[jmimac351]

I recently rescued a speaker with Accuton drivers.  It had to be done. 

Clearwave Loudspeaker Design Symphonia 1

The drivers in this speaker are top shelf Accuton and Scan-Speak

   • Accuton Cell C25-6-158: $554 each
   • Accuton Cell C90-6-724: $742 each
   • Scanspeak Illuminator 18WU/4747T-00: $356 each​

Unfortunately, the bottom end could be a bit more to my liking.  It sounds like perhaps the woofer was loaded in a smaller enclosure to try to help it be fast... like the Accuton.  There is a big mid-bass HUMP that I don't like. 

Frederick had the idea to "reverse the port" to see what happens... well, it got better. 

Then I remembered I have large 4" ports that will be used in the Duelund Coherent Audio Monitors we are building... how about those?

Well, it got even better - Deeper Bass / less mid-bass HUMP.

Hey, how about putting a little fiber fill in the port? 

Yep, even better. 

I have peeked inside and it's very tight confines in the bottom cavity.  EXTREMELY well made enclosure - ROCK SOLID.  Appears to have No-Res as well. 

This has been very interesting to hear the dramatic difference enclosure volume has on woofer response. 

As for the Accuton? AWESOME.  I am extremely impressed with those drivers, and it sounds like Jed Kunz did the network right.  This speaker came with Mundorf parts for the tweeter / mid network.  I have not dug into that yet but below is the network for the Scan-Speak woofer. 

It's not lost on me that I am a pair of (very expensive) 8" Accuton woofers away from having a custom Accuton 3-way speaker.  And with the taste I'm getting from the Tweeter / Mid... that could be really something.

I think this speaker needs a bigger box.  There is a horizontal shelf just above the woofer to seal the Accuton Tweet / mid in their own space.  The woofer just has the space below that, there is another thick brace, plus the wall thickness on a baffle that is already narrow.  And the speaker is not deep.  The Odyssey Lorelei that I had briefly had a SS 8545 woofer in it, and the enclosure what MUCH larger than this.  The bass was HUGE. 

This speaker, with bigger bass like that would be very impressive.  The Accuton is already right on, and ultra extended highs with zero fatigue. 

They are very special.  Maybe I'll ask the speaker design expert at GR, Hobbs, what he thinks about how an 8" Accuton 3 way will work out... 

I don't have my Line Arrays yet, so I keep buying speakers. 

I wonder if Danny has anything better coming soon...

[Early B.]

An uber-expensive Accuton woofer probably won't solve your issues, especially if the smallish enclosure is a limiting factor. My guess is that the best alternative will be a crossover makeover to dial in the bass. Anything beyond that probably won't be worth the investment. Why don't you ship one of the speakers to Texas for Danny/Hobbs to measure and provide options?

[jmimac351]

An uber-expensive Accuton woofer probably won't solve your issues, especially if the smallish enclosure is a limiting factor. My guess is that the best alternative will be a crossover makeover to dial in the bass. Anything beyond that probably won't be worth the investment. Why don't you ship one of the speakers to Texas for Danny/Hobbs to measure and provide options?

I would have a custom enclosure made for Accuton 3-way - not keep this same enclosure.

As Danny has mentioned... the low end is set by the enclosure.  I don't think this is a crossover issue.  I think the enclosure is just smaller than I'd like, for the sound I want.

Sharing this here because I thought it was interesting how I was able to get better sound out of it, playing with a tube.

Perhaps Hobbs will chime in here if he thinks he can fix what I'm describing with a network.

I'm listening to them right now.  I think the box is too small.  To fix it... I'm not a big fan of cherry finish (although these are nice).  I would round off the edges, sand, cut cavity in back to make lower back of cabinet "bracing", attach proper sized cavity to rear, add appropriate port, then finish in black.

It would have a bump out in the back, at the bottom. The Accuton would look better in a black speaker anyway, IMO.

[Early B.]

I would have a custom enclosure made for Accuton 3-way - not keep this same enclosure.

Oh, OK. These speakers will be parted out, and the Accuton pods will be repurposed into a custom cabinet along with an Accuton woofer. Cool! You're a wild & zany audiophile!!!

This will be about a 9-month process. You'll have to build a test cabinet(s). How will you determine the size and design of the cabinets? Ported or sealed? Rear ambient tweeter? Powered servo subwoofer on the bottom?

This will be fun. I'm gonna go and make some popcorn...

[jmimac351]

Oh, OK. These speakers will be parted out, and the Accuton pods will be repurposed into a custom cabinet along with an Accuton woofer. Cool! You're a wild & zany audiophile!!!

This will be about a 9-month process. You'll have to build a test cabinet(s). How will you determine the size and design of the cabinets? Ported or sealed? Rear ambient tweeter? Powered servo subwoofer on the bottom?

This will be fun. I'm gonna go and make some popcorn...

It's not hard.  It's just a box.

Like this one we're working on... "Duelund Coherent Audio Monitor".  My own custom version of the Wilson Duette I have and love.

How will I know?  Well, that's the easiest part.  I'm a genius, ya see...

I make friends with people who are smarter than me and I ask them for help.  Hobbs is a nice guy, too.

[Glady86]

You should look into a pair of subs so you can dial in the bass, trying to get good bass from full range speakers can be challenging without some kind of way to dial it in.

[jmimac351]

You should look into a pair of subs so you can dial in the bass, trying to get good bass from full range speakers can be challenging without some kind of way to dial it in.

Yeah I tried that.  I have 2 Rythmik F8 subs and a Rythmik F12 sub I just picked up yesterday locally.  I was able to make it a little better by playing with phase on the F8 subs to (I think) cancel out some of the HUMP from the speaker. 

However, when testing the longer ports I was about to make it much better without using sub phase to "fix" anything.  By playing with the port and "making the enclosure larger", it helped with the HUMP, all by itself. 

Just eyeballing it, the volume of that 4" OD port is a significant % of the volume of the cabinet for that Scan-Speak woofer driver. 

This is a different speaker (better) with that 4" port tube attached over the hole in the cabinet.  It is what it is.

The 8" woofers in my Duette have no trouble playing well and deep in this same room and this speaker shouldn't either given the driver that's in it.   

[Glady86]

Are you able to use REW to measure the response? The only cheap way to try and fix it is EQ, or high pass the problem frequency out of the mains and let the subs handle it, that is if it’s not to high up the bass band.

A Shcitt Loki + is cheap to try for EQ, but I don’t know if the two bass controls would help. Possibly need more bands of the higher end unit which cost a lot more.

[jmimac351]

Are you able to use REW to measure the response? The only cheap way to try and fix it is EQ, or high pass the problem frequency out of the mains and let the subs handle it, that is if it’s not to high up the bass band.

I have a pocket Clio I don't know how to use, yet.  I was digging into the speaker anyway and was able to chase this by ear.  The result was fairly dramatic so I figured I'd share it with others.  It's been interesting (to me at least). 

If it sounds better, it is better... and I rolled with it.

Thank you for the suggestions.

[fre11111]

I think part of the conversation that is getting lost is what is the optimum cabinet volume for the Scanspeak Illuminator 18WU/4747T-00? Madisound says that it is 1.0 cu ft tuned at 42hz.

[jmimac351]

Here are the specs:



This sez .41cu/ft for SEALED alignment, which is what I am going to try, and blend to 2x Rythmik F8 8" sub pairs.



Chamber Size Needed for Illuminator in Sealed alignment?





So, given the current size of the chamber for the Illuminator (about 22" tall), it appears I need to add about 10" of filler inside that chamber, to change the height to 12" - as spec'd above.  Based on these specs, I think I need to take up about half the volume of the current enclosure for the driver to make it "Sealed". 

Could be I just don't like this driver in a ported box in here.  I can make it sealed and blend it to a sub to dial in low end, and because these drivers are so robust with XMAX, I don't need to put a high pass filter on them to protect them - they are just playing low end anyway. 

I think I may try adding some sand... and just Listen.

[jmimac351]

Update!  Yes, I know you've been anxiously awaiting... I called Madisound to talk about this driver.  "Nothing definitive" for what's going on.  Mentioned a VarioVent.  No Dice.

Fred and I think perhaps this Scan-Speak Illuminator driver likes playing mid-bass and not so much 'deep bass'.  It plays very high and may have been picked for speed... to keep up with the Accuton.  I may have made that up, but it sounds plausible. 

I'm pretty sure an 8545 would play much lower in this box than this driver. 

GOOD NEWS - Frederick thinks I should just buy a few Accuton woofers have a network made for it.  What a guy!

The enclosure really is nice and is extremely well made... and the Accution Tweet / Mid really do sound good... 

I bet the M165NQ would sound better than this driver... and that is a fast, lightweight driver... Hmm... Hobbs!!!

WWHD?