[mike.spcr]

Please excuse me if this topic has already been discussed, I am not allowed to search this forum yet. 

A professional musician friend listened to my LX521 inspired system yesterday with a variety of rock, jazz and r&b and loved the transparency, imaging, dynamics & tonal accuracy. This is in a 20x22' room with a 50% absorbent ceiling that slopes from ~10' in the back to about 7' in front (the speakers are placed ~5' front the front wall); there's also a bass trap that runs the entire width of the room along the intersection of the back wall and the ceiling. Associated gear: W10 PC with JRiver 30, miniDSP 4x10 HD, 8ch (50W/per) Rotel RKB-850, no esoteric high end cables.



My friend's question: Could he get the same magic with smaller open baffle speakers that would work nearfield for his small recording studio. I couldn't think of any such product available commercially and wondered if anyone here has DYI-ed a pair? If not, I welcome a discussion on this topic. (I'm guessing most will say probably not, that the cardioid directivity designs like the Kii are best suited...) A handful of musician friends with home studios are interested in the answers.

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Background: I've been an audio/music enthusiast for 50+ years, worked in audio retail for a half dozen years, built & modded lots of audio gear -- turntables, amps, and... speakers: starting with an IMF 4-way transmission line copy with KEF drivers in 1979, innumerable 2-ways using DOS based LEAP speaker/x-over design software in the 80s, some Tannoy coax designs later on, Linkwitz Orion's in 2013 (with both ASP and minidsp), this LX521 copy in the past couple years, along with Gradient 1.3 inspired experiments. I'm not a programmer but have strong PC hardware & software skills, a decent woodworker & have some electronics knowledge. Have lived in Vancouver (and now in a nearby island), BC, Canada for 40+ years.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Didn't Steve Deckert have DIY plans for desktop OB planars? Maybe 10-15 years ago?

[HAL]

Have him take a look at the Dragonfire Acoustics desktop planar speakers.  Depends on his price range for monitoring.

http://www.dragonfirepro.com/

[NIGHTFALL1970]

Have him check out the Magnepan desktop mini.

[Tyson]

The GR Research NX-Studio speakers are designed for exactly this application.  You can DIY it if you want to save some money, or they offer the speaker fully completed if you aren't comfortable with assembling a speaker yourself:

https://gr-research.com/product/nx-studio/

[mike.spcr]

Have him take a look at the Dragonfire Acoustics desktop planar speakers.  Depends on his price range for monitoring.

http://www.dragonfirepro.com/

He's a musician -- no way he can afford this. Not yet, anyway.

Have him check out the Magnepan desktop mini.

Maybe. I suspect he won't be entirely happy with likely dynamic limitations & the bass -- he's a drummer, mainly.

What he uses now are are pair of Dynaudio BM 15A. They have pretty high output capability and serious kick in the bass, though in his space it's a bit exaggerated. I slapped together a pair of stands for him out of some fir offcuts left over from a house project.


-- not sure why this pic is sideways; it displays correctly on my PC.

The GR Research NX-Studio speakers are designed for exactly this application.  You can DIY it if you want to save some money, or they offer the speaker fully completed if you aren't comfortable with assembling a speaker yourself:

https://gr-research.com/product/nx-studio/

This looks kind of interesting. So it's a 2-way and the planer tweeter is dipole -- so part of the back is open? X-over passive? Has anyone here actually used them as studio monitors?

[Tyson]

This looks kind of interesting. So it's a 2-way and the planer tweeter is dipole -- so part of the back is open? X-over passive? Has anyone here actually used them as studio monitors?

There's a guy here on AC called NXSTUDIO-DRUMMER, he's a drummer and a big fan of these speakers.  Here's his original build thread:

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=177748.msg1870412

[mike.spcr]

Thanks for that, Tyson.

Still not clear where the tweeter takes over. I've played with the B&G tweeters & my impression is that it's only good down to maybe 2kHz -- and that's being optimistic, by my measurements. I ended up using a pair down to about 4K, but I didn't like the sound when it was crossed lower. I guess the waveguide would help push the low limit down.

The tweeter setup is reminiscent of early ESS AMT designs.

70Hz bass cutoff isn't ideal, tho.

Will have to study this to see what can be borrowed & adapted for my buddy's needs.

[Tyson]

It's sealed and designed to be placed close to a wall, in that setup it'll get you down to 45 hz before rolling off.  If you pull it out in to a large room, then it will need a sub for sure.  But desktop or nearfield is going to have a lot more bass extension than the rating would suggest.

Tweeter crosses over at around 1.8khz.  The horn loading really lets it go low with exceptionally low distortion.  I have a pair of tower NX-Oticas using the same tweeter in my Home Theater setup and those things get LOUD and stay clean as a whistle.

[mike.spcr]

Tyson -- Good to know, thanks!

[Poultrygeist]

Since this picture I've moved them closer. Three feet from my chair is close to near field and even with my knees offers more of that back wave magic. The wide band drivers are the great old Zenith alnico's.