DIY planar magnetic + open baffle woofer array

Few

Member
Joined 2004
Thanks! I'm back in action---just in time to embark on two weeks of Scandinavian travel. Oh well. Maybe some of their design sense and audio technology expertise will rub off on me.

Few
 

Few

Member
Joined 2004
I'm afraid not. I designed them (I assume you mean the planar magnetic panels...) for dipole use so I didn't really have a reason to measure Vas. Because of the stretch-wrap "surround" around the kapton tape diaphragms, the tension is likely lower than if I had directly clamped the kapton to the edges of the frames. I don't have numerical value to quantify things, though.

Few
 

Few

Member
Joined 2004
At long last I have built some 12” sealed subwoofers intended to stylistically match, and complement, the existing towers. So far I’ve only completed their construction. I need to assemble the ICE amp I bought to drive them, and move them from the shop into their final position. I’ll use the remaining outputs on my miniDSP to equalize them and apply crossovers.

I bought quarter round aluminum extrusions from Tnutz for the corners, and trimmed down some aluminum angle to form the rings surrounding the drivers.

Few
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2357.jpeg
    IMG_2357.jpeg
    392.3 KB · Views: 53
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user

Few

Member
Joined 2004
Well with my infinitely tolerant wife's help, and a hydraulic car jack, I was able to hoist one (Heavy!!) open baffle woofer tower onto a subwoofer. I'm going to sleep on "the look" before deciding, but my first reaction is that it makes the woofer tower too tall and imposing. I originally built in space below the bottom woofer in that array so that the overall array would be at a sensible height, but that space looks out of place when it's on top of a subwoofer. I may be better off putting the subwoofers just behind the pairs of towers rather than using them as bases for the woofer arrays. Not what I envisioned, but maybe the smarter move---especially given the bit of a grimace-tainted forced smile on my wife's face as we stepped back after perching the first woofer tower on its subwoofer.

If I do put the subwoofers behind the towers, that might force the towers a few more inches out into the room. That's something I would prefer anyway for acoustic reasons, so maybe the speaker gods are trying to tell me something.

Few
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user

Few

Member
Joined 2004
Here’s the look. Having considered the options, I think I’m going to undo yesterday’s lifting efforts and place the subwoofer behind the towers. Now I have to figure out how to do this without damaging anything.
Few
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2360.jpeg
    IMG_2360.jpeg
    379.8 KB · Views: 66
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Top