Brief report on DIY Dayton

[Paul K.]

I left Springboro at about 4:30 today--us old guys need to get home earlier to get our rest than you young whipper snappers! A couple of different times I took a head count of about 28-29, but knowing both times some people were wandering around, I estimate we had about 35 or so altogether. I think there were about 15-18 pairs of speakers demonstrated and some subwoofers; there were several really good-sounding 2-ways ranging from small to moderate to large size. I didn't hear any that sounded bad. Wolf had some cute, teensy-weensy dual-reflex speakers, and Chad G. brought his just completed Olives. Chris (?), our moderator, brought his tall, 2-way pseudo arrays that sounded darned good for a total $90 in parts, and he also brought his wife, Connie, who was a pleasure to chat with. Chris was thrilled when Connie told HIM which speakers he should build next! Jim Griffin had his big arrays in his room, which were actively equalized, and he demonstrated his bi-pole ML-TLs in the main room to good effect. That's all I can remember at this point; I'm sure others will fill in the details and/or post photos. I left before Matt Olson demonstrated his honking big class A power amps or Darren/Chris B. demonstrated the actively-equalized monster towers that Darren built. Thanks to Darren and PE for hosting.
Paul K.

[chadg]

Provided Link: http://chadgray.info/


Just got back home myself. I have to much stuff going on tomorrow or i would have stayed for dinner.

It was great meeting everyone. My first DIY event and i have to say it is good to get back into this hobby. I was away for too long.

Lots of really nice people and REALLY nice sounding speakers. I honestly would have a very hard time picking the best speaker of the show. It was a great mix of technology, alignments, styles and price ranges.

Picked up a couple RS-28's to match up with my Usher 7" DOTD that i got a while back. There were a few designs with the RS-28 tweeters and they really sounded nice. Cant wait to get them in use.

Matt Olson's class A amps were amazing. I really did hear a difference in amplifiers when doing a comparison. I honestly never thought i would hear a difference in amps, but i did. Now would i pay for that difference? I doubt it, unless i won the lottery.

Thanks to everyone for the compliments on the Olives. Hopefully they sounded as good as they looked. Just wish i had them wired in phase from the beginning of the listening session.

Some guy in "white van" sold me some plate amps that will come in handy here in the near future.

Thanks to Darren, PE and everyone that got the show running. It really enjoyed it!

One memorable moment; was Darren's array pumping out White Zombie. NICE! It was a nice change of pace after many hours of the same tracks.

[matthewkolson]

What a cool event. I can't give a full report right now, but man did i have a good time. I'm glad i met so many people who i've been chatting with for a while now. Aaron, Chad, Shawn, Noid, Wolf, Christian, just to name a few! sorry if i left anyone out there.

I thought pretty much all the speakers sounded really nice. I was insanely impressed by the 2 ways w/ the rs125's and the rs tweets. Loved it when they were moving the curtains.

Robert did bring his horn sub...for whatever reason. DANG was that fun to play with in the parking lot. Hope we get invited back next year hehe.

Darren, thanks so very much for making all this possible, ...and PE too of course

I think quite a few people went away thinking different thoughts about amps and cables...which is good/bad whatever. I don't pretend to hear a difference in anything, i let other people decide how my stuff sounds. But, i'll say this, that Behringer a500 is a sweet amp for the money! it may not best my Aleph 2's for mids, but dang does it do quite well.

Thanks Chris for MC'ing !

Thanks Jim G for bringing your arrays! great to meet you!

Darren, again, thanks.

-Matthew K. Olson

[dylanmatlow]

It was indeed an interesting event!

I was very impressed with the rs 125/rs tweeter -- and the size of that would make it perfect for a dorm... Gets plenty loud! The port may have been a little small in diameter but I couldn't hear any port noise from the listening position and that was impressive watching the speaker go like a little fan.

What design was that again -- I have some RS 5" that I used with the neo tweeter which sounded good but... I think I'll have to move up to that design. Possibly it will be a good reference for me to design against ???

Matthew -- awesome amps there that may have inspired me to finish my first stab at a gainclone sooner rather than later.

The various TL designs were interesting -- and the line arrays were very nice.

There were various full range designs -- TB -- CSS -- aurasound...

I want an RS subwoofer... End of story -- if I saw the line arrays BEFORE PE closed I would have picked some up

Thanks Darren, PE, and everyone...

If anyone has feedback on my speakers (I had the seas mp14rcy/p and 27tbfc/g mtms (or my car's setup) -- feel free to drop me an email at <A HREF="mailto:matlowd4***@yahoo.com">matlowd4***@ya hoo.com</A> -- just remove the ***... bots...

I'll post more at a more reasonable hour

[justinc]

any more details on the a500's? Its good people may have actually gotten to hear them since there has been no reviews for them really. Which speakers were they used on etc?

> What a cool event. I can't give a full
> report right now, but man did i have a good
> time. I'm glad i met so many people who i've
> been chatting with for a while now. Aaron,
> Chad, Shawn, Noid, Wolf, Christian, just to
> name a few! sorry if i left anyone out
> there.

> I thought pretty much all the speakers
> sounded really nice. I was insanely
> impressed by the 2 ways w/ the rs125's and
> the rs tweets. Loved it when they were
> moving the curtains.

> Robert did bring his horn sub...for whatever
> reason. DANG was that fun to play with in
> the parking lot. Hope we get invited back
> next year hehe.

> Darren, thanks so very much for making all
> this possible, ...and PE too of course

> I think quite a few people went away
> thinking different thoughts about amps and
> cables...which is good/bad whatever. I don't
> pretend to hear a difference in anything, i
> let other people decide how my stuff sounds.
> But, i'll say this, that Behringer a500 is a
> sweet amp for the money! it may not best my
> Aleph 2's for mids, but dang does it do
> quite well.

> Thanks Chris for MC'ing !

> Thanks Jim G for bringing your arrays! great
> to meet you!

> Darren, again, thanks.

> -Matthew K. Olson

[romanbednarek]

Provided Link: RJB Audio Projects


> It was indeed an interesting event!

> I was very impressed with the rs 125/rs
> tweeter -- and the size of that would make
> it perfect for a dorm... Gets plenty loud!
> The port may have been a little small in
> diameter but I couldn't hear any port noise
> from the listening position and that was
> impressive watching the speaker go like a
> little fan.

> What design was that again -- I have some RS
> 5" that I used with the neo tweeter
> which sounded good but... I think I'll have
> to move up to that design. Possibly it will
> be a good reference for me to design against
> ???

> Matthew -- awesome amps there that may
> have inspired me to finish my first stab at
> a gainclone sooner rather than later.

> The various TL designs were interesting --
> and the line arrays were very nice.

> There were various full range designs -- TB
> -- CSS -- aurasound...

> I want an RS subwoofer... End of story --
> if I saw the line arrays BEFORE PE closed I
> would have picked some up

> Thanks Darren, PE, and everyone...

> If anyone has feedback on my speakers (I had
> the seas mp14rcy/p and 27tbfc/g mtms (or my
> car's setup) -- feel free to drop me an
> email at <A HREF="mailto:matlowd4***@yahoo.com">matlowd4***@ya hoo.com</A> -- just
> remove the ***... bots...

> I'll post more at a more reasonable hour

I think that RS125/RS28 design was one that I had a part in working on the crossover and I wasn't sure if I had hit the mark since I used pure simulation and no measurements but I guess it worked out well. You mentioned that you wanted to upgrade your tweeter and still use the RS125... if you want a compromise that won't cost as much as the RS28 you could try the Tang Band T25-1166S that I used in my Microbe project which is what the RS28 design is based on. The Tang Band probably isn't as nice as the RS28 but I'm very impressed with the sound of these little speakers and the tweeters are only $18 but perform very well as long as they are crossed high enough. I'm still real curious how the RS28 version sounds and hope to hear it someday. The details of the Microbe are below in the projects section.