be building an RS 8" to go with these things. Maybe THAT will get me some attention............more to come............

[Thezeek]

Cool build mate. I happen to like the 6 1/2 classics. Used like you did there; should make up a nice speaker.

[arlis_1957@yahoo.com]

yeah, nice build mate. she'll love them:D

[Paul Carmody]

Wow 470 some views an only 6 comments? Have I been too hard on you guys? I hope I didn't scare everybody away :( I'm just a mod lookin for some lovin!!! :D

I'm starting to think if it doesn't involve an RS driver nobody cares!! LOL no I'm kidding. I'm actually going to be building an RS 8" to go with these things. Maybe THAT will get me some attention............more to come............
Aww, don't be so hard on yourself. In my opinion, for a slim 3-way tower on a budget, I'd choose the DC160 FTW. I like what you got going on here!

[denton]

The well-built cabinet shows quality workmanship with proper bracing. The drivers chosen should work well together once the crossover is finished. I note the use of PE buyout spikes. I look forward to finished pics of the pair, fine-tuned and polished, ready to correctly present the music YOU want to hear.

Call 'em the Peerless Dayton Classics

There you go! :D

[tomzarbo]

Hey Matt,

those are a nice and well-thought out set of speakers. I tend not to look too hard at simple box speakers (90 deg. angles), but those do look sharp!

I really like the bass output of the classic 6.5" drivers, that setup should sound fairly awesome with probably no need for a sub at all!

By the way, I have a bunch of those spiked feet, and I love them, really a nice finishing touch on your set.

TomZ

[B_Rich]

How do you like those Peerless midranges? I'm about to build my first 3-way setup and I plan on using those for a midrange. I'll also be using the Dayton Classic 8" for bass/midbass duty.

Oh and this is my first post! :D

[mattp]

How do you like those Peerless midranges? I'm about to build my first 3-way setup and I plan on using those for a midrange. I'll also be using the Dayton Classic 8" for bass/midbass duty.

Oh and this is my first post! :D

B Rich, I just noticed you asked me about these, sorry bud. I've always been a huge fan of the Peerless sandwich cones, and these really do shine. I've got mine crossed at ~450 up to ~3.2k and they are very detailed. I would highly recommend them for any type of midrange, especially at that cost.

[Thezeek]

Any breakup nodes on the Peerless mids? I bet there is none and it is just a flat line. How would you say they match up to the Nomex mids from Peerless?

Thanks Matt

[mattp]

Any breakup nodes on the Peerless mids? I bet there is none and it is just a flat line. How would you say they match up to the Nomex mids from Peerless?

Thanks Matt

No breakups whatsoever which like you said, isn't suprising. The first crossover I tried did have a bit of a peak at the mid/tweeter crossover point that didn't show up in the measurements but that was the fault of the tweeter. Switching to a third order solved that. I've attached the current crossover/frequency response pic from PCD. This is all in box measurements done on Clio. I'm waiting to get into my apartment for final tweaking, the room I'm in now is an acoustic nightmare. I'll be honest, I haven't used the Nomex line yet but I do have plans for the 830872's paired with the Vifa NE19VTS-04 for a small set of powered PC speakers in the office here. I'll try to do a build thread but I tend to knock out builds in just a couple hours and forget to take any pics.

[Pete Schumacher ®]

No breakups whatsoever which like you said, isn't suprising. The first crossover I tried did have a bit of a peak at the mid/tweeter crossover point that didn't show up in the measurements but that was the fault of the tweeter. Switching to a third order solved that. I've attached the current crossover/frequency response pic from PCD. This is all in box measurements done on Clio. I'm waiting to get into my apartment for final tweaking, the room I'm in now is an acoustic nightmare. I'll be honest, I haven't used the Nomex line yet but I do have plans for the 830872's paired with the Vifa NE19VTS-04 for a small set of powered PC speakers in the office here. I'll try to do a build thread but I tend to knock out builds in just a couple hours and forget to take any pics.

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=11568&d=1287170474

Looking at the response plot, I would tend to back down the mid level just a bit more. I can't see the scale, but about half of one of the divisions looks about right to me, for a better blend to the average level of the woofers. That will probably require a slight relaxing of the tweeter HP function to keep the blending right, but maybe not.

[batwood]

Its been a long time since I have been on here. I must say that your towers look great, I would eventually like to build some of my own design. Dare to be different, I like where your ports are actually. Sometimes I feel like you guys are way over my head but I am playing and experimenting and having fun. I am still using caps and resistors on the tweeters and using small enough woofers to run full range but hey I am still a noob. Brian.