Tarkus - Paul Carmody design - Wilson Audio Watt Puppy

[SilentlyDeaf]

I’ve dreamed of Wilson Audio’s Watt/Puppy’s for ages and watched how the iterations changed over the years. Cost being prohibitive, I decided to give it a go with the Tarkus speaker designed by Paul Carmody. These are the closest speakers that match the Watt Puppy’s. Wow!!! Absolutely amazing. But now the bad news…

There seems to be a frequency hole between the mid bass and woofer. The bass seems to steeply drop somewhere around 250-500hz. It’s almost like an empty sound space that’s really noticeable.

I experimented and played only the top midbass and twitter (top module) and it runs really high (literally no bass). Seems like the bass is capped at 250-350???

I wish the crossover of the top module can brought down maybe 100-200hz and/or bring up the bass the module.

Don’t get me wrong… the speaker sounds great and it plays some songs crazy good. But many songs there’s that hole somewhere between the midbass and woofer. If I can somehow fix this, this maybe the end all speaker.

Any suggestions???

[djg]

Is it an optical illusion or is your top unit pointing down? If so, try propping it up so it's as designed, vertical. Try moving the speakers around in your room. Measure the in room response curve. Check your crossover.

Nice job btw.

Oh, and what's your source?

[DrewsBrews]

The bass bin on Tarkus is slanted to lean back on the front. That along with the forward slant on the back of the M/T enclosure creates an optical illusion.

[SilentlyDeaf]

DrewBrews is correct. The speaker looks pointed downward by its 90 degrees vertical because the lower woofer section is angled slightly upward. My source is my iPhone 12 Pro Max wifi / streamed to a NuPrime DAC preamp onto a Mark Levinson power amp. Interestingly I have an inexpensive chi-fi tube amp - class A 3.2wpc that sounds amazing on it (even more amazing when I get this fixed). I'm beginning to feel that I messed up somewhere in the XO - possibly polarity that some have pointed me to.

[DeZZar]

Reposting my reply here from the other thread to avoid hijacking it.
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I would definitely be checking that this crossover little nest thing going on here is exactly as intended. It goes without saying that a single incorrect connection will have materially adverse effects on the result.

Check that polarity is correctly wired between woofer and midrange. Wiring the drivers opposite to what was intended could be causing a large suck out around the lower crossover point. According to Paul's website the tweeter and midrange should be wired in inverse polarity whilst the bass driver is wired normally.

[DrewsBrews]

Yep this was the first thing that came to mind for me. If the woofer is wired reverse from what is correct it will cause the drivers to cancel each other out in the crossover range rather than add together. Looks like the mid and woofer cross at almost exactly 400hz so that jives with what you are describing. There would be a hole in the response centered at 400hz if wiring is reversed.

Flip the jumpers from bass bin to the M/T enclosure so they cross. Does that make things better? if so you can put the jumper wire connections back, remove the woofer and flip the woofer leads +/-. You should test separately for each side (unplug the other channel speaker entirely when testing), as one may be incorrectly wired while the other is wired correctly. That can affect your perception of the issue.

[SilentlyDeaf]

Man you guys really helped me and I have my hopes up. One of the few times I'm hoping I messed up... the XO is probably the culprit.

I'm a big time novice with schematics and electronics so I'm learning. I'm also one of those guys that get super OCD on things and completely goof up super obvious stuff. Ie. Once planned an amazing dinner and movie first date with a beautiful woman, made reservations, bought tickets in advance, got the flowers, bought new clothes and haircut, had the car washed and cleaned... went to the theatre and waited for 10 minutes. No show. I felt terrible and rejected. I sheepishly called her and she said... aren't you supposed to pick me up? DUH!! LOL. We missed the movie but we ended up being together... still love her to this day.

[djg]

This is a quality crossover pc board for the Tarkus, available on ebay. PE should sell these. I like to think I'm fairly intelligent, but laying out a point to point XO strains my brain.

[SilentlyDeaf]

That’s a great find. Didn’t think there was enough volume of people building Tarkus’s to have custom boards available.