# BookShelf Speaker - matched pair of HIQUPHON OWII tweeters and a pair of 5 1/4 inch Focal 5W 33211B



## Usil (May 19, 2008)

This project is essentially a proof of concept project for me. I have built speakers a very long time ago so this is really going back to basics for me but with better materials. I recently started to look at updating my 30 year old speakers and was shocked at the prices of good speaker systems. So, the question was, can I build something of very high quality for a reduced price that looked and sounded professional. I soon realized that buying good components means that I probably won’t save that much but I am not sure. Good book shelf speakers can go from $800.00 on up and I figure these will cost me about $650.00. But – if they fill the room with high quality sound and disappear in the room as the source then I think they may be worth it. 

I am currently gathering the parts for this using a pair of the PE TWC-0.38BK 0.38 ft3 2-way, Curved Cabinet, Gloss Piano Black book shelf speakers, a matched pair of high end HIQUPHON OWII tweeters and a pair of Focal 5 1/4 inch 5W 33211B W-cone Woofer-Mid-bass drivers with a crossover frequency of 2200Hz providing an excellent SPL vs Frequency from 150 HZ to 15K Hz. 

The cabinet is ¾ MDF side and back with a ¾ MDF brace running vertically up the sides and across the top and bottom. The front baffle is 1 inch MDF and the sides are curved to provide a curved interior which should provide for better strength and better acoustics by reducing standing waves/resonance. 

Here are the Parts:

Tweeters: http://www.ellisaudio.com/hiquphon.htm
Woofer/Midrange: http://www.zalytron.com/Specs/5W3211B.pdf
PE TWC-0.38k: http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=302-711
Crossover has been optimized for these components.
Dampening material will be used
Speakers will be flush mount

Now for two questions I have and I hope you experts can tell me what I need to know. The plans for these speakers use a rectangle box and it is sealed without a port with the Tweeter placed directly above the woofer/midrange. So I have deviated a little from it opting for pre-made cabinets and chose a curved model for reasons already stated. 

Question number one is that I see many book shelf speakers with the center of the Tweeter offset from aligning with the center of the woofer below it. The proven DIY design I am following does not do this. Why is this done in many speakers and not others? And should I consider this?

Question number two is that this is a sealed cabinet and yet many book shelf speakers are ported. Is this something I should consider or not. 

The design of the speaker around these components has been tweaked and optimized so I am not willing to make these changes unless there are good reasons to try. Can anyone tell me what I should consider here? or just leave it alone.

If all works out well, I may move on to other components of a 5.1 system.

Usil


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## BoomieMCT (Dec 11, 2006)

*Re: BookShelf Speaker - matched pair of HIQUPHON OWII tweeters and a pair of 5 1/4 inch Focal 5W 332*



Usil said:


> Question number one is that I see many book shelf speakers with the center of the Tweeter offset from aligning with the center of the woofer below it. The proven DIY design I am following does not do this. Why is this done in many speakers and not others? And should I consider this?


Could be aesthetics (my bet why). It could be that that particular tweeter doesn't need to be offset. If the plans call to have them centerline I'd put them there. Moving them could affect the x-over. 



Usil said:


> Question number two is that this is a sealed cabinet and yet many book shelf speakers are ported. Is this something I should consider or not.



If you are following an already established design, then probably not. The port will get you a bit more extension however not all drivers work equally well with ports.


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## Usil (May 19, 2008)

*Re: BookShelf Speaker - matched pair of HIQUPHON OWII tweeters and a pair of 5 1/4 inch Focal 5W 332*

Thanks for your comments. I don't know about the aesthetics as I think it looks better to have them symmetrical with one over the other - aligned. I don't think they look as good with the Tweeter off to the side which is why I was wondering if there was some reason for this.

Usil


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## JCD (Apr 20, 2006)

*Re: BookShelf Speaker - matched pair of HIQUPHON OWII tweeters and a pair of 5 1/4 inch Focal 5W 332*

The reason for the tweeter offset is to minimize the baffle diffraction -- see here for an explanaiton.

That being said, I'm not sure I'd move the tweeter for a design that has been developed already.

And I've heard some awfully good things about that Hiquphon tweeter. I hope you repoort back with your impressions once you're done with your project.

JCD


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## Usil (May 19, 2008)

*Re: BookShelf Speaker - matched pair of HIQUPHON OWII tweeters and a pair of 5 1/4 inch Focal 5W 332*

Thanks for the information. Ok, that settles it. The design I am using has over 100 hours of testing not just with math but with real components - trying different models of speakers to make the best sound as well as building, testing and optimizing the cross-overs. I am going to stick to the original plan and make it as the original design. The only exception is my choice of the PE speaker cabinet which looks impressive and far better than I could ever build even if I had the tools.

I have started to put the cross-overs together and have one completed and will work on the other tonight. I still need the posts and sealing compound which should arrive tomorrow from PE. That will complete all the components. 

The only issue for me now is how to seat the speakers. The PE baffle is a blank and I need to cut the holes and route the periphery of the speaker hole to set in the speakers. I don't have a router and never used one. I went to Home Depot last night to see if they could do it but they just cut straight lines. Has anyone any idea on how I might get this done short of buying a router. I know of no one that owns one. I live in Fort Worth and was thinking about Googling for some wood shop. Any body have any ideas. I don't want to mount them on the surface as I am following all the rules to make a premo set of book shelf speakers.

I will start assembly this weekend and I will take pictures of all the components before I start and also of the assembly process. I will post them as soon as I have them.

I hope these sound great. Then on the other hand - if they do that pushes me down the path for more. Hope my wife is understanding. :bigsmile:

Usil


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## JCD (Apr 20, 2006)

*Re: BookShelf Speaker - matched pair of HIQUPHON OWII tweeters and a pair of 5 1/4 inch Focal 5W 332*

Hmm.. that's gonna be a tough one. I don't know where I'd go either. It's more than just making the holes, you will want to flush mount the drivers. The easy way to do that is to buy a Jasper Jig and use it with a plunge router. As with all things, there is more than one way to skin a cat, this one is just the easiest.

One idea I just thought of is that you could rent a router -- I'm pretty sure there are places that do that. If you've never routed before, maybe one of your friends has and could be persuaded with some sort of bribe?

I'm stuck after that..

Good luck and, again, I look forward to the pics!

JCD


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## Usil (May 19, 2008)

*Re: BookShelf Speaker - matched pair of HIQUPHON OWII tweeters and a pair of 5 1/4 inch Focal 5W 332*

Well, I went ahead and kept the vertical alignment of the two speakers and I kept the speaker design sealed. I put the crossovers together this weekend and had a young guy that does some woodwork to cut my holes, chamfer the back of the larger hole and had the front holes routed to flatten the edge of the speakers to the case. Because of a lack of a perfect route tool I had to take a dremel to it when I got them back home and while not a perfect looking front baffle I got the speakers setting fine. The front speaker cover hides my imperfections. Square speaker mounts are a bear to work with - what is the secret for them?

After I tested the crossovers which all worked fine, I set them in the bottom of the speaker. I built the crossovers in two parts - one for the tweeter and one for the woofer. I did this because in the PE speaker cabinet, the floor of the speaker is divided in too by a center strengthening internal baffle. I used lexan cut to fit both areas as my base for the crossovers and used heat melt glue to attach all the components. After soldering everything together and trying them out attached to the speakers nothing got warm so I see no issue with this arrangement. Just before I set these into the speaker, I attached a tape handle to one side to help me lift them out again if I had to. If I did not do this once it sets in place it would be very difficult to get them out again.

I used sealing compound from PE to seal the speakers and brass screws to attach the speakers to remove any potential issues with steel. I have to say the quality of the PE speaker cabinets was exceptional. No way I could have built something as well and I can even buy new front baffles separately if I want to try for perfection in the speaker mount. I lined the inner surfaces with sound proofing material and stuffed the top of the speaker enclosure with stuffing before completing the front closure attachment. Each box is 0.38 cubic feet and when all assembled it was very heavy. A very firm structure similar in weight to expensive book shelf speakers I have seen at Tweeters. 

So - what do they sound like? I spent today testing them out with various types of music and movies and the results exceeded my expectations in every way. I have an Onkyo 605 amp and it drives the speakers very well. The clarity of the highs and the purity of the mids and lows is a joy to hear. No frequency range is noticeably emphasized and the entire spectrum is well presented which was a goal for this project. It presents a very large sound stage too using the matched pair of HIQUPHON OWII tweeters with the Focal 5 1/4 inch 5W 33211B W-cone Woofer-Mid-bass drivers. The crossover frequency of 2200Hz is a perfect match for the two speakers and allows an excellent response from 150 HZ to 15K Hz and lower to 30/40Hz is very good. I raised the volume with out distortion and could have gone louder but saw no reason to put it in the painful range as I don't listen to hard rock music. 

I would say that this project is a success in every way. I have never owned speakers with the ability to reproduce accurately all the nuances of good music. I can say this now as I have done the tests comparing the results to my old speakers. My old floor speakers produce a muddied reproduction lacking any of the clarity of these new book shelf speakers.

I am not an audiophile but my goal was to build a high quality pair of speakers that could hold their own and from what I have listened to at Tweeters, they do exactly that. Music is magical and movies had a realism I had not heard from my system before. Surprisingly good base kept the movie experience real. I could have used lesser components but thought to myself why? I am glad I kept the high standards for this project. 

I have to get ready to do some traveling but will try to take some pictures and post them later.

Usil


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## JCD (Apr 20, 2006)

*Re: BookShelf Speaker - matched pair of HIQUPHON OWII tweeters and a pair of 5 1/4 inch Focal 5W 332*

Just awesome! I'm glad the project turned out so well.

Of course, pictures are worth a thousand words... as well as graphs.. addle:

JCD


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## Usil (May 19, 2008)

*Re: BookShelf Speaker - matched pair of HIQUPHON OWII tweeters and a pair of 5 1/4 inch Focal 5W 332*

I am pretty happy about the results. I don't have pictures of everything but here are the cross overs in the assembly stage. I used heat-melt glue to secure the components to the lexan base and soldered the connections. I put the quarter in the picture to show perspective and relative size of components. I was surprised at the size of the crossovers after seeing the puny stuff in cheap speakers.

Tweeter Crossover:








Woofer Crossover:








Both Tweeter and Woofer (Right and Left speaker):









I will try for the rest of the pictures next weekend.

Usil


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## Guest (May 30, 2008)

*Re: BookShelf Speaker - matched pair of HIQUPHON OWII tweeters and a pair of 5 1/4 inch Focal 5W 332*

Even by just seeing pictures looks like a good project. But too long for me.


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