Thanks Barryso, I'm getting a bit of sound from the woofer, but it's quite low at maximum volume. I've connected the Peerless and Vifa directly to the amp and they both work, although the volume is quite low.
Soldering is really poor, I know, but given that there is a good surface contact I thought that it should work anyhow. Apart from the drivers' pins that I have not soldered the other joins are not moving.
I've uploaded on youtube here a clip of the full circuit, glad if you could help spotting what I'm doing wrong, I'm based in Senegal, would be very difficult to find someone here to sort this out.
Best,
D
Hooking up the drivers to the amp should have provided enough volume you'd have had to be gentle with the volume control ... at least with the Vifa.
When you hooked them to the amp was the crossover still hooked up or had it been completely disconnected when the wire from the amp was attached?
It's against the odds that all four drivers would be defective. And as you said, the amp works fine with other speakers. Going to have to think about this for a bit.
When I hook up the drivers directly to the amp with just a cable, no other component in between, they work, I'd have expected higher volume but it's likely the fact that it's in open air, and that I tested only one at a time... at 1 m I can very confortably listen at max volume on the smartphone and 50% on the preamp (which is, btw, a headphone preamp but with enough juice for this system). I would assume the drivers are fine, there's something between them and the amp that is't not, and can't figure out what.
As a next step, do you think it's worth asking an electronic repairer to professionally re-solder everything while keeping the same configuration?
@Pano, about soldering, I didn't use flux, as I don't have any, I guess most of the solder stuck on top of wires, but connections are still solid to the touch so part of it must have bond the wires.
Cheers,
D
As a next step, do you think it's worth asking an electronic repairer to professionally re-solder everything while keeping the same configuration?
@Pano, about soldering, I didn't use flux, as I don't have any, I guess most of the solder stuck on top of wires, but connections are still solid to the touch so part of it must have bond the wires.
Cheers,
D
Your submission soldering looks like it should work as gas as l can see.
Did you use normal electronic solder with a resign core?
Also I would assume that you shook and wiggled the wires while trying to play music?
Without the baffles but with the crossover the woofer will not be very loud. But the tweeter will be.
Did you use normal electronic solder with a resign core?
Also I would assume that you shook and wiggled the wires while trying to play music?
Without the baffles but with the crossover the woofer will not be very loud. But the tweeter will be.
To troubleshoot you may have to take one step at a time.
- Desolder most of it
- Connect woofer only thru the and inductor
- Connect the tweeter parts one by one.
Thanks Pano, that did the trick. I desoldered everything, then tried to add one component at a time using screw terminals, and it all worked until the end. I'm keeping it as it is.
As for the volume I think it's me who had too high expectations with the 75W per channel given by the amp. Anyhow, looking forward to finalise this project, just need to varnish the woodwork and assemble everything.
Thanks a lot to all, it's great to be part of a community like this.
David
As for the volume I think it's me who had too high expectations with the 75W per channel given by the amp. Anyhow, looking forward to finalise this project, just need to varnish the woodwork and assemble everything.
Thanks a lot to all, it's great to be part of a community like this.
David
Attachments
Thanks all for you nice words.
After a PM request I'm posting the sketchup file of the drawing which I used mostly to decide on the design, the first on the left is the winner. Please consider that dimensions and angles might not be exactly what I finally used nor what what recommended in the forum but they are very close, just double check them if you are building one of them.
WIth regard to the base, it's made out of scrap plywood and MDF, all glued toghether and then cut to an angle at the table saw. I've then glued and screwed the leg to the base so that the baffle would be perfectly vertical. Leg and baffle are not glued so that I can disassemble them if needed, 4 bolts and nuts are more than sufficient to hold them solid.
The baffle is made out of 3 cm MDF, while the wings, 3 cm thick, are made out of a local, tropical hardwood, same as the leg.
I cut the hole in the leg with the mortiser of my minimax cu300 plus some rasp and sandpaper work.
I don't have a router, and didn't want to buy one just to cut four holes, so I used a compass to draw the circles, then drilled hundreds of holes along it and then rasp, sandpaper...
Enjoy.
After a PM request I'm posting the sketchup file of the drawing which I used mostly to decide on the design, the first on the left is the winner. Please consider that dimensions and angles might not be exactly what I finally used nor what what recommended in the forum but they are very close, just double check them if you are building one of them.
WIth regard to the base, it's made out of scrap plywood and MDF, all glued toghether and then cut to an angle at the table saw. I've then glued and screwed the leg to the base so that the baffle would be perfectly vertical. Leg and baffle are not glued so that I can disassemble them if needed, 4 bolts and nuts are more than sufficient to hold them solid.
The baffle is made out of 3 cm MDF, while the wings, 3 cm thick, are made out of a local, tropical hardwood, same as the leg.
I cut the hole in the leg with the mortiser of my minimax cu300 plus some rasp and sandpaper work.
I don't have a router, and didn't want to buy one just to cut four holes, so I used a compass to draw the circles, then drilled hundreds of holes along it and then rasp, sandpaper...
Enjoy.
Just for fun I did a mock up version of the Manzanita with a Kawai 30P09 ex-organ driver (Qts 1.4) and an unknown to me 3" full ranger from some home theater speakers.
Series xover with additional 1000uF in front of the LF driver to extend and smooth out the LF response.
Xover needs a bit more work but the result is very promising, reaches down to around 42 Hz, the mids have great presence. Overall sensitivity is around 86dB so my ACA barely copes with the demand.
Also will be much better if I somehow manage to time align the drivers.
Here are some photos:
Series xover with additional 1000uF in front of the LF driver to extend and smooth out the LF response.
Xover needs a bit more work but the result is very promising, reaches down to around 42 Hz, the mids have great presence. Overall sensitivity is around 86dB so my ACA barely copes with the demand.
Also will be much better if I somehow manage to time align the drivers.
Here are some photos:
Attachments
Not really. John talked to me about it, but I don’t seem to have documentation. Sorry
@brixvold I dug thru again and what I found seems to refer to the Ultra with the GRS 15 and the Vifa 3.5 on a bigger baffle, not the High Efficiency version.
FWIW, here is a crossover.
The best I can find is what John said about this in an email:
What John usually did was start with the stock Manzanita crossover and work from there. The design is forgiving enough that the stock crossover sound good on most of John's designs. I built 2X15 ultra and still used the 20mH coil, despite the fact that it was 4 ohm. On top of that I swapped in and out several fullrange drivers in the 4-8" range both vintage and new. Mostly it was the tweeter (fullrange) resistor that needed adjusting to match levels. That is where I would start, the Ultra crossover with a low pass inductor of 18-20mH. You'll need to tweak the cap and resistor on your midrange, especially if you are using the NE123.
John was such a prolific speaker builder that it was difficult to keep up with all his designs and the names for them. I know about the ones I built or helped with, but the others are a blur. I helped on the 18" Coax OB crossover, but can't remember it well enough to reproduce it now that I have those drivers. I'll have to start with what I remember.
FWIW, here is a crossover.
The best I can find is what John said about this in an email:
I asked about the crossover but can't find a reply. And there is nothing about the 18" version.
What John usually did was start with the stock Manzanita crossover and work from there. The design is forgiving enough that the stock crossover sound good on most of John's designs. I built 2X15 ultra and still used the 20mH coil, despite the fact that it was 4 ohm. On top of that I swapped in and out several fullrange drivers in the 4-8" range both vintage and new. Mostly it was the tweeter (fullrange) resistor that needed adjusting to match levels. That is where I would start, the Ultra crossover with a low pass inductor of 18-20mH. You'll need to tweak the cap and resistor on your midrange, especially if you are using the NE123.
John was such a prolific speaker builder that it was difficult to keep up with all his designs and the names for them. I know about the ones I built or helped with, but the others are a blur. I helped on the 18" Coax OB crossover, but can't remember it well enough to reproduce it now that I have those drivers. I'll have to start with what I remember.