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Walnut tweeter lenses


Dave A

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Dave,

The ones I made for the Eminence APT150 are about 6.5-7 inches deep with the baffle about an inch back. The driver is about .75 inches from the back, a lets the driver be almost exactly in the right spot when pushed all the way to the back. It is plenty stable.

 

Yours look much nicer, even if they are renderings... 😏

Bruce

 

APT_baffle_04.jpg

APT_baffle_02.jpg

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Getting ready to ask a few questions here and I re-read my last comment. No you can't flip the base and I don't know what I was thinking  when I said you could. That driver is heavy enough that if you just flipped the support board from back to front you are going to have to put a counter weight on it to compensate.

 

 Now my question for you all is would a sheet metal base to the vertical tweeter board offend anyone? Should I just plan on it being wood also?

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23 hours ago, Dave A said:

Getting ready to ask a few questions here and I re-read my last comment. No you can't flip the base and I don't know what I was thinking  when I said you could. That driver is heavy enough that if you just flipped the support board from back to front you are going to have to put a counter weight on it to compensate.

 

 Now my question for you all is would a sheet metal base to the vertical tweeter board offend anyone? Should I just plan on it being wood also?

Dave,

  My thought was a base that extended front and back of the vertical. For application like my LSii the  middriver sticks out the back of the top hat. The driver would need to be very close to the rear for true alignment. 

  The drivers are fairly light, a six inch base may work if it is 2 inches behind and four inches in front. Maybe not. 

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Depends on which driver. The DE120 yes but with the stand the door is opened for the DE10 which is a superior sounding driver but it is far larger in size and weight. Also cheaper. I have to make time to do the design work and see what the situation really is and how small this can safely be made.

 

  I lean towards the wood base too it just takes longer to do.

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You could have screw holes predrilled in the base so that it can be used for different speakers.  Example if you want to use on a Cornwall and have the base extend to the back only you can.  If you want to use on a LS have a different set of predrilled holes so the base can be shifted towards the front.

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36 minutes ago, scalawag said:

I wanted the HF driver to "float" above the 'Scala and chose to cut up left/right supports out of some scrap wood I had.  Though lacking much compared to the design and craftsmanship of Dave's lenses, these will serve their purpose for the time being.  

~

 

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Are those stable enough to make you happy for the long term or is this temporary? Part of my thinking for a base is to be stable enough to resist accidental knocks and cats. Nothing is proof against toppling but I don't want it to be super easy to do either.

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1 hour ago, larryk said:

You could have screw holes predrilled in the base so that it can be used for different speakers.  Example if you want to use on a Cornwall and have the base extend to the back only you can.  If you want to use on a LS have a different set of predrilled holes so the base can be shifted towards the front.

I am a fan of making things work in as many ways as possible with one device. What I am thinking here is not driven by this though as much as it is to have the shortest length that would also be stable. I have not done the CAD work yet but my guess is with the larger MAHL and DE10 I could get away with a 5" length from front face to back of support. The smaller MAHL with the DE120 could be less but I don't want these things to short so there might be some variations before I settle on final designs. I prefer the DE10 over all the other drivers Claude has tested so far both by the numbers and what I hear in my shop with test bed speakers. It will have to use a longer base for sure.

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4 hours ago, Dave A said:

Are those stable enough to make you happy for the long term or is this temporary? Part of my thinking for a base is to be stable enough to resist accidental knocks and cats. Nothing is proof against toppling but I don't want it to be super easy to do either.

 

For your reference, my stands are 3" wide at the base.  If I tilt the driver/lens backward (front of "leg" in the air) beyond 5/8" then tip-over occurs; tilting forward tipover doesn't happen until approx 1-1/4" of air space between back of leg and top of 'Scala.  With moderate shaking of the speaker I found that the driver tended to slide rather than topple over due to the glass toppers on my 'Scalas, thereby offering a bit more prevention against tipovers.  I recognize that this setup is not without some limitations and valid concerns, particularly if you host a lot of social events or have young children in the home, but in my case it will suffice for the moment, perhaps even longer.  

 

Thanks for asking, and I very much enjoy viewing/listening to your handiwork.

~

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  • 1 month later...

OK guys no rendering but here is a proposed free standing Walnut/DE120 with a cutout for your existing small MAHL. 7" tall 7" wide and 3.5" deep. I am probably three weeks, maybe more, away from trying this as I have too many other things to do right now. But at least you can see this and give me your opinion. One similar to this can be done for the large MAHL and de10 but the horn will be an integral part of the block of wood. The one for the DE10 will have to be deeper too. The only problem with this style is there will be no tilt if you want that. How critical do you all consider tilting these to be?

front view freestanding with de120.JPG

side view freestanding with de120.JPG

back view freestanding with de120.JPG

angle view freestanding with de120.JPG

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Dave that looks really nice.   It seems like it should be very sturdy.  It looks like the horn is around 4” height.  That’s what I have mine set at and there is no need for tilting.  If the horn was higher that might  be a different story.  If one did want to tilt though they could do that with footers underneath.

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If there is nothing to absorb the reflections this is an issue.  I originally laid a towel in front and it did help to absorb a lot of this.  I ended up going to guitar center and found some 12x12” absorption panels and cut one in half to 6x12 and set them in front of the speakers.   That really did a great job absorbing the reflections .

9AABBB63-421A-4B05-B8BC-34451B70FAAB.jpeg

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Schu brought up a good point.  I have addressed the bounce off of the top of the speaker but had not compared different heights.  I decided to take my current crude stand and insert cd cases underneath to test at various heights.  Down from around 4 “ up to 6 “ from top of speaker to middle of tweeter horn.  The highest setting thinned out the sound and seemed to call more attention to the tweeter.  I tried different heights in 3/8” increments and settled on 5”.  To me on my Cornwall that seemed to have the best balanced sound.  Of course this is subjective based on listening preferences.  Based on my test I would be good at a centered horn height from 4 3/4 to 5”.  If one wants to increase height more footers could be placed underneath to increase the height.  It would be interesting if someone else may be able to try this and compare results.

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On 2/15/2019 at 3:39 PM, scalawag said:

 

For your reference, my stands are 3" wide at the base.  If I tilt the driver/lens backward (front of "leg" in the air) beyond 5/8" then tip-over occurs; tilting forward tipover doesn't happen until approx 1-1/4" of air space between back of leg and top of 'Scala.  With moderate shaking of the speaker I found that the driver tended to slide rather than topple over due to the glass toppers on my 'Scalas, thereby offering a bit more prevention against tipovers.  I recognize that this setup is not without some limitations and valid concerns, particularly if you host a lot of social events or have young children in the home, but in my case it will suffice for the moment, perhaps even longer.  

 

Thanks for asking, and I very much enjoy viewing/listening to your handiwork.

~

 

You should try mounting the tweeters in a baffle. It will make a difference in the response.

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