broadz 21 Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 Hey guys, Spent years playing with car audio: starting off with SPL and ending up with competing and later judging SQ. Having never really been into home audio I figured i'd start with what i'm familiar with in this budget speaker build. Originally, it was intended to only be a big bookshelf setup however the bug bit and led to be building matching woofer enclosures. I designed and built the enclosures myself and had custom 3 way tri-amp crossovers made by a good friend. Enclosures are constructed from double 18mm layers of MDF and painted to a piano white gloss finish. Currently being ran from a Yamaha WXC50 music streamer/Cambridge Azur 640BD CD/BD player, Cambridge Azur 551r receiver (as a preamp), 2x Crown Macrotech 1200 power amplifiers and a paradigm active crossover. When I move into the house I'm building, these will form part of the speaker setup for my dedicated home cinema and intend building matching center channel utilizing Dynaudio ceiling speakers for rears 9 5 Link to post Share on other sites
kroozzy 159 Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 Nice build They look fantastic 🤩 How do they sound ? Link to post Share on other sites
broadz 21 Posted January 21 Author Share Posted January 21 Thanks guys! They sound good but I need to do something about the crossover between woofer and midwoofer. I’ll be looking into a DSP that I can work with xover points, slopes, phase etc to work out what it needs to be to have custom passives made between the lower cabinet and the bookshelfs that sit on top. I just haven’t had the time or money at the moment as I’m building a house and completely wiring it for automation and audio throughout. With the crude xover I currently have there is much room for improvement. Sounds good but not truely great just yet. As for the garage, that’s actually a cabinet joinery workshop. I’m lucky I get to build my cabinets in a fully set up workshop Link to post Share on other sites
andyr 5,881 Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 53 minutes ago, broadz said: Thanks guys! They sound good but I need to do something about the crossover between woofer and midwoofer. I’ll be looking into a DSP that I can work with xover points, slopes, phase etc to work out what it needs to be to have custom passives made between the lower cabinet and the bookshelfs that sit on top. You can set up the XOs for 4-way active using a miniDSP 10x10HD. However, don't forget this requires you to have 8x amplifier channels. If you're only interested in the XO between woofer and midwoofer ... a 2x4HD will be sufficient. If this is the case ... you only need 4 amplifier channels - but how have you organised the XO inside the 'bookshelves'? Andy Link to post Share on other sites
broadz 21 Posted January 21 Author Share Posted January 21 Hi Andy, thanks for you reply. I have a set of custom 3 way passives which use the same xover points and slopes as factory however gives the ability to bi/tri-wire them. I've used the bookshelfs for a couple years and have been quite happy with the performance however I just wanted a bit more output in the bottom end so I added the MW180 woofers. I'd only need to work out a 2 way passive crossover that is a HPF around the 60-100hz region for the bookshelfs and a matching (or underlapping) LPF for the woofer enclosures. Your suggestion of a mini DSP is exactly what I'd need to do the trialling prior to engaging someone to build a passive crossover. At the moment I have a pair of borrowed Crown Macrotech 1200 power amps I am using but eventually want to utilise my Cambridge 840A or a bigger, better power amp. Link to post Share on other sites
andyr 5,881 Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 14 hours ago, broadz said: Hi Andy, thanks for your reply. I have a set of custom 3 way passives which use the same xover points and slopes as factory however gives the ability to bi/tri-wire them. I've used the bookshelfs for a couple years and have been quite happy with the performance however I just wanted a bit more output in the bottom end so I added the MW180 woofers. I'd only need to work out a 2 way passive crossover that is a HPF around the 60-100hz region for the bookshelfs and a matching (or underlapping) LPF for the woofer enclosures. Your suggestion of a mini DSP is exactly what I'd need to do the trialling prior to engaging someone to build a passive crossover. A passive XO in the 60-100Hz region will need some pretty large component values. At LFs, I suggest an active XO makes better sense - either analogue (like Rod Elliott's P09) or digital. 14 hours ago, broadz said: At the moment I have a pair of borrowed Crown Macrotech 1200 power amps I am using but eventually want to utilise my Cambridge 840A or a bigger, better power amp. I would've thought your Cambridge 840A on the bookshelfs plus the Crown Macrotech 1200 amps on the bass boxes should be a great combination! Andy 1 Link to post Share on other sites
broadz 21 Posted January 22 Author Share Posted January 22 Thanks Andy, I also have a dedicated 18” 3000w RMS cinema subwoofer which is built into the wall with its own amp. The amp running the 18” subwoofer would only turn on when using a surround receiver and the amp running the Dyn MW180s would run whenever the 841a is running. What are your thoughts on the best way I could have it set up so I don’t kill the fragile Dyn MW180s on movies Link to post Share on other sites
micksmaster 1 Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 If you go the miniDSP route, it’d be trivial to add a high pass on the MW180’s somewhere around 40Hz to protect them from over excursion on movies. As pointed out above, this gets pricey if you want to do it passively! Sweet setup btw. I’m an old car audio fanatic too and I have fond memories of the dyns. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
broadz 21 Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 Thanks mate. So are you saying to use the minidsp to run the 18" sub amp with no subsonic and a LPF of say around 40 and the dyn MW180s from 40 to 80 with the inbuilt 80hz filter in my receiver to power the dyn bookshelf speakers? When i have it ran fully active and I buy a decent multi-channel amplifier I can have all crossovers handled by a bigger, better DSP. Link to post Share on other sites
broadz 21 Posted February 1 Author Share Posted February 1 @Winno My first attempt at hifi Link to post Share on other sites
Winno 865 Posted February 1 Share Posted February 1 38 minutes ago, broadz said: @Winno My first attempt at hifi And well done too I must say. Obviously much thought has gone into this. I connected one of my better car audio amps and some full range drivers (in custom designed enclosures) up the other day and was surprised at how good it all sounded in a home environment. There's certainly not much, if anything, to be lost in using what you have "even if" it's car audio gear. Dyn is right up there anyway so you have a great head start. Following your progress now. Keep up the great work. Link to post Share on other sites
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