Fun with the new ND Passive's - The Passive Aggressives

[silverD]

Beautiful job! Those turned out nice. Are you happy with the sound?

Yes, I'm very happy with the sound. I haven't done much testing with placement, just been enjoying the speakers so far. I agree with Mike that the passives might be hard to mount on the inside. You'd need to offset them more and have a removable cabinet panel to allow for this. While doable, the design and assembly process would be much more complex.
mlau, do you mean a ring around the radiator on the outside that protrudes further than peak excursions?
Nate

[djg]

I t would be impossible to mount the speaker or PRs on the inside. If you want a bookshelf speaker to double as a bookend, this is not the right choice for you.

[mlau]

Any idea how these compare to the quarks or helium’s?

I am looking into my next build

[mlau]

And yup.

i was thinking of maybe a false side of some sort

[robertf]

These are my Passive Aggressive speakers. Wanted to do something different in finishing and I have not done a passive radiator design before. Speakers are decoupaged with fabric, Speakers sound better than I thought they would,however, fall short of the Speedsters I built last year. That was to be expected but for the price and size they work well. I took them to work to use and stream music about 10 hours a day.

[Jake]

These are my Passive Aggressive speakers. Wanted to do something different in finishing and I have not done a passive radiator design before. Speakers are decoupaged with fabric, Speakers sound better than I thought they would,however, fall short of the Speedsters I built last year. That was to be expected but for the price and size they work well. I took them to work to use and stream music about 10 hours a day.

Nice job, very interesting look. I bet your the envy of the office. Do you find them bright at all?

[robertf]

I did not find them bright,however ,I need more time with them. I built pair of Helium's a few years ago and have not had time to do a side by side comparison yet.

[djg]

I have PAs, Quarks, and Tyger23's Mariposas, all based on the PE tiny flat pack, although all were scratch built. I thought the PAs were about as good as the Quarks, and both were better than the Mariposas (sorry Tyger).

[Jeff F.]

Would I get decent volume levels at nearfield using an amp rated for 20 watts RMS into 4ohms?

[djg]

20 watts RMS at what distortion %? A hifi amp or a little chip amp rated at 10% distortion and 2 ohms? And a power brick supplying full voltage? I have a SMSL SA-50 and it's fine. Fine as in youtube and Pandora and an occasional audio CD with a nearfield non obsessive compulsive audience.

[Jeff F.]

20 watts RMS at what distortion %? A hifi amp or a little chip amp rated at 10% distortion and 2 ohms? And a power brick supplying full voltage? I have a SMSL SA-50 and it's fine. Fine as in youtube and Pandora and an occasional audio CD with a nearfield non obsessive compulsive audience.

20 watts RMS in 4ohms at less than 1% distortion

[djg]

I think so.

[Fauldsy]

I did not find them bright,however ,I need more time with them. I built pair of Helium's a few years ago and have not had time to do a side by side comparison yet.

Really, really eager to hear detailed feedback regarding the Helium's compared to the PA's!! I am currently trying to figure out which one to go with for my first ever build. I want to know if the passives really make that much difference over a port, since both designs utilise the same woofer and enclosure size.

[djg]

JMHO, The PA built from a kit would be a much easier first build than the Helium. That's a crowded little design. Scott S. mentioned starting with an available full range kit that has the woofer and enclosure. That would help a lot to make a Helium build easier.

Thought I'd seen that kit but can't find it now.

[Fauldsy]

JMHO, The PA built from a kit would be a much easier first build than the Helium. That's a crowded little design. Scott S. mentioned starting with an available full range kit that has the woofer and enclosure. That would help a lot to make a Helium build easier.

Thought I'd seen that kit but can't find it now.

Thank you for your opinion - though the challenge of the build itself doesn't phase me. The hardest part for my brain is actually working out crossovers and enclosure sizes, especially since I use a Mac computer and a lot of the sim software doesn't! Hence why I am encouraged to rely on a tried and tested design, I don't have much issue building to plan.

Plus there is the issue of the fact I am based in the UK. Importing the whole kit is a lot more expensive, than if I were to source the drivers and passives from PE (works out cheaper even with taxes and shipping) and source the equivalent components for the crossover in the UK/Europe - thankfully we are still in the Union

So I am mostly interested in the performance factor. Looking at the frequency response I would guess that the PA is most in favour with my more bassier taste. Though it's extremely hard to tell for sure as the Helium is simulated and the PA is measured, plus real life use can show something different altogether.