Never know 'til you try, of course.
E'Wave may unleash a latent loudspeaker design genius within....
Zilch's AK Design Collaborative - Econowave Speaker
- Thread starter Zilch
- Start date
E'Wave may unleash a latent loudspeaker design genius within....
marantzfan
...
Never know 'til you try, of course.
E'Wave may unleash a latent loudspeaker design genius within....
In that spirit, I am going to do alot of studying before I actually dive into this one. I've got a speaker design book on order and will follow along with this thread.
I imagine I should be up to speed and ready to move forward on this within a month, I just want to get my bearings first...:thmbsp:
Fran604g
Love at first sound...
That's what I was thinking of doing, the pair I have aren't trashed, but they're not mint, either. If I make adapters for the woof, I would mount the EWG externally with the cabinet upside down, or sideways, to keep the centers to a minimum distance apart, this would also allow me to use the tweet opening with another adapter for porting. :yes:
Bauhausler
Rational Subjectivist
We'll be comparing my EconoWaves to a pair of DQ-20is shortly. I bought a pair over the summer and they stayed in the family. I think very highly of that speaker, and coincidentally the woofer is interchangeable with the woofer tha twill be in my EconoWaves.
I'm also angling for a pair of DQ-10s to restore out of curiosity.
Jack's crossover boards came today. I'm glad I bought the recommended inductors because they allowed me to use these neat boards.
Mine don't look like everyone else's because I used caps and resistors on hand.
I tested a bunch of caps and resistors, matching up pairs. This may make no difference, but if I have 25 of something that's 10% tolerance, why not pick 2 that are within 1% rather than grabbing the first 2 and trusting to luck.
Two suggestions on the crossover boards:
1) It would be useful to have through holes for wires on the input for when the board will be connected by leads and not by terminals directly attached. I can solder to the traces, but holes would help
2) a hole through the board through the middle of L1. This would allow it to be fastened with a zip-tie. As it is, glue is required which works fine but I like a belt/suspenders solution.
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jackgiff
Well-Known Member
Points are well taken. But you can drill holes in the PCB using any kind of drill. I have drilled entire boards with a handheld drill.
The copper areas where the binding posts are connected are plenty large enough that a small hole could be drilled in them. And a Nylon zip tie isn't going to short anything out, so drill away. Just don't put a large hole where it can cut a copper run in half.
Bauhausler
Rational Subjectivist
I'll do that. I've found a very effective tool for doing a few holes freehand on a board is a tapered diamond burr chucked in a Dremel or similar tool. This is about the only way to drill boards that are already populated.
I was planning to do the woodwork tomorrow and maybe get one assembled.
Unfortunately I cracked open what was supposed to be a simple project, a Phase Linear 700 amp that needed a 'tuneup' and found that it had been on fire inside. Never a good sign. One channel completely wiped. Luckily, they're made to be worked on, which might tell you something...
This will take at least a day to straighten out.
So I'll get back to the speakers after I've got parts ordered for teh Flame Linear.
I was planning to do the woodwork tomorrow and maybe get one assembled.
Unfortunately I cracked open what was supposed to be a simple project, a Phase Linear 700 amp that needed a 'tuneup' and found that it had been on fire inside. Never a good sign. One channel completely wiped. Luckily, they're made to be worked on, which might tell you something...
This will take at least a day to straighten out.
So I'll get back to the speakers after I've got parts ordered for teh Flame Linear.
Russellc
Addicted Member
Very nice, are you going to try the DQ woofers in your econowave at some point? I cant remember now what drivers were used in the DQs, were they Peerless? Audax? Been too long for this old boy to remember. This may uncover another woofer to use in Econowaves, who knows? Will be watching. It is amazing the wide variety of woofers that has been used thus far. The thread has grown exponentially and is a real information motherload.:thmbsp: Yes, a really fun project with more and more new e'wavers coming aboard.
Russellc
marantzfan
...
Very nice, are you going to try the DQ woofers in your econowave at some point? I cant remember now what drivers were used in the DQs, were they Peerless? Audax? Been too long for this old boy to remember. This may uncover another woofer to use in Econowaves, who knows? Will be watching. It is amazing the wide variety of woofers that has been used thus far. The thread has grown exponentially and is a real information motherload.:thmbsp: Yes, a really fun project with more and more new e'wavers coming aboard.
Russellc
Same woofers as Large Advents..
Bauhausler
Rational Subjectivist
Very nice, are you going to try the DQ woofers in your econowave at some point? I cant remember now what drivers were used in the DQs, were they Peerless? Audax? Been too long for this old boy to remember. This may uncover another woofer to use in Econowaves, who knows? Will be watching. It is amazing the wide variety of woofers that has been used thus far. The thread has grown exponentially and is a real information motherload.:thmbsp: Yes, a really fun project with more and more new e'wavers coming aboard.
Russellc
There's another thread where GordonW pretty conclusively identifies the Dahlquist DQ-10/20/20i woofer as being identical to the Advent 'Masonite' woofer. This has long been suspected contrary to Regnar's insistence on Specialness, Exclusivity and Expense for the DQ woofer. That's what I meant. I'm using Advent cabinets and woofers for my EWG conversion, which are very comparable to the DQ's except the DQ is a 3 (or 4 or 5 or whatever-way ) and doesn't run the woofer as high as the 2-way Advent does.
We'll haul the ULA EWGs over to LVB's house and compare them to the DQ-20i's. If the EWGs are still standing at the end of the first round I'll score it a victory for AK. I've listened to the DQ-20i quite a lot and to my ear it's one of those few speakers that mysteriously gets way more out of its parts than you'd think possible. Supernaturally detailed and revealing.
Pio1980
AK Member
Yes indeedy, that was then. It beat the heck out of nearly all of the other direct radiator systems of the day and absolutely murdered the horn-based systems for naturalness and neutrality. It seriously lacked the efficiency and dynamic response tracking of the horn based systems tho'. The DQ-20i is a later and much better realization of the approach Jon Dahlquist advocated, still without the efficiency advantages of course. My personal ref system for the last 27 years is also a direct radiator time-and-phase-aligned diffraction-controlled 3-way but ported bass system with better efficiency and even better more natural sound. I've recently heard the JM/Focal Utopia tower system and it's plenty good enuff for a late design direct radiator reference speaker. It closely resembles in basic performance my personal system which lacks it's low end extension & authority but works better in a smaller room like a normal living room.
This would be very hard for me as a rank amateur to beat, yet I am very intrigued by the idea of an efficient and decent sounding utility system that doesn't sound like ball-park PA trumpets. My present utility high-efficiency broad-range speaker is a vintage E-V SP8-C driver in a ported car bass wedge enclosure. It is pretty decent but colored midrange as an efficient mid-bass driver that had somewhat better midrange performance as a dipole in a free-standing wall-wedge but without any bass whatsoever. I use this and others like for speakers on small amps from various radios and the Hammarlund Super-Pro 210X/BC-1004-C .
I'm basically providing some background as context here so my posts make more sense to you experts. I'm satisfied with my main serious 2-channel set-up but you never know. I'd know more & better about comparitive modern acoustic waveguide perfromance if I ever heard the basic Geddes system as a stereo pair in my room on my stuff but that's not going to happen. My only taste will come with the EW coupled to a really good efficient mid-woofer. I know good when I hear it.
S.B.
Bauhausler
Rational Subjectivist
Gods willing and the creek don't rise I'll have the ULA EWGs ready for the 13th and we can do a regular Audiophile Speaker Comparo at your place just like Stereophile or something. I'll bring amps of some kind so we don't have to swap wires around.
I pictured some Manchester cabs earlier that I intended to use for my first ewave but I've since picked up another set that I'm pretty jazzed about. Pictured is the pair I purchased locally that must be from the late fifties, early sixties. They are sold plank clear oak, no veneer, no glue lams. When's the the last time you saw 22" wide solid oak? They came with some University full range 12" drivers which have the look of an EV design. So here's the question. I've just picked up some refoamed LE14's and I have a pair of 123a-1's as well. Which drivers for which cabs? I'd prefer sealed cabinets if possible. The Manchesters are about 4.5 cu. ft. and the ones pictured are nearly 7 cu.ft. I'm not even sure if the LE14 can be put in a sealed cab but I'm hoping so.
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Russellc
Addicted Member
Thanks for refreshing my memory. Seemed like they used some sort of main stream drivers, but I couldnt recall. Obviously Mr Dahlquist used them to their best advantage to say the least. Their lingering popularity is testement to that!
Russellc