[Nick77]

Those look amazing, one of the finest diy attempts ive ever seen. 

[mrhyfy]

+1,,,really nice!!

[musiclear]

The project has moved forward and here are some pics.  I still get to finish the veneer on the sides and apply some finish.  My friend Dave and I built the cabinet between the speakers a few years back for another place. I might have to upgrade and build a bigger new one with Curly Maple to match the space and speakers.

[Mijknarf]

Very nice build, congratulations!  What kind of veneer is that?  It's beautiful.

Jim

[musiclear]

I've had an opportunity to work on the crossover and it is getting pretty well dialed in.  Phil Bamberg designed the topography for the crossover between the tweeter and mid.  That guy is amazing by the way.  You can check out his web site here if your interested.  http://bambergaudio.com

It was my job to get the crossover between the mid and sub right.  The whole system is working very well.  It's all active all channels.  These measurements are with the tweeter off as I was dialing in the low end.  I'll post complete measurements as I get them.

[musiclear]

The veneer is curly maple.  It is pretty cool to work with.  It's in the mid price range.  Not as expensive as burly maple, but has more character than regular grain.

[bladesmith]

Very well done..!

 

[jackman]

Nice work! Very impressive.

[musiclear]

Thanks guys.  It has been quite a project.  I'm ready to get it fully dialed in and just sit back and listen.  I'm in the process of ripping my entire cd collection.....again.  This time in FLAC. 

I know people tend to gush over their new designs, but I will say, these really do sound fantastic.  I've got a very neutral ear from years as a violinist, and these are very natural sounding.  And they can play to ridiculous levels with out problem.  I put on a the 1812 Overture with Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati symphony opened her up to see what would happen. 

Wow, the big bells sounded like big bells and those canons were crisp and hit me with an impact I did not expect.  I used to go to Boston for the 4th and listened to the Boston Pops and a bunch of canons lined up on the Charles river, and with my eyes closed I could almost smell the river and gun powder in the air.

The system is fully active with decent high power amps and nothing sounded strained even at those really ridiculous levels.  Even listening to Pandora at low volumes is surprising sometimes at the openness and clarity.  All  without popping the tweeter up to make up for lack of integration.  Phil Bamberg really did a nice job with the mid and tweeter crossover.  Really open and natural.  The sound rolls out into the room.  Now I'm blathering.  Sorry.

[jackman]

Thanks guys.  It has been quite a project.  I'm ready to get it fully dialed in and just sit back and listen.  I'm in the process of ripping my entire cd collection.....again.  This time in FLAC. 

I know people tend to gush over their new designs, but I will say, these really do sound fantastic.  I've got a very neutral ear from years as a violinist, and these are very natural sounding.  And they can play to ridiculous levels with out problem.  I put on a the 1812 Overture with Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati symphony opened her up to see what would happen. 

Wow, the big bells sounded like big bells and those canons were crisp and hit me with an impact I did not expect.  I used to go to Boston for the 4th and listened to the Boston Pops and a bunch of canons lined up on the Charles river, and with my eyes closed I could almost smell the river and gun powder in the air.

The system is fully active with decent high power amps and nothing sounded strained even at those really ridiculous levels.  Even listening to Pandora at low volumes is surprising sometimes at the openness and clarity.  All  without popping the tweeter up to make up for lack of integration.  Phil Bamberg really did a nice job with the mid and tweeter crossover.  Really open and natural.  The sound rolls out into the room.  Now I'm blathering.  Sorry.

Hi Musiclear,

Very cool stuff!  Where are you located?  I'm a big fan of Phil Bamberg's work and have owned his speakers for years.  So far, I haven't heard anything that makes me want to switch but I love looking.  His new design is active (built in amps and xover), are your xovers active?  What are you using as a crossover if you don't mind me asking.     

If you are in Chicago, I'd love a chance to hear your speakers and will extend the same to you regarding my system.  You are also welcome to come by and hear the new 3's in April during Axpona.  The shape and overall appearance of your speakers are beautiful.  I've been a fan of the Avalon shape (I guess they didn't invent it but you know what I mean).  So much nicer looking than a big rectangular box.  Great job!

Jack

[stlrman]

They look fantastic!!
How much did the entire build cost you?, if you don't mind answering .

[musiclear]

I first heard of Phil Bamberg 10 years ago.  At the time I was in the mind frame that good speakers equal good sound so I didn't pay much attention to all the talk about his phase coherent crossover designs that people said sounded so good.

Now, I wish I had.  My DIY experience would have been a lot better.

His motto is "Speakers for Life" and because of his influence,  this is the first time I am actually considering the idea that I could live with a set of speakers for life.

Since these are fully active and use three stereo amps, the total cost is a little higher than if I went with a passive, but since I already had the amps and all the interconnects and speaker wire from many years of collecting, it was an easy choice for me and ultimatly less costly.

The speakers themselves with Phil's crossover design service and materials with out the amps and crossover cost in the range of $1700. 

Money worth spending for what I have gotten.  It is really nice to sit back and just enjoy the music and marvel at how much of what is in recordings I could not hear before.  These things resolve really deeply into the sound field.  I've never heard a system that opens up the recordings environment quite like these before.

I've got a nice drivers, a pretty good box design and Phil's amazing crossover work to thank for that.

[musiclear]

I've had some time to work the crossover and really get an idea of how these things work in the room. This has been a pretty steep learning curve but well worth it. 

What I've found is speaker design is two fold.  How do you design a we'll integrated speaker system where all the drivers work together, and then and just as important, how does that integrate with the room.

I've heard that second part from respected designers in the past and I just didn't have an appreciation for how important the room is until now.

The biggest obstacle for this system has been room interactions.  There is a wicked bump at 90hz and null at 70hz that no matter what I do with crossover tweaks or EQ effects the over all feel of the system.  The other part is I am not able to move the system, nor where I sit enough to make any appreciable difference.  Also, I am interested in possibilities of speaker design modifications to minimize room effects rather than jump into adding room treatments. 

Not that I am against room treatments. I am not.  What I do want is a design that minimizes the need for them and then see if they are needed at all.

I'm going to start a thread about designing for room interactions that I hope will help me finish this design and have it integrate with the room better. 

Here are the latest frequency graphs.   All are done at 1 meter..

[jackman]

Phil Bamberg is doing a lot of work with active xovers these days. You might want to check with him to see if an active setup could improve your in room response. I really love the look of your speakers and congratulate you on the beautiful build.

I'm looking forward to hearing Phil's new series 3's later this week. My MTM series 5's sound very good but Phil has become a big proponent of MT designs and says they sound more open and image better. My MTMs are very dynamic and play high spl levels very well. It's a trade off and I like my sound but look forward to hearing the new design.

Cheers

Jack

[musiclear]

Thanks Jackman for your suggestion.  You are right.  Phil is great and has been involved.  We have talked about making changes to the phase of one side and reconstructing the crossover for that side.  It is a great idea and I am looking for mechanical options.  Speaker placement on the back or some clever idea I have not thought about that would even out room interactions.