What Tweet To Go With The Css 4"er?

Discussion in 'Home Audio Talk' started by hobbes26, Nov 22, 2004.

  1. hobbes26

    hobbes26 Full Member

    Okay, so I got another pair of the WR125s speakers (the CSS 4.5" full-range speaker with XBL^2 if you don't already know) at a DIY audio meet on Saturday, and after playing with the ones I have now (7L box, 1.5" x 4" long port, half stuffed), I find that they're lacking a bit in the upper end. I measured them flat out to about 12kHz. Low end is awesome on these things - for 4"ers.. heh.. and they don't bottom out, unless it's really bass heavy and or way too loud for this room.

    Anyways, on to my question. How do I go about finding a tweet to properly match with these drivers? Anyone have any suggestions? I know a lot of you on here havent played with these drivers much, if at all... In general, what do you look for when you're trying to match a woofer and a tweet?

    I think that the kits that are going to be offered by CSS are matching the woofer to an Aurum Cantus ribbon tweet (not exactly sure which model - may even be OEM only) but the even the lowest line they offer costs $107CA each, which is a little out of my budget. $50CA each would be good... less is better, but they gotta also sound good!

    Second thing is the crossover. No experience designing them. Although I could probably look it up and find a way to build a standard one without too much trouble, anyone wanna help me design one? :D I also heard that the kits from CSS will have the crossover at 3kHz or 3.5kHz, and probably be a 6th order acoustic slope on them (like the kind Dan likes). I probably would also want to keep it around there, to keep the directivity in check.

    Second and a half question. I may also want to put a high-pass filter on the woofers so that they don't bottom out too easily. Suggestions as to what to use? Probably want something at 60-80Hzish...


    I got a lot of reading up to do on crossovers.... :(
    but it's fun :)
     
  2. Steven Kephart

    Steven Kephart Full Member

    Was that on axis? I was in the room when Dan came up with the graphs posted on CSS' site. I even saw this again on a different set of speakers and enclosures, and he had the same results. He has some very expensive equipment to do the testing, so I know his results were accurate. That's why I'm a little confused on why your results were so different.

    Anyway, I recomend waiting till more reference designs come out. I'm sure someone will come up with a solution that's in your price range.

    As for doing it yourself, I don't mean to doubt your abilities but I don't think you will have the best results. You really need to have the ability to measure the frequency response of each driver in their intended application, know what kind of response curve to shoot for, and then be able to design around this. You will never get good results with a text book approach. You really need a program like LspCad or SpeakEasy for the development of the crossover. What's really neat is watching Dan design them as he actually hooks up his computer to the speakers and listens to his crossover design by a simulation produced from the program. Then he can make very quick adjustments and listen to the results in real time.

    Now if you do decide to do it yourself, then here is a link to a similar discussion I was involved in recently: http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_...?TID=42867&PN=4 Although it was more about the Extremis 6, there should be some useful information in there. Although you might not get the best results, I'm sure you will have fun in the project and learn a great deal. I suppose you can always go to the reference design later. Good luck!

    Steven Kephart
    Adire Audio
     
  3. hobbes26

    hobbes26 Full Member

    Heh, admittedly I didn't take the best of care when doing this... I had some low freq issues with the measurement also. I'll try again when I have time. The measurement was on-axis, and I took another off-axis. I forgot what the curve looked like off-axis. I used MLSSA to measure the FR of the speakers in the box I built, using lab-grade mic/SPL meter, and standard setup for measuring loudspeakers...

    Now THAT is software I would love to play with... Yeah, I'm in no rush to do this right now... i've got so much work to do it's not funny...

    I really would like to play with it myself, and that's the best way to learn, right? Everyone needs to start somewhere...