Due to a clerical error on my part, I now have 4 pairs of 2 way monitors going spare. Wharfedale delta 30.2, mordaunt short ms20, mission 731 and 732.
In my house, I like to have two systems. One for the office, and a surround sound for the TV (got a standard 2 channel amp for the office, and a 5.1 avr for the TV, I'd upgrade to 7.1, but I'm really not sure if it's a good idea for the space).
Originally, with a spare amp too, I was going to give away one pair, keep one pair (most likely the 732s), and sell the other two, but I was tinkering with some of them the other day, and I was really enjoying the difference in the characteristics. I won't say they're all on the same tier exactly, but they're not that far apart, and I do enjoy the variety, even if they're not crazy different.
Recently, I bought this pair of custom speakers. Way cheaper than they should have been, and absolutely massive. I think the previous owners liked them for parties, and I got a horrible overpowered amp for the asking price thrown in for free. Thankfully, it plays nice with the avr, and the added depth it gives the sound at not insane volumes (I like my neighbour, and it's a semi detached, what can you do) is very nice.
It had me thinking "how hard could it possibly be to whack some MDF together, do maybe 5-10 minutes of soldering, and unscrew drivers for transplanting".
I did do a little research, and the advice seemed to be "why would you do this", but I guess I'm just after answers with my specific set up.
My current thinking was:
1) don't mess with the 732s. They're nice, I like them, perfect for the office. Keep those as is (once I've repaired a tweeter).
2) give away the 731s + amp. It's getting a bit silly having this many unused cabinets lying around.
3) unholy Frankenstein combination of what, iirc are some wharfedale lasers (please don't make me walk downstairs to find out which) I'm using for rear surrounds in the TV set up, the mordaunt short ms20s, and the delta 30.2s into a disgusting mttmm or mtmm floor standing speaker, then flog the unused parts on the bay. Potentially add a woofer for fun too, then use them for my rear surrounds in the 5.1 set up.
What I want to know, is on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being bad, and 10 being good:
1) how good/bad could it sound
2) how much will I regret my decision on this as a project
3) chances of success? (Part time tinkerer + audio refurbish and repair. I won't say what I achieved is aesthetically pleasing, but I also won't say I care, or that it doesn't function)
Answering a few of your questions in advance:
-this is a waste of time. If you want floor standing speakers, why not buy a kit, or just get some off eBay?
For the same reason that god made grapes but not wine, and milk but not cheese, so that we might share in the divine act of taking something cool and making something stupid but tasty
-why not sell the speakers that you have, and get more sensible drivers at the very least?
I'm emotionally attached to some of them.
-that doesn't explain why you're okay chopping them up for parts... How about this, why not sell two pairs and your avr, upgrade to 7.1, and then you get to keep more of them?
For 1, the room is already pretty unbalanced to begin with, and it'd be too big of a job sorting that out, and for 2, it really is a space thing at the end of the day. The spots where the surrounds are at the minute could go up to the ceiling, but it'd be a bad idea to remove square footage.
-interesting... Sounds like that's quite a small room, why do you want such big speakers then?
Mind your own business. For reals, depth of sound, clarity, quality e.t.c. I'm not here to blast my, or anyone else's ears off, but I do like nice sound. Also, I can see myself moving in the not too distant future. While I'm not above paying silly money for larger removal vehicles, or doing some to-ing and fro-ing myself, I anticipate my views on sound aren't going to change anytime soon.
Also, fyi, I will be looking into wiring kits, I think whatever configuration I end up doing won't really lend itself to reusing any of the existing ones.
In my house, I like to have two systems. One for the office, and a surround sound for the TV (got a standard 2 channel amp for the office, and a 5.1 avr for the TV, I'd upgrade to 7.1, but I'm really not sure if it's a good idea for the space).
Originally, with a spare amp too, I was going to give away one pair, keep one pair (most likely the 732s), and sell the other two, but I was tinkering with some of them the other day, and I was really enjoying the difference in the characteristics. I won't say they're all on the same tier exactly, but they're not that far apart, and I do enjoy the variety, even if they're not crazy different.
Recently, I bought this pair of custom speakers. Way cheaper than they should have been, and absolutely massive. I think the previous owners liked them for parties, and I got a horrible overpowered amp for the asking price thrown in for free. Thankfully, it plays nice with the avr, and the added depth it gives the sound at not insane volumes (I like my neighbour, and it's a semi detached, what can you do) is very nice.
It had me thinking "how hard could it possibly be to whack some MDF together, do maybe 5-10 minutes of soldering, and unscrew drivers for transplanting".
I did do a little research, and the advice seemed to be "why would you do this", but I guess I'm just after answers with my specific set up.
My current thinking was:
1) don't mess with the 732s. They're nice, I like them, perfect for the office. Keep those as is (once I've repaired a tweeter).
2) give away the 731s + amp. It's getting a bit silly having this many unused cabinets lying around.
3) unholy Frankenstein combination of what, iirc are some wharfedale lasers (please don't make me walk downstairs to find out which) I'm using for rear surrounds in the TV set up, the mordaunt short ms20s, and the delta 30.2s into a disgusting mttmm or mtmm floor standing speaker, then flog the unused parts on the bay. Potentially add a woofer for fun too, then use them for my rear surrounds in the 5.1 set up.
What I want to know, is on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being bad, and 10 being good:
1) how good/bad could it sound
2) how much will I regret my decision on this as a project
3) chances of success? (Part time tinkerer + audio refurbish and repair. I won't say what I achieved is aesthetically pleasing, but I also won't say I care, or that it doesn't function)
Answering a few of your questions in advance:
-this is a waste of time. If you want floor standing speakers, why not buy a kit, or just get some off eBay?
For the same reason that god made grapes but not wine, and milk but not cheese, so that we might share in the divine act of taking something cool and making something stupid but tasty
-why not sell the speakers that you have, and get more sensible drivers at the very least?
I'm emotionally attached to some of them.
-that doesn't explain why you're okay chopping them up for parts... How about this, why not sell two pairs and your avr, upgrade to 7.1, and then you get to keep more of them?
For 1, the room is already pretty unbalanced to begin with, and it'd be too big of a job sorting that out, and for 2, it really is a space thing at the end of the day. The spots where the surrounds are at the minute could go up to the ceiling, but it'd be a bad idea to remove square footage.
-interesting... Sounds like that's quite a small room, why do you want such big speakers then?
Mind your own business. For reals, depth of sound, clarity, quality e.t.c. I'm not here to blast my, or anyone else's ears off, but I do like nice sound. Also, I can see myself moving in the not too distant future. While I'm not above paying silly money for larger removal vehicles, or doing some to-ing and fro-ing myself, I anticipate my views on sound aren't going to change anytime soon.
Also, fyi, I will be looking into wiring kits, I think whatever configuration I end up doing won't really lend itself to reusing any of the existing ones.
You probably do not want to mix different drivers over the same range … except maybe in some sort of bipole or maybe a 2.5ish-way. If you do ot want to have to get deep into XO design, you probablynwant to use the best bsounding midTop as a mid/tweeter pair, and use the best woofer in terms of extention as a woofer orasthe 0.5 bit.
Maybe sealed mid and something that is good atbdragging bass out of a driver, a Frugel-Horn would be a candidate.
New boxes will make a erious difference, these boxs are all probably best in the bonfire. I have only had the Wharfedale thru here.
You may have 2 pair of speakers out of the trial. You should learn alot. Do you have enuff amp kicking around to biamp?
dave
Thanks for the response, looking at what you've said, wrt bipole, I'm intrigued by the design, and I'm curious as to how I'd achieve a good sound with mixed drivers if at all.
I like the concept of the frugal horn a lot though, if I was doing a 2.5 way version (with sealed mids as you suggest), I imagine I'd use the ms20 woofers for the woofer/horn, they're easily the bassiest of the bunch, and the 732 tweeter and mids. Then if I'm sticking to my guns on a 2.5 way frugal horn, I'd take the wharfedale delta mids as well (does this need to be bipole? With the numbering, does 2.5 mean 1xM, 1xW, 1xT, 2xM, 1xW, 1xT or 2xM, 2xT, 1xW)
For the office, that leaves me with the wharfedale lasers of indeterminate model + 731s for a horn + mids and tweeter if that would be worth doing? These would have to be slightly smaller, but I can move a few bits around.
As far as biamping goes, TV uses a demon avr 1306, and the office is a rotel 820ax I think? I doubt I'd be able to biamp off either, so I'd be looking at either a second amp or something beefier for the TV, and most likely a second amp for the office (if a more standard frugal horn requires biamping). I could use the free amp I picked up, it's some Pyle model, but I'm reluctant to, it has a knack for making every speaker I've tried it on sound awful. Could work if I used it to drive bass only, but why do that when I could trade it for something older and better.
I guess my questions at this point are:
1) to what level could I screw this up conceivably? I know it's possible of course, but on a scale of 1 to 10 building my own cabinets as a first timer, how much worse can they possibly sound compared to how they are now?
2) anywhere to start looking for wiring kits/key words? I don't want to spend loads, but as mentioned, I like nice sound, and I enjoy projects, so I can make room in the budget as needed
3) case materials? I was fully planning to trawl FB marketplace or something for MDF or scrap wood. I doubt people will find them beautiful, but I personally like the raw industrial feel, and the colouring matches the rest of my furniture.
Ultimately, compared to other projects I've done, this doesn't feel hugely delicate in the way that smaller soldering projects have felt, not as fiddly or annoying as anything needing 3D printing, and not as fussy as some headphone refurbishment I've done previously, so to my mind, it feels like I should be able to head to homebase with some rough sketches (if all else fails at FB marketplace), come home with some wood and wood glue if I don't have some lying around to begin with, knock most of the cabinets out over a weekend, then come back a week later once dried (+ another weekend rolling around) to start shovelling electricals + padding into the cabinets.
I like the concept of the frugal horn a lot though, if I was doing a 2.5 way version (with sealed mids as you suggest), I imagine I'd use the ms20 woofers for the woofer/horn, they're easily the bassiest of the bunch, and the 732 tweeter and mids. Then if I'm sticking to my guns on a 2.5 way frugal horn, I'd take the wharfedale delta mids as well (does this need to be bipole? With the numbering, does 2.5 mean 1xM, 1xW, 1xT, 2xM, 1xW, 1xT or 2xM, 2xT, 1xW)
For the office, that leaves me with the wharfedale lasers of indeterminate model + 731s for a horn + mids and tweeter if that would be worth doing? These would have to be slightly smaller, but I can move a few bits around.
As far as biamping goes, TV uses a demon avr 1306, and the office is a rotel 820ax I think? I doubt I'd be able to biamp off either, so I'd be looking at either a second amp or something beefier for the TV, and most likely a second amp for the office (if a more standard frugal horn requires biamping). I could use the free amp I picked up, it's some Pyle model, but I'm reluctant to, it has a knack for making every speaker I've tried it on sound awful. Could work if I used it to drive bass only, but why do that when I could trade it for something older and better.
I guess my questions at this point are:
1) to what level could I screw this up conceivably? I know it's possible of course, but on a scale of 1 to 10 building my own cabinets as a first timer, how much worse can they possibly sound compared to how they are now?
2) anywhere to start looking for wiring kits/key words? I don't want to spend loads, but as mentioned, I like nice sound, and I enjoy projects, so I can make room in the budget as needed
3) case materials? I was fully planning to trawl FB marketplace or something for MDF or scrap wood. I doubt people will find them beautiful, but I personally like the raw industrial feel, and the colouring matches the rest of my furniture.
Ultimately, compared to other projects I've done, this doesn't feel hugely delicate in the way that smaller soldering projects have felt, not as fiddly or annoying as anything needing 3D printing, and not as fussy as some headphone refurbishment I've done previously, so to my mind, it feels like I should be able to head to homebase with some rough sketches (if all else fails at FB marketplace), come home with some wood and wood glue if I don't have some lying around to begin with, knock most of the cabinets out over a weekend, then come back a week later once dried (+ another weekend rolling around) to start shovelling electricals + padding into the cabinets.
Also, I've had a detailed look at a few of the plans. In the spirit of frugelity, I'm not actually sure I have the right tools for a lot of them, but, the kirishima (https://www.frugal-horn.com/spawn-plans.html), and the windermere2 are calling to me.
Looking at the page, Cain's DoubleBen appears to have a tweeter simply mounted to the side (I say simply as if I could do as good of a job). Also, I like the concept of a second driver (as in the coniston2 mounted on the side), but again, not sure I've got the right tools for that one, so my questions at this point are:
1) looking at the kirishima and the way the horn is laid out internally, would mounting a second driver on the side be a completely appalling idea? The wood work seems much simpler for this design, so more suited to my level of expertise. I could always do the sealed mid + tweeter, but that begs the question of where I'm putting the second enclosure (something perhaps more suited to the Windermere cabinet, perhaps mounting the sealed enclosure above the woofer)
2) if I did do a two driver set up + tweeter for the kirishima, would anyone recommend bipole Vs using one driver as a subwoofer, and the other as a mid?
Looking at the page, Cain's DoubleBen appears to have a tweeter simply mounted to the side (I say simply as if I could do as good of a job). Also, I like the concept of a second driver (as in the coniston2 mounted on the side), but again, not sure I've got the right tools for that one, so my questions at this point are:
1) looking at the kirishima and the way the horn is laid out internally, would mounting a second driver on the side be a completely appalling idea? The wood work seems much simpler for this design, so more suited to my level of expertise. I could always do the sealed mid + tweeter, but that begs the question of where I'm putting the second enclosure (something perhaps more suited to the Windermere cabinet, perhaps mounting the sealed enclosure above the woofer)
2) if I did do a two driver set up + tweeter for the kirishima, would anyone recommend bipole Vs using one driver as a subwoofer, and the other as a mid?