John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

I was over on recording.org and I followed Barefoots footprints here.

I am researching building my first monitors. I would like to end up with somehting like A D A M s S 3's

I am using
1 Eton midbass driver 1.800 Hz
1 Eton midbass driver only below 150hz
1 Eton ribbon tweeter
A bassreflex box design 50x24x32 cm
Free Air resonance 40 hz

""You've identified the drivers and the crossover frequencies? Hell, you're 90% there! Thomas""

Ok Thomas, I have followed you here. Can you spare a few words of wisdom to shed some light -- I am stuck!

Door #1 -Active crossovers - is this where I should look next?
Door #2 amp design
Door #3 A good nights sleep


Thank you for the inspiration,
Patina

---Still following your footprints-----

First thing to do is pick a copy of "The Loudspeaker Design Cookbook" by Vance Dickason. This will get your feet wet. You can find it and other good books at audioXpress.

Another thing is, I don't see how anyone can even begin to design a modern high performance loudspeaker without design software and a measurement system. You really need a design package like LEAP, Calsod, or LspCAD. I use LEAP, plus I even supplement it with some of my own algorithms written in Matlab and Excel. A good measurement system is also a must. MLSSA and LMS are the standard tools these days, but there are less expensive systems like Praxis and CLIO.

Thomas

Yeah, I was looking into this for a while, and I think I've given up on the idea. At least for now. At this point, my plan is to soffit-mount whatever the best monitor is I can afford. It will probably be one of the M-Audio ones. We'll see.

Yeah, this is a huge subject. It's difficult to even know where to begin.

So, you've already purchased the drivers Patina?

Thomas

No I havent bought the drivers yet.


I was thinking I could buy the drivers build boxes based on specs and
start doing some hands on learning about crossovers. Would I notice that great of a difference between designs if only the components changed and not the actual frequency. I just don't know enough about crossover designs.
Time to buy the cookbook.

I have read where you have suggested using the Ad797's.
I wish at this point that I had a pc in my studio so use Leap 5.
Could anyone recommend good Mac software.


Ps I found some great info here about crossovers...
http://www.rane.com/digi-dic.html

Thank you for your help Thomas
Patina

can you see the tech.pdf?

Patina,

Building your own active monitor is a very ambitious endeavor. I'd like to encourage and help you in any way I can, but I do recommend starting out in somewhat smaller steps. If you haven't built a speaker before, you should get your feet wet first by building some of the designs you can find at Zalytron and other suppliers. One great way of doing it is to have your friends help finance your education. Offer to build these designs at cost. They get a great speaker at an excellent price and you get to develop your speaker building skills. As you gain more experience, you'll find ways to modify and improve these designs. Cabinets, crossovers, and even driver selection are all fair game.

As far as I know there are no DIY plans for active monitors. This is probably due to the fact that the people with skills to design active monitors are spending their time trying to make money from these great efforts! So, while you're building passive speakers, you'll need to learn a lot on the electronics side as well. And there are many cool DIY electronic projects out there. Building headphone amps, preamps, EQ's, etc., are all great ways to build the skills you'll need for designing your active monitors.

Rane schematics are an excellent resource for ideas. I also highly recommend reading the data sheets and application guides from semiconductor manufactures like Analog Devices, Burr-Brown, National Semiconductor, etc. Tons of things to learn there! Also, you need to read, read, and read again Horowitz & Hill "The Art of Electronics". It's the best introductory electronic design text, bar none.

Hope this helps!

Thomas

Thanks Thomas. I tend to dream big. I am working on my first project. Jackob Gyraf's G7 Tube Mic (gyraf.de). I recommend it to anyone into recording music.

I started out not knowing how to tie my own shoe electronically. I could have started with a smaller project, say a DI box, but I am just not as excited. I have spent nearly 6 months researching to get to this point and I have covered at least a 3 of my electronics book: Stan Gibilisco, "Teach yourself Electricity an Electronics."

I am looking for something to take me in a new direction. OK, understanding some of the best studio monitors and recreating them might be a bit much.... But I have read that E t o n has kits!!!

Patina