My DIY Active 3-Way Floorstander!

bijinmb

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This is an Active 3-way floorstander using cylinders to mount the drivers.

I have used the following drivers for the project.

Brand: Peerless Fabrikkerne(I) Ltd.

1" Fabric Dome Tweeter: SR10DT x 1
5.25" Coated Paper Cone Mid-Range: M13NH x 2
10" Paper Cone Woofer: SB25NP x 1
Per channel.

  • The Cylinders are of HDPE (High-density polyethylene) Pipe.
  • Cuts are made with Metal Lathe.
  • Frame made with two pieces of 1/2" MDF sticked together to form 1" thickness.
  • Mainly intended for Tri-Amping.
  • Dimension: 4.2ft (H), 1.3ft (W), 10" (D)

Link provided below you can find images of all the major steps for this DIY Floorstander.

https://picasaweb.google.com/104550501856680949171/Active3WayFloorstanderProjIII#
 

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That is something! How it sounds? Why cylinders? Is it forms follow functions or vice versa?
I am quite interested to know your design goals and thought processes towards going for this design.

Bravo, congratulations.
How long you took to design it and then how long you took to actually make it!
I am still so much excited in seeing such a beautiful DIY design.

cheers!
 
Wow! Just WOW

Just curious. How do the speakers sound?

If you have a boring day job, you should seriously consider quitting.
 
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Splendid work mate. Fit and Finish is as good as any manufactured speaker:cheers:. Please do share listening impressions and also W.I.P pics. TIA.

PS: I am reminded of Acoustic Portrait's latest reference speaker when I see this. Only, the AP speaker has all Scanspeak drivers.

EDIT: The W.I.P pics are already in the link. Thanks, very detailed pics.
 
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Wooaahhh drop dead gorgeous man. Freak I have never seen a DIY like this with so much attention to detail. Some serious amount of ground work here eh ? Once again congrats and lovely dude.
 
This is quite a high quality DIY project. How/where did you even get all that equipment and learn how to use it? Very impressive!

Could you tell us what the costs involved?
 
Wow, these look fantastic. They looked great even without the paint when I saw them! Now, just stunning!

I will be coming over for a listen soon.
 
@Sumanta
Please find below the answers to your questions.
1. Why cylinders?
As per my understanding the best shapes for building loudspeakers are sphere's and cylinder's. one of the big advantage of such design is it reduces the edge diffraction's and internal distortions to a great extend. These designs have good strength when compared to other shapes and hence they resonate less!
One of the reason Anthony gallo reference series have all spherical designs for their loudspeakers.

2. design goals and thought processes towards going for this design?

Just to have a design which compliments the above mentioned things and also a design which is unique in style. Unique designs are always eye-candy ! at-least my belief!

3. How long you took to design it?

The design came instantly one day and finding the right materials was the actual challenge. That RND took 1 month roughly. First i thought of doing with wood. but its too expensive! i even went to shop for buying Hawkings pressure cooker 21L ! but i realized that its not the apt material when i tap on its surface. it rings like anything which is too bad for audio purpose. at last this HDPE pipe came! its a fantastic material for this purpose.

3. how long you took to actually make it!?

Roughly 2.5months after proper RND and all mainly in the weekends...
 
@iaudio

you are most welcome...and want to hear from you after your audition as well !
 
@corElement

FYI. i have a decent collection of carpentry tools and a workshop in they backyard of my house to play around with these little toys...

learning is a sequential process...the more you play with them to more you learn ...we have youtube and all for the rescue! LOL!
 
Listening Impressions

The below mentioned test disks are i have used for audition of the loudspeaker.

1. B&W Very Audiophile
2. V.A - The World's Greatest Audiophile Vocal Recordings 24-96 Hi-Res - can here the sticking sound of lips very vividly!
3. Chesky Records - The Ultimate Demonstration Disk
4. Best Of Chesky Classics and Jazz and Audiophile Test Disc Vol.1
5. HDEND Audiophile Air1
6. Sheffield Lab - The Sheffield Jazz Experience (24Kt Gold)
7. Sheffield Lab - The Sheffield Pop Experience (24Kt Gold)
8. DRUM & TRACK DISK The Sheffield Lab [XRCD24 2004]
9. McIntosh Audiophile Test Reference CD

Here are the test results!

1. Impressive detailing especially in the mid and higher frequency range.
Peerless Tweeter SR10DT sounds very natural (First time i am using that driver).

2. Bass is tight not boomy, but feels like if a little more punch is there it would be more impressive. (my prev. floor-stander uses 2 x 10" woofer / channel, so that might be the reason!)

3. The spike sets are doing their job right.

4. I couldn't figure out any sort of distortion anywhere yet!

5. The areas like Holographic Imaging,Transparency,Naturalness,Midrange
Purity,Atmosphere,Transients,bass Resonance all are appreciable especially.

6. Feels like more apt for listening rock, pop, Indian and western classical, gazal etc..sheffield labsl jazz experience was fantastic...

7. Need to play for some 40-50hrs for the drivers to break-in to get more results.

8. It's going to be Tri-amp'ed and now playing in passive mode.

The active configuration might be as follow:

1. Jean Hiraga Pure Class-A 8+8W RMS AMP for - Tweeters
2. Jean Hiraga Pure Class-A 8+8W RMS AMP for - Mid-Ranges
3. Goldmound Mimesis 120+120W RMS Class-AB AMP for - Woofers

Active Crossover Config. is below:

Voltage Gain: Unity
Frequency response: Within 1dB from 10Hz to 20kHz
Filter attenuation slope: 24dB/octave
Total harmonic distortion Typically: .003% at 1V RMS
Signal to noise ratio: -94dB unweighted (22Hz to 22kHz) with respect to 1V RMS
Separation between channels Typically better than -100dB from 10Hz to 20kHz
Input impedance 47k?
Output impedance: less than 200?

Active X-over part is over. Now concentrating on the the AMP building (cabinet design, power supply, amp assembling etc etc..., hope can complete that within a month.

I will post the DIY AMPS after its done...
 
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