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DIY Speaker info
Since 1977 I have either made my own speakers or highly modified other speakers. Speakers are actually quite simple. Qualio IQ speaker super clone : I will use this new speaker as a template for understanding the basic things that are important in a speaker and how to make your own super speaker. The Qualio IQ speaker sells for $6K delivered and Srajan at 6moons said that it or the $24,000 speaker from Raidho (TD 1.2) are the two speakers he reviewed in the last year that he could live with long term. So, what if you could make a way better sounding version of the Qualio IQ speaker for $2.5K that would absolutely kill those two speakers.......here goes: The design of the Qualio IQ speaker is really great. They picked some really great drivers and the woofers and midrange are matched in sensitiviy.....this is good because you do not want to pad down a midrange to match a woofer. The tweeter they are using is slightly more sensitive but a single resistor is all you need to bring it down to the level of the woof and tweet. The woofer they use has a 24.5hz basic resonance so it can go really low in frequency. The matching midrange has a gently rise in frequency so a simple coil can be used to cross it over to the tweeter. They are using excellent xover parts, wire and jacks. The open baffle mids and highs will give super open spaciousness and the box woof should give it slam and deep bass. So, what can we do to make it even better? 1. Binding posts veil the sound.....so does the xlr connector they use to connect the mid/highs to the woofer box. So let's elminate them. You hardwire the mids and highs directly from the xover and the speaker input connectors are either eliminated (hardwired to your speaker wire) or you can use my plastic clamp system (same sonics as hardwiring but allows you to remove the speaker wire easily). I will show a pic of my plastic clamps soon and they will be available to purchase, as well. 2. The crossover is inside the box and therefore not easy to get to and also it vibrates with the box.....so we move it outside to remove the resonances and now we have access to all the parts for fast swapping. Pics of properly done external xover coming soon. 3. The solder tabs on the midrange veil the sound......so we hardwire the wires from the xover directly to the voice coil wires. Pic of wires soldered directly to voice coil wires coming soon. 4. Time aligning drivers almost always results in better sound. The stock Qualia has the tweeter and the midrange drivers mounted on the same plane as the woofer.....doing this the tweeters output will hit your ear first.....then the midranges output and then followed by the woofer. If you align the voice coils of all the drivers then the sound of all the drivers will mostly arrive at your ear at the same time. So, we mount the midrange further back and mount the tweeter even further back. 5. It almost always sounds better to have felt around the tweeter and midrange to get rid of diffraction.....and when setting back the midrange and tweets you will also need to felt the shelves in front of the drivers. 6. Better xover parts and wire equals better sound. I would think sending the Jantzen midrange coils off to get cryoed would be super important and also using a 12 gauge Jantzen wax foil coil instead of the 14 gauge (I have A/Bed the two gauges....and 12 wins big time). 7. Make the box using layers of different wood with Green Glue in between them ..... brace it inside real good and use some thick felt padding inside. You can multilayer the mid/tweet baffles as well. Never played with acrylic, so do not know its sound......but I would think it would not be as good as multiple layering with wood. Baltic birch, Bamboo, hardwood and high density MDF (not regular MDF) are all good for boxes....esp when combined.
8. Get rid of the binding posts and banana plugs for the padding resistors.....the resistors should be soldered in right before the tweeter xover.....and you can do all this with an external xover. Very easy to change the value when the crossover is external. 9. Add Bybee Clarifiers to the back of the bass drivers and use EVS Music Purfiers and Ground Enhancers. If you bi-amp then use two sets of MP's and GE's per speaker. 10. Isolate the midrange and tweeter from the woofer box. Less vibration = better sound. You can make a long flat shelf the mids and tweeter are mounted to and then isolate the whole thing from the box below.....small squares of cardboard are really a great isolator. I will show pics soon.
All the above techniques can be used on ALL other speakers. For instance, the new Mofi speaker can be seriously upgraded using better parts, external xover, wire, hardwiring, felting, Bybee thangs and EVS thangs.
Bi-Amping Doing all the above will make a speaker that will simply kill the stock Qualio IQ. But, when you bi-amp it....it takes it to another whole level. By using an electronic xover between the bass and midrange will allow you to drive the woofer (or woofers if you choose to use two woofs in the box) directly from the amp so there are no coils in series with the signal.....tighter bass will result. Also having the passive xover eliminated from the low end of the midrange driver will give more transparency from that driver. You can also lower the crossover point between the woofer and midrange to 300hz? to give you faster transient response and more clarity in the 300-800hz range. You can totally equalize the speaker and get rid of the bass nodes in your room and also extend the bass with the crossover by boosting it down low. All of the above will result in another level of transparency and dynamics.....especially if you use two woofs in the bass box. You can use the bass box sealed or ported and experiment.....with eq you have lots of possibilities. The latest cool way to bi-amp is to use two digital amps like the Peachtree GaN 1 or the VTV D300 (also using GaN fets). You get a Minidsp Flex (digital in and out version) to do the crossover, eq and can also be used for volume control. You have one coax cable coming from your source and one coax digital cable going to each amp from the xover. If you use my modified digital amps with the optional plastic clamp system then you are hardwiring right from the amp to the speaker....no binding posts of spades or bananas needed. This has never been done before in any commercial speaker or amp in the entire history of audio....he he. Let's guestimate the cost of a super Qualia clone....both passive and biamped.
6 drivers.....$1636
Now for the active one: By using digital amps and digital crossovers you eliminate the DAC, preamp, and all analog interconnects from the signal path (assuming you are listening to digital sources only). You simply have a streamer or source with digital volume control with coax out hooked up to the crossover which is then feeding the digital amps via coax cables. Extremely simple and pure......and very affordable .
Open baffle version.: Bi-amped two way speaker....easy as pie Want to make an easy super sounding two way speaker? Here are some possibilities. You can use the digital amps mentioned above with the Minidsp flex.....or if you use a flat measuring full range driver you can use an analog cheap xover for the bass and use just a single capacitor on the input of your amp for the highs....example: 1. Use two Satori 9.5 inch woofers in a box on the bottom and then mount the GRS 8 inch planar speaker on top of the box on an open baffle say 10 inches wide (felt all around the driver)....time aligned with the woofer (voice coils lined up). If using the Flex then set the crossover for 800hz and 24 db per octave and let er rip....equalize to your hearts content. If using a full range driver like the Mark Audio Alpair 5 and analog crossover for the bass then set it for 800hz at 12?db per octave and use a single cap on your high frequency amp to roll off the bass at 6db per octave....also at 800hz. The cap value can be calculated very easily using the link provided at the bottom of the page (coming soon). If you are using a tube amp for the high frequency driver then you can lower the value of the coupling cap in the amp to get the low frequency rolloff.....this way you are not adding any parts to the signal path....and if you use a better sounding part that what is in the amp now....then you make the amp also more transparent. These "suggestions" are not set in stone....please experiment and let me know what YOU find works best with each driver, etc. The Ma rk Audio drivers are rather insensitive....so you will need at least 50 watts on them to really rock out. Crossed over at 800hz they can play loud. You could add a single high quality cap before the driver as well....giving 12 db per octave and it could really play loud.
Cost of the above using inexpensive analog xover on bass and one cap in front of amp...... Biamping using the GRS planar and two digital amps costs much more but you can equalize and get rid of bass nodes and play even louder.
2. How about a digital bi-amped open baffle speaker. Just get two 12 inch 12BR70 Beyma woofs ($155 each) and put them on an open baffle and cross over at 800hz to various drivers. You can put a heavy gauge coil on the bottom woof so it only plays to say 200hz and let the other one run wide open to its crossover point. I believe Spatial Audio uses these Beyma woofs in their $8000 open baffle speakers.
Lots of possibilities.....will be sharing more Drivers:
Mundorf Amt tweeter 17D2.2
$352 each or $712 a pair
More, more and much more coming. Check back often. I am open to learning and sharing. If you have information that is more, different and/or better....let me know. I will share it with all.
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