I recently heard the Linkwitz LX521 and was quite impressed to say the least. As a DIY project this would be a bit too much, though, and a bit too pricey - but which got me thinking.
Linkwitz also designed the Orion, and I was wondering, if someone has done a project/plan/kit to build just the midrange/tweeter part of the Orion leaving out the woofer part, and just filling in the lower end with e.g. a Rythmik sub?
Linkwitz also designed the Orion, and I was wondering, if someone has done a project/plan/kit to build just the midrange/tweeter part of the Orion leaving out the woofer part, and just filling in the lower end with e.g. a Rythmik sub?
Correct, the mid and two tweeters ran about $700 per side when I built mine back in 2009...likely much higher now.
If you want a similar listening experience for a smaller budget, try building a LXmini (or a clone). It's a bit restricted at the low end, but that can be solved with a good sub. And the amount of listening pleasure this little speaker offers is truly amazing. I prefer them over my Quad 63's.
Thanks everyone for the input. Didn't realize the Orion drivers were that expensive. I looked at the LXmini's before, but these would be a hard sell re WAF, and I'm financially not that constraint. Which made me ponder another option: building the LX521 without the woofer part (and use my existing Rythmik sub for the low end). The upper baffle drivers for the LX521 are surprisingly affordable ($660 for 4 x 2 drivers) and Madisound will even sell me the flatpack cabinet without the woofer enclosure for $540. Has this been done? Does anyone have experience with this? I have toyed with the idea of getting a class D amp and a DSP anyway, so these wouldn't necessarily be extra expenses.
I'd say the chances of getting a truly satisfactory result are slim. I did something similar a few years ago, in that I built the LX521 with non-standard bass units. (Folded dipoles with larger woofers than standard.) I never got the bass to blend properly. With monopolar subs, I think the challenge would be significant. And if it's a single sub (which your posts seem to suggest) I can't see it working.
The crossover frequency to the woofers looks to be 120 Hz for the LX521, if my search results are correct. It also appears the Rythmik sub will go up to 120 Hz. Looks like a winner to me.
The nice thing about the Rythmik sub is that it will make actual low bass notes instead of just going whiff whiff like an open baffle when it tries to produce 28 Hz. Absolute worst case you hate it. You could always build the Linkwitz open baffle bass units later.
Check out Juhazi's Aino Gradient project. Its all open baffle except sub.
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/aino-gradient-a-collaborative-speaker-project.231353/
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/aino-gradient-a-collaborative-speaker-project.231353/
I've typed about a dozen responses to that, and deleted them each time because they were too rude. Let's just say that you've obviously never heard the Orions or the LX521s.
A woofer in an open baffle, unless it is really, really wide, is well known to suffer from cancelation from the back wave going around the baffle. Between the 12 dB/oct roll off of the woofer below Fs, and an additional 6 dB per octave below the baffle width frequency, which is ??? 200 Hz ??? for this speaker, just guessing. So at 28 Hz the attenuation is going to be large and the woofers will be hitting Xmax with little resistance, leading to lots of surround flex sound, ie "Whiff Whiff" and not a lot of output. It's just physics / acoustics. Design decisions were made with full knowledge of this. Linkwitz illustrated it on his website. No need to get all bent out of shape over it. https://www.linkwitzlab.com/Amplifiers-etc/SPLmax.htm Go model the speaker with VituixCad or other program and see what the SPL max is at 28 Hz.
Just looking at the tiny baffle around the upper woofer or is it a lower midrange, that driver will need low frequency boost to compensate for baffle step / cancelation to make it flat to 120 Hz. There's a good reason the crossovers in this speaker used active filters or DSP.
Heres one plot, as links have a way of not working years down the line.
Just looking at the tiny baffle around the upper woofer or is it a lower midrange, that driver will need low frequency boost to compensate for baffle step / cancelation to make it flat to 120 Hz. There's a good reason the crossovers in this speaker used active filters or DSP.
Heres one plot, as links have a way of not working years down the line.
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Excuse me, but we all know that. But knowing that we prepare by using large baffle, or u shape not to look so large, with two 15" woofers per side. Woofers of proper xmax and eq, 20Hz flat in room is possible. Maybe not 120dB, but who needs that. There is no 'whiff whiff'. Open baffle bass is way better than that.
Go ahead with your 'boom boom' sub, do not complain quality is not up to par with open baffle part.
Go ahead with your 'boom boom' sub, do not complain quality is not up to par with open baffle part.
Quality isn't the issue at all. At 28 Hz the narrow baffle open baffle has an attenuated output dipole pattern and the sealed woofer has much higher output per woofer and presents an omni-directional pattern. Very linear low distortion or poor quality high distortion woofers can be used in either configuration. The quality myth regarding open baffle bass vs sealed is just that, a myth. They have different radiation patterns. It is relatively easy to EQ sealed woofers to have the same Q and frequency response roll off as an open baffle to avoid the "boom". The sealed woofer will just have a higher max SPL. Certainly there are rooms where the dipole pattern is nice as it doesn't shake the floor or ceiling of the neighbors in a multi-floor unit.
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That depends strongly on your room. Open baffle is expected to have ~6dB (or more) lower spl than other speaker principles.
Why? You can build a speaker with equal quality drivers easily for literally 1/10s of it's retail price. You need to design your own XO though which is - admittendly - not that easy. Other than the name and the very elusive price ther's nothing special about the OB speaker. Not even the exotic shape of the baffle contains any mysteries.
Exactly! They are good but there are so many equally good speakers out ther!