So quick cap on the proposed system: small apartment bedroom. Will treat extensively with help from accoustics forum. Will have 16 DIY basstraps (some FRK style for HF reflections) and 4 DIY "Superchunk" corner basstraps floor to ceiling all with 2" 8lb mineral wool. Already priced out, I expect to pay only slightly over $400 for all those materials including metal frame parts! Possibly DIY diffusers depending on further advice. Mass loaded vinyl and accoustic blankets for ceiling. Anyway, I have another forum to help me with that stuff but just note the room will be properly treated.
That was you best decision so far. Most people build everything else first and never really get around to really treating the room. The room is as big of a part of the system as everything else.
Great choice on subs too. There is nothing on the market that will give you the sound quality of those servo subs, and in particular the 12" paper cone version that I sell.
Speakers... I was DEAD SET on the Zaph SR-71. I was sure I had found a hi resolution speaker that would work well in my small room and provide punchy midbass as well as soundstage, all that neat stuff. They are VERY highly regarded.
Highly regarded? That's a head scratcher. Where, on HD Guide?
In all honesty I'd put them a little bit below my A/V-1's.
http://www.gr-research.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=146The drivers in that kit are not bad. The woofer has a little too heavy of a moving mass and a lot of break up that the second order crossover that it uses is not likely to be eliminating. See below:
So there is likely still going to be some low level ringing going on.
I am not sure what the thought was on this one either, but it uses an iron core inductor for the woofers.
You can get away with that just fine in a design where the woofer never plays over the 200Hz range, but not something playing up to a tweeter. That slug will cause significant smearing of the vocal range and take away a lot of resolution. It really is perplexing to see a decent woofer used then cost cut on crossover parts.
But then I discovered GR's stuff (last night actually) after pondering which Rythmik sub I should build. And I was floored to discover that the drivers in the N2 and N3 are based on Adire designs. Is this true? Is the midwoofer really an Adire Extremis in new clothes?
Two of the woofers that we offer use the XBL^. This does make them more linear and technically lowers the distortion some in the lower regions. However, in practice, I have not found any more than a very subtle difference in the sound quality of my XBL^ verse non-XBL^ woofers that are the same. The XBL^ motor version does give up some sensitivity though. There are a lot of other factors that determine just how good the driver will sound.
Also, if you want to integrate a sub, then the lower the crossover point to the sub, the easier and better it will integrate. For instance it is easier to integrate N3's than N2X's of the sealed N3S. That doesn't mean that you can't get them to integrate well with the others, but it is easier with the N3 as they are -3db down near 40Hz. As crossover points go up then placement and distance from the speaker to the sub are a much greater issue.
The N3 will also give you higher sensitivity that will make it much easier to hit any higher SPL levels should the need arise.
The recommendation to go with one of our open baffle designs is also a good one. A pair of V-1's, V-2's, or Super-V's take everything to another level. You just have to be able to get them at least 3 feet or more out into the room. Info on those models will be on the web site soon. For now there are a lot of threads on them here on AC. I'll post some links if needed.
