Hi,
I thought I wanted to start a thread on building satellite speakers. This has to do with experiences you have learned in terms of design and experiences that you encountered including listening experiences. By definition of satellite speakers, I generally mean a Bose type system with 2 satellites and a subwoofer. The satelittes should generally be small, quite often with not much bass and supplemented with a subwoofer. The satelites are usually small being just 2" or 3" drivers. By virtue of the compactness, the satellites tend to be full rangers which is why it is in the full range forum.
1) I have found ceramic pots to be quite nice as speaker cabinets. You could just choose a suitable glazed vase/pot of the volume. You then cut a nice piece of wood and stick on to the pot with silicone glue to be your baffle. Alternatives include using big thick glass pots or even your favourite pasta sauce jar. Drill a hole at the back with a ceramic/glass drill bit. Spray paint the INSIDE and you will have a nice gloss finish. Very easy way of achieving piano black. Fill the inside with damping material and you are in business. Very little cabinet vibration.
2) You can't do bass reflex. Even though the maths work out but there is too little distance in such small box and all the mids are coming out the port. Tends to interfere with the main driver.
Oon
I thought I wanted to start a thread on building satellite speakers. This has to do with experiences you have learned in terms of design and experiences that you encountered including listening experiences. By definition of satellite speakers, I generally mean a Bose type system with 2 satellites and a subwoofer. The satelittes should generally be small, quite often with not much bass and supplemented with a subwoofer. The satelites are usually small being just 2" or 3" drivers. By virtue of the compactness, the satellites tend to be full rangers which is why it is in the full range forum.
1) I have found ceramic pots to be quite nice as speaker cabinets. You could just choose a suitable glazed vase/pot of the volume. You then cut a nice piece of wood and stick on to the pot with silicone glue to be your baffle. Alternatives include using big thick glass pots or even your favourite pasta sauce jar. Drill a hole at the back with a ceramic/glass drill bit. Spray paint the INSIDE and you will have a nice gloss finish. Very easy way of achieving piano black. Fill the inside with damping material and you are in business. Very little cabinet vibration.
2) You can't do bass reflex. Even though the maths work out but there is too little distance in such small box and all the mids are coming out the port. Tends to interfere with the main driver.
Oon
Lots of experience with 3” drivers. Your cabinet suggestions are good, and even better if you are doing sealed.
I don’t agree with your 2nd point. We have built lots of small reflex enclosures that work well.
dave
I don’t agree with your 2nd point. We have built lots of small reflex enclosures that work well.
dave
When I mean small, I mean really small.... Like your circa 500cc to 1 litre pasta jar. Bose stuff, not mini monitors. I managed to get mine to sound a bit better after stuffing it with acousta stuff. But still there was a lot mids coming out.
However if there are tips on how to do it well, I am all ears. 🙂
Oon
Hi Dave,
Looks great. I think there is a misunderstanding about what I meant.
I was toying around with my Faitalpro 3Fe22 in a PVC pipe. and added in a small BR port. I find the midrange clearer without the port compared to with the port. When I did my measurements on the port, I found out the port had outputs from bass up to 1KHz. So the extra output of mids is messing up the mids from the main driver.
My thoughts are the total path length of the sound is insufficient to full dampen out all the mids, which results in a lot of mids coming out from the port in a slightly delayed manner resulting in distortion when combined to the main sound.
So although bass was better, the mids suffered.
Have you tried the speakers such as the Scanspeak 10F you did with the port sealed off with blu tack and compare the mids for clarity. It could also be that I was using round ports. Maybe slot ports are better at suppressing the mids.
Another possibility would be to place the port at the rear, so it has a chance to travel a little further before being dispersed byt he wall to make it a behave more like a dipole speaker.
My 2 cents.
Oon
Looks great. I think there is a misunderstanding about what I meant.
I was toying around with my Faitalpro 3Fe22 in a PVC pipe. and added in a small BR port. I find the midrange clearer without the port compared to with the port. When I did my measurements on the port, I found out the port had outputs from bass up to 1KHz. So the extra output of mids is messing up the mids from the main driver.
My thoughts are the total path length of the sound is insufficient to full dampen out all the mids, which results in a lot of mids coming out from the port in a slightly delayed manner resulting in distortion when combined to the main sound.
So although bass was better, the mids suffered.
Have you tried the speakers such as the Scanspeak 10F you did with the port sealed off with blu tack and compare the mids for clarity. It could also be that I was using round ports. Maybe slot ports are better at suppressing the mids.
Another possibility would be to place the port at the rear, so it has a chance to travel a little further before being dispersed byt he wall to make it a behave more like a dipole speaker.
My 2 cents.
Oon
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On a slightly different note, what do you reckon are good crossover frequency for a 2.1 system. 100~200Hz, 200~300Hz?
At what frequencies do you think people will start to notice the presence of the subwoofer?
Oon
At what frequencies do you think people will start to notice the presence of the subwoofer?
Oon
Bose has managed to push it up to 200~250 Hz. I have an old Cambridge PCworks. The speakers are really small, so I would guess it is probably in the 200+ Hz region too.
However, other than imaging, another factor might be the bass punch. Somehow, many subwoofers don't have the bass punch of a normal woofer. The music sometimes sound disjointed. Do anybody else have that experience? Lowering the bass XO frequency might help?
So what I am saying is a pair of satelites with a 100+ Hz crossover might have a bass that is more natural sounding bass than one that crosses at 200+ Hz?
Any thoughts on this?
Oon
However, other than imaging, another factor might be the bass punch. Somehow, many subwoofers don't have the bass punch of a normal woofer. The music sometimes sound disjointed. Do anybody else have that experience? Lowering the bass XO frequency might help?
So what I am saying is a pair of satelites with a 100+ Hz crossover might have a bass that is more natural sounding bass than one that crosses at 200+ Hz?
Any thoughts on this?
Oon
With a single sub, XO <100 Hz is important. I have a number of 2-2.5 litre boxes that work that low.
dave
dave
A single sub is not good at imaging. Integration is often an issue with subs that are true atmosphere generators.
dave
dave
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