The Joudas project

[rpb]

Be sure to try them in your sons room before finalizing the xo. The room and position in the room can play a big role.

[trevordj]

While I am waiting on some crossover parts I started painting The Diversions and some other stuff. I am going to see how much I can simplify the process and still get a good result.

Getting back to the project at hand I actually started making some progress with the Joudas LCR. I lugged the behemoth up to my home theater and started some measurements. I forgot how heavy this cabinet is.

There is a fairly large dip in FR at around 700Hz with the TD12M. I am confident this is not a room node as it is well within my gate and I had the woofer elevated about 4ft off the ground. This may be a cabinet issue as it is currently unstuffed but it was unexpected. For my crossover I just ignored if for now. Another oddity is, for some reason, vituixcad is exagerating this dip. In REW the unsmoothed gated response shows a 2.5dB dip, in Vituixcad it is showing a nearly 6dB dip. It must be how I am exporting the numbers? Anyway, for now I am ignoring it.

Other than that dip, with a fairly simple crossover things look pretty good. I soldered a prototype of this crossover last night and hooked it up. No measurements yet but the speaker sounds amazing with this crossover. Plenty of midbass (which I like) and it sounds awesome. I am going to have to make sure the speaker is angled up a bit to get the tweeter on axis to the listening position. Horizontal off axis performance is great but, as expected based on the tweeter dimensions, vertically there is a fairly narrow sweet spot.

[trevordj]

The box still isn’t painted, just primed. I have 8 additional completed speakers I am working on painting (The Diversions, and 6 others that I will post about shortly) and I am going to paint these as well. I have 11 speakers that need painting in total [emoji51]. This still doesn’t include the 6 surrounds I need to assemble. All the parts are cut I just need to cut features and glue.

I am working on getting my business open so the surrounds will be on the back burner for now.



-Trevor

[rpb]

Try plugging the ports. With no stuffing, the sound inside the box may be bouncing off the interior of the speaker, and exiting the port with some delay, etc.

I hope the speakers you listened to were lined with foam, or something. If not, they will sound better when you do.

[trevordj]

Try plugging the ports. With no stuffing, the sound inside the box may be bouncing off the interior of the speaker, and exiting the port with some delay, etc.

I hope the speakers you listened to were lined with foam, or something. If not, they will sound better when you do.

Nope, the one I was listening to was unlined. I have some OC703 so I think what makes the most sense is just lining them and then remeasuring. They still sound great though!

[trevordj]

I have been working on painting for the last several days. The Diversion and it’s compliment, One of The Zaibas subwoofers are getting coated with House of Kolor Lapis Blue augmented with Ocean Blue kosmic sparks pearl The other Zaibas sub is going to get coated in House of Kolor Eclipse Orange with Gold Rush Kosmic Sparks Pearl or HOK Great Pumpkin. After I catch up I am going to design and build some small bookshelf speakers for my younger son that will accompany the subwoofer. I have quite a few raw drivers on hand so I should be able to come up with something. Or Paint and clear are on one of the subs. It will need cut and polished, possibly a flow coat of clear, we will see how it goes. -Trevor

[trevordj]

Another long day in the coal mine and The Diversions are painted. -Trevor

[Steve Lee]

Wow!

That's . . .well . . . Bluer than, BLUE!

What are you doing for over spray/vapor control while spray painting?

Those look great.

[trevordj]

Wow!

That's . . .well . . . Bluer than, BLUE!

What are you doing for over spray/vapor control while spray painting?

Those look great.

Thank you!

The worst part of the overspray used to be with primer, that stuff sticks to everything. I switched to a high efficiency cap on my primer gun and that has reduced overspray by about 90%. When I spray in the garage I put paper over most of my tools and I turn on the heater and open the door. After I spray I leave the garage door open for a few minutes and then I close it about 3/4 of the way. That seems to control things pretty well. One day I will build a dedicated shop with three areas: woodworking, metalworking, and a paint booth. Until then I have to deal with always getting a bunch of junk in my clear coats.

[Steve Lee]

3 Dedicated areas - Oh, yes!

I need one are just for the router right now - the bench routing dust is well controlled with a central system but even with the dust collection on the circle router the very fine dust manages to get into everything - need a paint/routing booth.

What are the two holes in the tops of cabinets and are those tuned ports on the backs/bottoms of the bases?

[trevordj]

3 Dedicated areas - Oh, yes! I need one are just for the router right now - the bench routing dust is well controlled with a central system but even with the dust collection on the circle router the very fine dust manages to get into everything - need a paint/routing booth. What are the two holes in the tops of cabinets and are those tuned ports on the backs/bottoms of the bases?

The two holes on the top are for the ports, 2 x 3” ports. I can’t remember the length, like 12” or so. The hole you see on the bottom is a cutout for the speakon connector. The speaker wire routes through the stand into the bottom of the box.

[Steve Lee]

Interesting choice of port location but makes sense due to the greater height of the cabinet than its depth.

Thanks for the clarification.

[trevordj]

Ok, I have finalized the crossover for the Diversion. I ended up going with this:





They measure and sound fantastic!



2nd order distortion at the crossover point at about 95dB output is 0.2%, 3rd order is 0.04%. Distortion reaches a peak of 0.7% 2nd order at 2.2kHz.



I wish I could have gotten by with a less complicated crossover as these are on the pricey side. But I can't argue with results. I will be color sanding and polishing the cabinets today and then I will build the final crossover, put it in the cabinet and this is a wrap. -Trevor

[rpb]

I wish I has speakers like that as a kid, or teenager! Many of my x-overs have a high part count. I think it's worth it usually.

[trevordj]

Thank you! I hope he is able to enjoy these for years to come. I love sharing these with him.

I spent some time color sanding these today. I also did a quick flow coat of clear and these are done! I will let these cure overnight and then I will build the crossovers on a board and instal the drivers and ports tomorrow.

I keep trying to capture the color on these but it’s hard to do. The paint is mesmerizing. The ocean blue metallic pearl on top of the blue paint give them a real sense of depth. This is the best I could do for now. I will try to get them in the sun tomorrow.



Also, just an update on the other subwoofer, not all ideas work out. The orange color was a bust. It looks like a construction cone. I am going to re-spray these in a color called blood orange:

New color: -Trevor

[trevordj]

The Diversions are done

-Trevor