Hey guys, this isnt car audio but maybe someone can help me out here,

i'm looking to go more into home audio, and i been looknig at the speaker drivers here

http://www.speakerbits.com/Default.aspx?menu=41

analysing the graphs and seeing which combination would suit what. I feel that buying the individual drivers, i'll be able to get a pretty hardcore system for a lot less than buying prebuilt.

Now my q, are there any crossovers that would allow me to go active like car audio?

Have you guys got any links to intepreting the graphs. I have rough idea of what i a looknig for, though i am not 100% certain. I also maybe missing a few important specs that are important to building it from scratch.

And lastly, is it possible to predict the sound eg. smooth, dynamic, harsh through just looknig at graphs and specs

One of the main things to look for is a flat (or as flat as possible) line on the frequency response graph (i.e. good linearity).

yup, thats what i have been doing. Ok test me, see if i'm reading these graphs right

http://www.speakerbits.com/net/catalogs/sh....aspx?ID=SD029E

by the looks of it the crossover ponit should be approx 3K for this tweeter, its sensitivity is around 95db, it stays reasonably linear to 20khz, anything above that it goes higher. I took the reading off the bolder line. However i dont know what the other two lines are.

I think that beringher make an active crossover. The alternative is to build your own crossover. Check out www.planetaudio.com as their is a specific DIY page there. There are also a lot of manufacturers such as Aslan who occupy that forum who are more than happy enough to ask your questions, even if they are stupid ones like the ones I've asked

thanks for that tick. I noticed theres a lot of ppl on there that are on here yet nobodys got the answers?

They could be off axis response.

They are on/off axis response of the tweeter. The bottom curve is the impedance curve of the driver at these frequencies. Scan speak are an excellent company, quality danish made. The ring radiator has great off axis response and staging,

www.planetaudio.com.au is an excellent australian HiFI forum site, with many meets monthly throughout australia (i went to one in brisbane on sunday) of course there are more people in the club in VIC and SA. Of course they have less exciting lives down there.... haha j/k

Anyways build some home speakers are well worth it, i Know someone selling a set of Dynaudio Audience 50 Speakers for $750 a pair. Dynaudio are an amazing speaker manufacturer. I own dynaidio and i won't be anywhere else. My car tweeters are dyns, and as are my home speakers.

Hi SlimLim,

I have been designing my own home speakers for many years as a hobby (more an obsession / disease..). Here are my thoughts on your questions above and also some points you may want to consider:-

1) Graphs alone will never tell you how a driver will sound so never go by that alone. As always, a driver from a respected brand is a better bet than one from an unknown brand.

2) Don't assume that you will spend less money by doing your own speaker. It is easy to underestimate the total cost of the enclosure, the drivers, the xover components, the tinkering etc etc. Do it for the satisfaction and for the love of music but don't assume it will cost you less.

3) If you decide to do your own speakers make sure you have the required electronic/acoustic knowledge to know what you are doing before investing in drivers etc etc

4) Also, you will need to have the measurement tools and computer aided design software to measure and design your speaker and the xover. If you want to do this properly you will need to design and build the xover for the drivers you pick in the boc you put them in. Simply buying an off the shelf xover has as much a chance of fitting your driver/box combination and sounding good as wearing someone else's prescription glasses and expecting 20/20 vision.

5) Finally, if you are after good electronic xovers try marchand electronics web site in the US. They seem to make good sounding gear. Here is their link.

http://www.marchandelec.com/index.html


Good luck and best regards..

but then the self satissfaction that you have from building your own speakers and the wank factor being able to say hey they sound awesome and i made them. You learn so much about audio by building them yourselves.

cheers for the replies guys

its like learning car audio from scratch again. give me a few years haha. i'm not too concerned about the $$$, just thought of it as a by product...save a bit why not

My aim is to make a floor standing speaker and incorporate a subwoofer into the design as a starter.

but yes, the crossover, i don't think i have the electrical knowledge to build a crossover yet, it will be on my to do things. However i am interested in any electronic crossovers that are worthwhile or i should be considering. I shall read all the DIY stuff on planet audio first though, and then attempt to go any further with this subject.

its really the crossover i am worried about the most as u can tell

*whispers* "buy the hiquphons, buy the hiquphons...."

please someone buy them and tell me how amazing they are, so i can buy some myself

on PA there is a fountain of knowledge and the people there are very happy to help out (wispers* i'm there too so see you around haha)
pitty you live in WA or id invite you around lol

ok i'm signed up

Amfibius was the first to make me feel special, btw saw pics of his HT setup, looks awesome

Been looking around for an hour and it looks to be a lot more technical than here and theres so many brands. Can anyone tell me how dynaudio rates in home theatre. I've spoken to two HT people, one owner of a store here and a sales person, they both said its pretty good, very expensive and theres better for the price. Their desciption just left me..

Always told myself if i go to home audio i'm gonna be strict dyn, but its kinda left me guessing

I think that is the general consensus that you will get off people involved in planet audio. Apparently the better value stuff is the Australian made things like Aslan, Osborne etc. These are homemade products which use drivers from focal etc. Apparently they are much better value and make some brilliant products. Others to look at are VAF, B&W... the list just goes on.

Others to include may be sonus faber and Equinox (which I believe is Australian as well).