# Anarchy Tower Project



## rothnic (Jan 4, 2010)

I'm merely a day away from having my Maelstrom running, and already planning another project. Not long from now and I'll have a first time homebuyer's tax return burning a hole in my pocket, and have allocated $700 or so to building some nice towers.

I'm looking at a MMMT or MMT type design on the anarchy based on future working out the resulting impedance and which one works out best. I have looked at using a dayton passive radiator instead of the port, but it looks like the port wins. The enclosure height might cause the volume to be too large, so I will most likely build a unused volume into the bottom of the tower and seal it off.

It looks like 42 liters with 3 drivers leaves a very flat frequency response. The pink is the 10" passive, and orange the 8" passive.




I plan on dusting off the Emag book here soon for working out a suitable crossover design. The tweeter will probably be the one Danny is offering for the MT thread at the audio circle forums. I appreciate any feedback on the direction I'm going.


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## Kevin Haskins (Nov 14, 2007)

The low frequency box design is fairly easy and you can basically count on 14L per driver for enclosure volume. If you wanted to use 3 Anarchy drivers per cabinet I'd say something like a 2.5 MM-MT design would be my approach. The tweeter may not be sensitive enough but you can always use a higher DCR inductor on the woofers. If you have never done design work before it is best to start with an easy design and work your way into the more complex ones. An MT or MMT will be the easiest from a design standpoint. 

I great tool for speaker designers or aspiring speaker designers is the AS2 100 Digital from Hypex. It would handily blow your budget but you have essentially an infinitely adjustable crossover and two independent amplifiers so you don't have to worry about impedance issues or sensitivity matching. It is a complete solution preamp, amplifier, crossover (via DSP) and all you would need to do is hook up a source. They are $425 each and you would need two but if you don't have any of the other electronics that would be the surest way to get the results you want because you just plug your computer into the DSP via the USB cable and you have almost infinite adjustability of the network. That would allow you to experiment and measure and tweak until you get exactly what you want. It allows you to prototype in real time without the need for physical changes to the crossover and gives you much more flexibility with the drivers used. 

http://www.hypex.nl/docs/AS2.100/HypexFilterDesignerv1.3.zip

Kevin Haskins
Exodus Audio


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## theSeekerr (Dec 22, 2009)

Also check out MiniDSP (sorry, can't post the link, but I'll give you a hint: it ends in .com) - not as flexible as the hypex, but a whole lot cheaper if you already have a couple of amps sitting around.


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## rothnic (Jan 4, 2010)

Kevin Haskins said:


> The low frequency box design is fairly easy and you can basically count on 14L per driver for enclosure volume. If you wanted to use 3 Anarchy drivers per cabinet I'd say something like a 2.5 MM-MT design would be my approach. The tweeter may not be sensitive enough but you can always use a higher DCR inductor on the woofers. If you have never done design work before it is best to start with an easy design and work your way into the more complex ones. An MT or MMT will be the easiest from a design standpoint.
> 
> I great tool for speaker designers or aspiring speaker designers is the AS2 100 Digital from Hypex. It would handily blow your budget but you have essentially an infinitely adjustable crossover and two independent amplifiers so you don't have to worry about impedance issues or sensitivity matching. It is a complete solution preamp, amplifier, crossover (via DSP) and all you would need to do is hook up a source. They are $425 each and you would need two but if you don't have any of the other electronics that would be the surest way to get the results you want because you just plug your computer into the DSP via the USB cable and you have almost infinite adjustability of the network. That would allow you to experiment and measure and tweak until you get exactly what you want. It allows you to prototype in real time without the need for physical changes to the crossover and gives you much more flexibility with the drivers used.
> 
> ...


If I was going to go the MMT route, would you recommend a simple 2 way crossover, or a 2.5 way?


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## Kevin Haskins (Nov 14, 2007)

rothnic said:


> If I was going to go the MMT route, would you recommend a simple 2 way crossover, or a 2.5 way?


The 2-way is easier as a first design. I like the dispersion pattern of a 2.5 better on the vertical plane but the KISS principle is definitely a good idea when you are doing a first design. The vertical response just isn't as important so I'd keep it simple and treat the two midwoofers as a single unit. 

Trust me... get the Hypex unit. You need the ability to measure and import the actual acoustic response of the system and use the filters on that acoustic measurement. Any system that doesn't allow for importing of the actual acoustic data is not useless but you will be working in the dark. An electrical filter is only half the required solution and it is like having half a life-raft, not real useful. 

Kevin Haskins
Exodus Audio


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## dyohn (Apr 17, 2008)

Whoa. That filter designer looks cool... reminds me of a bass widget someone was once building.... now all I need is to purchase a couple actual modules!!


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## rothnic (Jan 4, 2010)

I'm also planning on possibly replacing my z-5500 surrounds with a anarchy tweeter pair. The trick has been how to do that with the required location on the ceiling. I think I have an idea that would work, I just need to work on the box design. With the tray ceiling that I have, the corners create some unused space. You can see this in the picture where the wire is hanging down. Conservatively this space will be 25 liters. The trick is that I want the speakers angled towards the listening area. I plan to build a triangular box that, after cutting out the drywall that covers the space, can slide right up into it.



What it looks like today:


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## Lucky7! (Jan 7, 2008)

Why ceiling mounted? Floorstanders would be less of a compromise, easier to implement, you have plenty of room for them and the exposed speaker cables would only be a couple of feet a side.


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## rothnic (Jan 4, 2010)

Yeah I plan to do the floorstanding front tower pair there. However, because of the open floor plan there is nowhere for the surrounds to go and remain symmetrical, except on the ceiling.


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## Lucky7! (Jan 7, 2008)

rothnic said:


> Yeah I plan to do the floorstanding front tower pair there.


Good.


rothnic said:


> However, because of the open floor plan there is nowhere for the surrounds to go and remain symmetrical, except on the ceiling.


For dog's sake man, get your priorities straight. Build them and place them where they need to go on the floor for optimum SQ, and let the others in the household tread carefully around them.

Seriously, your best bet is probably to build some low profile angled boxes with an MT config diected towards the LP.
The new speakers will be a major improvement on the Z5500.
Stupid nanny software.


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## lsiberian (Mar 24, 2009)

A9X said:


> Good. For dog's sake man, get your priorities straight. Build them and place them where they need to go on the floor for optimum SQ, and let the others in the household tread carefully around them.
> 
> Seriously, your best bet is probably to build some low profile angled boxes with an MT config diected towards the LP.
> The new speakers will be a major improvement on the Z5500.
> Stupid nanny software.


Surrounds aren't that critical.


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## Lucky7! (Jan 7, 2008)

lsiberian said:


> Surrounds aren't that critical.


I disagree. 

The MT boxes I mentioned for the surrounds were ceiling mount, which I intended in the previous post, but was not clearly described.


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