# 3 way spekear. Hiquphon OW1,mids?,lows?



## dreama (Feb 5, 2011)

Hello guys , I want to build my own 3 way speakers. I've done some research and on paper I am impressed with the Hiquphon's OW1 tweeter.
Please give me some advice wich drivers can i use as mid's and low's.
For mid's wondering between Focal 7W4411 / Focal 6W4311B /
Seas W12CY003 / Seas M15CH002/ Aurum Cantus AC-130F35 ?
Am I in the right direction at all or there are better mid's for the OW1's.
What subwoofers can I use to complete the speakers and satisfy my love to deep and tight bass .
Thanks


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## jeremy7 (Feb 7, 2008)

Hello Dreama, Welcome to the shack!

just out of curiosity, is this your first speaker build?
If so, I cant in good conscious recommend that you proceed in building an expensive 3-way as you your first project...for many reasons.
If this is your first attempt, I personally would suggest building a "kit" , or a speaker design that has been proven to be successful. There are many designs out there if you interested... I would start with an inexpensive 2-way.

If you are an experienced speaker designer/builder, then I have a few questions before i add my opinions
-How much do you want to spend, including cabinet, finish, drivers, and crossover components?
-How large of a speaker are you willing to build/tolerate?
-Are these primarily for home theature, or music?
-How many speakers are you building?... 2channel stereo...5.1 ... 7.1
-And any other bits of info that you think would be relevant 

jeremy


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## dreama (Feb 5, 2011)

Thanks Jeremy
Yes, this is my first project . Maybe you‘re right –I should do 2 way first , but I don‘t want to… I‘ll find people to help me with the cabinet so it shouldn‘t be a problem.
I will not buy all the speakers at once , but I think I can spend around 1100 – 1300 $ for the drivers and the x-overs( the cabinet is not a problem…) . The speakers shouldn‘t be that big ( ~ 130x60x60cm max). I want 2 speakers for music ( I love parties so they should go loud ) . I want to ask where can I start reading everythink about the x-overs and how to calculate and make them your own .


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## Stroh (Sep 14, 2010)

Just for clarification, you do not want to build a kit or someone else design, your goal is to do the whole process yourself correct?


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## dreama (Feb 5, 2011)

That's right . I want to make something that i'll be proud with . I know it may be a long road but i'm not in a hurry  . And another question .. If the tweeter is 87db and 100W how sensetive and power hungry should the other drivers be ? What amplifier I'll need to power them enough for a party ? Is Odyssey Stratos good choice ?


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## Stroh (Sep 14, 2010)

If tweeter selection is as far as you have gotten on design then I would not even worry for know. You will have uncountable obstacles to overcome before you have to tackle that. I would suggest reading everything you can get your hands on from drivers, crossovers, to phase, comb filtering, etc... I have read for countless hours on this same mission only to come to the conclusion that I will build a set of Statements and possibly down the road try to tackle a speaker design.


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## digital79 (Aug 26, 2009)

dreama said:


> Please give me some advice wich drivers can i use as mid's and low's.


Pick drivers from already constructed, proved and tweaked design. You can always fall back to that design if yours won't work. Why? Look at: sites.google.com/site/undefinition/diy-faqs-provendesigns

Given that you want to drive those with 2 channel amp, you will need to design the crossover yourself, and that is very tricky and can get quite costly for a 3 way. After all, if you are picking expensive drivers, you will probably want expensive crossover components as well, right?


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## 1Michael (Nov 2, 2006)

Read this... https://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/diy-faqs-provendesigns


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## dreama (Feb 5, 2011)

Yes I will spend money for expensive components but how expensive can they get ?
Thanks a lot Michael . You've just made me more curious about spekaers. Can some one tell me where can I keep reading interesting and helpful stuff . Cuz now I have more questions.
1. What should the Qts value be for the different bass alignments?
2. What program should I get to simulate the driver layouts and avoid the comb filtering ?
3.How to understand which frequences should be attenuated ?
4.What's "acoustic Phase" introduced by the filter ?
5. What's physical offset of the drivers ?
Please tell me all the steps you know in order to build a speaker . Tell me all the things that should be calculated and taken care of to get the best result possible.


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## digital79 (Aug 26, 2009)

dreama said:


> Can some one tell me where can I keep reading interesting and helpful stuff . Cuz now I have more questions.


This side is pretty good for understanding concepts http://www.lenardaudio.com/education/01_eduintro.html

Also check stickies on this forum and books in local library, and of course there's google...

Browsing dedicated threads for a design can give you idea in steps required.


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## jeremy7 (Feb 7, 2008)

my first book was "loudspeaker design cookbook". I bought it used off of amazon.com So far it was the best book on speaker design I've read.
After reading this book and others, I was able to further clarify and answer many questions I had through google and the by asking the good folks on this forum.

good luck and have fun

Oh yeah. One more thing
I dont know if anyone mentioned this. If your really serious about designing speakers it is imperative that you also have testing equipment, so you can run real time simulations and fun stuff like that. When you get to that point myself or many others can give you advice on what to buy. I purchased each of my microphone, preamp, and soundcard off e-bay.

good luck
jeremy


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## fusseli (May 1, 2007)

dreama said:


> Yes I will spend money for expensive components but how expensive can they get ?
> Thanks a lot Michael . You've just made me more curious about spekaers. Can some one tell me where can I keep reading interesting and helpful stuff . Cuz now I have more questions.
> 1. What should the Qts value be for the different bass alignments?
> 2. What program should I get to simulate the driver layouts and avoid the comb filtering ?
> ...


I like your determination to build your own speakers. You absolutely need to take your time and get the design right. With a $1k+ budget you should be able to come up with some pretty incredible speakers, but that will be wasted if you do little more than drop a bunch of high dollar drivers in a box.

1) Bass alignments in my mind will have a big impact on the size of you speaker. You'll be looking at EBP for that one (efficiency-bandwidth-product, Fs/Qes), where low values are better for sealed and high values are best for vented designs. Typically, a sealed cabint will be smaller in volume and easier to build; a vented alignment will be larger but play much lower. Another big consideration on how big to make your mains is if you're using them with a sub, and if so, how big.

2) Like jeremy said, to do any design you'll need to simulate a lot of things. Measurement equipment and your drivers/cabs in-hand is ideal but not required for a good working speaker design. Here's a good guide on the process you're looking at:
http://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/simulated-measurements

3) not sure what you mean

4) Xover simulation will take that into account for you

5) Xover simulation will also take this into account, physical offset is the spacing between speakers (center to center) and the z-direction offset, which is the plane the speakers are in. You'll want to flush-mount your tweeters for sure (unless they are horns or something) but woofers and midranges don't necessarily need to be. The spacing between drivers is very critical and will influence phase of the drivers around the Xover frequencies.

edit--
Coincidentally I just now stumbled across this start-to-finish guide on another forum for speaker design fully by simulation. Half the software tools are ones that I use ;-)
http://audio.claub.net/Simple Loudspeaker Design.pdf


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## lsiberian (Mar 24, 2009)

drivers need not be expensive for quality. My reference 3 way will use the hifi RTI tweeter, Dayton midrange dome and the Exodus anarchy driver. For the crossover section I suggest the mini DSP modules. For the amps checkout the tripath offerings of hifimediy http://hifimediy.com/?page_id=18

very good and always improving. You can passive the tweeter and midrange, but you will want to use the dsp/amp combo for the woofer to midrange transition


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