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LoPhat Cabinets

#21
DukeLeJeune said:
Very nice cabinetwork, Paul, and congrats on the obviously very positive impressions of your sound quality.

Since you asked about three-way cabs, here's my thoughts: It depends. If the tweeter you use doesn't go low enough to mate up well with your woofer(s), then a midrange driver is usually beneficial. So I'd say evaluate on a case-by-case basis; a 10" may match up well with a particular tweeter, but a 15" might not go up high enough (or might be beaming too much) in which case adding a good midrange driver would probably be a worthwhile improvement.

Now I have a question, if you don't mind. How'd you get into building bass cabs?

And, again if you don't mind, is there a particular guiding philosophy behind your designs?

Very best wishes.

Duke
Click to expand...

I'll try and answer you question and be as brief as possible.
I looked around one day and noticed I had what I call a Bowlus starter kit, various cabs by known quality builders.There were things I like about each cab, and things I didn't like. Since major back surgery in '05 weight has been an issue, of my favorite cab maker I had a 1x15, 1x12 pair, 2x10, and a 410 none of them stack within the corners with the exception of the 1x12 pair, and many of the cabs had a more than desirable mid focus. So, coming from a family of carpenters, which by the way goes way back to hum-hum the 60's. I worked in the family business most summers. Since then I earned a Masters in computer science, and have gone from being the band tech, to audio engineering, and now believe it or not a senior pastor who still plays, techs, and engineers for the Lord.:D
Anyway, I thought about what I considered to be a great cab, and what I would do to have it my ideal cab. I approached it technically (software), designing a cab around the drivers. My neighbor a woodworker for the film industry has an awesome shop, I pitched to him some ideas I had, and asked about using his shop to build a couple of cabs, and it mushroomed from there.

LoPhat Cabs, honestly are just that cabs, wood routed and dowel cut with baffles. However the design is not to be the most compact cab, but rather to meet the drivers requirements, tuned to have the expected response and dispersion, and achieve a low end thump that is not as mid intensive as some of your xyz cab, all at a manageable weight.

Italian poplar is about the lightest wood I could find, and there are some very high quality neodymium drivers available despite all the arguments about neo vs ceramic and response. So the goal is to build a articulate light weight quality cab with a stack able footprint throughout the cabinet line, phenomenal low end, focused mid's and clear high's in a box with an attractive yet durable finish that will deliver for years.
Hopefully some of the testers will weigh in and support that effort.

Mods, please let me know if I am within forum rules by talking about these cabs. It is not my intention to solicit or spam
but to give information.

Blessings,
Paul
 
#22
Thanks for the background information, Paul.

Sounds like your approach is based on a lot of real-world experience, drawing on the best characteristics from a variety of different cabs and avoiding counterproductive extremes.
 
#23
I dig it when players become builders. I think the bass community at large really benefits when this happens. I am looking forward to what's coming next from Paul's Lo Phat line...if the rest of the cabs sound as good as the 2x10 does I'm gonna have a hard time make a decision on which to purchase...

It's funny, I introduced my wife to Paul after my gig and she told him that I didn't want to give the cab back and she thought we'd have to write him a check - I'm pretty sure that will happen as soon as these cabs are ready to go!
 
#25
Congrats on all the positive feedback and good luck with manufacturing.
In regards to you question about preferred driver selections, one could make a case that you can't go wrong with 1x15, 4x10, and 2x12.
I think there is a huge niche in the market for 2 way cabs with bass drivers and a mid range, but no tweeter; I still think very highly of the designs from EV thats used a 5" mid range driver and no tweeter.
Suppose that's also why I ended up with a Berg 322 (1x12 and 2x10) and only have the high frequency horn barely audible.
 
#26
ptidwell said:
Also, can you fellow TBer's weigh in on your thoughts for three way cab configurations.
Click to expand...

Sure, I'll start...

I'm keen on vertical alignments. So everything I'd suggest would consist of matched stacked cab pairs - a top and a bottom - with all drivers aligned along a single vertical plane, in mirror image to one another. For example, a pair of three-way cabs with a 12" woofer, a 6.5" midrange driver and a 2" tweeter would look like this:

12
6.5
2.0
---
2.0
6.5
12

Similarly, a 1x15 version would look like:

15
8.0
2.0
---
2.0
8.0
15

I also like the idea of a three-way 2x12 - with the woofer at the bottom end (bottom cab), and a 12" coaxial midrange driver with integrated 2" tweeter in the opposite position, as follows:

12" Woofer
12" Coax
----------
12" Coax
12" Woofer

For each cab, each driver should be self-contained within its own compartment. And it'd be nice if each cab could have attenuators for the midrange driver and for the tweeter. Anyway, that's what I favor... :hmm:

MM
 
#27
Jim C said:
Congrats on all the positive feedback and good luck with manufacturing.
In regards to you question about preferred driver selections, one could make a case that you can't go wrong with 1x15, 4x10, and 2x12.
I think there is a huge niche in the market for 2 way cabs with bass drivers and a mid range, but no tweeter; I still think very highly of the designs from EV thats used a 5" mid range driver and no tweeter.
Suppose that's also why I ended up with a Berg 322 (1x12 and 2x10) and only have the high frequency horn barely audible.
Click to expand...



Yes me keeps me tweeter turned down to about 1/4 of the way on or less. I can not stand a tweeter that is cranked. Puuuuuuuuuuuukkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Perhaps a Paper unit would sound wayyyyy much better.

I have an old pair of Community PA Speakers with 1x15 1x6 mid and 1x3 tweeter and all are papre cones. These things sound like studio monitors instead of PA Cabs. Yummmy!!!
 
#28
Very nice looking stuff..looking forward to the reviews and more pics..... all the best with your new product line.... :bassist:

I have to be honest..I dont like the brand name..especially the word "phat"... maybe I am getting too old ????

But I do wish you great success !
 
#29
I have an old pair of Community PA Speakers with 1x15 1x6 mid and 1x3 tweeter and all are papre cones. These things sound like studio monitors instead of PA Cabs.
Click to expand...

Interesting thought about paper tweeters.

Now that I think about it the old 4000 series of JBL studio monitors used paper tweeters and they could get crazy bright when cranked but never harsh.
Wonder it they are available that would take real power.
 
#31
Red Planet said:
Yes me keeps me tweeter turned down to about 1/4 of the way on or less. I can not stand a tweeter that is cranked. Puuuuuuuuuuuukkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Perhaps a Paper unit would sound wayyyyy much better.

I have an old pair of Community PA Speakers with 1x15 1x6 mid and 1x3 tweeter and all are papre cones. These things sound like studio monitors instead of PA Cabs. Yummmy!!!
Click to expand...

There continues to be confusion regarding proper tweeter levels. It's best not to think of the noon setting of any tweeter as 'flat', even if the attenuator plate lists that setting as flat. Depending on the crossover design and the sensitivity of the tweeter, attenuator settings to achieve a balanced tone (i.e., the tweeter naturally and smoothly extending the frequency range of a cab from the dropoff of the woofer through the upper treble) can vary wildly across brands. I have cabs like the Epifani UL's which sound beautiful and balanced with the tweeter attenuator at around 9 o'clock or a touch higher. I have a new Schroeder cab that has a very subtle tweeter seemingly crossed over very high (the upper end of those Celestion woofers seems to extend way up in the upper mid/lower treble region) and it sounds great at 3 o'clock, etc., etc.

It's key to use your ears and not your eyes when setting a tweeter attenuator level IMO and IME.

Using a paper cone mid driver (with or without a small soft dome type tweeter crossed over very high) will give you a smoother, mellower top end, which some prefer.
 
#33
MysticMichael said:
Sure, I'll start...

I'm keen on vertical alignments. So everything I'd suggest would consist of matched stacked cab pairs - a top and a bottom - with all drivers aligned along a single vertical plane, in mirror image to one another. For example, a pair of three-way cabs with a 12" woofer, a 6.5" midrange driver and a 2" tweeter would look like this:

12
6.5
2.0
---
2.0
6.5
12

Similarly, a 1x15 version would look like:

15
8.0
2.0
---
2.0
8.0
15

I also like the idea of a three-way 2x12 - with the woofer at the bottom end (bottom cab), and a 12" coaxial midrange driver with integrated 2" tweeter in the opposite position, as follows:

12" Woofer
12" Coax
----------
12" Coax
12" Woofer


MM
Click to expand...
Those arrangements are fine when using two cabs, but they'll only work with one or two cabs, and no more. Keeping all the drivers that cover the same bandwidth in a vertical line allows the stacking of an unlimited number of cabs. One comment I'll make regarding the LoPhats is that their side by side woofer placement continues Leo Fender's legacy, and not in a good way. It shrinks midrange dispersion by half.
 
#37
XdavidmanX, the wider the source (speaker cones in this case), the narrower the pattern. Two cones side-by-side are twice as wide as one cone, so their radiation pattern is roughly half as wide in the midrange and treble frequencies.

Here's the mechanism, using one cone as an example (the same principle applies to multiple cones close together): By the time the sound from the left edge of the cone gets to the right edge, enough time has passed that the right edge has moved on to a different portion of the waveform. At the frequency where that distance is equal to one-half wavelength, the sound from the left edges arrives at the right edge just as the right edge is producing a signal 180 degrees out of phase with it. So, we get cancellation. The effect of this cancellation is a narrowing of the radiation pattern. Since the higher up in frequency we go the shorter the distance the sound from the left-hand edge can travel before it gets cancelled, the pattern progressively narrows as we go up in frequency, and widens as we go down in frequency. As you can see, the wider the source (such as two woofers side-by-side), the lower the frequency at which this pattern narrowing sets in, and the narrower the pattern will be at a given frequency. This is a somewhat simplified explanation.
 
#39
XavidmanX said:
Excuse my ignorance, but que?
Click to expand...
Leo Fender loaded his dual driver cabs with the drivers side by side. Acoustically that was absolutely wrong, but they looked better under the amps that way, and Leo was not an audio engineer, so he didn't know any better. Too bad he didn't ask his friend Jim Lansing the right way to do it. :rollno:
His cabs set the flawed mold that remains used to this day. :atoz:
 
#40
DukeLeJeune said:
XdavidmanX, the wider the source (speaker cones in this case), the narrower the pattern. Two cones side-by-side are twice as wide as one cone, so their radiation pattern is roughly half as wide in the midrange and treble frequencies.

Here's the mechanism, using one cone as an example (the same principle applies to multiple cones close together): By the time the sound from the left edge of the cone gets to the right edge, enough time has passed that the right edge has moved on to a different portion of the waveform. At the frequency where that distance is equal to one-half wavelength, the sound from the left edges arrives at the right edge just as the right edge is producing a signal 180 degrees out of phase with it. So, we get cancellation. The effect of this cancellation is a narrowing of the radiation pattern. Since the higher up in frequency we go the shorter the distance the sound from the left-hand edge can travel before it gets cancelled, the pattern progressively narrows as we go up in frequency, and widens as we go down in frequency. As you can see, the wider the source (such as two woofers side-by-side), the lower the frequency at which this pattern narrowing sets in, and the narrower the pattern will be at a given frequency. This is a somewhat simplified explanation.
Click to expand...

Gosh darn it all! :bawl:

If only we could turn these 2x10's on their side... :eek: ;) :D :bassist:
 

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