[strider]

I'm interested in building stands for my single driver monitors that would pull double duty housing some bass support for them. For the cabinets to work as stands, 26" from the floor to the bottom of the single driver cabinet would be perfect. Keeping the  bass cabinet within the footprint of the SD cabinet, I'm looking at a maximum volume, without taking into account the cabinet material thickness, bracing, or driver, of about 2566 in^3, or 42L. I'd like to be able to have the ability to cross them over anywhere from 300hz and down, but I'd more then likely settle on something in the 125 to 150hz range when it's all said and done. I'd like to stick to a budget of around $400-$450 for the drivers and whatever crossover I'd need. So far, a single M-165X in a vented cabinet, one per side, looks like a really good option.

That being said, a couple of questions....
- due to the narrowness of the baffle in the SD cabinet, I'd need to mount the driver on the side of the cabinet. What drawbacks could I expect?

-Seems like I'm  always reading how bass from a sealed cabinet is tighter then a vented cabinet. Fooling around with a sealed cabinet of 42L in winISD, I'm getting a -3 of around 76hz, which seems like it would be a bit high for what I'd like to accomplish. A vented cabinet of the same volume gets to the mid to high 30's, much more in line with what I'm after. Any comments on the bass quality of the 165X in a vented enclosure?

-Should I be considering anything else? A single servo sub in a sealed box is very interesting, but unless I'm way out of line on the cost of the crossover I'd need, a bit out of my budget.

Please don't assume that I know what I'm talking about; if I missed something obvious, please don't hesitate to point it out!

Thanks,

Ben

[Danny Richie]

A single side firing M-165X will work great. It has been done before.

I designed a speaker for Raw Acoustics that used the M-165X in a side firing configuration. It was the OB3X model. It was also ported.

Shooting for a crossover point below 200Hz will be ideal too.

Bill Schuchard built some custom speakers using them this way too. Maybe we can get him to post some pics of them one of these days.  aa

[William Schuchard]

I should definitely post some pictures.  I have some poorly taken pictures when I was just finishing them up.  6AM in the back yard with lots of sunny glare.  At some point I'll get into photobucket and publish some good ones.

Note that the side firing woofers can be interesting with respect to speaker placement.  In the three rooms I have tried them in, the bass was much better with the side firing woofers facing out.  When facing in, the bass was too uneven and a little overwhelming.  Facing outward, it's pretty nice.

Maybe I'll just forward you an old email I have with the bad pictures.  My digital camera has gone missing so taking new ones might take a bit.  I'll keep it in mind when I find it or purchase a new one.

    Bill

A single side firing M-165X will work great. It has been done before.

I designed a speaker for Raw Acoustics that used the M-165X in a side firing configuration. It was the OB3X model. It was also ported.

Shooting for a crossover point below 200Hz will be ideal too.

Bill Schuchard built some custom speakers using them this way too. Maybe we can get him to post some pics of them one of these days.  aa

[strider]

Thanks again for the pictures, Bill.

 I'd like to give a pair of OB speakers a try for my next build, hopefully they turn out as nice as yours.

[William Schuchard]

Thanks again for the pictures, Bill.

 I'd like to give a pair of OB speakers a try for my next build, hopefully they turn out as nice as yours.

No problem.     I should take better ones and set up a place to post them.  I have a feeling yours will come out well.  These drivers are easy to work with.  The woofers are flush mount and fit perfectly in the hole size specified by Danny and the tweeters have a flat impedance curve making a crossover a bit easier.  The FR of the M165X and the M130X were smooth enough that the crossover came down to your tastes vs trying frantically to get it right.

If I were to do it again, I would think about making the bottom box a bit larger than 0.8 cubic feet and also think about using two M165X in series.  Given that I will likely add a subwoofer back into the picture, one M165X is probably just fine however.

Best of luck,
    Bill

[strider]

Hmmm.

I don't see myself using a sub any time soon. I'd thought about 2 M-165X wired in parallel, but then realized the 2.8ohms might be an amp killer.

If you were to go with 2 of them in series, how would you orient them in the cabinet?

How would the series config. effect the sensitivity?