DIY Home theater speaker help.

[sparky]

I am going to build a set of speakers for my home theater system and right now my biggest concern is the center channel. I only have 4 inches height wise about 8 inches deep and 42 inches wide to work with to get it to fit where i'd like in front of my tv and not block the remote sensor.
there isnt any room in my tv cabinet and the base of tv is already 55inches off the ground so I dont know how well a center channel would sound if i put it above the tv inches from the ceiling, but this might be an option to enable a larger speaker. my room is 17ft long by 15ft wide with the tv on a short wall and couch on opposite short wall with a doorway on each side of the tv
I would like to keep the set of 5 speakers around 1k or less cost wise not including wood. my father builds kitchen cabinets for a living and im maint. electrician so building these speakers shouldnt be a problem.
I want them to sound as closely matched as possible as well and integrate with a sub I built a few years back. its a Dayton DVC 15" in a ported box tuned to 23hz powered by a 500 watt dayton plate amp. the sub is a little boomy and I was thinking of making a new sealed box for it instead to save room as well as get tighter bass.
I am mainly looking to use this setup for movies like jurrassic park, starwars, batman, transformers and other action movies and not so much for music. I like to crank it loud so they must handle a decent amount of power and all of them will be wall mounted so hopefully not too large.
any recommendations would be great especially if its a tried and true setup with crossovers I wont have to figure out. I can build them but dont want to waste time trying 20 things to get it to sound right.
thanks,
Ryan (< old car audio nut back in high school)

[brianpowers27]

Given your space requirements, this might be a good fit. The height you suggested is simply too short for most...
http://www.parts-express.com/project...TOKEN=64290177

[johnnyrichards]

Good call Brian.

[sparky]

I really like that looks of that speaker. I have (4) 5-1/4" peerless speakers I picked up from PE a while back to make a set of bookshelf speakers I never got around to (cat no 830343) 4 ohms and a pair of 8 ohm peerless dome tweeters. one of the tweeters is pushed in from storage but the drivers look to be in good shape yet. I wonder if there is a way to use them as the mid in two pair of 3 way speakers for front and rear and use the one good peerless tweeter in place of the one used in this center channel cynosure design. if not, any recomendations on what would go nicely with this center channel?
thanks,
Ryan

[brianpowers27]

I really like that looks of that speaker. I have (4) 5-1/4" peerless speakers I picked up from PE a while back to make a set of bookshelf speakers I never got around to (cat no 830343) 4 ohms and a pair of 8 ohm peerless dome tweeters. one of the tweeters is pushed in from storage but the drivers look to be in good shape yet. I wonder if there is a way to use them as the mid in two pair of 3 way speakers for front and rear and use the one good peerless tweeter in place of the one used in this center channel cynosure design. if not, any recomendations on what would go nicely with this center channel?
thanks,
Ryan

Short answer: Yes it is possible... is it worth it? Do you have xo design experience?

[sparky]

Short answer: Yes it is possible... is it worth it? Do you have xo design experience?

no crossover experience whatsoever. thats the part I need the most help with.

[waynew]

Sparky,

Brian has given you good advice on the Cynosure Center Channel. To substitute a new tweeter into the design would require a complete cross-over re-design. Your best bet is to build it as spec'd. You might think to save a couple bucks by using that tweeter that you have, but by the time you buy the cross-over components to make it work, you would most likely be money ahead to build it the way it is!

I got my start the much the same way as you...highschool car audio nut. Getting my system stolen a couple times cured me of that particular addiction.

Good luck! Post lots of pictures if you build it, and give us your impressions.

[brianpowers27]

You might think to save a couple bucks by using that tweeter that you have, but by the time you buy the cross-over components to make it work, you would most likely be money ahead to build it the way it is!

I will say definitively that you will not save any money by subsituting the tweeter on hand for the spec'd design. Not to mention time, etc...

As for your existing drivers, that might make a decent pair. It might be worth a shot but it will be hard to design a XO without measurements. That is one area where you may need to get creative... You can probably pop the dome back out if you remove the faceplate or creatively massage it back into its normal position.

[sparky]

I will say definitively that you will not save any money by subsituting the tweeter on hand for the spec'd design. Not to mention time, etc...

As for your existing drivers, that might make a decent pair. It might be worth a shot but it will be hard to design a XO without measurements. That is one area where you may need to get creative... You can probably pop the dome back out if you remove the faceplate or creatively massage it back into its normal position.

I tried the duct tape trick that i used to do to woofers that were popped in and it works but it wont stay out. it keeps popping back in from memory or being stretched and sitting pushed in so long in storage. I'll save them for a rainy day and for the mids, I'll probably just throw them in my car and cross them over well from both ends digitally and get some use out of them. the stockers are blown anyways and anything will sound better than blown paper car speakers.

still any recommendations on what to build that will soundmatch this center channel well for the rest of the speakers?

how do you figure out power handling on something like this and drivers that say they handle 12watts rms

thanks

[djg]

The Cynosure is a special design for people that need a very compact center channel speaker. There are not a lot of designs that use that speaker, the only one I could find is the TABAQ, over at diyaudio. It is a tall, skinny low power single driver design, probably not what you are looking for.

How loud do you like it? How many watts do you have? This info would help to suggest some designs for you.

[brianpowers27]

I tried the duct tape trick that i used to do to woofers that were popped in and it works but it wont stay out. it keeps popping back in from memory or being stretched and sitting pushed in so long in storage. I'll save them for a rainy day and for the mids, I'll probably just throw them in my car and cross them over well from both ends digitally and get some use out of them. the stockers are blown anyways and anything will sound better than blown paper car speakers.

still any recommendations on what to build that will soundmatch this center channel well for the rest of the speakers?

how do you figure out power handling on something like this and drivers that say they handle 12watts rms

thanks

Power handling is a figure that is near meaningless. WHat matters for woofer is displacement (x-max.)

I use a HK receiver that does an auto eq to balance the various surround sound channels. I think it works well. I don't really think that timbre matching is critical like others do...