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Building a superior 2x10 cab

#143
What are you guys thoughts on speaker grills?

I think that I'm gonna use a frame with black clotch which covers the whole baffle to protect the speakers. Not so much for damage, but from particles that can enter the coax driver.
I really love "normal" grills where you can see the drivers, but they are to open for this cab.
Another idea is to only use black cloth over the coax driver so particles can not enter and use a regular grill to cover the baffle.
 
#145
philter25 said:
Ive always liked the same look across the entire car. Having one part one grill and the other part something else looks a little too DIY for me.

But this is your cab, you do what you want!
Click to expand...

What I meant is that I could only use (stretch)cloth over the coax driver (no framework, just pull it over the driver and use a regular grill for the entire baffle (which covers the 2 ten's, the coax and the ports). This way it will not look not too diy, or does it:hmm: ?
 
#146
I gotcha. The beautiful thing about this are grills are one of the easier things to change. So if you do it and dont like it, it can be changed. Although Im sure you rather save the cost and do it right the first time.

If the stretch cloth is the same color as the speaker and you wouldnt notice it, I think that might look fine.
 
#147
philter25 said:
I gotcha. The beautiful thing about this are grills are one of the easier things to change. So if you do it and dont like it, it can be changed. Although Im sure you rather save the cost and do it right the first time.

If the stretch cloth is the same color as the speaker and you wouldnt notice it, I think that might look fine.
Click to expand...

I think I just get the black stretch cloth available at the local speakershop, the two tens are black so it will look pretty ok.
 
#148
Indeed, you can't have enough bracing. I added some more, the " knock test" sounds high pitched which is a good sign. I glued and screwed some of the bracing, it's pretty tight now.
Now it's time to round off all the edges with a router.
 

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#150
mikeddd said:
Looking good, Arjank! Looks very well-braced indeed. Are there tube ports going into the smaller holes in the upper corners? What will you use for ports? PVC pipe? Be sure to round the edges of the ports to avoid chuffing.
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Thanks mikeddd! Yes, the holes in the corners are for the ports. I use 8mm thick cardboard tubes which are way less prone to resonating then pvc or other plastic ports. I'll round the edges of the ports, but the diameter is enough to not let it huff and puff:D. I've used them very often for tens and never heard any noise, only when you run a sine-wave through it but thats with allmost all ports.
 
#152
Finally picked up the building of my 2x10+coax cab again...

Here are some pictures of the frequencyresponse and the decay of the coaxial driver with the designed cross-over. The crossover is optimized under a 15 degree angle.
The response is very smooth (it took me a whole day tweaking the crossover ;) ) and the decay show no flaws.

The efficiency is approx. 97db/w/m, don't get fooled by the somewhat lower efficiency, remember that the soundpressure doesn't drop off quickly off-axis like a regular 2x10 or 4x10 does. Therefore the powerresponse is very good.

How does it sound, very, very smooth in the mids and treble, studio quality precision.
Next week I'm gonna add the 2 woofers into the crossover network.
 

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#153
Last weekend I was able to add the woofers and build the crossovers (separate ones for the woofers and the coaxial driver). Yesterday I tweaked the components for the transition between mid/woofer of the coax and the two 10" woofers.
First I listened to some recordings/music over this loudspeakers. Surprise, it sounds like very good (large)high-end studio monitors. Lot's of detail, very clean sound from top to bottom, tight bassresponse.
After a while it was time to plug in the bass. I used my focusrite saffire as a pre-amp, just straight in so the signal is flat. I never heard my bass like this, super tight and crisp sounding, not the "cardboard" sound you get from all the commercial cabs.

The only thing I'm not sure about is the notch filter I added to the lowpass of the woofers. The notch filter is there to flatten the impedance of the 2e impedance peak of the bassreflex system. It's there to make sure the lowpass functions as it should. Without this notch you get a 3 to 4dB bump in the midbass and you hear this when running music over this cabinet. It sounds nice with rock and pop music, but with jazz and classic you hear this bump and it sounds better with this notch.... When playing with the bassguitar over it you get a nice mid/bass bump, so it's a matter of taste, maybe I add a flick-switch so I can choose between both characteristics.

Tonight i'll post a picture of the cab with the crossovers on top of it.
 
#154
Here a picture of the cabinet, the crossovers on top of the cab so I can still tweak it if needed.
One thing I forgot to mention in the previous post is how well it radiates in all directions, no matter where you stand the sound of your bass doesn't deviate a lot like a normal 2x10 or 4x10.
Next week I'm gonna finish the cab and the it will be ready for use! :bassist:
A friend(professional bassist) who allways played Eden will check out this cabinet, I'm curious what he thinks about this cabinet.
 

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#156
thudfromafar said:
Cool, I'm glad to see that you got it finished.
Click to expand...

thnx man, it took me a while to pick up the project again. I had some other things to do...
The hobby/music room took more time, now I can do acoustic measurements again and determine tsp's of loudspeakers.
I know there's not much interest in this cabinet on Talkbass since the Oberton drivers are (still)not available in the US. That's a pitty because these drivers are really high-end stuff. This cabinet sounds even better then my hifi speakers....:eyebrow: If I could place large speakers in my living room I would build two big floorstanding loudspeaker with these 2 10's and the 8" coax driver.
 
#157
Yesterday I did a comparison between the 2x10 vs the 4x8 that I build several years ago. The 4x8 has modified Eminenc Alpha 8a's in them and a ring radiator (bullet tweeter). The alpha's do not have a crossover because the behave very well in the midrange (I did cut of the dustcap and added an aluminium phaseplug which made the response better). I allways got great comments on that cab.
The comparison between the two was in favor of the 2x10, better sensitivity, more clear/articulate mid/lows, better punch/attack, smoother highs and way better off-axis response. All in all a huge improvement over the 4x8. No surprise since there went a lot more knowledge/thinking into this design then the "regular" 4xX design.
 
#160
razboinikoff said:
Good work, Arjank, congrats!
I have visited the Oberton's factory more than 10 years ago - it's placed around 200 km from my home. I even built bass cab with one of their 15" drivers and used it successfully for gigs and practicing. Oberton had good quality and very robust products back then, I am glad that they still offer good products.
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Cool that you visited the Oberton factory and thnx for the great comments.
IMO Oberton still makes very good quality stuff, I think it's even better now. The only bad thing is that they don't have a distributor in the US. The cool thing for me is that the dutch distributor lives 7km's away from where I live :cool:
 

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