Look at the speakers I made...

stampy

New Member
Jan 2, 2016
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I decided to build the best speakers I could for a large room and my listening tastes (Classical, Jazz, Acoustic).

https://www.morelhifi.com/titanium-drivers-set-in-floor-standing-speakers-by-dave-cazden/

They look conventional but are actually SOTA, using two carbon fiber/Rohacell sandwich cone midranges per speaker plus 2-12 inch Morel woofers per cabinet in a sealed enclosure. Each woofer is rated at 600 wpch. I spent about 500 hours on the computer designing the 4th order crossover and nearly that much time refining it by ear. The crossover parts cost me a ton, relatively. All the drivers have titanium formers. The crossover is outboard.

The main thing I like about them is their ability to play intimate or big, depending on the music. I'm not sure why this is the case, but they can play very softly and delicately and the soundstage is not exaggerated, as can happen so often with larger speakers. It goes without saying that the dynamic range is huge and they can play "big" when the music is big. So I'm pretty happy about them.

I'm not so happy with the way they look, which is so conventional... The cabinets have a 2 inch thick front baffle at least. I did the best I could given I was stuck with having a conventional (MDF) cabinet made for me.
 

Uk Paul

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Sep 27, 2012
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Stampy, they look great, dont be hard on yourself, they look very well made, is that quilted maple? But, it's fantastic to hear that they deliver, you certainly have put the hours in on these! Well done..
 

RogerD

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May 23, 2010
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BiggestLittleCity
Very nice...Morels are very good in my experience...enjoy.
 

DaveC

Industry Expert
Nov 16, 2014
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Nice, I bet they sound great! :b
 

stampy

New Member
Jan 2, 2016
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I will make one custom pair of these for someone.

It would entail auditioning them (on my reference solid state system, both digital and vinyl), and I can have them made in a variety of finishes. The crossovers are outboard and need to stay that way. The cost of the drivers alone is over 5k. I haven't actually added up the cost of the crossover components, but I'm guessing 3k (a pair). I use foil inductors almost everywhere, and the top range of Clarity Caps on the tweeter (CMR, not MR).

A large listening room is a must. And they need amps with very good damping factors. They are 4 ohm, 88 dB, 2.8 ohm minimum. 35-20k +/- 3dB, and from 200 to 10k, +/- 1 dB. I can taper the top end to suit a variety of systems.

I can change the character of the top end, within reason, just by small changes to the tweeter zobel cap. I have used a small variety of interconnects, silver and copper, and they all need slightly different changes. Shows how sensitive we are to this and why the high end interconnect buisiness exists.
 
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stampy

New Member
Jan 2, 2016
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I re calculated (hard to measure) the efficiency at 90 dB.

I could have made these using "normal" woofers, instead of Morel's best (and 4 of them). But it is interesting that using woofers with such high power handling (600 watts each), results in the bass response remaining constant no matter the volume level (domestic setting), because the voice coils probably never get more than lukewarm. So the Q doesn't change and the bass character doesn't change. This also has the result of keeping the reponse and image stable, because the woofers are barely moving, and the acoustical centers of the woofers changing relative to the midranges is more stable, resulting in "no image shift".

There is a lot more to loudspeakers than meets the eye.

Another thing I found suprising is the vast superiority of film and foil inductors, at least those in series with the woofers. I was using a typical 14g perfect lay type inductor and when I dropped in a film and foil there was an incredible increase in detail, bass detail and lower midrange (since the woofers are crossed at 270 hz third order, while the mids are crossed using a 4th order electrical, which keeps the phase in line, resulting in bass/lower midrange that the ear locates as between the speakers and in the same plane as the speakers).
 

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