2.1 Minions III/Voxel System Build

[kevin007]

Re: 2.1 Minions III/Voxel System Build

Those came out great!

How do you feel they compare to the cube style enclosures that you have heard of Leroy R? Do you feel the internal volume difference of the flat packs had much effect?

I cannot hear any difference. They sound the same to my ears.

I am listening to them on my desk at work right now and enjoy them a lot. Too bad I cant crank them up though...

The Voxel sub is next! Starting it this weekend.

Kevin

[BOBinGA]

Re: 2.1 Minions III/Voxel System Build

Kevin,
Great job on those cabinets. Those little PE micro boxes are really nice and well made. I'm looking forward to your sub. If it matches the little speakers, they will look great in your office. Those little TB subs are killers, so I'm sure you will like it.

-Bob

[kevin007]

Re: 2.1 Minions III/Voxel System Build

Kevin,
Great job on those cabinets. Those little PE micro boxes are really nice and well made. I'm looking forward to your sub. If it matches the little speakers, they will look great in your office. Those little TB subs are killers, so I'm sure you will like it.

-Bob

Thank s Bob,

I am going to take a crack at cutting my own MDF this weekend for the sub box. I will post pics when I have them. But yes the idea is to have a matching sub and speakers. I also hope it turns out sharp looking too.

Thanks,

Kevin

[patrickm]

Re: 2.1 Minions III/Voxel System Build

I cannot hear any difference. They sound the same to my ears.

I am listening to them on my desk at work right now and enjoy them a lot. Too bad I cant crank them up though...

interesting. i'm still in the process of measuring these for leroy, (with some delays from weather, a broken furnace, and a physically damaged hard drive in the last few weeks), but i couldn't hear any difference in the 4" internal cube vs the 4.5" internal cube, but i did find BSC made a big difference. might be worth a try before the sub is done, or even after. i lost all my individual measurements for the comparison with the HDD, but anything in the 0.5mH / 4 ohm range works pretty well. would be interested in your impressions of that if you've got the parts laying around. just parallel the R-L in series with either speaker wire.

[kevin007]

Re: 2.1 Minions III/Voxel System Build

interesting. i'm still in the process of measuring these for leroy, (with some delays from weather, a broken furnace, and a physically damaged hard drive in the last few weeks), but i couldn't hear any difference in the 4" internal cube vs the 4.5" internal cube, but i did find BSC made a big difference. might be worth a try before the sub is done, or even after. i lost all my individual measurements for the comparison with the HDD, but anything in the 0.5mH / 4 ohm range works pretty well. would be interested in your impressions of that if you've got the parts laying around. just parallel the R-L in series with either speaker wire.

I unfortunately do not have any spare parts. But maybe Lee would and could test on his minions first. If there was a big difference than maybe I could bring mine home and install the XO parts.

Kevin

[Benji]

Re: 2.1 Minions III/Voxel System Build

I'm in the midst of building my OS TM's, MTM's and a Digger8 sub, much like you have Kevin! That being said while I'm loving the size of my OS MTM towers for the fronts, I'm beginning to feel the stock OS TM size might be a little too big for their intended duty of nightstand bedroom surrounds and was thinking of switching to Minion III's instead and using the OS TM's for computer speakers or something.

I don't even know how the OS' sound yet, nor the Minions so I'm not sure how well they'd all work together, after all this time I've only suddenly realised you and Leroy are only up the road from me (I'm in San Antonio)!

How are you finding the Minions III?

[Leroy R]

Re: 2.1 Minions III/Voxel System Build

You are welcome to come up and listen if you like. I have a pair of the Minion IIIs and I'm sure Kevin would bring his OS's over or we could walk across the street to listen to them at his house. Others have already built and use the Minion IIIs as surrounds. I think Mike220 built 5 Minion IIIs and is using them for fronts, center and surround duty.

[kevin007]

Re: 2.1 Minions III/Voxel System Build

I'm in the midst of building my OS TM's, MTM's and a Digger8 sub, much like you have Kevin! That being said while I'm loving the size of my OS MTM towers for the fronts, I'm beginning to feel the stock OS TM size might be a little too big for their intended duty of nightstand bedroom surrounds and was thinking of switching to Minion III's instead and using the OS TM's for computer speakers or something.

I don't even know how the OS' sound yet, nor the Minions so I'm not sure how well they'd all work together, after all this time I've only suddenly realised you and Leroy are only up the road from me (I'm in San Antonio)!

How are you finding the Minions III?

I like them just fine. I also really like my OS TM's as surrounds. I currently use my Minions as my mains for PC speakers at my work. I am going to complete the Voxel sub to take care of the lower end soon. The one shortfall is that the minions do not go below 125Hz. Of course you will have the low end covered by your digger 8, but it is something to keep in mind. The OS TM's go much lower and deliver better more detailed highs.

My current problem with our new house is the OS TM's are right in your ears if you sit at either end of our couch. That is why I am going to change out two crossover parts and add two woofers and two tweeters and build the OS Bipoles that Paul designed. That way we could get much better surrounds and not blow out our ear drums with the speakers in our ears.

As Lee said we we would love to have a fellow DIYer up for a visit to listen to speakers. Lee has quite a few speakers completed and ones that he is working on. You can see what I have done in my signature. So if you would like to come up some weekend and have a listen let us know and we can make arraignments.

Kevin

[Benji]

Re: 2.1 Minions III/Voxel System Build

We should definitely have a get together! Whenever you guys are free I'm down!

[kevin007]

Re: 2.1 Minions III/Voxel System Build

The finished product:



So far so good. I am fairly pleased with how these turned out. I do have a question for Paul Carmody though. I put the voxel together using a slightly different cabinet and port. I asked Paul about them both and he gave me the thumbs up on both of them. But the 25 watt Dayton amp seems to drive it to the max. I know Paul had said he had modeled it at 70 watts, but that seems like it would be 3 times too much.

I hooked the voxel up to my HT system and unplugged my digger 8's. I used the LFE coming out my receiver and plugged it into the voxel. My son Josh suggested we use the THX Woofer Cooker on YouTube to test the little guy out. Both my kids and my wife was thoroughly impressed. No one especially my Bass Head son Josh thought it was going to pack any punch, but it really did. We were all very impressed with the performance from this little guy. IMHO it is more then anyone would need for a small office/cubical setup. And paired with the Minion III's I believe is an outstanding value. The minions deliver great mids and highs and the little voxel sub really puts out the bass. Once I can install them and tune them they should be a fantastic sounding 2.1 system.

Will this setup compare to the more high end systems, of course not. But if you are looking for a small high output 2.1 system for a cubical or small office then you would be hard press to compete with the minions/voxel combo for under $150.00 in including flat packs.

Thanks to Leroy R and Paul Carmody for two outstanding compact speaker designs!

Kevin

[kevin007]

Re: 2.1 Minions III/Voxel System Build

The finished product:



So far so good. I am fairly pleased with how these turned out. I do have a question for Paul Carmody though. I put the voxel together using a slightly different cabinet and port. I asked Paul about them both and he gave me the thumbs up on both of them. But the 25 watt Dayton amp seems to drive it to the max. I know Paul had said he had modeled it at 70 watts, but that seems like it would be 3 times too much.

I hooked the voxel up to my HT system and unplugged my digger 8's. I used the LFE coming out my receiver and plugged it into the voxel. My son Josh suggested we use the THX Woofer Cooker on YouTube to test the little guy out. Both my kids and my wife was thoroughly impressed. No one especially my Bass Head son Josh thought it was going to pack any punch, but it really did. We were all very impressed with the performance from this little guy. IMHO it is more then anyone would need for a small office/cubical setup. And paired with the Minion III's I believe is an outstanding value. The minions deliver great mids and highs and the little voxel sub really puts out the bass. Once I can install them and tune them they should be a fantastic sounding 2.1 system.

Will this setup compare to the more high end systems, of course not. But if you are looking for a small high output 2.1 system for a cubical or small office then you would be hard press to compete with the minions/voxel combo for under $150.00 including flat packs.

Thanks to Leroy R and Paul Carmody for two outstanding compact speaker designs!

Kevin

[Benji]

Re: 2.1 Minions III/Voxel System Build

Nice! What binding posts are they on the Minions? I'm about to go ahead with the Minion III's as well to replace the rear OS TM's I was going to use, will just re-purpose them for something else.

[Paul Carmody]

Re: 2.1 Minions III/Voxel System Build

So far so good. I am fairly pleased with how these turned out. I do have a question for Paul Carmody though. I put the voxel together using a slightly different cabinet and port. I asked Paul about them both and he gave me the thumbs up on both of them. But the 25 watt Dayton amp seems to drive it to the max. I know Paul had said he had modeled it at 70 watts, but that seems like it would be 3 times too much.

Thank you for the compliments. How do you know that the 25 watt Dayton amp is pushing it to the max? Like, is the cone bottoming out?

I'm not saying that it's not possible; I never actually pushed it all the way to 70 watts, it's pure simulation. Just wondering why you think it's near the max.

Also, the driver/port layout is very clever. I will have to post that as an alternate box configuration.

[kevin007]

Re: 2.1 Minions III/Voxel System Build

Thank you for the compliments. How do you know that the 25 watt Dayton amp is pushing it to the max? Like, is the cone bottoming out?

I'm not saying that it's not possible; I never actually pushed it all the way to 70 watts, it's pure simulation. Just wondering why you think it's near the max.

Also, the driver/port layout is very clever. I will have to post that as an alternate box configuration.

That little woofer is really movin. It just didn't look like it would take much more then what I was giving it. Of course this is just Leroy R and myself eyeballing it and listening. But that little guy was really movin. When Josh ran that woofer cooker it really pushed it to it max it appeared. I never got any distortion or chuffing but it looked like it was right at it's max the way it was traveling.

It was just our observations watching the driver...

Kevin

[Eternal Student]

Re: 2.1 Minions III/Voxel System Build

What kind of different dimensions did you use for the Voxel?