i want go build a budget powerfull sound system. i will go for this amp http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/1107 and maplin speakers: 5xUZ13P= 8in Shielded 70W high quality 5xRC75S=25W Shld 10mm Dome 5xYT45Y= X-Over 3-Way 150W cossovers speakers TOTAL Inc. VAT £ 188.86 ohhh not so budget= £388 is it a good idea?? or am i being stupid? if i suddenly have more cash i will but a sub too but this will come later probably. thanks in advance. is this too much/little tweet and is there any use in going for the high quality speakers? also the amp is rated @ 65W per chanel i an run 70's providing i do not turn it to absolute max....right?
Personally I'd go for professionally built speakers.... you can get some pretty amazing stuff for 180 quid, and really, really great stuff if you're willing to consider second hand. As far as the power rating goes, you probably be safe with a higher powered amp than that as IIRC it's the clipping / distortion (sp?) that occurs when an amp is pushed hard that kills speakers, not the speakers exceedind their recommended power handling.... it's usually the tweaters that go first as they tend to be harder to drive at high volumes. To be safe you should never really turn an amp up above 2/3 rds.... as past that distortion will creep in.... maybe even earlier if any tone controls / eqs are cranked up.... Just my £0.02 .... and I could be wrong...
wow thanks for the quick responce, ill go an find some speakers. I have a book on how to make decent speakers, enclosures size shape etc... an we have the quiptment and materials. will be used for music so i am not too keen on a setup that has low powerd sats, ill go an have a look....
I got some 100w floor standing Mission speakers with 2 bass drivers and a tweater about 5 years ago now for £250 quid (they were 5 star rated by what hi-fi).... belive me low powered sats they not.... they are absolutely storming..... you can pick stuff like that up new pretty cheap now, especially if you go for something that's been discontinued or even secondhand (mine are still going strong, they're that well made that as long as they're not abused they'll go on forever). Check out Richer Sounds... Some of the ads in the back of what hi-fi have some pretty good deals too. I don't doubt you'd be able to make some pretty good ones yourself, but these specialist companies spend a fortune designing them and by the time you'd bought all the bits you'd probably spend more than on a compairible (sp?) set of professionally built ones - although your wouldn't have the satisfaction of having done it yourself.....
If you decide to go DIY: With a some amount of work you may be able to make an acceptable system with some of those components. That crossover not very useful, it is three way and the drivers you speced out would require a two way crossover. I reccomend to stick with two way system is is much more simple. I would reccomend by looking at the driver specs that you have the crossover so the 8 inch driver does not play much above 2000 hz. As for enclsure size you will probebly need to run some enclosure clacualtions to find an acceptable box volume. Sealed enclosures with no port vent are much easier to build and design. If you are looking for higher quality companents then check out IPL they have some nice stuff. www.iplacoustics.co.uk You can buy kits to build and these will sound really good but they can cost more money depending on how much work you want to do.
65W My normal amp does 200W Besides wattage is not that important, the speaker is. Plenty of cheap floorstanders are available at Richers.
ohh, me is obviously n00b not to keen on the lack of specs at richer sounds i think i will have up the budget a bit the speaker i have my eye on http://www.richersounds.co.uk/index.php?f=itemdetl.php&p=300497 the manufacturer recomends 130W per chanel seeing what is avialable i think it is a good idea to go for professionally. I was also reading up about crossovers and think it will be a fiddle that can be avoided. specks for the speakers above here http://www.eltax.com/com/products/prod-side1.phtml?serienavn=Discovery 5-pack&type=2
Eltax Discovery look pritty much as low end as you can get, If it is £99 quid for 5 speakers, they surely cost under £25 pounds to build I would auction before any purchase to see if they will fit your needs.
A tweeter can't cross directly into anything larger than 6.5" and even then it will have to be padded. Check out www.partsexpress.com learn a lot there. Don't get a stock 3-way, two ways are fine but if you want 3-way crossovers you build them yourself. I use WinISD to do enclosures, works quite nicley. A tweeter should be crossed at twice the Fs and a woofer at about 2/3 of it's frequency response... A tweeter with Fs at 1000Hz and a woofer rated for 3000Hz would be ideally crossed at 2KHz. eBay has a lot of large older floor speakers. DOn't let the age fool you, older = better in many cases. As an example my setup in which most of the stuff was made in the 1970s beats the crap out of the cheapo 5.1 systems.
Yeah Eltax are pretty cheap tbh.... look at B&W, Mission, etc.... There is a thread somewhere around here where people list their favourite speakers....
thanks for the help guys. regarding the cheapness of the Eltax speakers, my brother says one of his friends has speakers by them and they sound pretty good. I see your point though....(they must be cheap for a reason...) B&W speakers on ebay throws up a whole load of streo stuff and i need 4-5 is there any reason 1 cannot just get 2 pairs of these or do they have to match in some way? i have a book titled "desighning, building and testing your own speaker system" by David B. Weems. It does not have a lot of inforation about amplifiers or anything with more than 2 chanels. There is a wealth of information regarding crossover networks and so forth. I have not rulled out the possibility of building my own speakers, but i fear it could end up being more expensive....
That is a total myth, I have seen many many excelent DIY two way systems with drivers much larger that 6-1/2 inch. Have you never heard of the AdireAudio Kit 281, HE 10.1 and 12.1 there are extremely well received in the DIY world. http://www.adireaudio.com/diy_audio/monitors/kit281.htm http://www.adireaudio.com/diy_audio/monitors/kithe10_1.htm http://www.adireaudio.com/diy_audio/monitors/kithe12_1.htm
They will sound better if they are matched as they will all be tonally balanced, that's why most mutli channel audio systems implment speakers from the same brand and usually the same range. They don't have to be the same however... if you get some expert advice they'll be able to tell you what brands of speakers have a similar sound. If you're going down the 5.1 channel the most important matching is between the fronts and the centre. Hope this helps
I think i will build AdireAudio Kit 281 but am still looking for alternatives. the 281's seem to have nothing but prais. i'm on budget so i can get 2 then 2 later, then a sub( thanks micb) is this a good idea? the pair i by later will be newer/same on the amp i will be using only the front chanel for a bit.... i have also changed amps to get a bit more wpc http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/1160 this gives me 100wpc wich should be enough shouldent it? i cant seem to find a recomeded minimum wpc
No I haven't, they must Have a tweeter that can be crossed low Have an 8" full range driver, a full range usually goes 2 or 3 times higher than a ocmparable woofer The crossover is badly designed and the woofer is crossed too high What are the crossover poitns on that one? EDIT: Read the specs, you should cross at twice the Fs, which for the Audax is 2*1250 or 2.5KHz. An 8" woofer cannot go to 2.5KHz, most 6.5" can't That's why they are using 18db/octave 3rd order crossovers (or a modified kind of 24db/octave 4th order), muchg lower and the tweeter will be damaged.
Marantz... Someone that I knew was throwing away a Marantz recever, probably from around 1960, so I asked if I could have it. A year or two later I had all of my surrond sound build and I hooked the Marantz to my computer. At 25% vol. it sounds like a fire alarm with a megaphone on it!
Hehe, I have a 1970 Bradford that someone was throwing away. Very sleek looking, i've run it at full volume and can hear it from across the street. I haven't yet used it with my subwoofers-in-progress, but it should measure about an 18 on the richter scale
