Brainstorming a driver config for a *very* cheap 10" 3-way retrofit

[LOUT]

Someone here on PETT had a cool idea to use those thick plastic "bed risers" for midwoofer sealing. Probably more likely to see them in a department store or online than a hardware store, but it doesn't hurt to ask wherever you are shopping.

Hopefully these are okay to link since they aren't a competing product for PE....around $6/4pack:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstays...Pack/937595676

[rpb]

https://www.lowes.com/pd/United-Solu...Pail/999917952

[jim85iroc]

How do you recommend progressively stuffing it? I was thinking about tightly packing some into the tip of the cone, then maybe gluing a screen or something into place to hold it, rinse and repeat with less dense sections each time.

[LIDAR]

Use a plastic traffic cone (or the similar "sports" cone). They are cheap on Amazon (amongst other places). Stuff them with poly/fiberglass/denim insulation. Do it progressively - loose near the driver and tightly at the apex of the cone. Works very well.

[jim85iroc]

Yeah, I was thinking about some PVC, or maybe walking around the hardware store to see what else might work. I'd love to find some sort of cone or tapered wedge shape. Maybe a funnel of some sort.

[fpitas]

Your mid enclosures could be a piece of 6" pvc sewer pipe with a cap on the end. Easy and cheap. Stuff it with fiberglass and go!

[jim85iroc]

Tonight I ordered some drivers. I got the Dayton Dc250 woofers, 4 of the buyout mids, and a pair of the Peerless BC25 tweeters. I probably won't use the mids for this project and will probably use those old Vifa buyouts. While I wait for PE to fill the backorder on the tweeters, I can start working on the mid enclosures and stiffening the main enclosures.

[Whitneyville1]

Making a silk purse outta a sow's ear makes the pig mad and doesn't make a very nice purse does it? I feel your pain and understand where you're at. Your $50 limit is realistic and I don't mean Radio Snack, you can't throw money at these forever. Your comparison to some C-V speakers can be pretty valid, loud party speakers that after 3-4 hours don't make your ears bleed. Have you considered a 10" two-way??? I think you'd have to go to $80 a speaker for the woofer and tweeter (skip the mid altogether) but I think you could build a mean two-way in that box. Just an idea...

[jim85iroc]

I only anticipate upgrading 1 pair. The rest are fully functional with their stock components and I expect to sell them as-is.

I could enlarge the hole if there was a suitable justification, but I'd prefer not because this wood is very cheap particle board and I would prefer not to risk chipout. Plus, I want to run the midrange up to 3khz or so, and a larger mid would start to beam.

[rpb]

How many pairs are you going to upgrade? Can you enlarge the mid-range hole using a router?

[jim85iroc]

The woofers are blown, and the mids & tweeters are trash. I've listened to some of the other ones that are functional. The woofers aren't bad except that they're playing full range. The mids are so low in output that I think they're just there for show, and the tweeters sound like they don't play anything over 10khz. These were built to look a certain way with absolutely no consideration given to their sound.

[jhollander]

Why not measure what you have? Hard to know if you are upgrading without seeing what the current drivers do.

[LOUT]

It's pretty hard to argue against a 3way when you already have some nice midwoofers on-hand as well as a really affordable newer buyout option, and the cabinets are already setup for 3way.

I'm curious if anyone has distortion measurements or golden eared hands-on with the DC28F HighPassed this low at this modest output level. [spoiler]I can try it myself (and probably will later today) but I don't have measuring equipement or knowledge and I don't really trust my ears for picking out things like any of the more experienced folk here probably can. I'll still try it just to sate my own curiosity of course, lol.[/spoiler] Mostly off-topic for this thread though.

[jim85iroc]

it's definitely something to consider for a future build, but since these cabinets already have midrange and tweeter cutouts, I'm pretty solid on sticking with a 3 way configuration. I do have a soft spot for 8" 2 ways though, so a modified version of this setup could be an interesting idea for one of those in the future.

[LOUT]

Sorry in advance for even suggesting this after you JUST SAID that something like this doesn't really fit your design goals (and it might be dumb for distortion reasons too).

If your 2005 buyouts don't work for some reason (or you don't have enough) I think the DC28F-8 would fit and fill that midwoofer hole and meet the DC250 low enough for the XO to double as the BaffleStepComp. I know it's usually recommended to cross it a little higher, but this pairing should only end up pushing this tweeter to about half of its 0.5mm XMAX...so excursion shouldn't be an issue at least for the tweeter.

Skipping the midwoofer XO entirely while also being able to use a simple cap and resistor for the tweeter itself saves an easy $10-20 in XO parts (which helps make up for the slightly more expensive DC28F VS a cheaper midwoofer+tweeter combo).

This used a 22"x14" BaffleStepSim, and the phase/XO summation stays about the same with a woofer Zaxis offset anywhere from 20mm-70mm (one benefit of low XO at least). The far-right sixpack image is showing the dc28F and its XO at ~22.5v (about where the woofer will hit 75watts output).

Once again, I understand this doesn't fit too well with your 3way design goal, but it might be an affordable backup if you run short on some of the midwoofers or if something better doesn't pan out. Just had to mention it after seeing how surpisingly nicely it seemed to model.

EDIT: I'm roughly trying this by listening with the same tweeter and HP but a different woofer and LP. I thought the tweeter was distorting for certain at first, but now I'm wondering how much of it's the amp which I normally don't push nearly this hard.