Two more Asawaris: The Mark IV and Mark V

[tcpip]

They are in the last stages of assembly before I can actually get to hear them sing.

http://tcpip.dhandanought.org/asawari4

http://tcpip.dhandanought.org/asawari5

As with all my designs, you're welcome to build them; I'll assist in any way I can. My estimated costs are a bit over Rs.1 lakh per pair, just adding the direct costs of parts and labour I have paid.

 

[tcpip]

Finished the Asawari 4. Took several weeks of tuning the sound without any change to the basic crossover. Added a BSC circuit upstream of the crossover. Tuned the enclosure lining and box stuffing. Learned interesting lessons along the way.

The sound now is beautiful. As I have written elsewhere many times, one of the most important challenges of "voicing" a speaker, once the basic problems are addressed, is: striking the right balance of dynamic and detailed on one hand and gentle, delicate and free from listener fatigue on the other. After all these weeks, I've reached that point with this pair. The final bit was the 3dB of BSC, which made the entire character of the speaker fall into place beautifully, at least for modest sized Indian living rooms. (A massive listening room, say 40' x 40' or bigger, with the speaker positioned far away from all walls, will probably need the full 6dB BSC.)

Today I listened to track after track for about 2 hours at a stretch, and they all sounded lovely, with both delicacy and detail. I'm done working on this pair now. Any of you who can land up at my place in New Bombay for a listen is most welcome. For full details, please read my web page on the project.

Now to work on the Asawari 5.

 

[mpw]

Hi

Very interesting @tcpip

Would love to hear these..

Regards

 

[tuff]

Can I come too? Would love to hear them seeing the efforts you have put in them.

 

[arunkvivek]

They are in the last stages of assembly before I can actually get to hear them sing.

http://tcpip.dhandanought.org/asawari4

http://tcpip.dhandanought.org/asawari5

As with all my designs, you're welcome to build them; I'll assist in any way I can. My estimated costs are a bit over Rs.1 lakh per pair, just adding the direct costs of parts and labour I have paid.

Am getting a malware alert for your personal blog url.

 

[tcpip]

@tuff @mpw most welcome. Please PM me with your time and date options, and let's fix up some times and come over. @Hari Iyer and @Surrealistix have visited my place, but that was before the Asawari 4 were ready.

About the malware alert: can you please force re-load the page? They were hacked more than 2 years back, and have been clean since then. If you still get any alerts, please let me know. It seems modern browsers cache these alerts and warnings for years. Silly.

 

[mallikreddyk]

@tcpip Nice write up and details, Agree RS180 is very good, have you tried the papercone version? I tried both and felt the paper cone version is more natural. I have a floor stander TM with the paper cone version and SB ring radiator, They are superb match natural and effortless sounding,

 

[keith_correa]

Hi! Some questions:
What's the distance between the baffle and the back wall?
How far apart have you placed the speakers?
How far from the speakers do you listen?
What is the size of the room?
Do you have any furniture between the speakers - like maybe a console? If yes, how much distance is there between the side of the speaker and the side of the console?
Do you have a modeled sim showing response before the 3db BSC and after?

Asking all this because a major revamp of the interiors of my home is planned starting Jan '20 and I'm planning my "till death do us apart" speakers; your answers may provide valuable input for me.

 

[tcpip]

@tcpip Nice write up and details, Agree RS180 is very good, have you tried the papercone version? I tried both and felt the paper cone version is more natural. I have a floor stander TM with the paper cone version and SB ring radiator, They are superb match natural and effortless sounding,

The Asawari 4 uses the RS180P and the Asawari 5 uses the RS180. P means paper cone, non-P is aluminium cone.

I often check out paper cones with the hope that they will have a smoother SPL curve with less cone breakup problems, but no such luck with the RS paper cones; they are as jagged as the aluminium cones.

What's the distance between the baffle and the back wall?

About 3 feet. Wish I could have added a foot more of distance.

How far apart have you placed the speakers?

The innermost edges of the enclosures are about 5.5' to 6' apart.

How far from the speakers do you listen?

About six to seven feet from each speaker for critical listening, about 10 feet away for lean-back listening.

What is the size of the room?

21' x 13'

Do you have any furniture between the speakers - like maybe a console? If yes, how much distance is there between the side of the speaker and the side of the console?

I'm interpreting your question to mean distance from side walls. That's about 5' for the right channel and about 3' for the left channel. And yes, this is a living room, so there are sofas etc around the speakers.

Do you have a modeled sim showing response before the 3db BSC and after?

Currently, no.

 

[keith_correa]

About 3 feet. Wish I could have added a foot more of distance.
The innermost edges of the enclosures are about 5.5' to 6' apart.
About six to seven feet from each speaker for critical listening, about 10 feet away for lean-back listening.
21' x 13'
I'm interpreting your question to mean distance from side walls. That's about 5' for the right channel and about 3' for the left channel. And yes, this is a living room, so there are sofas etc around the speakers.
Currently, no.

Thanks, much!

 

[tcpip]

The tuning of the Asawari 4 sound took two months. In October, I thought it was done and dusted and sounding good. But flaws kept surfacing with more listening, and these led to changes in the tuning, and it was finally end of December before the sound stabilised. In between, one FM came and heard the sound, on two separate occasions, and didn't like the sound much, I think. But in end Dec, the sound finally, finally, fell into place. Now it sounds lively, dynamic, and with even tonality. I'm surprised at how good it sounds on a wide variety of material, actually. This Asawari is definitely the best in the sequence of four.

Last evening, one FM came and listened for quite some time, and was, I think, very pleased with what he heard. He also immediately said that the sound signature was similar to my earlier active 3-way, the Darbari, something I too had felt. Happy day for me. And his feedback is specially valuable for me because his tastes and ears are based on his own rig, which includes very high end 3-way studio monitors, equally high end SS electronics and really excellent DAC, in a good, acoustically treated room. I really like the sound of his rig.