Micro Speaker round up

[stephenmarklay]

I am redoing our pool (table) room and making it a yoga/exercise room. My plan is to have 6 micro speakers mounted front/middle/back ceiling height and a small (voxel size) sub to fill in the low end.

However, I want to make sure that I am aware of the possible choices. One “issue” is that the better designs seem to be a bit too much money to justify. I think a practical budget would be about $50 per speaker. The only one I am aware of that is close to that would be Jeff Bagby’s Quarks. I like the designs using the ND-91 but that driver is a bit more money and it ends up driving the final cost up on those. if I were building one set -no big deal.

An option would be to go a little larger. It is not my first choice as that may look a bit much…

If I am missing any less expensive options I am all ears.

[tomzarbo]

I've always wanted to do a micro- two-way with the ND65 and a 1/2" tweeter....

ND65-8: https://www.parts-express.com/dayton...8-ohm--290-206
TB 1/2" Tweeter pair: https://www.parts-express.com/tang-b...-pair--264-841

You'd be at about $28 per driver not counting crossover bits. The ND65 sounds fine as a full-range driver, at least the 4 ohm version. I'd cross it at 6-7k, maybe even a tad higher. 1.2 to 1.4 liters or so, vented if you can believe it! Or you could go passive radiator route, two per cabinet, which would add $15 to each speaker cost... $43 or so per.

Being that they are all going to be mounted ceiling height. You could do a sort of triangle shape and gain a little bit of cabinet size while keeping things small.

Maybe do a triangle where the exposed angle isn't quite 45 degrees, but maybe 35 or so... that way you could 'spin' the cabinet to have the speaker better 'face' the target area if you wanted.

Just a thought... I've been dreaming of building this speaker for a few years after designing the 'Sound Travelers' portable music player. Those ND65's are amazing little buggers!



TomZ

[Chris Roemer]

IMO one of highest value woofers currently is the TCP115-4 (like, $12).
Pair that w/an $8 tweeter (TD20F-4) using a series XO and you might be able to hit the $30-$40/box range.
They can get into the 50-60Hz range in 0.10-0.15 cf. Pretty small.

Down in OUR exercise room (basement) where the treadmill resides, I've got a pair of BR-1 clones (built b4 there even WAS a BR-1) hanging from the floor joists. (Paul C's "Classix" would be comparable) While I DO have a W6 sub down there, not much gets lost w/it turned off. I think you might be better off w/just a pair of "better" speakers than to try to distribute sound w/a bunch of little guys. I can be working waay off to the side of mine and they're still VERY enjoyable.

[stephenmarklay]

I've always wanted to do a micro- two-way with the ND65 and a 1/2" tweeter....

ND65-8: https://www.parts-express.com/dayton...8-ohm--290-206
TB 1/2" Tweeter pair: https://www.parts-express.com/tang-b...-pair--264-841

You'd be at about $28 per driver not counting crossover bits. The ND65 sounds fine as a full-range driver, at least the 4 ohm version. I'd cross it at 6-7k, maybe even a tad higher. 1.2 to 1.4 liters or so, vented if you can believe it! Or you could go passive radiator route, two per cabinet, which would add $15 to each speaker cost... $43 or so per.

Being that they are all going to be mounted ceiling height. You could do a sort of triangle shape and gain a little bit of cabinet size while keeping things small.

Maybe do a triangle where the exposed angle isn't quite 45 degrees, but maybe 35 or so... that way you could 'spin' the cabinet to have the speaker better 'face' the target area if you wanted.

Just a thought... I've been dreaming of building this speaker for a few years after designing the 'Sound Travelers' portable music player. Those ND65's are amazing little buggers!



TomZ

Interesting Tom. I like that box idea. I had not thought of that but it makes sense.

[stephenmarklay]

IMO one of highest value woofers currently is the TCP115-4 (like, $12).
Pair that w/an $8 tweeter (TD20F-4) using a series XO and you might be able to hit the $30-$40/box range.
They can get into the 50-60Hz range in 0.10-0.15 cf. Pretty small.

Down in OUR exercise room (basement) where the treadmill resides, I've got a pair of BR-1 clones (built b4 there even WAS a BR-1) hanging from the floor joists. (Paul C's "Classix" would be comparable) While I DO have a W6 sub down there, not much gets lost w/it turned off. I think you might be better off w/just a pair of "better" speakers than to try to distribute sound w/a bunch of little guys. I can be working waay off to the side of mine and they're still VERY enjoyable.

Thank you Chris. Funny I am building the Dayton 4. But, at least originally, I deemed them too large. However, they may be the best route. Still pretty small and about as cheap a build as they come.

[silverD]

Mariposas?

[Wolf]

Singl-driver:

Dragon Foals
PC
Pico Neo

Later,
Wolf

[fuadramsey]

Singl-driver:

Dragon Foals
PC
Pico Neo

Later,
Wolf

Where can I find the plans for your build? I tried following your photobucket link but it seems dead. I don't see port info on your PE blog.

Thanks!

[stephenmarklay]

Mariposas?

Cool. One I have not seen.

[stephenmarklay]

Singl-driver:

Dragon Foals
PC
Pico Neo

Later,
Wolf

Thank you! I have definitely given consideration to your PC speaker. I check the others out too!

[Wolf]

You mean the Dragon Foals? Likely because my PC is sealed. Pico Neo is a Chris Roemer project.

The Blog has been likely truncated from a forum update, and I've not kept up with the changes there. The Photobucket link will not show anything anymore, as they changed their policies. I DL'd all of the info before it died, so I do have everything.

Dragon Foals are a 3.1 ltr vented box that is the same basically as the Zaph B3S design in dimension, but I used 3/4" material and it made them a touch wider, and the HiVi M3N instead. 1.5" port diameter, lined inside with 1/16" thick adhesive-backed craft foam "Foamies" (for turbulence and diameter reduction), and at a length of 4.17" according to simulation. Make it 4.25" and don't look back. This should tune it to 72Hz. The cabinet is to be lined with foam and stuffed with polyfil, keeping the port open on the inside. Front baffle has 0.25-0.5" radius on the edges, and the M3N driver is recess-mounted, and the inside back is chamfer-relieved for better air-flow.

The tuning approximates BSC to +3.3dB at 141Hz for weight in the bass, combined with the first notch.

The contour network consists of 2 parallel notches placed in series with the driver of:

1.0mH/4.7uF/8.2 ohm (I targeted 4.85uF, but a 4.7uF should be close.)
0.1mH/5.6uF/30 ohm

I used 18AWG air-core coils for the 1.0mH, and 20AWG for the 0.1mH. I recommend poly-caps for accuracy in the notches as NPEs can vary, and for size restrictions, the blue Jantzen Standard Z-Caps or CrossCaps make a lot of sense. I just lined them up in a row on a board and tied ends together and soldered with the coils placed on the far ends of the board. You'll find fitting through a 2.5" hole makes it difficult to fit laminate-coils, or even long xovers due to the dimensions of the box. IIRC, I actually installed the ports AFTER the xovers, or I wouldn't have been able to get them in the box. The other alternatives are to make the contour network into 2 separate notch boards connected by a single wire, or make a removable baffle or back to get everything installed. I actually used the polyfil stuffing to keep the xover against the wall in the cab as there was no way to secure or anchor it otherwise.







They are designed to kick like a mule for their size, and IMO have a very very good resolution of vocals with a surprisingly sparkly top end treble.

Let me know if you need more information,
Wolf

[fuadramsey]

Yes, THANK YOU. I'm excited to build these . . . 3 actually for my mini bedroom HT setup.

[Wolf]

PC (Perfectly Compact) is even simpler:
- 4" internal cube
- lining foam on inside rear for reflections
- stuffing heavily
- 500uF cap in series with an Aura NS3-193-8A
- relieve rear of baffle mounting hole if thicker than 0.25" thick

Enjoy!
Wolf

(PS- I made the cabinets taller, and placed the caps underneath.)

[Pete Schumacher]

The RS100 makes a dynamite little FR setup.

https://www.diysoundgroup.com/ion-4c-kit.html

[Drjay]

I like Chris's Pico Neos a lot.

[stephenmarklay]

The RS100 makes a dynamite little FR setup.

https://www.diysoundgroup.com/ion-4c-kit.html

Thank you so much Pete. Actually yours is one is on my radar. The box size was a little larger than I wanted but I am going to throw it in WinISD and see what I come up with.

Thank you again!