Introducing The Arias - my Black Box design. RS150-4 + XT25SC90-04

[tyger23]

The crossover design:


The final measured design, showing a very deep reverse null. Note - I'm not sure I took the measurements right when I tried to sum the woofer and port responses, so I really don't trust anything below 300Hz in this picture. Maybe it's right, but I just don't feel comfortable saying it is without further measurements:

[tyger23]

[Limelight]

Re: Introducing The Arias - my Black Box design. RS150-4 + XT25SC90-04

Very nice read! Can't wait to see pics/graphs

[tyger23]

Re: Introducing The Arias - my Black Box design. RS150-4 + XT25SC90-04

Sorry for the delay in getting some pics posted. Life gets in the way sometimes.

Here's some of the build shots:

I started with a 4x8 sheet and had home depot rip the 4' side down into two 4'x14" pieces. My chopsaw isn't quite big enough to handle the whole cut, so I had to cut and flip and cut to get the panels:


Here you see the beginnings of a panel getting glued up:


Clamping down the boxes with the braces inside. Note that the box is upside-down in this picture:


Here are the corner slices I cut out to hold the T-Nuts that hold on the front baffle:


To attach the corner slices, I had to create nifty little inverse-corner slices that cradled the outside corner and allowed my clamps to have something flat to grip with:

[tyger23]

Re: Introducing The Arias - my Black Box design. RS150-4 + XT25SC90-04

Test-fitting the drivers, and showing the chamfered back. I don't have a simple 45-degree router bit, so I chamfered with a 1/2" roundover:


These next two show the drivers mounted to the baffles. Note the 1/4" roundover on the front of the port hole and note the recessed hole on the back of the port that allows me to mount the 2" PVC into the baffle:




This shows the mounting recess for the terminal cup:


The first box is built! You'll notice that I actually used my router to dig out about 1/16" of an inch of the inner edge of the box sides, top, and bottom. This allows just a little bit of room for the foam gasket to compress. This allows the baffle to sit flush to the box, rather than slightly off the front of the box due to the bulge of the gasket:

[tyger23]

Re: Introducing The Arias - my Black Box design. RS150-4 + XT25SC90-04

These two images show how the port was mounted into the baffle:




Here's the box with the acoustic-foam mounted to the top, back, and some of the sides. Also, you'll see the poly-fill is in there quite a bit:


Here are the pics of my crossover. First is the breadboard mock-up I used while testing, and second is the final layout as it was integrated into the box:

[tyger23]

Re: Introducing The Arias - my Black Box design. RS150-4 + XT25SC90-04

Here's a shot showing how the crossover mounts to the bottom of the box. Note how the components are positioned so that the port doesn't interfere:


A few cabinet add-ons. First, I decided to recess the baffle bolt heads. Since I had already drilled out the bolt holes, using my fortner bits was out of the question. So, I had to do it by hand with a dremel tool:


This shows how I designed the grille frame:


Last pics for tonight shows the Arias going head-to-head with my version of Jeff Bagby's Continuum's. This also shows a relative size reference:

[CUtiger]

Re: Introducing The Arias - my Black Box design. RS150-4 + XT25SC90-04

Nice looking build, I'm always jealous of people who can actually make their driver recesses fit well. I usually end up with a gap, one day I'll learn.

Also nice avatar!

[KiwiListener]

Re: Introducing The Arias - my Black Box design. RS150-4 + XT25SC90-04

Nice build.
I see you like the name Aria, so on the assumption that great minds think alike, let me introduce you to the Aria Family. Its a range of boutique speakers I have been designing for sale, and like you I like the name as it suits what speakers are for
I can add your design to the family as well if you like

Meet the Family.
The Aria II's



Aria Petites


And the Aria HT's.

[the kid]

Re: Introducing The Arias - my Black Box design. RS150-4 + XT25SC90-04

Seems like the word 'success' is in order here. Great job and write up. Almost like reading a good book.

[tyger23]

Re: Introducing The Arias - my Black Box design. RS150-4 + XT25SC90-04

All,

I'll hopefully be finishing up the final paint on them this weekend. Since I didn't attend the black-box competition, I decided to hold off on painting them the competition required black. Instead, they're getting a high-school becoming college teenage girl paint job. They'll be aqua with grey grills, and a silver glitter fade from top to bottom.

Totally girly, but hey - these are a gift for a girl. They'll be unique and a conversation starter/ice breaker for her in the dorm room.

Kiwi, I had done a search before choosing the Aira name, and I had not found any other designs. I hope you don't mind me piggy-backing on it. I felt like the name was appropriate since these are going to an opera singer/lover.

One more item of note (that should be obvious, but I'll state it anyway):
THESE ARE 4-OHM SPEAKERS.

Just FYI.

[Wolf]

Re: Introducing The Arias - my Black Box design. RS150-4 + XT25SC90-04

The Aria 5 and Aria 7 were Focal kit staples in the community back in the 90's. Very highly regarded at that time.

So- he isn't the first either.
Wolf

[KiwiListener]

Re: Introducing The Arias - my Black Box design. RS150-4 + XT25SC90-04

Piggy back all you want

I enjoy watching others doing a build, and as for the name, well I found it suited the main design purpose at the time. Namely supplying something that the wife would enjoy listening to, mainly orchestral & opera.

She is a retired concert pianist and has a very good ear for the "correct " sound for opera and orchestration. So far so good

[KiwiListener]

Re: Introducing The Arias - my Black Box design. RS150-4 + XT25SC90-04

Quite right, the name is not necessarily original.

Focal are now available at a few selected dealers here in NZ.
Their pricing is low, top of the range is $5000.00 NZD.
I wonder if price reflects the reality, most speakers in this price range, B&W,Mission,PB,Kef and the likes are pretty ordinary and all have a habit of sounding somewhat similar.

I tend to find that speakers in this price bracket really dont sparkle all that much, or maybe owning a set of B& W's for 11 years has just made me want more from a speaker, without the price.
Sounds like a reason to build another set :applause:

[tyger23]

Re: Introducing The Arias - my Black Box design. RS150-4 + XT25SC90-04

Just adding another smidge of implementation information:

The amount of wire I removed from the 1.5mH inductors was 60" (5 feet). This is just another way to double check yourself.