Just took the plunge (1 Viewer)

[Mark_E_Smith]

I finished my center channel project fo now (except for ruining the nice piano finish by setting carefully down on a padded chair now I have an imprint of the matirial in the finish ), I am now very curious as it sounds pretty good. So I just ordered the clio lite system. I have a few questions for those that have used it or similar software.
1 can you measure your entire speaker system to graph the in room combined response?
2 what kind of cables do you need to hook up to the pc board or do they come with them?
3 any traps or tricks to using it?

 

[Chris Carswell]

Mark, I didn't know your were building a center. What did you use? I take it you will need to re-do the finish. Since it is a "piano" type finish I think you should be able to wet sand it then clear-coat it again. This time let it harden completely. I take my halogen lamp and aim it at whatever I am painting while rotating it every 15~20 min so it bakes the paint or clear-coat on and makes it set up faster and harder. Thanks for all the help. I got one more to think about. I'll email it to you. Good luck. Any graphs or pics you want me to post for you LMK & I'd be happy to. It's the least I can do

 

[Mark_E_Smith]

Chris,
I have a pair ( actually 2 pair) of ESS monitors speakers that were built in the late 70's, they feature a Heil Air Motion Transformer aka ribbon tweeter.
http://www.essspeakers.com/amt_monitor.htm
If you have ever heard one of these NO speaker ever sounds right. I was just not happy with any center channel speaker I could find as it would not match the AMT's tweeter. So I decided to build my own. I had contacted ESS about purchasing a smaller version of the big tweeter then I found the Hi Vi RT2C at PE.
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshow...=297-406&DID=7
I seemed just the ticket. But the down side to the ESS Monitors is a hole in the mid-range as they use a 10" woofer and a 10" PR. So I thought about some really good bass/mid drivers and after much research I found the Audax HM170C0 carbon fiber 6.5 driver.
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd..._ID=7793&DID=7
These looked really good and the sensitivity with 2 of them was about right so I would not have to pad the woofer or the driver. but this was before I knew about baffle step. although from listening it does not seem to be severe or existant. any way they modeled well with simple 2 order x-overs no zobel or notch filters. They do sound very detailed esp on acoustical guitars and voices. now I want to find out just how close I came in the real world. Also I am going to build L/R speakers using the AMT's out of the Monitors with 2 each of the Audax 6.5s then a pair of powered subs to fill in the base with an enclosure kinda like the one you posted. Then on to the surrounds. May be 1 Audax and a morel tweeter. Haven't thought that far. I like to listen to clean, clear music. But I do like to play movies so this is a hybrid system, with more focus on musicality.

 

[Chris Carswell]

Mark,
Those look really neat. The Heil AMT ribbons look just like the Ravens.
http://www.zalytron.com/raven.htm
I take it you saw them but then saw the $200 price and went for $100
HI-VI RT2C-A, which is still not cheap by any means.
Audax for drivers? Madisound has a sale on some Audax, HT170K0 in particular.
http://www.madisound.com/audaxsale.html
Probably not in the same league but thought I'd throw it out there. No Seas, PHL, or Focal?
I'm sure with the quality parts you did get the center sounds great.
If you redo the finish, send me a pic of the speaker/s & I'll post it for ya
I'm almost ready to order my stuff. Only pause is I am considering 2 more drivers, both from
GR Research. The GR-165 and the GR-M16. They are $8 more each than the Dayton's
($24 comp to $16) so I am just barely over budget. They look like a better driver, a lot
smoother& better response. I ran them in WinISD and then look good for what I want them for.
Roll off is smooth in a sealed box which would work good with the sub mated with it. They go
deep enough in a ported box as well. If you got some spare time and feel like doing another
good deed, I could surely use your expert help one last time.
Thanks and good luck!!!

 

[Mark_E_Smith]

Cant find those speakers in the database for bassbox. Where did you find them? The AMTs are not like the ravens, as I remember Heil was the inventor of that type of driver in the early 70s. They have HUGE magnets and can handel 400 watts of power. I used to have 2 pair stacked with 800 watts (fused) of power per channel. They played clean and clear at 127 db! So loud that we had to have the turntable in another room to stop the feedback. My wife starts grousing at 90 db now but I have a free hand on the toys, just not to loud when shes there.

 

[Chris Carswell]

Dang thats LOUD!!! Oldies are goodies. I still wish I never sold my acustats ( hince my signature )
Which drivers can't you find. The GR-165, GR-M16 , or the Audax HT170K0? I can send you the info/graph etc if you like.

 

[Mark_E_Smith]

Need the T/S and a graph of the GRs, hopefully with test sweeps of spl.

 

[Chris Carswell]

Mark,
Once again you have come to my aid to help me achieve sonic nirvana.

I will email them to you or we could continue this over in my ohm thread where we started it if you like. I don't want to clutter up your post with my stuff, unless you don't mind.

Thanks a Million!!!
-Chris