Modifying the GR Research A/V-2 (1 Viewer)

[ChrisArmour]

I am going to be purchasing 3 A/V-2's and 2 A/V-1's for a 5.1 set-up. My problem is that the A/V-2's are a 4ohm speaker and the A/V-1's are 8ohm, this is making amp selection a little difficult because I would like to stay within the power recommendations. I have been in contact with Danny at GR and he has been very helpful. I would like to have all my speakers at 8ohms. I thought of putting the A/V-3's drivers in the A/V-2's cabs, this will give me an 8ohm speaker but I will loose a lot of bottom end extension, so how about a ported A/V-2 with the 16ohm drivers? The cab space is still smaller than the A/V-3 but it seems like porting would help return much of that lost bottom end. Have any of you tried this yet? Opinions?

 

[Geno]

Danny would be the best source of info for these speakers since he designed and engineered them.

 

[cacu]

Any more update/info on this topic? I'm also interested in the same thing. Using the AV3 kit in the AV2 cabinet design. The cost for the AV3 is actually less considering Sonicap for the AV2 is $99 and Sonicap for AV3 is only $64. and the AV3 get the new drivers.
AV2: $300+$99=$399
AV3: $329+$64=$394

Best of all, 8ohm speakers all across makes it easy.

 

[Brian Bunge]

You can build the A/V-2 cabinets sealed (not sure what internal depth is) and use the A/V-3 components in them. I know I built one for one of Danny's customers but just don't remember what the overall depth ends up being.

 

[ChrisArmour]

But wont you will still lose some bottom end extension even with a larger A/V-2 cab with A/V-3 drivers. The A/V-3 was designed to be a transmission line.

 

[Danny Richie]

Well guys you can't just put the M-130/16 woofers (woofers from the A/V-3) into the A/V-2 enclosure and it work very well, but you can achieve what you are shooting for here.

The new M-130/16 woofers were designed with a slightly larger Q than the M-130 (8 ohm version).

This was to allow it to be used in slightly larger enclosures and give a little lower end extension.

There is a sealed box version of the A/V-3 that from the front looks exactly like the A/V-2 but the sealed box likes about 2" being as deep as the A/V-2 design.

It's great for a center channel that really doesn't have to play as low most of the time any way as it primarily has to cover dialog.

You can however build a deeper ported enclosure with 1.0 to 1.1 cubic feet and get back low end extension, but it would be pretty deep if the same frontal area is kept. The A/V-2 enclosure is about .75 cubic feet internally.

But really, as left and right mains it is excellent in the transmission line designed enclosure. I highly recommend it in this configuration.

It also takes up no more floor space than the stand mounted A/V-2.

The transmission line design can also be flip flopped to a front exit if it has to be placed too close to a rear wall.

There is a lot of flexibility here with these kits.

Personally I would stick with the transmission line version. Having heard them several ways, trust me on this one, the transmission line is the bomb.

Then use a sealed version as a center channel and it will be a nice size that you can deal with.

 

[Kevin Golding]

Danny,
What kind of bass extension does the sealed version have?

 

[Danny Richie]

What kind of bass extension does the sealed version have?

-3db around 86Hz anechoic.

 

[AndyHangartner]

I think you can rely on Danny's info. I use (4) AV3's and the AV3S for the center. It really is an awesome setup. When I finish the AV1's for channels 6&7, I'll be in speaker Heaven.My first pair were in Oak which are soon to be sold as bare cabinets, but I liked them so much, I proceeded to build all new ones in Cherry.
andy