Lol @erik_squires not only are you razzing the dba crowd, but also the passive speakers only crowd. Good on you for doing what works best in your setup. I recently upgraded my subs to a pair of Rythmik F8 and absolutely swear by it. Small, light weight drivers in a sealed box to pair with my sealed box monitors and a high pass filter to keep everything separated. As for isolating the monitors, Isoacoustic Orea have worked really well for my setup. We want photos when things are up and running. 
I bought 4 subwoofers and I'm absolutely not doing a DBA! Hah!
I just received shipments of 4 subwoofer drivers and they will not be going into a distributed bass array.
I'm replacing my left and right speaker stands with powering subwoofers with 2 subwoofer drivers each. I call them powering because they will be powering the 2-way monitors that will sit on top. Here's a beauty shot of the insides.
The amp has all the DSP power I could need to produce perfect speaker measurements. I wonder if JA at Stereophile would wax poetically if I priced them high enough?? 
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well good for you doing what works best for you ! |
@audiokinesis - duke, may I ask about your sense of things, all things room and equipment equal, if you feel that a distributed bass array will still give better bass accuracy, depth and cohesion with mids and highs than what erik is working on? Or is there too little known in his particular implementation to say? Thanks much : ) In friendship - kevin |
@erik_squires Fascinating project. Many questions though. I assume your current speaker position lends itself to relatively flat uncorrected response--true? We want details! What drivers are in your monitors/subwoofers? Who is building those cabinets? I assume your crossover points will largely be by trial and error? If your plate amp is 3 way, you will be removing the crossover from your monitors, right? Thanks and good luck.
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The floor to ceiling bass traps, and wall to wall traps on the floor behind the entertainment system is in large part why I can avoid doing Distributed Bass Arrays and still get excellent results. That not only tames room modes and help EQs work better but also improves speaker placement choices.
Yes. See above. Speaker placement is not something I have a lot of flexibility with so significant room treatment has been added to the listening area.
For details on the monitors see here. The subwoofer drivers are Dayton 10" RSS265HF-8.
The final design and construction is ordered from Solen.ca (tariffs and all)
Sir, are you mocking me? WTF? Let me fully answer your question below.
That is correct. A large part of the reason for this project is that I want to rethink the mid to treble crossover. I did a measurably good job with the original but having done an active 3-way center I realized just how easy doing it better would be if active. I know audiophiles for some reason think they can install a subwoofer by trial and error. Honestly mostly it turns out to be garbage they are happy with. Sorry. They cross too low and are left with too many compromises. Yes, in this case by comparison the DBA approach removes a lot of complexity assuming you use the DBA to a high enough crossover point (80Hz or so) and so has a much higher success rate than setting a single subwoofer or two by ear. I know I’ve been teasing you all by using the term subwoofer. It is true that Dayton markets this driver as a subwoofer, and for good reason. It has good output to 20 Hz and significant excursion and power handling capabilities without being completely inefficient. This driver also has another important feature:
Lets stop talking about subwoofers and talk about this project as a new 3-way speaker system. Instead of thinking of adding a subwoofer and crossing around 40-80Hz I’m now thinking 150 - 300 Hz. The determining factors are:
Generally speaking I want to cross my new woofers as high as possible while still maintaining excellent off-axis response, not something a lot of commercial speakers have. In other words, I cut them off before they start to beam. Having the woofers located under the mid-woofers means I can cross higher without fear of the ear locating them, unlike a subwoofer appliance. By crossing high (150-300Hz) I reduce the load on the mid-woofers, increasing dynamic range but also has the extremely beneficial side-effect of reducing audible distortion even while playing low. I wrote much more about picking crossover points in my blog here. |
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