Active Biamping DIY speakers (1 Viewer)

[Seth_L]

Thanks for the vote of confidence, but a full digital active crossover solves many of the problems. That plus biamping and the impedance of the drivers (or a mismatch) is more or less moot. Different sensativities are meaningless.

Not to mention you can change it instantly and see/hear the effects of the filters. You don't have to keep changing physical parts. You can change the filter order, type, and frequencies on the fly.

If you measure the baffle response of each driver and you can pretty much figure out what order filters you need and where you need to put them. Then you can tweak until your hearts content without soldering a thing.

 

[Seth_L]

SPDIF --> DCX2496

DCX2496 will have 5 analog outputs:
1) Left highs
2) Right highs
3) Left lows
4) Right lows
5) Subwoofer (optional)

DCX2496 --> Analog multi channel inputs on JVC RX-F10

The JVC has a volume knob which will control all the channels at the same time.

JVC RX-F10 --> 2 Speakers

The JVC-F10 will have 4 powered outputs, and 1 line level output

Powered
1) Left highs
2) Right highs
3) Left lows
4) Right lows

Line level
1) Subwoofer output

 

[AjayM]

Seth, I'm not trying disuade you in any way at all, far from it. There is no better way to learn than by experimenting. But a "stock" active x-over such as the Behringer or a Marchland isn't going to give you those "great" custom results.

Does the behringer have the ability to deal with multiple "issues" in one part of the bandwidth you are asking the driver to play, such as say a small db spike in the middle of the response? How will it deal with a 10-15db spike in the response 3/4 of an octive higher than the x-over point?

Or is it just setting a high pass x-over point of Z and a low pass of Y and having no more control?

Michael, do you have any other details on your active x-over project?

Andrew

 

[Seth_L]

No, it's got a lot more control than that.

You have independent Gain, Delay, EQ, Dynamic EQ, crossover, Limiter, and Phase control for each output channel.

 

[Michael R Price]

Seth, If you can use the digital unit as a parametric equalizer for each driver and you have continuous phase-control then it should get you close enough.

Ajay, I'll post more information soon. Basically I finished a first prototype in the middle of the summer and it was really successful with my Kit281s. I improved on the design and had a PCB manufactured. Now I'm a little more busy... but I should have that version completed soon. When it is finished, I'll revise that page.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Interesting proposition, Seth, using the JVC like that. Assuming there is no problem using the analog multi-channel inputs like this (I’ll leave commentary on that for people who know more about them than I do) then there’s no reason any receiver with 6.1 inputs wouldn't work.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Seth_L]

Wayne,

That's correct. Any receiver with 6.1 inputs should work.

I am focusing on the JVC RX-F10s maily because the rave reviews it and it's other JVC brothers have gotten from people on AudioCircle who say it compares favorably to $1k+ tube and solid state amps.

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

I read that Linkwitz says it's ok to use a DIY amp with his Orions or Phoenix and I believe him.

I've built an Inverted GainClone (gainklone) that is 50WPC using two $40 transformers. The total cost of the GC was about $150, but I estimated it should cost about $100 per two 50 watt channels if you went with cheaper transformers.

The sound quality would likely be far better than any amp in that price range, and 50 watts per channel is plenty for most set ups.

It all boils down to time, and a little soldering skill... The amp only has about 9 basic parts or something so it's very simple.

Oh, and I blind compared a GC chip amp to a Rotel BX series 100WPC solid state and the difference was very apparent. The rotel sounded as if it added a blanket over the speakers making everything a little bit muffled and the bass was a little more boomy.

Just saying that something to look into, is the DIY chip amps.

 

[Michael R Price]

I needed a quick and dirty amp for my tweeters so I ordered the non-inverting gainclone kit from Brian Bell, he has a new website at www.chipamp.com. It cost me $46 including shipping, it has everything but the transformer, and it took me 15 minutes to put together the PCBs. That's a nice option for multi-amping.