Hi everyone, it has been a while.
I was more active several years back around subjects such as the Tang Band W6-2313, along with BMR speakers (such as those from Cotswold Sound Systems). Since then life has been in the way and I've built up a substantial backlog of projects I wanted to undertake but simply did not have the time or headspace to pursue. The catalog of items waiting to be used include three sets of Hypex Fusion Amps, several pairs of the Dayton 10" reference woofers, pairs of both Epique subs (with 4 of each passive radiator), two pairs of W6-2313s from Tang Band, 40 CSS 2.5" BMRs, Epique AMT tweeters...the list goes on.
Like I said, substantial (I'm sure plenty of you have more parts hanging out of course)
However, over the last month a lot of those blockers have finally eased and I was able to get back to it. The main issue was that instead of designing, I needed to Just. Build. Something. So I snagged a pair of Parts Express 1.15 cubic foot knock down cabinets as a starting point, broke out a pair of the TB W6's and my Epique 7" drivers, spun up the CNC for some extra parts and slapped them into a cabinet. My goal was to take the excellent Tang Band coax drivers, pair them with a great sub, and integrate amplification into them to create a solid all-in-one build.
I call them the Copper Dragons: The top is a Tang Band W6-2313 with the highs crossed over at 2500hz, tweeter inverted with a 0.63ms delay (based on an earlier build). The Epiques are crossed at 250hz, with the voice coils run in series (correction from parallel) for an 8ohm load. Amplification is done via a Hypex FA253 on the back with an isolated internal enclosure. On the top is a Hypex OLED display (very much worth adding to the build).
Listening Impressions:
I was more active several years back around subjects such as the Tang Band W6-2313, along with BMR speakers (such as those from Cotswold Sound Systems). Since then life has been in the way and I've built up a substantial backlog of projects I wanted to undertake but simply did not have the time or headspace to pursue. The catalog of items waiting to be used include three sets of Hypex Fusion Amps, several pairs of the Dayton 10" reference woofers, pairs of both Epique subs (with 4 of each passive radiator), two pairs of W6-2313s from Tang Band, 40 CSS 2.5" BMRs, Epique AMT tweeters...the list goes on.
Like I said, substantial (I'm sure plenty of you have more parts hanging out of course)
However, over the last month a lot of those blockers have finally eased and I was able to get back to it. The main issue was that instead of designing, I needed to Just. Build. Something. So I snagged a pair of Parts Express 1.15 cubic foot knock down cabinets as a starting point, broke out a pair of the TB W6's and my Epique 7" drivers, spun up the CNC for some extra parts and slapped them into a cabinet. My goal was to take the excellent Tang Band coax drivers, pair them with a great sub, and integrate amplification into them to create a solid all-in-one build.
I call them the Copper Dragons: The top is a Tang Band W6-2313 with the highs crossed over at 2500hz, tweeter inverted with a 0.63ms delay (based on an earlier build). The Epiques are crossed at 250hz, with the voice coils run in series (correction from parallel) for an 8ohm load. Amplification is done via a Hypex FA253 on the back with an isolated internal enclosure. On the top is a Hypex OLED display (very much worth adding to the build).
Listening Impressions:
- My wife and daughter have also really enjoyed music on them - even asking to play tunes together more often and pointing out things we couldn't catch on our old system (a pair of Amiga HT kits I build about six years ago)
- The W6-2313 is frankly one of my favorite drivers ever. The imaging is absurdly sharp, they're very easy to listen to for long periods, and bring out details in music that you would miss anywhere else.
- Bass is solid overall from the Epiques. They have really great punch and detail (for example: you get way more of the details from the bass guitar when listening to Group Four by Massive Attack)
- However, the Epique woofers are held back by their limited cabinet size of 0.62 cubic feet. I didn't plan too much and just went with making them (otherwise I would over think it), which really holds them back for extension and SPL.
- I love, love, love the Hypex amps though. They have been excellent performers so far outside of a few hiccups at the start. At this point I'm just running Toslink directly from my LG OLED TV into the right channel, and SPDIF from my iPad (through an adapter) for music. I'm now very glad I have two other pairs of Fusion Amps to work with on other builds.
- I'm considering building a new pair of cabinets with ~1 cubic foot internal volume and a 31" long 1.85x6.5" slot vent instead of PRs to get a much better overall response.
- Another thought is swapping the Epique drivers out for something else, such as an 8" Ultimax (also in new cabinets). The Coax drivers also reach fairly well into the ~100-200hz range in their enclosures, so a more dedicated sub might be a better option.
- I also might just build new cabinets and keep the PRs if I can find a volume that really compares to the vented alignment.
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Thank you!
The top is actually the OLED display and remote control receiver from Hypex. I just picked up another pair from Madisound for my next builds. It's a great addition that displays volume, input, status, etc. I ended up putting away my Emotiva XMC-2 in favor of just directly connecting the speakers since the display makes it easy. I was able to get a Sideclick programmable universal remote that attaches directly to my Apple TV remote, so no mess of remotes anymore.
The paint is actually an eggshell white acrylic primer that does a great job of sealing MDF. The added benefit was they look quite nice like this, so I didn't feel the need to spend more time painting these temporary cabinets and could go straight to listening.
Here's a closer look at the Epique/coax/display, and a look at the rear panel. I ran the wires externally for the display for now, next build will have them run inside for better aesthetics.
Attachments
An additional note on music listening:
- I'm using a Douk audio usb->toslink/spdif converter hooked up to a USB-C hub for music
- From there, I plug an iPad into an active USB-C cable from the couch and play Apple Music and Tidal on lossless high-res
- The difference from the Apple TV is pretty significant for music, with a lot clearer details coming through than you'd otherwise expect
- The Tang Band drivers are extremely unforgiving to compression and bad recordings - a number of favorite tracks sounded like utter crap until I went for a lossless remaster (Would from Alice In Chains being a prime example)
- The Epique drivers really get more detail than you'd think is in the lower octaves. Clearly hearing the Massive Attack bass guitarist strumming was a novel surprise
Is the tweeter a dome or a inverted dome? In the photo it looks like a inverted dome / mini cone.
I like the display. Does the amp have many inputs? I thought about doing something similar but the didn't want to run cables from multiple sources to the speakers rather than have a preamp on the hifi rack.
You call these temporary cabinets. Do you plan to build another set? They looks pretty decent as is!
I like the display. Does the amp have many inputs? I thought about doing something similar but the didn't want to run cables from multiple sources to the speakers rather than have a preamp on the hifi rack.
You call these temporary cabinets. Do you plan to build another set? They looks pretty decent as is!
It's an inverted dome, you can get it as a separate driver as well (from what I know).
The display really is killer imho. The remote is pretty cheap and uses standard codes, so I was able to train the Sideclick within a minute to handle switching inputs, volume and mute. You can also change the DSP/EQ presets as well with the remote from 1-3, something I plan on using to have a separate sound profile for home theater vs. music.
For inputs, the amp has 3 digital (SPDIF, AES, Toslink) and two analog (RCA and balanced). I was eying the miniDSP SHD as a switcher with Dirac Live included if I wanted to have more sources, but right now letting the TV split out optical and run SPDIF directly for streaming has worked out very well. The onboard DACs are excellent, so pretty much anything that will run max resolution audio to them should be fine.
Thank you for the kind words on the cabinets. The sub cabinet volume is still too small for them to do their best, and I'd like to integrate the display directly into the cabinet instead of having a wire running round the outside.
I didn't know there's a smaller coax - I'm curious which one you're using. Agreed about the bamboo cone though. It has a lovely midrange that works great with a lot of types of music.
Just to clarify... Your saying that through the iPad and Douk is a lot cleared than through the TV? (Or the other way around?)
Yep, better through the iPad and Douk at the moment. Apple TV can't output high res lossless at the same level as an iPad or iPhone over a wired connection. It is less obvious on poorer recordings, but more recent ones or high end remasters have a stark difference. Aura (feat. J-rican) by Kartell along with Loyal by Odesza are great examples of tracks that have a clear difference. I use Apple Music predominantly and the only way to get high-res lossless to the Hypex is through an iPad or iPhone.
@wolf_teeth I had no idea those existed - very cool. Can't seem to find them shippable to the US unfortunately.
Edit: never mind, found a place. Once I finish my current projects I'll probably order a pair and make some desktop speakers with them.
Edit: never mind, found a place. Once I finish my current projects I'll probably order a pair and make some desktop speakers with them.