[Tyson]

We are thinking about moving out of our condo and into a house, and if that happens, I'm interested in doing my own DIY interpretation of the Sonus Faber Stradivari Homage.

Basically, a wide baffle 3 way, with a 1 inch dome tweeter, a 5 or 6 inch dome mid, and dual bass woofers.

I have a pair of Peerless HDS tweeters in the storage closet that I'd want to use, along with something like a SEAS or Scan-Speak midrange driver.  The Stradivari uses dual 10 inch bass woofers from Scan Speak.  However, I was thinking of using dual SW12's using the servo amps.  However, I'd prefer to cross them over up around 200, or even 300 hz if possible.  Is that too high, or will they be able to perform as well as something like the Dayton Reference or Peerless XXLS in that range?

[Danny Richie]

Why copy something messed up?

That wide baffle just causes an increase in surface reflections that hurt the imaging.

The Servo subs easy play to 200Hz and do so better than any large driver on the market.

300Hz is just too high of a crossover point. That is too close to the heart of the vocal region and splitting that region up into dissimilar drivers with a different physical offset (phase shift) is a just asking for problems.  Keep you crossover point below 200Hz if possible.

[Tyson]

Imaging is less important to me than tonal balance and smooth, even room loading.  The idea behind the wide baffle would be to let the midrange unit work in 2pi space down to 200hz.  The not simplifies the crossover (since you don't have to deal with baffle step), but also the room does not load the upper mids in 2pi, and the lower mids in 4pi, which should give a more even overall power response.

The diffraction issue is a concern, but I've got a couple of ideas that might help with that.  First, I plan to make the speaker in 3 parts.  The center portion will be leather covered, like on the pictures below, and will be made of MDF:



The side "wings" will be Baltic Birch or another plywood that I can "bend" to curve around.  This should address a lot of diffraction issues.

The other thing is I would also cut the part around the tweeter as shown on the pic here.

[Danny Richie]

Hey, if you don't mind your speakers sounding like they are playing from the wall forward then just go ahead and mount them in a wall. With big wide baffles like that your sense of transparency goes out the window (figuratively speaking). That is one design that I would not copy and for good reason.

[HT cOz]

Hey Tyson,

If you are looking for tonal balance and even loading of the room why not look at one of Danny's Super V kits.  If you build an awsome pair with leather baffels that look kick butt you could try them out and if you don't like them, I bet you could sell them at a profit.  Just a thought.

[Tyson]

I thought about it, but I'm leery of such a big coaxial driver.  I like to listen mid-field and sometimes near field and it seems like it would have problems with beaming at certain frequencies.  Plus, I've had bad experiences with coaxial loaded tweeters before (ala, Emerald Physics).  Just sounded shouty to me. 

[Danny Richie]

No problem with beaming in this design. The low 1kHz crossover point to the tweeter will keep that from ever happening. And the Super-V is NOT like the Emerald Physics. It not longer uses a compression driver tweeter. The back has been removed allowing it to be an open baffle drive as well. So it is very relaxed and smooth sounding. 

[Tyson]

I wish I would have had a chance to hear them at RMAF.