"DOMINATE the speaker world"
I doubt it. Too many people turn their noses up at speakers that aren't point & squirt rectangular boxes with table top frequency response graph, Linkwitz Riley 4th order hifiness, point source, imaging to die for and lovely shiny badges that align with their fanboyism (Tannoy, Yamaha, Harbeth, Spendor ).
Oh and only the most expensive drivers get you taken seriously.
They will do for me and that's about it I should think. My speaker design / building abilities are very much amateur and probably seen in the wider audio community as such along with hilarious, Heath Robinson and generally a magnet for ridicule. That's why I only post here, nobody understands what I am on about or doesn't give a feck.
These will hopefully be my forever speakers - that is the aim. Can't be doing with box swapping. Although I have done loads of experiments which might be seen by some as even worse than box swapping
Saying that I will need some speakers at work which might end up being open baffle jobs on 8ft x 4ft sheets of plywood
Speakers that play music in a dynamic and coherent way (sounds like real musicians) has always been the goal. That's why everything clicked here when I first joined - The Doc and most other members have the same objectives. I don't want something that measures perfectly and throws the baby out with the bath water.
The main core principals being
1) Semi omnidirectional - non of that point and squirt nonsense
2) No filters or as few as possible. We need one on the tweeters but I might have a cunning way of avoiding that and doing it at line level by removing the ones on the output of the source components and putting one of them in the input of the power amplifiers. The resistance to ground is so high there that I can use some small value polystyrene caps (yum) to get the correct high pass filter. Usually the caps on the output of source components are quite large in order to not roll off the bass but still block DC. Same amount of filters at line level as before but one less between the power amps and the speakers. There is no switch on thump with NVA amp boards that I can hear so should be safe in that respect. But if the amp goes DC for any reason then it's bye bye tweeters.
3)Bass energy in phase with the ground (up firing mid bass). Speaker doesn't then rock about as it would with forward firing. I have gone one further and added an identical down firing mid bass which not only reduces cabinet vibration by opposing force but compensates for baffle step loss for free
4)As few components in the signal path as possible. Yes that old chestnut. I managed to do away with the padding resistor before the single tweeter by adding three more tweeters and wiring them in series. Some could say I have actually added more components rather than take away (one resistor removed but three coils added
) There is some gain to be had from these added tweeters though rather than just drop voltage and produce heat.
5)No damping or stuffing. It was going great until recently when I added an internal box divider made of 1" open cell foam and liked it
Lost browny points on that one
6)No evil electrical BSC circuitry, notch filters, shelf filters or impedance flattening bollox. Tick.
7)Stiff, good quality cabinet materials. So far I am a big fail on this apart from the steel lining I have done. Stiff and heavy might not be the best way to go. Stiff for bass yes but heavy usually raises the frequency of resonance and stores energy. I am starting to think that building out of something light and non resonant may be the way forward. Something like EVA foam with some 3 mm steel to make it rigid although 20 - 30 mm EVA foam is said to be quite rigid already. Also it can be sanded and bent into nice shapes.
8)Bored yet ?
9)As low distortion as possible. Well, distortion can take many forms. The main one for me has been adding more drivers and sharing the work out. It was quite remarkable the difference that made with both tweeters and mid bass. With the tweeters it was important because they only have a 1st order filter and so only roll off at 6 dB per octave. The mid bass are cheap and probably anything which lowers excursion for them will be rewarded with lower inter modulation distortion.
10)Doping - I am pretty sure that this improves these mid bass no end. Even with a first order low pass on a mid bass you are going to get some of the cone break up coming through unless you crossover low. Good luck finding a tweeter to match up - hello three way. Yes sensitivity is reduced a bit but if you start off with a relatively efficient driver and add more of them (in parallel) you can easily increase spl to that of the tweeter. Happy days.
11)The little housekeeping things like rounding over edges, driver rebates generally reducing diffraction where possible without compromising any of the core principles
12)Closed box for tight bass - I may have strayed from the path a little but at no point have I considered bass reflex, transmission line or other group delay, fart inducing stunt bass. Timing is everything - the Doc's principles all point to that.
13)Something nice to look at. Totally failed there so far
Although the final build in those oak tables will put that right
14)Have fun
15)A good musical experience wherever you are in the room. I don't want to have to sit in one place with my head in a vice whilst the rest of my family get an inferior experience. Fighting over the sweet spot
The only other way to do it would be to do my listening on my own in a dedicated music room. I don't want to be on my own, music appreciation is a social thing for me. I don't have a room spare anyway. This has been the source of much head scratching. Semi omni with one tweeter does this better than most. Fully omni takes it further but is hard to do (diffusers etc). The best I could do was to have several tweeters pointing in different directions but firing no less than 90 degrees in regards to another. Seems to work and no hideous comb filtering that I can detect. Pointing tweeters 45 degrees at the ceiling like Shahinian does interest me but may be a step too far.
16)Anything else I have forgotten. Oh, dynamic and musical at low volumes which is all I ever listen at. It seems I can defeat the Fletcher Munson curve by making my speakers a bit on the bassy side of neutral. Adjustable aperiodic vent can help with that
The other thing that occurred to me the other day was that with the oak table legs splaying out by 5 degrees and if I tilt the bottom baffle lower towards the back of the speaker, I will have no internal enclosure walls parallel. Whether that will make any difference I don't know.