I wanted to try some different waveguide options besides the FaitalPro LTH142 before I start making enclosures – and noticed the Pyle PH916 was a quite decent looking, inexpensive, candidate – but very little information about people using it at all on the web, unlike lots of other waveguides. But it is sold as a constant directivity waveguide, and in fact the waveguide I use in my Econowave speakers is a smaller model from Pyle so I gave it a try.
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Author Archives: ZOG
woofer selected : Lorantz 15″ C390X B1
Well I had made a shortlist of all sorts of great drivers to work through the cabinet simulations with, including the B&C 15TBX100 (Italy), BEYMA 15B100/R (Spain), RCF LF15N401 (Italy), Selenium 15WS800 (Brazil), and even some from Lorantz (Dandenong, Australia), though the Lorantz ones were out of my budget, despite being locally made.
But I got very lucky with ebay and scored a pair of Lorantz 15″ C390X B1 for a great price. I’m told these are asbolutely amazing quality speakers.
Conveniently the auction even included some PA cabinets – though not great for loungeroom use long term at least I can get some instant gratification and get started with measurements and integrating the speakers before I start the big task of building some nice permament enclosures. When placed upside down they even position the speaker quite close to the waveguide, which is how I want the new cabinet to have it.
Not measurements yet. I’ve just quickly hooked up the bass drivers with some temporary banana sockets connected via the bass reflex port.
beyond econowave : Faital Pro HF144 compression driver with LTH142 Tractrix horn
Build Intention:
A “simple” two way speaker with the advantages of the Econowave, but deeper bass than my current woofers, and more directivity by using a compression driver/waveguide that extends down to a lower frequency.
Eventually building the speakers with “modular” cabinets, to make changing parts easier.
using MiniDSP UMIK-1 to Calibrate a Behringer ECM-8000
note: article incomplete, I need to tidy up the graphs and clarify what the lines are.
I recently purchased a MiniDSP UMIK-1 calibrated USB measurement microphone to help with speaker tuning. I already have a Behinger ECM-8000, but the Behringer isn’t calibrated, while the MiniDSP comes with a calibration file, you just download from their site keyed on the serial number of your unit.
As you can see, the two units come in similar, but not the same packaging, and also look quite similar:
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Hifimediy CS4398 “direct out” DAC module, simple build
I recently (late last year) got one of these modules, this one looks intriguing and I’ve been happy with other products (amps and DACS) I’ve purchased from Hifimediy.
The idea behind this unit is it leaves out the output buffering stage that a lot of DACs have, directly connecting the DAC chip via just a pair of Mundorf caps (reasonable quality) to get rid of the DC offset in the DAC signal. The board is laid out to be easily tweakable, and as the board is it’s only using 1/2 the signal as the DAC has a balanced output. I’m more than happy with the default ouptput so have just simply wired it to RCA outs.
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ambient music release – ZOGAM – Melbourne Suburban Winter 2012
More a polished demo than a fully realised release, but I thought it worthwhile making these experiments with guitar and timestretch software available as a releaseon bandcamp.com:
ZOGAM – Melbourne Suburban Winter 2012
for free one week after release.. then I’ll put a token cost for them.
Bitcoin denominated purchase links coming soon.
Upgrade to new wordpress version
Shiny new wordpress!
We just upgraded to the current version of wordpress, after a long time on an older version.
There may be a few broken links to deal with while it settles in!
“cheapowave” part III.. not so cheap going to an Eminence woofer.
This is pretty much a “brain dump” of my Audiokarma posts on phase III of the Econowave project (now more likely to be called the big read speakers then “cheapowaves”)… post will get edited down over time, but if the article is disjointed it’s due to being a bunch of seperate posts appended together.
upgrading woofer in my econowaves : adding the Eminence Delta 12LFA and documenting the resultant crossover redesign.. plus some tweaks Continue reading
assembly using inexpensive YuanJing brand TDA8920 board, with some minor tweaks.
I recently got a YuanJing brand low cost TDA8920 based board from ebay. This is a fairly basic low frills build but worth documenting for those interested.
I’d already wired up the case for my second ConnexElectronics TDA8920 board when I managed to fry the board. Out of curiousity I decided to check out this lower cost board that was going cheap cheap ($19USD + $9USD postage), as I could use the transformer I’d already mounted in the case as they are similar units.
This is the board on ebay:
TDA8920 Class D Amplifier board/ audio Power AMP 2X100W – eBay Power Amplifiers, Amplifiers, Home Audio, Electronics. (end time 19-Jul-10 02:14:45 AEST)
It has a smaller heatsink than the connex module, and smaller PSU 4700uF caps.
Initially it sounded OK, but not as good as the Connex module, quite a bit more grainy.. also interestingly it uses 5W power even when silent, and hence (with the smaller heatsink) runs a lot hotter.
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tweaking the Dick Smith Electronics DSE A2667 bookshelf speaker
I recently got some Dick Smith Electronics A2667 bookshelf speakers cheapish ($20AUD) off Ebay. For a bit of fun I thought I’d see how much better I could make these low cost “made in china” (though not quite white van) speakers sound.
