A little progress on my dipoles

[blair]

I figured that if I plan to take on the labor of building the new project with the layered plywood, I may as well actually finish this one. I plan on ditching the fully active setup. A friend of mine is going to measure them anddo the crossovers and I'll keep the DEQ2496 to flatten out the response if needed. The bottoms are 2.5" thick and the tops in the pictures are solid Mahogany. It is not so much that I love Mahogany for those of you that might have noticed that I use it quite a bit, but I got a bunch of it cheap!

Anyway, just a few pics.

Blair

[tom_s]

Very nice! Who wouldn't like Mahogany? You sure did it justice!

[tom_s]

Wait....do I spy a Bottlehead Foreplay in the background?

[blair]

Thanks Tom,

The little preamp in the background is figured/spalted bich Of course, ithas Mahogany sides LOL!!

I hope these turn out OK. Still not sure how to finish the bottoms since I'm terrified to veneer them.

Blair

[blair]

Nope

That is, however, how I keep my hobby going. That one is FS on Audiogon right now.

Blair

[jonasz]

So what's going into the baffles, Neo3PDR and...?

[blair]

Sorry! That would help Neo3PDR, Peerless 830883 HDS, and dual AE IB15s. This system will actually hit pretty hard at LOUD levels in dipole. Not HT levels, but louder than I ever listen.

Blair

[tom_s]

Nope

That is, however, how I keep my hobby going. That one is FS on Audiogon right now.

Blair

Very cool! Another tube builder!! I haven't built a tube piece in over 5 years but I'm working on a tube regulated E80CC linestage for guy this weekend. Pretty simple circuit, but still sounds pretty nice.

[gregbegland]

OK, for a second there, I thought you were somehow mounting the mahogany baffle in front of the woofers! Duh.....like some kind of giant coaxial.

Looking good though. Enjoy.

Greg

[arlis_1957@yahoo.com]

beautiful thus far.

[blair]

Ha!

No Greg. I just could not pony up for the neo10s like yours. Which are amazing looking by the way! Wish I was in FL soon to hear them. Truth is that I actually screwed this up. The tweeter was supposed to be on bottom. Now the tweeter will be 42" from the floor vs. The original 38". Hopefully the vertical dispersion is good enough on the Neo3 to make it work.

[dantheman]

In a word, "wow!" Beautiful work man. You're experienced for sure.

Keep'em coming!

Dan

[gregbegland]

Ha!

No Greg. I just could not pony up for the neo10s like yours. Which are amazing looking by the way! Wish I was in FL soon to hear them. Truth is that I actually screwed this up. The tweeter was supposed to be on bottom. Now the tweeter will be 42" from the floor vs. The original 38". Hopefully the vertical dispersion is good enough on the Neo3 to make it work.

Well, that isn't too much of a difference, so you should be OK. If needed, you could always try a small forwards tilt if you've got enough weight on the rear side to keep the whole thing from tipping forward. Which Neo3 model are you using? If its a PDR, you might try it rotated 90 degrees. You could also make something like the Raal foam pads, but place them on the top and bottom of the Neo3. How about the new Neo8S? We bought a pair from Meniscus, but have not had a chance to try them yet. Quite a bit cheaper than the Neo10, but with the same improvements to the diaphragm, so hopefully better than original Neo8.

http://meniscusaudio.com/bg-neo8s-p-1276.html

I ended up with my tweeter center at 30" off the ground and then about a 5 degree tilt backwards. Even with the foam pads, the upper octave on the Raal is quite directional.


Greg

[blair]

Very cool Greg! I like the 830883 in dipoleso far. I might swap it out later though. Here is what it should look like when the tops are mounted.

Blair

[gregbegland]

Looks very nice! That mahogany is rich looking. What are you going to do to finish the woofer baffles? Was that several layers of plywood laminated together?

[blair]

Thanks! I'm not sure yet. Yes, it is layered ply I scored from a shut down cabinet shop. I'm contemplating cheating and having it done by a friend's son who veneers private jets.

[jcpahman77]

OK, for a second there, I thought you were somehow mounting the mahogany baffle in front of the woofers! Duh.....like some kind of giant coaxial.

Looking good though. Enjoy.

Greg

I'm glad you said it first lol All I thought of was Oppenhiemer's double slit experiment.

[blair]

Hi guys,

Here is another updated pic of the left baffle with a custom backplate for the Neo3 to cover up the void and hopefully eliminate some diffraction. The plates are notfinished yet. I'll smooth the edges out a bit and repaint them. I ran out of textured black. They are coming out pretty nice for a chisel and some sandpaper. J/K.

[blair]

Hey there,

I took these over to a friend's house yesterday to get the drivers measured. He used the new Omni-mic. That is a neat device! Has anyone gone blind sitting behind it! That blue LED is bright!!

Anyway, the measurements looked pretty good minus an issue the baffle caused around 1K. It showed up in both the tweeter and the midrange measurements. I'll probably add 1/2" felt around the top of the woofer baffle arch to try to tame it a little. Looks like it will be pretty doable passively. I'm not a crossover designer. My wood work is passable by most wives. I'll post pictures of the network when it is done and tweaked. I was in hopes of having something others could replicate, but now the IB15 is NLA, so that is out

Blair

[blair]

Here is the crossover my friend worked up for these drivers. It looks pretty nice! I should have the crossovers finished soon and have them measured in room. Overall, it is not that bad in parts count, but the large values will make it a little pricey.

The load is almost purely resistive, so it should be fairly easy to drive. It will be a bit of a power hog probably if I want to hit concert levels, but I don't listen like that most of the time, so my measly 175wpc Emotiva should do. I'm very exited to get these guys playing.

If all works right, the bases will be Ebony veneered and I'll rework the stabilizer feet with either Mahogany or highly figured curly maple which I am leaning toward right now.

Blair