Peerless 830657 for <$6a piece!

[donradick]

Me and my friend recently pushed mine loudspeakers really hard. It was a two hours ride with max xmax. He told me later that it was like having a 9mm gun firing next to his ears for that time. The great thing is that even with such high volume levels, the sound seemed to have a very little distortion.
Someone on this forum mentioned that they like it loud. They do. The bass is really outstanding.
I'm really grateful to you guys for this projest and I'm glad that there are more people that enjoy it as much as I do, even that we're almost half world away.

My thoughts exactly. So glad that you are enjoying your build!

[Pepper]

Me and my friend recently pushed mine loudspeakers really hard. It was a two hours ride with max xmax. He told me later that it was like having a 9mm gun firing next to his ears for that time. The great thing is that even with such high volume levels, the sound seemed to have a very little distortion.
Someone on this forum mentioned that they like it loud. They do. The bass is really outstanding.
I'm really grateful to you guys for this projest and I'm glad that there are more people that enjoy it as much as I do, even that we're almost half world away.

[DIYNut42]

If you want a CC, why not build the top MTM part separately?

Thanks for the compliments, Don! I thought about doing exactly what you mentioned for a CC, but I noticed that these exact drivers are sold out on Amazon. I thought they were a little different than the original 830657 when it came to TS parameters, but maybe I was overthinking it. I could just get a pair from PE, and I already have the MTM XO design from you. If you come up with a nice box volume/tuning let me know and I'll build one!

“On a side note, I struck gold in the WAF department.”

I’ll say, not many wives let their husbands have girlfriends...

Haha... nice. I guess GAF is more appropriate until I pop the question.

[fdieck]

“On a side note, I struck gold in the WAF department.”

I’ll say, not many wives let their husbands have girlfriends...

[donradick]

Oh wow, man, those are so great!
Very glad that you (and your SO) love them. It's rewarding to bring some smiles to peeps.

One of the mysteries of this design is that it has a relatively high F3, but a very long "tail" of EBP alignment.
But the bass is really outstanding, clean and balanced throughout the range. I figure the multiple woofers excite
different room modes that even it all out.
If you want a CC, why not build the top MTM part separately? Use 1/3 (or a bit more) volume and a PVC port. If you want,
I'll run the box model for that. It will be a perfect sonic match.
I heard some Rage Against the Machine today - what a kicking bass torture track if you want to check that out.

[DIYNut42]

Finally getting around to getting these pics uploaded. I finished these late last summer, and my girlfriend and I enjoy them every day. Don wasn't kidding when he said I was "In for a treat."

They are everything I could want in a large format tower. Nice crisp highs, warm and powerful mids, and GOOD LORD do they have tons of clean... tight... effortless bass! The first time we played something bass heavy, my girlfriend and I both looked at each other in shock. She put them through the paces with Daft Punk's Alive 2007 live album, and they handled every bit of the entire album at very high volume without one sign of fatigue or distortion. I think we had about a 5 hour total listening session playing songs from almost every genre. They are a big tower, but they disappear easily. On a side note, I struck gold in the WAF department.

All in all, I knew they'd be a great design, but I was blown away by all their characteristics. Thank you Don for sharing this design with us, and helping us along the way with our builds.

As far as the design, I didn't stray from Don's original. The top, bottom, back and sides are 3/4" Oak veneer ply, and 1" thick MDF baffle. Only 3/4" of the baffle is showing, while the other 1/4" is tucked inside the cabinet. I extended the side depth by 1/4" and used them as a lip. For the finish, I gave the cabs a light coat of a bright cherry red rattle can paint, then hurried up and wiped off what excess I could before it dried. I did have to do a little sanding to get the rest. I just wanted to stain the grain a little for some extra red "pop". Then I stained them with Minwax Red Mahogany, and finished up with a few coats of semi-gloss.

While I'm here, I'd also like to ask if anyone could point me in the direction of a CC design that would compliment these somewhat? I'm not too worried about the drivers matching. I'd just like something close in performance. I thought about the Tarkus CC, but it's a little on the tall side for my entertainment center set-up. What ever design I go with, my TV will be sitting on top of it, so I'm looking for low profile. It's a 70" screen, so width isn't an issue, but I'd rather not increase the height of the screen by 8-9". I'm going to do some searching on my own of course, but some of you guys know of designs that I've never even heard of. I'd love to design a CC for them, but I've been out of the game for a long time, and all of my design hardware/software is long gone.

[Pepper]

Pepper, could you comment on how you created the light lines between the wood veneer? I'm about to try something almost exactly like what you did.

​​​​These are veneer strips, cut and sanded to be exactly the same size. Since these are strips, the veneer doesnt have to be as large, as the whole speaker, so it was easy to come by. First I cut them to +-90mm height, then put all the strips between two 3mm thick steel sheet strips, whitch was both 85mm and sanded the veneer using belt sander. The light lines is balsa strips, whitch I found very easy to work with. Cutting them was much easier, because the material is very soft. I glued them one by one. First I thought that I would use a PVA glue an an iron, but the veneer stretched in size a little in temperature. I was a little devastated by the result, but then I did a small online research and decided to use hide glue. A $5 milk bottle warmer was very helpful. I glued the trips one by one, adding a lilttle weight on them. The mentioned steel sheet strips and 8kg workout weights were helpful Excess glue was easily cleaned with water. The glue also filled minor gaps. After sanding the surface was almost perfect, and after laying an epoxy resin layer it's perfectly flat.

[donradick]

WOW! Very impressive build. Although my Peerless 830657 drivers have never sounded distressed, the extra xmax of the Peerless SDS160 is bound to come in handy. So glad that someone else can experience wonderful sound of this build.

[thekorvers]

Well, I finaly managed to finish mine pair of loudspeakers. ............................ I am satisfied and even a little proud of myself that I managed to finish this project.

Wow, beautiful! I think you can be more than a little proud of what you built here. Maybe like a whole lot of proud!

[a4eaudio]

Pepper, could you comment on how you created the light lines between the wood veneer? I'm about to try something almost exactly like what you did.

[BOBinGA]

Wow! Those are beautiful. Amazing work for a first time wood worker.

[Pepper]

Well, I finaly managed to finish mine pair of loudspeakers. It's been over 18 months since I ordered my pack of new, shiny and very cheap Peerless 830657 drivers from ebay. It took them a month to arrive to Poland, but it was worth waiting. By the time I bought them, I had no idea what loudspeakers I would build. I started to search for a project, or a company that uses 830657 drivers in their speakers. I found that a lithuanian company Audiosolutions builds a line of speakers that use Peerless drivers and I was pretty sure that I would biuld something similar to their Overture O205F... But then I found this thread! SIX woofers instead of four? It's insane, wife's gonna kill me! Even four woofers in single loudspeaker is more than she could probably handle. I decided, I'll build them. Even if this means homelesness...

After arriving to Poland I found out, that these were really SDS-160F25PR01, not 830657. Took the measurements in Speaker Workshop. Did the burn in. Then I decided to modify the drivers a bit, by adding a magnet at the back of each unit. Bought a pack of 15 magnets 72mm dia by 15mm height (around 15 bucks for all), and glued them on the back of each speaker. It is supposed to focus magnetic field inside the speaker's magnetic gap and change its parameters. Did the measurements again. Fs went down averagely 3Hz. Qts dropped from .559 (avg) to .436 whitch is a little better for BR enclosure.

The cabinet material was cut to desired dimensions by a woodworking company I found online. They also cut the front speaker holes. I used 25mm MDF for back and 38MDF for front. Enclosure volume is about 90l. All the gluing and milling edges, veneering, sanding was on me. It was my first woodwork, so it took me some time to build them, but during that time I learned a lot.

Back and sides are veneered using two different wood colors (mahogany and balsa), then covered with epoxy resin, front and stand is covered with imitation leather. BR tunnel pretty much the same, as Mr. Don mentioned earier in the thread. I added a very little cabinet dampening on the back (4cm polymer wool and 1cm felt with 2mm bitumen layer material glued on it), and glued a thin 4mm plywood on the internal sides, since Xmax of SDS-160F25PR01 is a lot better than 830657. All of the internal edges are extra sealed by a marine grade glue Sikaflex 291.

Tweeter is Seas Prestige H1147-06 27TBC/G tweeter. Crossed at 2200Hz using 3rd order filter and added L-pad to dampen it about 3dB. The "lower" part of XO is the same as Mr. Don posted, except 5.6mH coil, whitch is an air cored coil (.89ohm). I used mostly Mundorf capacitors and coils.

I use 2x200W AB Class DIY amplifier (apexaudio SR-200 design) with ak4495seq DAC to power them and I really enjoy listening this system. The sound is clear, but very powerful. I am satisfied and even a little proud of myself that I managed to finish this project.

Thanks to Mr. Donradick and Mr. PassingInterest, whitch ispired me a lot!

[DIYNut42]

Turns out the slot port width is fairly insensitive to variations. Slot port tuning is very sensitive to height of the slot.
I usually do not cut dados for my slot ports, I cut 1/4 inch BB to an exact height, and glue one in each side for the
slot port "cover" to sit on. So don't sweat the exact width, worry about the height.

My walls were covered with Dow 703 compressed fiberglass. Add poly until it's pretty full, but not packed.
I packed in more filling towards the back of the box, and left some space open in the front so the woofers
had a clear path to the slot port on the bottom. I would (very roughly) guess about 1.5 - 2.0 pounds poly
per speaker, but I'd really gauge filling based more on density than weight. Fill it up, but do not compress
it tightly.

I actually ran a LIMP on all six woofers in the box wired series / parallel and got 5.9 ohm minimum.
Add to that R value the DCR of the laminate coil to get the final minimum impedance.

Hope this helps! You are in for a treat.....
BTW, where are your build pics?

This helps a ton. Thanks for your time, Don!

Unfortunately, I haven't taken any pics, but I will be sure and snap a few before and after they're all finished up. I've switched gears over the past few years, and started a small woodworking business. Building cabinets for my past speakers made me realize how much I enjoyed the woodworking aspect of the hobby, and it kind of took off from there. I still drop in to the forum now and then, and came across this thread last year. Decided to snatch up a box of these Peerless to start rebuilding my HT/Music system. Between client builds, and projects for my girlfriend and I, I haven't had a lot of time to work on them, or start an actual build thread. :-/

[donradick]

Don,

I have a pair of these about 75% of the way completed, and I had a few quick questions if you don't mind.

I've read through the build thread, and noticed something about the width of the port. Using 3/4" material, and with the outer width dimension being 9.5", that gives an 8" inner dim to work with. Your comment about the port says you made it 7 7/8" wide. Did you get some 1/8" material and line one side wall of the port to bring it to that dimension?

For stuffing/wall treatment... I have the top and side walls of the front woofer area lined with some dense 1/2" carpet foam to catch reflections, and the entire back wall lined with R-13 insulation with plans to stuff some poly-fill over the R-13 (only in the back half of the enclosure). My question is, if you were to hazard a guess, how many pounds of poly stuffing do you feel would be equal to your amount of denim stuffing?

My last question is about the woofer wiring. I looks like from the XO, all six woofers are wired in series parallel (with the 6mH coil between the MTM and bottom four), and ending up with a 5.3 Ohm impedance. Is this correct?

Turns out the slot port width is fairly insensitive to variations. Slot port tuning is very sensitive to height of the slot.
I usually do not cut dados for my slot ports, I cut 1/4 inch BB to an exact height, and glue one in each side for the
slot port "cover" to sit on. So don't sweat the exact width, worry about the height.

My walls were covered with Dow 703 compressed fiberglass. Add poly until it's pretty full, but not packed.
I packed in more filling towards the back of the box, and left some space open in the front so the woofers
had a clear path to the slot port on the bottom. I would (very roughly) guess about 1.5 - 2.0 pounds poly
per speaker, but I'd really gauge filling based more on density than weight. Fill it up, but do not compress
it tightly.

I actually ran a LIMP on all six woofers in the box wired series / parallel and got 5.9 ohm minimum.
Add to that R value the DCR of the laminate coil to get the final minimum impedance.

Hope this helps! You are in for a treat.....
BTW, where are your build pics?

[DIYNut42]

Don,

I have a pair of these about 75% of the way completed, and I had a few quick questions if you don't mind.

I've read through the build thread, and noticed something about the width of the port. Using 3/4" material, and with the outer width dimension being 9.5", that gives an 8" inner dim to work with. Your comment about the port says you made it 7 7/8" wide. Did you get some 1/8" material and line one side wall of the port to bring it to that dimension?

For stuffing/wall treatment... I have the top and side walls of the front woofer area lined with some dense 1/2" carpet foam to catch reflections, and the entire back wall lined with R-13 insulation with plans to stuff some poly-fill over the R-13 (only in the back half of the enclosure). My question is, if you were to hazard a guess, how many pounds of poly stuffing do you feel would be equal to your amount of denim stuffing?

My last question is about the woofer wiring. I looks like from the XO, all six woofers are wired in series parallel (with the 6mH coil between the MTM and bottom four), and ending up with a 5.3 Ohm impedance. Is this correct?