robi Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 I only can say: C O M P L I M E N T S !!!!!! I'm very impressed. This is a top speaker. Roby. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Dubay Posted October 11, 2009 Author Share Posted October 11, 2009 Yes, I have been considering biamping. My cross overs do have separate bass and mid/tweet inputs. I'm considering using my SE amp for the mid and tweeter, and the Adcom for the bass bins. With the 107+ db/watt for the mid range the 5 watt SE would be sufficient. There has been some discussions on biamping in other parts of the forum. Still not sure if it is worth it or not, it sounds like fun thing to try. It is either that or build a nice pair of KT-88 PP amps. I believe my next item to address is that I need a better CD player. Maybe go with an esoteric A/D converter since my current player has a digital out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Dubay Posted October 11, 2009 Author Share Posted October 11, 2009 Here is version 2 with the mids atten at -8 db. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Dubay Posted October 11, 2009 Author Share Posted October 11, 2009 Repeated the experiment at the same 4 positions. A plot of the db data: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Dubay Posted October 11, 2009 Author Share Posted October 11, 2009 And the same averaged response per driver: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Dubay Posted October 11, 2009 Author Share Posted October 11, 2009 The average per driver: Woofer 67.9 db Squaker: 68.0 Tweet: 68.9 Pretty good results in matching the drivers attenuation. It sounds right to my ears. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Dubay Posted October 11, 2009 Author Share Posted October 11, 2009 Decided to go with Clarity Caps ESA for the perminent cross over. I have used the Clarity Cap SA and was pleased, wanted at step up from there. The 6.2 uf capicator was on back order, and with no good idea when they would arrive, I substitued a 4.7 and a 1.5 in parallel. Hey some time you end up using two caps instead of one because you come up with a funny cap value. I will not loose any sleep over the two extra connections. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Dubay Posted October 11, 2009 Author Share Posted October 11, 2009 Clarity Cap have a ery high level of quality in the way of fit and finish. Hope they sound as good as they look! Cross over v.3. I tried to keep the connections to a minimum, and keep the inductors separated as much as possible. I also allowed for separate mid/tweeter and bass inputs. Wanted to allow the possibility of biamping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Dubay Posted October 11, 2009 Author Share Posted October 11, 2009 Here they are installed in the right hand cab. Installed in an area with no screws located below the cross over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Dubay Posted October 11, 2009 Author Share Posted October 11, 2009 Well, that brings this to real time. I just installed the Clarity Caps this evening. Yes, a dramatic improvement in detail compared to the Dayton caps. More so in the tweeter range. The cymbals are much more clearly defined. I can easily tell the difference between small/medium/large cymbals, a high hat, and cymbals with "sizzlers". I will provide an update as I allow the caps to get some more run in time. So I'm very satisfied with the results. Got my improved bass response. Also a very engaging mid range. One of the more interesting differences is that the current line up of hardware has made a vast improvement in the sound of my vinyl. Kevin from Flint is willing to bring his previous horns and try them with my bass cabs. So in the future might have a wood/metal Selenium/Atlas shoot out in the coming months. Want to give some tube gear a try and see how that sounds. Active or passive bi-amping is also some thing to consider. I want to rebuild my subwoofer to match my GWNCS. Thanks: for all of your positive comments. to Mr. Crites, his cast woofer sounds sublime. J. Cullison for the great detailed description of the cabnet build. GotHover for the great thread on building wood horns. to all who visit the forum regularly and make up this passionate community, that was what got me interested in doing this very rewarding project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhoak Posted October 26, 2009 Share Posted October 26, 2009 So I'm going to bring this thread back for a few questions... 1) Now that you've had a couple of weeks to listen to them what's your take on the Selenium mid-drivers? Worse than / equal to/ better than the Atlas drivers? 2) How far does the horn lens on the tweeter extend from the motorboard? Assuming a .75" grill frame will the cloth clear the tweeters? 3) Here's the big one... Now that it's all said and done what would you do differently? THANX! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Dubay Posted October 26, 2009 Author Share Posted October 26, 2009 Thanks for the interest and the questions. So far I am very pleased with the Selenium drivers at the moment. I am looking forward to having Kevin from Flint come over and listen to them, and get his opinion. He has been living with a sweet pair of Khorns with modified mid wood len's. He should have ears well 'trained' by atlas drivers. Right now, it would be hard for me to tell the difference between the Selenium and Atlas drivers with out doing a direct A/B test. The difference could be there, I just can't say right now for sure. I'm also a bit unsure if my CD player is really up to the task of bringing out the best of Atlas mid dirvers. Over the last few days I A/B tested my Sony Mulitdisk player against an older single disk Sony CD player, the older unit is only 18 bit, but has Burr Brown A/Ds. The older Sony won out, gave a smoother less distorted mid range. So I guessing that there are other improvements that would give me more benefit before to upgrading to Atlas drivers. With that said, and me feeling long winded at the moment. I find the speakers are very "engaging". My time spent listening to music has greatly increased. Kevin mentioned that it was to easy to get drawn in to the music from his Khorns, I'm feeling similar. I even had my parents over for dinner tonight, they spent an hour listening to the GWNCSs, normally I get a quick 5 minute listen to my latest creation and off they go. I also got 'sound beautiful' comments, not "god those are huge". So engaging is the best description I can come up with right now. Speakers with large format horns have that magic I was looking for. The horn lens on the APT-200 is 1 1/4' inches deep from the motor board, 3/4 inch grills will not give enough room for the lens. I have a 1 and 1/2 inch gap between the motorboard and the grill cloth. As to what I would have done differently; Since I went with top cabs that are 23 1/2 inches tall. I would have designed a mid range horn that had a "square" mouth, with a 22 x 22 inch outlet. Providing a lower Fc for the mid horns. Then mounted the tweeter on top of the speakers. Secondly, could have gone with ALK "universal" cross overs, to better switch between the 16 ohm atlas drivers and the 8 ohm selenium drivers. Other than that, I'm satisfied as to where I'm at right now. Right now just want to spend some time listening to music, working on my 8417 amp project, and decompress from this project. - Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundbound Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 It's good to hear you like them. You had some good ideas and did a good job building them too. I may build me some of them someday. Enjoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinmi Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 Hi Mike, Glad your speakers delivered the sound you were after. I'll be bringing my wooden tuned ears over for a visit. I'm now on night shift, working from 5pm to 3am, but I still have Fri, Sat, Sun off. Gothover built me some ALK universal crossover clones, I can bring them also. I might bring my wooden top hats with me for a comparison also. I won't have my 2 inch horns done anytime soon, so they won't be in the comparison. See you soon, Kevin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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