Hybrid 3 way tower

Mgivens · « **on:** 4 Oct 2017, 11:38 pm »

First post here!

After wanting to do a project with Rick for years, I finally took the plunge and gave him a call. After some serious discussions we decided an active 3 way tower design would be best for my needs.

Drivers are his ribbon tweeter, 6.5 white satori mid and an offset pair of the SB 8in poly woofers. They will be powered by the MiniDSP PWR-ICE250.

At this time Rick is still testing everything and working his magic. I have finalized the cabinet design and construction after input from Rick. The cabinet parts are at the CNC shop right now.

Ill post more shots once actual construction and finishing is starting to take place. Hopefully will Rick will chime in with any comments regarding the new design!

Needless to say I am very excite to try out the active dsp system after years with a conventional setup!

-Michael

JakeJ · « **Reply #1 on:** 5 Oct 2017, 03:18 am »

Man, that's a great design, Michael. Really like the idea of off setting and insetting the subs and having the grills flush with sides.

Would love to know some spec on them, freq resp, eff, etc.

mresseguie · « **Reply #2 on:** 5 Oct 2017, 04:42 am »

Hello, Michael.

Rick had mentioned something like this to me a while back, but the speaker I imagined didn't look anywhere as nice as this! This is one sleek looking speaker.

Same as Jake....I'd like to know some specs once they're available. [Edit: I had assumed the woofers were active and the top two-way passive, but I see that's not the case.]

Michael

Rick Craig · « **Reply #3 on:** 5 Oct 2017, 02:50 pm »

This came out of the "Pick 3" idea but with an expanded list of drivers.

Rick Craig · « **Reply #4 on:** 5 Oct 2017, 04:16 pm »

Quote from: Mgivens on 4 Oct 2017, 11:38 pm

First post here!

After wanting to do a project with Rick for years, I finally took the plunge and gave him a call. After some serious discussions we decided an active 3 way tower design would be best for my needs.

Drivers are his ribbon tweeter, 6.5 white satori mid and an offset pair of the SB 8in poly woofers. They will be powered by the MiniDSP PWR-ICE250.

At this time Rick is still testing everything and working his magic. I have finalized the cabinet design and construction after input from Rick. The cabinet parts are at the CNC shop right now.

Ill post more shots once actual construction and finishing is starting to take place. Hopefully will Rick will chime in with any comments regarding the new design!

Needless to say I am very excite to try out the active dsp system after years with a conventional setup!

-Michael

As I told you earlier the cabinet design is excellent! I'm super pleased with the results of the design and we went beyond the original "Pick 3" concept with a floorstanding design.

Rick Craig · « **Reply #5 on:** 5 Oct 2017, 05:50 pm »

Quote from: JakeJ on 5 Oct 2017, 03:18 am

Man, that's a great design, Michael. Really like the idea of off setting and insetting the subs and having the grills flush with sides.

Would love to know some spec on them, freq resp, eff, etc.

The specifications are a little different to quantify since it's going to be fully driven by the plate amps. It's also possible to run outboard amps with four or six channels and DSP via a MiniDSP or DEQX unit. 88dB with a 4-ohm impedance would be a standard rating. The bass EQ is adjustable with a -3dB point of 30-40hz, possibly lower but with less headroom. With a mid 30's setting these will play quite loud and clean. Overall response is very flat and the DSP allows four presets that can be used for different voicings. The flexibility of adapting to the room is a big plus and room EQ / correction is available as well.

JakeJ · « **Reply #6 on:** 5 Oct 2017, 06:58 pm »

Oh, crap!

I forgot this is fully active! Nevermind about the specs, they just became irrelevant.

JakeJ · « **Reply #7 on:** 6 Oct 2017, 01:11 am »

OK, so maybe freq range would be nice to know.

EdRo · « **Reply #8 on:** 6 Oct 2017, 01:50 am »

That's a great looking cab design!

LesterSleepsIn · « **Reply #9 on:** 6 Oct 2017, 12:43 pm »

Lordy, more magic from Selah. Great work Rick and Michael.

restrav · « **Reply #10 on:** 6 Oct 2017, 01:23 pm »

Man that's sexy

Rick Craig · « **Reply #11 on:** 6 Oct 2017, 02:53 pm »

Quote from: mresseguie on 5 Oct 2017, 04:42 am

Hello, Michael.

Rick had mentioned something like this to me a while back, but the speaker I imagined didn't look anywhere as nice as this! This is one sleek looking speaker.

Same as Jake....I'd like to know some specs once they're available. [Edit: I had assumed the woofers were active and the top two-way passive, but I see that's not the case.]

Michael

The tweeter / midrange crossover point is passive and everything else is active. It works quite well with the active part doing what it does best.

mresseguie · « **Reply #12 on:** 6 Oct 2017, 03:36 pm »

Quote from: Rick Craig on 6 Oct 2017, 02:53 pm

The tweeter / midrange crossover point is passive and everything else is active. It works quite well with the active part doing what it does best.

Even better (from my perspective)!

Rick Craig · « **Reply #13 on:** 6 Oct 2017, 04:20 pm »

Quote from: JakeJ on 6 Oct 2017, 01:11 am

OK, so maybe freq range would be nice to know.

Very flat response 30hz-20K is possible depending on the amount of DSP EQ that's applied.

Mgivens · « **Reply #14 on:** 13 Oct 2017, 03:26 am »

Hey thanks everyone for their kind words, very nice to hear!

Very happy to have Rick here to address the technical questions.

Below I have attached a more finished rendering of the design... one showing the how I will use it 90% of the time( with the side grills on and the front off) having three grills per speaker did cause me to need a lot of magnets....

also shown is the cnc cut patterns, 2 x .5in and 2 x .75in mdf. hope to pick the parts up soon!

-Michael

Rick Craig · « **Reply #15 on:** 14 Oct 2017, 10:01 pm »

Here's an in-room response graph, 1/3 octave resolution with no gating. No DSP EQ has been applied, only DSP and passive crossovers plus some mid/tweeter section gain adjustment in the DSP to flatten out the response.

Rick Craig · « **Reply #16 on:** 14 Oct 2017, 11:02 pm »

In the process of working on this design I looked at some other similar speakers, all far more expensive and up to $30K/pair. I have worked with side-firing drivers before but nothing quite like this. It's making me rethink some of my floorstanding designs which are more costly than this one. Sadly some audiophiles automatically assume that the more expensive speaker sounds better. Not true, especially in this case.

tktran303 · « **Reply #17 on:** 20 Oct 2017, 09:54 pm »

Cabinet design is just gorgeous.

Rick Craig · « **Reply #18 on:** 30 Oct 2017, 11:06 pm »

Here are the response graphs. The in-room graphs have no gating and 1/12 octave smoothing. That means they won't look as pretty as those taken in an anechoic chamber or with the average 1/3 octave published by most speaker manufacturers. First, the on-axis and off-axis (30 degrees horizontally). No room correction has been applied.

Rick Craig · « **Reply #19 on:** 30 Oct 2017, 11:38 pm »

Vertical response curves. The passive crossover area (1-20K) is quite smooth and presents a good vertical sweet spot (the -7 degrees curve is on the midbass axis at one meter distance).