e-Lips

[richidoo]

So if the bottom is hollow would it be possible to put a piece of plywood across it to close it in so you could fill it with sand and provide some ballast? It's hard to tell from the limited set of drawings in your posts.

Yes, it will have a floor on the bottom box which could be filled with sand.

Thanks for the story Tom. This hobby has such a rich history.

[bpape]

I believe FooBar can play streams.  I don't use it any more so not 100% sure.

The woofers themselves will likely be fine. It's the back wave close to the Fostex and the vibration of the baffle I'd be worried about.

Scott is using an old Pionner active xover from the 70's and it's extremely flexible.  Certainly not the level of a 2496 BUT it's all analog so no A/D D/A steps involved.  

Bryan

[richidoo]

Thanks Bryan.

EDIT:  btw, I was trying to get mfsoa's Linn Jazz stream to play on Sonos, couldn't get it (yet). WMP wouldn't even open it (.pls file)   So I tried foobar.... 

[richidoo]

I got my pro sound card drivers updated, so now I have 8 channel output from the computer. It sounds very good. Presonus makes some nice stuff. This is the Firepod, now named FP10. It is firewire to my laptop, then I'm running new foobar v1.1 with ASIO4ALL v2.  It sounds nice. The mids are thick and dense and the highs give me a strong sinus resonance.  The Firepod sound card has it's own ASIO driver but I haven't compared it to ASIO4ALL.  Some PS mods and some JPS wiring and it might make a great source. It has SPDIF input and output too so I can still use the Buffalo if I want to. It has internal clock -specs claim it attenuates jitter by 60dB. So 1nS jitter on the SPDIF input gives 1pS at the SPDIF output. Kinda like RichardS' Genesis jitter lens. This thing was sitting in the closet all the time while the Altmann DAC was struggling to deal with Sonos' high jitter.   

I brought it over to Carl's a couple times to scan his speakers and room, but it has flaked out on me using this Vista laptop. So I found a new driver is out now for XP/Vista/Win7, it seems to be a lot better. Hopefully it will work even in Carl's room now.

I also found some nice free plugins for foobar. This digital crossover (http://xover.sourceforge.net/) works, and seems to sound OK playing just a highpass filter >20Hz. I can dial in any freq I want, and any order. We'll see how it sounds in a real crossover.  Another called frequency divider looks interesting, but all the documents are in Japanese, same developer as the foo_xover.

There is also a convolver for foobar which can apply impulse response convolution to music. DRC creates the impulse files. These are all free.

I am still trying to find a line input plugin for foobar so I can play FM radio and LPs through the DSP stack. There was once a "line-in" plugin for older foobar versions, but apparently it has not been ported to the new - yet. There are plenty of options for purchase. One I found for $50 Console, the other $95 Bidule. These will let me patch the sound card input to crossover and convolver plugins, but then I can't use the foobar plugins (I think)  Time will tell.  There are commercial versions of all this, which are all high bit processing througout, and streamlined procedures, but not free. I want to see how it works and sounds first.

Wood is being cut for the speakers. Ellipses are drawn on all the baffle boards, cutting and routing scheduled for tomorrow if the creek don't rise.

[richidoo]

These are rough cut with jigsaw. I will trim to the template with flush bit tomorrow. Hopefully cut the driver holes too.


Christina (8yo) is finally taller than my speakers. Too bad I spent it all on speakers, nothin left for new pants. 

[Rob S.]

Nice pictures.  Did you plan to have the wood look like angels wings on Christina?

Rob S.

[richidoo]

hehe   That's good! No, I didn't notice that until now.  She is my little angel.

I really want to get these playing by this weekend, even if they're not totally finished. I'm just dying to hear them!! and the foobar crossover. Tomorrow will be a busy day. Lots to "glue..."

[richidoo]

Today I routed the outer edges flush to the template and routed all the driver holes (12.)  It's starting to look like something....

Tomorrow I'll route some miters on the driver holes, laminate the baffle boards together. Then some final router edging and sanding, drill screw holes and it's on to the base and rear support.

Sand is 1600kg/m^3, Quicrete is 2050kg/m^3. So I'll probably use that.  The ballast weight should be as far to the rear of the base box (away from the baffle) as possible to increase moment of inertia and better resist rocking from woofers, which rotates around the bottom of the baffle. A single 3" deck screw would be so much easier... (shhhhhhh)

Sorry, no pictures tonight. 
Rich

[Face]

I need to build an open baffle next time, it's much easier than spending a few weeks on a pair of cabinets.   

[ebag4]

I need to build an open baffle next time, it's much easier than spending a few weeks on a pair of cabinets.   

That depends on the OB.  My V1s took me about 3 months, of course you figure family, work and whatever else comes up and you spend a lot of time not working on them but in the end they were a consderably more involved build than any box speakers I have built. 

Sorry for the OT Rich, now back t your regularly scheduled thread.

Best,
Ed

[richidoo]

Not off topic at all. DIY speakers do take time, no economies of scale. But I hope it will be worth it. Cutting everything by hand really takes a lot of time to get it perfect.

Today I spent almost the whole day cutting parts. That Rob S. is a real slave driver.     But without his constant bugging me for progress reports and pics, I would not be this far along. Thanks Rob!  I made some good progress, the heat wasn't too bad today. Only one more day of cutting for the rear brace parts which are simple. I want to glue tonight but I'm beat. That's how I make mistakes.

Before I cleaned up the driveway looked like it had snowed sawdust. Thanks to my son Henry for help re-cutting some parts that I flubbed, and for help cleaning up.

Some pictures:

Two baffles ready for laminating together.


Close up. All edges are rounded with 1/8" bit, gives a finished look.


Stack of parts for the speaker base boxes.

Lots of sports taxi tomorrow, but I have the morning and late afternoon. Gotta keep chugging. I want to hear these playing this weekend.

[ebag4]

Looking great Rich!  I am curious how you came up with your pattern for the ellipse, it looks perfect!  Did you use the 2 focii (?) method?

Best,
Ed

[richidoo]

Thanks Ed!

Check out the OP, I explain how I made the ellipse.     It is pretty close to perfect.  "Close enough for jazz." 

[ebag4]

Thanks Ed!

Check out the OP, I explain how I made the ellipse.     It is pretty close to perfect.  "Close enough for jazz." 

Sorry about that Rich, I thought I had already read the beginning of this thread, obviously I hadn't.

BTW, I have been using 4 of the AE IB15s in an Infinite Baffle alignment for a number of years now in my HT, they have been outstanding drivers. 

Best of luck with your project, you are off to a great start.

Ed

[richidoo]

I have been using 4 of the AE IB15s in an Infinite Baffle alignment for a number of years now in my HT, they have been outstanding drivers. 

Thanks Ed. That's good to know. They sure look good, I can't wait to hear them.