Ultimate desktop speaker ideas?

[Mayhem13]

Ok, so my home office has moved to a different space to make room for an on suite bathroom. The placement for the desk in the new space won't allow for an In wall speaker installation like the old office. Desk which had to be built in is only 24" deep, more than enough for a monitor and keyboard, a pair of bookshelf speakers not so much. Placement would be less than ideal other than right up against the wall and we know the drawbacks of that. I'm kicking around the idea of the B&G Neo10's and 3's in a slim enclosure but bass extension concerns me. There's a 10" Peerless XLS sub under the desk but I'm not sure how low the Neo10 can go considering nearfield use at relatively low volumes. I don't want to be left with a hole in the response or a sub playing 150hz content under the desk. Is this idea Fubar?

[901Fixer]

I'm in the process of building some cylindrical enclosures like the TopHats which are featured in the current flyer and Project Gallery.
http://stories.parts-express.com/sto...0/redirect.htm
4" PVC pipe mounted vertically with the driver facing upwards with a cone shaped diffuser over it. Omnidirectional. I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate a woofer in the same enclosure facing down. I'm worried 12" diameter concrete form tubes may look a bit too big on a desk.
Using a small fullrange crossed around 90hz to your sub should cover the important octaves and fit fine in the 4" PVC.

[Mayhem13]

yeah but i'm trying avoid typical cone drivers and their volume requirements in this build......i simply don'thave the space but i don't want to sacrifice SQ either. If i use a 'box' design. it would have to e placed right up against the wall that the desk is on. If i move em forward, i loose desk space and wind up with a listening triangle less than ideal.

[BeeTL]

Have you looked at Wolf's PCs?

Hard to imagine getting anything smaller than them.

[kmibb]

What about a small OB MTM or MT? With some EQ from your PC you could probably get it to go low enough in the nearfield to crossover nicely to a sub.

EDIT: I was thinking a pair of these Tang Band W3-1401SD in an MTM with a RS28F in between. Those plus the truncated RS28F are still pretty short vertically, and you could cross basically anywhere you want, but lower would be better for power handling and a more point-source radiation.

Could go with the BC25 if you wanted to go cheaper than the RS28F, but wouldn't be able to cross as low.

[donradick]

My current design in-progress should fit for you, but it uses cones drivers - about 10 inches front to back,
designed for on-wall or in-bookshelf mounting. Search for "Desktop mini 3-way" if this piques your
interest. Since I'm ALWAYS running out of desktop space, I decided that I could sacrifice a few books,
and place them directly in the bookshelf behind and to the sides of the LCD screen.
Ikea, Home Depot, Lowes all have cheap, easy small wall-mount shelves.
Whatever you get, get 'em off the desk.

[Face]

Ultimate desktop speakers should have dual concentric or coax drivers to eliminate lobing or poor driver blending when listening nearfield.

4-6.5" Tannoy coax drivers can be found on Ebay most of the time. There's also SEAS http://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/coaxial/ and KEF http://reconingspeakers.com/?s=KEF

[Mayhem13]

I've also considered the KeF coax Zaph tested. If I did a taller, shallow enclosure.....that would keep the speaker off of the rear wall......but the Neo10 OB would also work with a helper woofer enclosure below. I have 18" height to work with which presents a real problem for a bottom mounted woofer.....no larger than 4".

[Whitneyville1]

Repeat after me. Aura NS3-193-8A's. Ported in 3.5-4 liters running full-range they''ll hit ~50Hz @ 80dB/1watt/meter up to 15KHz. Add a $2.50 close-out Nuance tweeter 1st order with a 1uf cap@~7KHz for better top-end, and shut-down the Aura's 1st or 2nd order @ 6KHz, and you have $30 worth of drivers, and depending on your junk-box, $10-ish in XO. I made mine about as tall and narrow as I could, with the Aura mounted near the top of the baffle for minimum desk-top reflexion. I front ported mine so I could push them nearly against the wall too. A slot port at the bottom makes alot of sense, just model it in WinISD PRO,WinISD Beta, or your favorite box modeling software. I didn't bother with a tweeter myself, (at 58, 15K is about all I can hear at the 'puter anyway). Model it in PCD if you want to be fancy.

[Pete Schumacher ®]

Lot of good ideas here.

There is a two-way you could attempt that would remain very point source.

Combine the HiVi B1S tweeter, with the B3S woofer, crossed around 1500Hz. It's a low sensitivity design, but if the B1S is mounted properly, it will allow low frequency operation without distortion, up to it's power limit. But at only 80dB/W, it's up to the task of a desktop speaker.

I put a design together for a man who built them into his desk. He contacted me 6 years later to thank me for the design, which floored me. We're talking uber cheap speakers, but sitting 3' away, with each one basically pointing at his ears, so almost headphone-like, and it still thrills him even 6 years later. He also used a TB 6" sub to take care of the low end, built into the desk as well, powered by a 2.1 plate amp, 25W to each speaker and 50W to the sub.

If you have measuring gear, you could even take a car Coax and build an EQ circuit to smooth it out if it doesn't measure up.

[Whitneyville1]

For the bottom end of the little Auras the uber cheap Dayton SD215A-88 8" DVC sub-woofer and the Dayton 25 watt sub plate amp would be over qualified for ~$70 plus cabinet materials. A DTA-100a amp would be a Lexus of an amp. I have a "refurbished" DTA-100 that never gets past "11 O'Clock" (off is 7 O'Clock), and at about a meter about 92-93dB is plenty loud, and I have no sub. I haven't simmed the SD215A for cab size and bass sealed or ported and bass extension ported, but it's F0 is 35Hz, and if you sealed the little Auras in 3 liters stuffed, they should roll-off at about 85Hz, so matching them to a sub should be no big deal. The El-Cheapo Lepai 2.1 amp will push the Aura's fine, maybe with a 14.8 volt (15 volt) 6+ amp power supply, it'd "worry" the sub enough for you. My soundcard has it's own sub-out and that gives me more options.

[mintos]

I use a pair of cheap 4" car coax drivers in a .2L 1/2" and 4"cab in the office. Sounds great. I'd definitely go for a better coax for near field.

[kevinr]

Lou's Amethyst design . He has an option for an Amethyst MTM and both fit in the DIY group flat pack Overnight Sensation TM and MTM cabinets.
Not the last word in bass extension but sound sweet and affordable.
The Aura project previously mentioned sound like a good option too

[Mayhem13]

All good idea's....thanx.....but now i'm cosidering the B&G Neo 8S instead on an OB baffle with a 4" helper woofer below in a sealed box...something that will get below 100 hz. If i want to avoid the 2pi-4pi transition midbass hump, where should i cross the 8's to the woofer?...i would imagine the lowest the 8's could play without breaking up....300hz?. Given the box size needed for the woofer,and the height i have available i could get away with a 6" deep box, still press the box back up against the wall and avoid a peaked midbass......thoughts?

[NickJ]

All good idea's....thanx.....but now i'm cosidering the B&G Neo 8S instead on an OB baffle with a 4" helper woofer below in a sealed box...something that will get below 100 hz. If i want to avoid the 2pi-4pi transition midbass hump, where should i cross the 8's to the woofer?...i would imagine the lowest the 8's could play without breaking up....300hz?. Given the box size needed for the woofer,and the height i have available i could get away with a 6" deep box, still press the box back up against the wall and avoid a peaked midbass......thoughts?

What about using a TB 5 1/4 sub as the helper woofer. They can get pretty low in about 7 liters and will go strong up to almost 1khz. The only problem would be efficiency, but you wouldn't need a sub. Maybe give each one a little mini plate amp?

[Mayhem13]

Thanx....I looked at that TB sub. Efficiency isn't a major concern....more than enough power on tap for the desktop. What's the F3 in 7 liters sealed?

[Mayhem13]

The Omni design in this months flyer really has me intrigued as to the potential for a desktop omni solution. A similiar design could be super easy to construct and include a tweeter. Maybe find a vendor with a return policy and try omni on for size with those little Mirage OM5's on some stands. If i enjoy the desktop omni approach, a DIY effort might be in order.....Oooooooooh!!!!