Need Some Advice

[kevin007]

I have been doing a lot of reading at speaker design works website, PE and other sites. I have been looking at various designs and considering other speakers. Since many of you have been doing this for awhile and have built many different speakers I wanted to ask you guys for your advice in building a new set of speakers.

Please let me set the stage a little bit...

I have had the same speakers and receiver for about 12 years. It is a love hate relationship. The love part is that after 12 years of fairly heavy use they all still work as good as the day I bought them. The hate part is that I have never really liked these Yamaha satellites. The speakers offer a limited range and the sub-woofer sucks beyond belief. In fact the speakers that are built in my 1 year old Samsung plasma TV are about as good as the satellites, they just cant go as loud.

I have been what I would call a closet audiophile. I like a lot of music that most people have never heard of and really enjoy a nice sounding system. My favorite artist is Joe Satriani. I really love guitar and so Artists like Satriani, Vai, Eric Johnson, Phil Keaggy and the like. That being said I am not a big bass guy. I do not listen to rap or hip-hop and do not require such deep thumping bass. At the same time the new system will be pulling double duty as a home theater system as well. So a sub-woofer will be essential so as too provide LFE.

When I was fist checking out various DIY projects It look like the simplest was the TriTrix. As I have been looking at other systems Jim Holtz "statements" really standout since they really bring out the mid-range and highs so well, which is where I live. Would you guys recommend building something like the statements, or the Avia Trix or would the TriTrix suffice? I mean a cheap set of speakers from best buy would be better then what I have, but I really want a "audiophile" system.

Thanks,

Kevin

[billcurrier]

Re: Need Some Advice

To make your life perhaps more confusing take a look at Lou C's site. He builds nice speakers that don't cost a fortune but are high quality. Sounds like size isn't an issue but space in any room is limited. Good luck with your quest.

[tyger23]

Re: Need Some Advice

Check out Jeff Bagby's Continuum speakers. I just finished mine, and I'm more than impressed. Perhaps the clearest, cleanest sound I've ever experienced.

[ckmoore]

Re: Need Some Advice

The main criteria you left out is budget, and room size.

And you are looking for a 5.1 setup, correct?

[kevin007]

Re: Need Some Advice

I have a odd sized room that they will go in. It is 13X15 with a hallway and kitchen/dining room on one side and the stair case and entry door on the other. When I upgrade my AVR I will goto a 7.2 setup. But in the mean time it will be 5.1.

As far as budget goes whatever I do I will save for and build piece by peice. I would think that something around the price of a AviaTrix system would be most likely the way I would go.

[ckmoore]

Re: Need Some Advice

So around $650-700 budget. Is that including subwoofer? If it is, your options are less, but still some good quality designs would work.

[kevin007]

Re: Need Some Advice

No that does not include a sub.

[ckmoore]

Re: Need Some Advice

Here are some options:
Overnight sensations MTM's, CC, and TM's. - cheapest, but proven.
Tarkus, Armadillo, (forthcoming TM design in the works..., but also might be slightly overbudget)
Swopes
Aviatrix

If you have aspirations to go to 2 subs, 2 RSS315's are awesome, and there are plenty of builds on the forum to glean inspiration from.
(Lunchmoneys comes to mind)

[Brewski]

Re: Need Some Advice

To add to the options....

4 Levitations and the smaller Grange (Levitation with an alternate crossover) center would cost around $550.00.

You could start by building Left, Right, and Center. Then if you wanted to go to larger fronts you could eventually look at Ruinations or Imperial Russian Stouts as mains or just build another set of Lev as the surrounds.

Take it easy
Jay

[kevin007]

Re: Need Some Advice

Who is Lou C?

[mattsk8]

Re: Need Some Advice

I have the Statements and the Tritrix. The Tritrix sound great for the money, but if you're considering them both then go the Statements route for sure, w/out a doubt (hands down, no brainer).

Another set to consider based on your description of your likes would be the ER18s http://meniscusaudio.com/er18mtm-ribbon-p-1323.html Those are more in your price range than the statements; plus there's a kit that uses a dome tweet instead of the ribbon for a little cheaper, but I haven't heard the dome tweet version.

Given the options you've suggested, I'd recommend the ER18s or the Statements. If the Statements are too big, you could go mini Statements or ER18s. If you'd rather do bookshelf, there's other options as well; like Ben's (Wolf) Stance speakers. Heard those and they sound fantastic. You'll want to run a sub w/ those.

[fastbike1]

Re: Need Some Advice

http://speakers.lonesaguaro.com/speakers/

Who is Lou C?

[kevin007]

Re: Need Some Advice

Thanks everyone for all the great advice and links.

I have another question. Has anyone built the statement monitors? How do they sound? And can these and the other speakers we have talked about handle 100+ watts of power? This will be especially important when I get a new AVR like the Onkyo 818 that I have had my eyes on.

Thanks a million,

Kevin

[Brewski]

Re: Need Some Advice

Thanks everyone for all the great advice and links.

I have another question. Has anyone built the statement monitors? How do they sound? And can these and the other speakers we have talked about handle 100+ watts of power? This will be especially important when I get a new AVR like the Onkyo 818 that I have had my eyes on.

Thanks a million,

Kevin

The watts of power is a bit of a misnomer the majority of the speakers talked about would probably drive you out of the room if fed more than 15 watts and some could exceed x-max at that point as well. Having more Watts helps keep the amp from clipping when playing louder. Having speakers hooked up to 500+ watt amps is a good thing if you're focused on playing cleanly at X volume level rather than number of watts.

How loud the speakers will play will be determined by the speakers sensitivity and where the designer opted to tune the design related to the drivers X-max. I typically shoot for getting a speaker to 100db from 40Hz up in my box simulations without exceeding X-max.

How loud do you think you're normally listening to music at? If playing them loudly is a goal you'll probably want to look at more efficient designs that in all likely hood have multiple woofers to offset baffle step loss. The more efficient the speaker the less watts you'll need to play them loud.

To me the greater the number of watts translates to the better your speakers are protected from the amp clipping.

Take it easy
Jay

[mattsk8]

Re: Need Some Advice

Thanks everyone for all the great advice and links.

I have another question. Has anyone built the statement monitors? How do they sound? And can these and the other speakers we have talked about handle 100+ watts of power? This will be especially important when I get a new AVR like the Onkyo 818 that I have had my eyes on.

Thanks a million,

Kevin

Hopefully Jim Holtz can chime in, but something to consider w/ the Statement moniters is that placement is fairly critical w/ these. Just something to think about. They do have a near wall xover available, but I think that still requires about 12" from the rear of the cabinet to the wall.

I heard the Statement moniters driven w/ a 200watt/ch Legacy amp. They did pretty well, but when we approached higher volumes the woofers popped. In short, I think you should be fine w/ 135ish watts/ch of the 818; and I would imagine if you used a powered sub w/ these and crossed them over through your receiver to avoid whatever frequecies caused the popping, you could run plenty more power.

IMO, the moniters sounded very good. Compared to the full Statements they obviously lack the bass, but the mids and highs are close.