microTower bipolar ML-TL for CHR-70 or EL70

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Rullknufs

Rullknufs

Member
Joined 2010
Yeah, we've looked at Tysen a little bit. And i think multiple EL70 would be cool.
But as for now he bought an Onkyo TX-SR607 yesterday and first he wants to build a center-speaker since he already got four other working speakers.
I guess a center speaker with either EL70 or CHP70 is the way to go.
 
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chrisb

Member
Joined 2002
Rullknufs said:
Yeah, we've looked at Tysen a little bit. And i think multiple EL70 would be cool.
But as for now he bought an Onkyo TX-SR607 yesterday and first he wants to build a center-speaker since he already got four other working speakers.
I guess a center speaker with either EL70 or CHP70 is the way to go.
Click to expand...


A good starting point for an all MA HT system :rolleyes:. Some rough ideas for enclosures here:

http://homepage.mac.com/tlinespeakers/FAL/downloads/MT-HT-Appendix-191209.pdf

EL and CHP70 would need some venting - Dave could probably advise details

After literally scores of enclosures, as best a I can recall the smallest enclosure I've built so far for EL70 is the mMar Kel70, which could no doubt be morphed into a horizontal layout with port slots at each end.
 
Z

zman01

Member
Joined 2011
Just finished building a pair of Half Towers with CHR70.2.

Running them with a Dayton DTA-100 amp. Throwing music at it as I type... the speakers are doing their job. Imaging and resolution are very good, nice bass too. Have lined the top, back, and one side with recycled denim; no extra stuffing in yet. Have set them 8-10 inches in front of the back wall. A pic below beside my unfinished Super Pensil 12.

Sounds like another winner from Planet10 and Scott. :)

-Zia
 

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zman01

Member
Joined 2011
Half Towers

Aptly named, but pack a decent punch for the driver and the side of the cabinet - under 5 inches deep! Very easy build. I have lined the cabs with recycled denim 3/4 inches thick - top, back, and one side fully; the other side partially from top to the bottom of driver basket to reduce early reflections.
 

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Nanook

Nanook

Member
Joined 2004
I'm always amazed at the number of designs...

Dave and Chris (and others "in the group") get built themselves, and the time spent listening and tweaking them.

The Castle style microtowers seem like they could be a great speaker for a lot of people:
  • highly WAF acceptable
  • low costs due to small cabinets, and CHR70 drivers
  • relatively simple build, even for me, "thumbless" stew
My faves have been my OBs that I built years ago, but they just don't fit very many rooms. The use of a TQWP enclosure, and the addition of a driver on the top of the cabinet (I guess that makes it a Dual Tuned Quarter Wave Pipe, DTQWP?) as per Castle Acoustics, makes these enclosures suitable for almost any room. I love the prime senclosure for the CHR70eN drivers, but the "Castle" style speakers are close to my heart, and don't require a set of good stands (I have good Target speaker stands, but not all do. I'll probably die with the speaker stands and my Target welded Delta 5 stand).

Dave and/or Chris, how do these compare to the Primes? (If not a suitable place to post this, please email me. thanx)
 
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chrisb

Member
Joined 2002
Nanook said:
Dave and Chris (and others "in the group") get built themselves, and the time spent listening and tweaking them.

The Castle style microtowers seem like they could be a great speaker for a lot of people:
  • highly WAF acceptable
  • low costs due to small cabinets, and CHR70 drivers
  • relatively simple build, even for me, "thumbless" stew
My faves have been my OBs that I built years ago, but they just don't fit very many rooms. The use of a TQWP enclosure, and the addition of a driver on the top of the cabinet (I guess that makes it a Dual Tuned Quarter Wave Pipe, DTQWP?) as per Castle Acoustics, makes these enclosures suitable for almost any room. I love the prime senclosure for the CHR70eN drivers, but the "Castle" style speakers are close to my heart, and don't require a set of good stands (I have good Target speaker stands, but not all do. I'll probably die with the speaker stands and my Target welded Delta 5 stand).

Dave and/or Chris, how do these compare to the Primes? (If not a suitable place to post this, please email me. thanx)
Click to expand...

as suitable as any I'd guess Stew

neither of these are lease-breaking, gonad-bruising party monsters - for that consult Cal

Castle microtowers: vis a vis "ken" prime (assuming same driver)?

I've lived with a pair of the former for well over a year now ( EL70) - it's frankly been longer than that since I've listened to any of the 'kens on a daily basis. What does not having yet replaced them with something else in the upstairs system say about their "livability"?


pros:
helluva lot easier build
don't need stands
great placement flexibility and do a pretty decent job of filling pretty big space -
deeper LF extension /weight (but see below)
for mine at least, WAF up the wazoo - the 'kens on stands, not so much
excellent detail with CHR / EL70 (only drivers I've heard to date)

cons:

less precise imaging specificity

not as finessed in bass articulation or roll-off- OTOH many find the 'kens lacking impact and weight

Not as challenging a build as the 'kens for the masochist in all of us (and after probably 2 dozen pair of various sizes over the past 5-6yrs, I'm happy to give mine a sabbatical)

While the microtowers are actually physically larger (cubically) than the 'ken for single of same drive model, and probably use more square feet of material, there are fewer pieces per box, and much simpler joinery.
 
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pizzachef

Member
Joined 2011
alpair-7-castle.jpg


Well, I completed my build of the tower bipoles using Alpair-7's and I must say that I am very pleased with the results. I have an awful room that is acoustically horrible and these sound better than about anything I have put in there. The wife loves them as well. The detail from the Alpair-7's is just amazing, and I really like the way the bipoles fill even a fairly large room with sound. This is my first TL design, and I am just amazed at the bass from this thing. If I close my eyes and listen, then open them and see that one little tiny driver pointing at me from each speaker, well, it is a real disconnect.

Right now the lower end is a bit too boomy on certain music. I don't know if that is due to my putting the port front-firing (I did this hoping it would make speaker placement less sensitive) or just the stuffing. I only stuffed the top 1/3 so I will go back in (the backs are removable) and stuff further down the speaker to see if we can tune it a bit.

The only shortcoming of this speaker is that in a large room they are not quite loud enough on some metal music I want to crank up. Jazz, classical, vocals are all fine. If I continue to love these, I might try designing a larger box for something like an Alpair 10 to try to get a bit more volume.

By the way, I broke the drivers in on the benchtop for over 200 hours, starting with very soft classical and working up from there. The last 100 were just a random mix from my iPod. Had a couple of small 20 watt Lepai class D amps that were cheap at Amazon for the break-in work. I had not thought of it before, but this is an added undiscussed virtue of full range drivers -- the ability to just hook them up to an amp and run them in on a benchtop without any sort of crossover to protect them.

Thanks to all you folks, and particularly the guys at Planet 10, for the help and design
 
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