Troubleshoot my DIY speakers

[audiothings]

I am in Chennai, and I am a musician/sound engineer. I have recently built the speakers (and the studio) you see in the pic. The tops are closed box designs with B&C DE250 behind SEOS waveguides with the mid-bass coming out of Eminence DeltaliteII 2512s. The subs are Eminence LAB12s in large vented boxes. The mid-bass and HF drivers are crossed over passively (the crossover is from a design that is well tested in the public domain), and the tops and subs are crossed over using a MiniDSP processor. The system is powered by two Crown XLS-1500 amps.

They sound very good to me and all my friends. Big and clear. I am yet to test and tune the crossover (I'm pretty sure there is a bump around the crossover point), and there is no equalization at this stage. While I was very happy with my faithful NHT 2.1 setup, it sounds tiny and muffled, compared to this one.

That said, there is something that bothers me a great deal. When I play low frequency sine waves at high volumes there are some buzzes and rattles. As I am not at all an experienced loudspeaker builder, I am unable to figure out the reason for the problem.

If there is anyone in Chennai with experience troubleshooting this kind of thing, please be a guest at my studio some evening soon, and help me understand this. Beer and dinner on me

 

[bphukon]

there is something that bothers me a great deal. When I play low frequency sine waves at high volumes there are some buzzes and rattles. As I am not at all an experienced loudspeaker builder, I am unable to figure out the reason for the problem.

If there is anyone in Chennai with experience troubleshooting this kind of thing, please be a guest at my studio some evening soon, and help me understand this. Beer and dinner on me

First of all Congrats on your setup, If it just the low frequency rattle then you can start with cabling, then you may try to find where the sound is coming from, if internal then you have to check the circuit, if external then you have to move the speaker in a different place away from the components.

As a start I will go for the bare naked setup and check if the earth wires are in proper place in the house.

Best of luck

 

[audiothings]

Thank you bphukon. (Do you work ar 'Aura'?)

I doubt very much if it has anything to do with the electronics. The problem is almost imperceivable while listening to music. It can only be heard while playing back test tones at very high levels.

The resonances seem to be 'mechanical'... something to do with speaker excursion, improper sealing, insufficient bracing, driver malfunction...