Next up in the shop: a LOUD, paper-cone 3 way

[Paul Carmody]

Re: Next up in the shop: a LOUD, paper-cone 3 way

Thanks for your responses to my questions Paul. I am excited about this build. Good to know that the front port will be fine. I will probably end up doing what you did for the wiring as it seems to be the most straight forward and trouble free solution. Did you just loop a short wire from the +/- woofer terminals accepting the wire coming from the amp to the +/- terminals going out? Theoretically I could have two wired coming straight from the amp if I wanted to as well, one for the woofer box and one for the mid/tweet box, right?

I put the input from the amp at the bottom of the bass cabinet. The crossover for all three drivers is in the bass cabinet. The outputs from the mids and tweeters feed out to the top cabinet.
If you want to separate the crossover onto two boards (1. woofer, 2. mid+tweeter), and put the mid+tweeter board in the top cabinet, then yes, you'll need to split the signal from the amp to the top and bottom enclosures.

Also, concerning bracing, I am planning on doing one routed out full horizontal brace about mid-way up to provide support for the sides. For the top/bottom support I am planning on one 3-4" deep vertical shelf on the top and maybe two on the bottom. Will that be enough bracing? I was going to put full vertical braces in but I want to be careful not to impede the port or the driver and I think shelves will work better in that regard.

I wouldn't worry too much about a vertical brace, since those are the smallest panels. The panels that NEED bracing are front-to-back and side-to-side. Of course, a shelf brace could do both jobs at once (tie all four sides together)

Hope that helps.
-Paul

[serafis]

Re: Next up in the shop: a LOUD, paper-cone 3 way

First post, so hello everyone.

While my nice friendly Q-Acoustic home-theatre speakers and Velodyne subwoofer are good enough for movies, they just don't have the kind of presence that I'd like for the sort of music that I (am only allowed to) listen to when no-one else is around.

So I've been thinking of starting a nice big kick-a** prog-rock speaker project for a while now and came across the Tarkus design while browsing around.

Paul, I have to say you've made a lovely job of these and the finished photos look just fantastic - I'm doubtful I'll be able to get to that standard but I want to give it a shot.

The design looks to be just the ticket for what I want to achieve, except for a couple of things that I'm hoping someone can give me some advice on.

Firstly, drivers are hard to come by and generally expensive down here at the bottom end of the world in New Zealand. I can get the Peerless 830668 and 830657 at a reasonable price and I've managed to score some Vifa XT25TG30-04 tweeters for under US$30 each, which is a real bargain here - the DX25 was quite a lot more expensive. So my first question is, can I substitute DX25 with the XT25, and do you think I'd need to change anything in the crossover design?

My second question is more of an ergonomic one. While I have plenty of room for width and depth, the ideal height of my speakers is limited by where the bottom of the projector screen comes down to, which is around 36" from the floor, so the finished speaker needs to fit underneath this. The Tarkus design looks to be 38" or so top-to-bottom. So my question is, if I shorten the height of the bottom cabinet by about 3-4" and compensate the volume by adjusting width/depth, do you think this will work and would I need to make any other changes? Or any other suggestions as to how to achieve a 3-4" shortening of the cabinets?

Thanks in advance if anyone can help.

P.S. I'll try to post some photos of the project as it progresses - it's likely to be a slow one though as I'm going to have to buy the parts as and when I can afford them over the next few months. But here's the first one - the XT25s (and yes, there are three of them, I have in mind to build a matching centre speaker as well at some stage).

[Pete Schumacher]

Re: Next up in the shop: a LOUD, paper-cone 3 way

I'm sure they could be made to work, but the XO would need rework for the tweeter, since they're not the same sensitivity, nor the same response profile.

[Armstrong]

Re: Next up in the shop: a LOUD, paper-cone 3 way

I have been wanting a set of speakers to replace the big "4 way" custom set a good friend built that I had in my office for a while and liked them so much I ended up mixing and mastering tunes for my Prog-Rock bands upcoming Album.

When I stumbled on this Tarkus project I was immediately intrigued and asked my friend if these speakers were something I should look into; he said they are an excellent design and should fit my needs well.

Being the main guitarist as well as the main engineer and mastering dude for our recordings I wanted a speaker that would go comfortably down the the low 30's for Kick and bass guitar detail and a natural mid for guitar and vocals and of coarse relatively FLAT response from top to bottom. We were looking to build something like the SR-71 or Arpeggio for near field listening but when mastering I like to listen at high volumes to hear what the lows and highs are doing when pushed. That way I can then carefully apply the right eq and multi-band compression to the frequencies that get too "hairy" without sacrificing natural feel and detail of the material at modest volume levels...

Any way I look forward to building these bad boyz in the next few weeks, I will post pics of course when we're finished;)

Thanks for the cool "Prog-Rock" design!!!!!

A couple tunes from our upcoming CD:
http://soundcloud.com/tchant/the-times-and-the-tides
http://soundcloud.com/tchant/the-golden-way

-Bill

[ontariomaximus]

Re: Next up in the shop: a LOUD, paper-cone 3 way

Any major changes needed for the $30 HDS buyout 6.5" instead?

[PWR RYD]

Re: Next up in the shop: a LOUD, paper-cone 3 way

Not to be a buzz kill, but did anyone else notice that the 10" Peerless just went from around $55 up to $74 each? :(

[Armstrong]

Re: Next up in the shop: a LOUD, paper-cone 3 way

I am wondering about those too!!!

[Armstrong]

Re: Next up in the shop: a LOUD, paper-cone 3 way

If those buyouts won't work that's ok, but the more money leftover the more money there is for the rest of the project;)

[Ryan_M]

Re: Next up in the shop: a LOUD, paper-cone 3 way

Not to be a buzz kill, but did anyone else notice that the 10" Peerless just went from around $55 up to $74 each? :(

Madisound still has them for $55. link

[Paul Carmody]

Re: Next up in the shop: a LOUD, paper-cone 3 way

Any major changes needed for the $30 HDS buyout 6.5" instead?

Which woofer? Have a link?

[Paul Carmody]

Re: Next up in the shop: a LOUD, paper-cone 3 way

Not to be a buzz kill, but did anyone else notice that the 10" Peerless just went from around $55 up to $74 each? :(

Dang, that is a bummer. I searched all over for just the right woofer for this design--within a reasonable price range--and that's pushing it. Still, the next viable options would have been $120+ ... and then it's like if you're gonna spend that much on the woofer, then why not splurge on the mid, and the next thing you know, it's not a budget design anymore. :(

[JimHRB]

Re: Next up in the shop: a LOUD, paper-cone 3 way

Dang, that is a bummer. I searched all over for just the right woofer for this design--within a reasonable price range--and that's pushing it. Still, the next viable options would have been $120+ ... and then it's like if you're gonna spend that much on the woofer, then why not splurge on the mid, and the next thing you know, it's not a budget design anymore. :(

It's still a great design Paul! And still a deal at $40 more per pair.

[Armstrong]

Re: Next up in the shop: a LOUD, paper-cone 3 way

Which woofer? Have a link?

Here ya go:

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=299-281

Thanks!

Bill

[Paul Carmody]

Re: Next up in the shop: a LOUD, paper-cone 3 way

Here ya go:

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/show...number=299-281

Thanks!

Bill

Well, here's my honest thoughts. First, the two drivers are pretty different, different voice coil, inductance is very different... so, it's pretty much guaranteed that the crossover would have to change.

However, the cabinets to the Tarkus are hundreds of miles away, so I can't really measure and change the XO.

Plus, the HDS woofer is $4 more than the SDS. So at this point I'd say just build the original. The midwoofer in the original is no slouch--I wouldn't have chosen it if it wasn't.

[Armstrong]

Re: Next up in the shop: a LOUD, paper-cone 3 way

Well, here's my honest thoughts. First, the two drivers are pretty different, different voice coil, inductance is very different... so, it's pretty much guaranteed that the crossover would have to change.

However, the cabinets to the Tarkus are hundreds of miles away, so I can't really measure and change the XO.

Plus, the HDS woofer is $4 more than the SDS. So at this point I'd say just build the original. The midwoofer in the original is no slouch--I wouldn't have chosen it if it wasn't.

Thanks!;)