Speaker Re-Foaming

[70SATMan]

I’ve got a pair of Heresy Decorator cabinets that I need to dig out and refurb too. We remodeled our living room, dining room and kitchen and my Cornwalls no longer meet the WAF.

Going to sell them and keep my Walnut Heresy for the living room theater.

Carport hasn’t magically turned into a garage yet so, the Corns have been in storage for two years now.

Wife is feeling a little guilty and sorry that I’m selling the Corns but, she doesn’t know that if the garage happens, a pair of LaScalas is in the master plan. As I always tell her:

“Trust the PROCESS!!”

[stevej37]

Originally Posted by 908/930

Try it right down to 40hz, don't worry about the number just use your ears, also give it a good listen and try to switch the phase again. Many speaker crossovers will invert the phase between woofer and midrange driver, the sound going slightly lower at a small frequency range is less noticeable than a bump in pressure, but lining up the woofer phase of the main speakers and the sub can help give more power for very low freq. Your sub does not have a control for that but by moving it away from the front wall you can possibly get it close.

You were right...I'll admit I was skeptical about turning the cross-over down to the lowest (40 hz). I kept thinking that was going to do the opposite of what I wanted.

Watching the movie Paradise and the bass is fantastic at the low volume portions along with the higher expected parts.
Thanks for the help with this.

[908/930]

Good to hear it worked for you. Don't stop playing with it though, try small changes in placement or direction it is facing.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

^

Those are cool! I've bought a lot of stuff from PE; always pretty satisfied. Unfortunately I have so many speakers, (currently 5 sets of Polks, one set of vintage 301's) it would be foolish to build another set that would end up collecting dust, even though it looks like a lot of fun. (Wait a minute - I see they have a build kit for powered, bluetooth speakers. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..........)

Do you have the vintage SDAs .... I have had three pairs for decades ... I luv 'em !

[stevej37]

Originally Posted by 908/930

Good to hear it worked for you. Don't stop playing with it though, try small changes in placement or direction it is facing.

I ended up with the phase at 0, the cross-over at 40 hz, and the gain at 4 of 10.
Might lower the gain a touch...most will say it's a little too much.

[KFC911]

^^^ Yer just a "tweaker"! There ... I said it ... and I'm not taking it back either

[stevej37]

I'd rather be a tweaker than a twerker.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by KC911

Do you have the vintage SDAs .... I have had three pairs for decades ... I luv 'em !

2 sizes from the Monitor series and a full compliment of RT series. (Plus the matching CS and PSW center and sub)

I had a set of SDA's once, but I sold them. Wish I hadn't. So stupid of me.

[70SATMan]

Originally Posted by stevej37

I'd rather be a tweaker than a twerker.

I’d rather be twerked than tweaked.

[Scott Douglas]

Originally Posted by aschen

Kinda tangentially related, but I am having a good time building this kit currently

https://www.parts-express.com/C-Note-MT-Bookshelf-Speaker-Kit-Pair-with-Knock-Down-Cabinets-300-7140?quantity=1

Don't really need them, but fun. Really nice components from PE given the price. Though I am already in for another 150 on stands, 50 on paint, filler, sand paper etc. Not to mention probably 20hrs of labor so far. I cant wait to hear how they turn out.

That looks like a cool project.
Be sure to let us know what you think of them when you're done building them.

[aschen]

Hope to have em done this weekend. Almost there, crossovers built, enclosures built, sanded and primed. Gonna paint them a funkey bright green. Bought some stands that cost more than the speakers. Ill let yall know how they sound. They will have tough competition next to my main speakers that are 125 lbs each with the same msrp as my daily driver.

[Rusty Heap]

Not all speaker foam is created equally. On my Carver/Sunfire 2700 watt subwoofers the surround is about 1/8" thick stiff rubber. Woofers are just air-pistons.

[stevej37]

^^^
I just now looked at the surround on my cheapo 12" Klipsch Sub and it's also made of something other than foam.
It looks and feels almost like a bike tire tube.

Didn't see any Presta valve anywhere.

[908/930]

Aschen speaker project reminded me that I started making a pair of Wilson audio WATT 3 clones out of 1/2" clear acrylic about 11 years ago, had to dig the parts out, Scan Speak 18w/8741 mid base drivers and Focal T123w tweeters, need to make up some crossovers and start bonding the panels together. Apparently pretty slow with my projects

[ErVikingo]

Originally Posted by 908/930

Aschen speaker project reminded me that I started making a pair of Wilson audio WATT 3 clones out of 1/2" clear acrylic about 11 years ago, had to dig the parts out, Scan Speak 18w/8741 mid base drivers and Focal T123w tweeters, need to make up some crossovers and start bonding the panels together. Apparently pretty slow with my projects

"only 11 years"? ha ha ha. Cool project. I saw a DYI clear speaker once, sounded ok and not great. The guy then stuffed them with different color polyfill and that made quite a difference! His crossovers were very cool looking and had a couple of leds, very spage age.

[ErVikingo]

Originally Posted by aschen

They will have tough competition next to my main speakers that are 125 lbs each with the same msrp as my daily driver.

What are they?

[aschen]

The finished products. Ignore my messy living room, wish that was atypical Turned out pretty decent, even a fully engineered kit took a fair bit of time. I tried to finish them in something close to Python Green for fun. The look good from a few feet away but not perfect.

Main speakers are Dynaudio Confidence C4, along with 18" sub hiding out in corner. Roughly 10x the weight and 100x the price. C notes are a fair bit brighter and don't have any really low bass, but are very pleasant to listen to and I would be happy living with them as only speakers particularly with a small sub. Was listening to them mid field which is a different experience than further field I normally listen. More precise imagining but less "envelopment". I like it but leaving speakers in the middle of the room would result in divorce. I get away with the other speakers because they look nicer than the rest of our furniture.


I am happy with the results. I am always surprised by mini monitors how you can get plenty of punch and spl out of such small things. Log nature of hearing sensitivity to pressure puts you on diminishing returns pretty quickly with respect to size.


Anyways if you got a couple hundred bux, a soldering iron, and some free time I dont think you would be dissapointed. My next project is to recap an old NAD 2030 I have to use with these as a bedroom system

[908/930]

Your little green speakers look great. Will you consider adding a decent grade resister in front of the tweeter to calm the brightness down a little, or do you think it is lower than the tweeter in frequency? Your little greenies are up against some pretty tough competition there.

Yup over 11 years, in my defence forgot that I started building them. Yes they will be filled with some insulation and the sides will have lead added inside to increase mass, much like the originals.

[ErVikingo]

I like the Dynaudio!

A friend deals with the WAF by setting his speakers similar to what Wilson recommends, very close to the side walls with radical toe in. That way the speakers are not in the middle of the room.

I recall being asked if my speakers were monoliths from Space Odyssey

[aschen]

Thanks. My wife looked at me crazy when she saw the bright green!

Internet is full of ideas (and better diyers) on modding/improvements. Adding a 22uf cap across the woofer to tame a 3khz breakup is the most popular one. That may be what I was hearing but not too sure. Didnt find them painfully bright, but have my main system set up pretty laid back especially when I have Dirac room correction switched on. My target curve's are pretty polite.

I am trying not to take this stuff to seriously, just playing around a bit and having a good time. I think id mess with DSP/EQ before overextending my EE abilities though.