Designing and Building DIY Lower Half of Speaker? (1 Viewer)

[John Morris]

As I ponder buying speakers like the Aerial 10T I can't help wondering if I couldn't take a speaker that I already really like and simply build a lower half and crossover to match...?
The Upper half I want to use is the Mirage MBS-2 speaker. On a stand, I simply love it's sound and imaging for music... but it is badly lacking of all bass. Here are its' specs:
Bipolar satellite/surround. 3rd Order sealed design.
Tweeter 2 x 1" (2.5mm) ferro-fluid cooled Titanium domes. Bass/Mid Drivers 2 x 5 1/2" (14cm) injection molded polypropylene cones. Termination via Butyl surrounds. Frequency Response 80Hz - 20KHz
Sensitivity (Room) 89dB
Crossover Point 3KHz
Nominal Impedence 8 Ohms
Reccommended Amp Power 15 - 125 Watts RMS
What lower half and crossover specs would you use to build the bass base for this speaker? I would prefer that its' driver face forward and the port, if any, face to the rear.
Any ideas???
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Take Care,
merc
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DFAST, 5C, DVI, HDCP, SafeAudio, Macrovision and Lewinski!!!
[Edited last by John Morris on September 13, 2001 at 10:47 PM]
[Edited last by John Morris on September 14, 2001 at 10:25 PM]

 

[John Morris]

Here are some pictures of what the upper speaker looks like... and the connections are in the base which would sit directly on top of the DIY bass module.
Link Removed
Thanks for all your help... This one I AM gonna build!!!
God Bless America!!!
Take Care, especially now...,
merc

 

[Brandon B]

I'm am taking essentially this approach, although my upper speakers are also DIY. Due to my inexperience with XO and speaker design, I've opted for a fairly straightforward route.
I am using a Marchand XM9 active XO crossing at 250Hz and building a sealed box of about 2.7 cu.ft., with a Stryke Lambda SB10 woofer. This is a pretty nice 10" (there's also a 12) that in this large a box will go pretty cleanly down to 30Hz. No port required. Lambda is spec'ed as good to 500 Hz, so it's got an octave of clearance above the XO, handles 500 watts.
Upsides, virtually no design to do on the bass box as it's sealed, no XO design, just pick a point that suits you and the driver.
Downsides, Marchand unit is 24dB LR type (alkthough custom changes to this topology are possible), which may or may not work with your satellite. Since you would be creating an active/passive XO hybrid, you'll need to biamp them, so more amps needed. It was also pointed out to me that cascading an active XO with a passive inn the 250Hz area might or might not create a dip in the male vocal range.
Anyway, I'm building my setup over the next couple of months and will post my results.
BB

 

[Fred Seger]

John,
What if you went with a subwoofer plate amp in your bottom halves. Most plate amps come with a 100-120 hz high pass filter, so you could just daisy chain your speaker wire to you other speakers. Just an idea.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I guess you could also use a Paradigm X-30 to spread the low frequencies to the sub (use a 12" Shiva, for example in a closed box), and power the sub with an external amp. Either way, it's going cost some $$$ to fill in that bottom 2 octaves.
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