Zilch's AK Design Collaborative - Econowave Speaker
- Thread starter Zilch
- Start date
?.
dc270
Now Off the Reservation
They sound very good! The horn has excellent dispersion and covers its assigned music spectrum of 3,000khz~20,000khz very well with no obvious peaks or drop outs. The Selenium driver is VERY efficient so padding or LPads are needed. The driver exhibits very smooth sound and will not fatigue you like most will. The Klipsch Heresy horns will sonicly wear me down after 30~45 minutes of playing time- these did not after listening to them for over 3 hours!! These are the best $25 drivers you will ever see- beating out a lot of drivers at twice the price!!
They are super efficient at close to 93 db/1w/1m so little volume is needed to get them up in you face!! I think the horn drivers are rated over 107db each!
The bass is well controled and will play down to the low 40's~ high 30's. It has real good mid range properties and super power handling of over 300 watts! It does need substantial break in time, but after that it sounds great! They are cast frames, flat wire 2.25" voice coils, vented pole piece with pleated cloth surrounds, poly cones.
I am currently playing these through a monster Crown Com Tech 1600 (500+ wpc!!) with a Carver CT 17 preamp, they will take a good bit of power from that combo and sound very good doing it, especially at the higher SPL levels!! I have also played these though my neighbors 20 wpc Fisher tube amp receiver- that is where they truly shine and sound the best!!
Long and short these could serve dual duties in a pro audio setting and even the efficient home audio low watt applications. These do perform quite well in both roles and actually look good doing it!
DC
They are super efficient at close to 93 db/1w/1m so little volume is needed to get them up in you face!! I think the horn drivers are rated over 107db each!
The bass is well controled and will play down to the low 40's~ high 30's. It has real good mid range properties and super power handling of over 300 watts! It does need substantial break in time, but after that it sounds great! They are cast frames, flat wire 2.25" voice coils, vented pole piece with pleated cloth surrounds, poly cones.
I am currently playing these through a monster Crown Com Tech 1600 (500+ wpc!!) with a Carver CT 17 preamp, they will take a good bit of power from that combo and sound very good doing it, especially at the higher SPL levels!! I have also played these though my neighbors 20 wpc Fisher tube amp receiver- that is where they truly shine and sound the best!!
Long and short these could serve dual duties in a pro audio setting and even the efficient home audio low watt applications. These do perform quite well in both roles and actually look good doing it!
DC
skywave-rider
Slumming in Akihabara
DC,
Great job and thanks for the evaluation.:thmbsp:
Would you please recap for me re: your woofer?
Manufacturer/model/.
I remember Ebay involved.
Any more details?
Great job and thanks for the evaluation.:thmbsp:
Would you please recap for me re: your woofer?
Manufacturer/model/.
I remember Ebay involved.
Any more details?
dc270
Now Off the Reservation
Here is a item number link to the woofer part from the supplier I got them from, go to Ebay,
Item number: 380062277977
You can offer him $65/ pair and he will probably sell them- he did have a Buy It Now at one time for $75 or make offer- that included free shipping as well!!
They turned out to be pretty decent woofers! The effientcy I think is a bit overated at 94db- after a good break in the best I could get was a high 92db! On the other hand I did get a lower FS than their rated 50hz, I actually got 41hz! The cast frames, binding posts and over all construction was actually well done! They are pretty rugged too, I put them on my big Crown Com Tech for 4 hours, fairly high volume with a 10~50hz test tone for break in. The back plate got pretty darn hot- but no signs of failure- the spiders and surrounds broke in nicely after this! I guess their 2.5" Kapton former and flat wire voice coils can take a good ars woopin'!
DC
Item number: 380062277977
You can offer him $65/ pair and he will probably sell them- he did have a Buy It Now at one time for $75 or make offer- that included free shipping as well!!
They turned out to be pretty decent woofers! The effientcy I think is a bit overated at 94db- after a good break in the best I could get was a high 92db! On the other hand I did get a lower FS than their rated 50hz, I actually got 41hz! The cast frames, binding posts and over all construction was actually well done! They are pretty rugged too, I put them on my big Crown Com Tech for 4 hours, fairly high volume with a 10~50hz test tone for break in. The back plate got pretty darn hot- but no signs of failure- the spiders and surrounds broke in nicely after this! I guess their 2.5" Kapton former and flat wire voice coils can take a good ars woopin'!
DC
Russellc
Addicted Member
Thanks, Rybeam, hope you didnt miss the retro cocktail hour Saturday. We have got to get some listening time in.:yes:
I've got the turntable wall mounted and its sounding good.
Russellc
Russellc
Addicted Member
Nice job! Looks like a factory made speaker. Nice find on the woofer as well!
Russellc:thmbsp:
jackgiff
Well-Known Member
Half way through the road trip.
I found a computer in the lobby of the hotel we are staying in, so got 15 minutes to check the thread. Sounds like the guys in Michigan are having fun, along with so many others across the country. The EconoWave is truly amazing, isn't it?
We stopped in Berkeley and delivered the large Baronets to Zilch a few days ago. It was great to finally meet the Zilchster face to face. And ZilchLab is a very impressive place. If a pair of speakers were ever built, it seems that Zilch has a pair of them in some corner. It would be great to spend some time there, soaking in the knowledge. And Zilch took me on a tour of CLIO, which is a nice system to use for measuring speakers. He planted another seed, it seems. Thanks, Zilch.
We will be on the road for another week, and it will be a lucky happenstance if I get to post again before next weekend. Keep up the fun, guys, and for all you lurkers, what will it take to convince you to try building an EconoWave? We can virtually guarantee you will like them. And as the name implies, they don't cost a fortune. Try them, you'll like them.
I found a computer in the lobby of the hotel we are staying in, so got 15 minutes to check the thread. Sounds like the guys in Michigan are having fun, along with so many others across the country. The EconoWave is truly amazing, isn't it?
We stopped in Berkeley and delivered the large Baronets to Zilch a few days ago. It was great to finally meet the Zilchster face to face. And ZilchLab is a very impressive place. If a pair of speakers were ever built, it seems that Zilch has a pair of them in some corner. It would be great to spend some time there, soaking in the knowledge. And Zilch took me on a tour of CLIO, which is a nice system to use for measuring speakers. He planted another seed, it seems. Thanks, Zilch.
We will be on the road for another week, and it will be a lucky happenstance if I get to post again before next weekend. Keep up the fun, guys, and for all you lurkers, what will it take to convince you to try building an EconoWave? We can virtually guarantee you will like them. And as the name implies, they don't cost a fortune. Try them, you'll like them.
That's a badass implementation of the ECW project DC. I bet they sound absolutely amazing.
Russellc
Addicted Member
As you know, I was going to build the EWG for my wife using the corner speakers (first two pics), then I picked up the ESS AMT1c just for the Heil Tweet for my main system (3, 4, and 5 pics). I was going to sell off the woofer and xover from the ESS to get some of my $$$ back. My wife just told me she likes the ESS's looks better than the corner speakers. So now I am going to make the EWGs out of the ESS. The passive radiator is gone on both speakers but the repair kit is only $30.00. Does anyone know if the ESS woof will go up high enough to meet the EWG? Cheers.
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It's unlikely AMT was crossed lower than E'Wave.
Try it.
If it fits and works, it's gonna be one of the coolest packages yet.... :thmbsp:
Caught the E'Wave fever, have ya, DC...?
Russellc
Addicted Member
Such a large bang for the buck, must be experienced to see exactly how big a bang it really is. This is without a doubt, the biggest bang for the buck I have encountered in my decades of fooling with audio. Its not the second coming, but in todays highly inflated world it tis a pleasure! The entire top assembly for two speakers is less than a lot of single compression drivers Ive bought.
This would be an excellent project even if it was not cheap as it is. The price is truely icing on the cake. The project seems to continue to snowball,
claiming more and more members.
Just think, in another 20 years people will wonder where in the heck all these sawsall violated cabinets with inexpensive JBL waveguides in them came from!
Russellc:thmbsp: