TC9FD18-08

kennyk

Saw the thread on the Nola Brio on PETT. Speakers were cheap and decided to experiment.
Here is the measurements of 4.

Mzisserson

Thanks Kenny. Fun little driver! 

For $1 More you are into the Visaron FRS5X which has 3dB more eff, smoother response and as low or lower distortion. 

It IS only a 2"-er though....More of a thought/observation than anything. It is amazing what some inexpensive drivers do out there. 

Turn2

Can I play too?

isaeagle4031

I may do a version using the alpha 4-8. It will be bigger and i will probably add a nd16. 

PWRRYD

I started on the baffle yesterday for my TC9FD project.  4 Liters ported for a ND90-8 on the bottom, the TC9 OB, with an ND16 on top.  That's what my particle board enclosure in Bill's thread is for.

Turn2, that open chamber behind the top driver may give you some resonance issues.  I modeled mine on just a flat 5.5" wide OB and it looks really good for the range I'm after.  YMMV of course.

Turn2

PWRRYD said:

I started on the baffle yesterday for my TC9FD project.  4 Liters ported for a ND90-8 on the bottom, the TC9 OB, with an ND16 on top.  That's what my particle board enclosure in Bill's thread is for.

Turn2, that open chamber behind the top driver may give you some resonance issues.  I modeled mine on just a flat 5.5" wide OB and it looks really good for the range I'm after.  YMMV of course.

I assume opening up the sides like the NOLA's will solve that issue? That work is still on the agenda. In retrospect assembly would have been easier with nothing but the open baffle above the bottom chamber. But there was some speculation on DIY Audio that the top affects the performance in at least a small way.

I like your approach of adding the ND90-8 rather than relying on a sub.

PWRRYD

I think the TC9FD is a fantastic little driver.  I measured the FR and distortion on my infinite baffle its performance was equal to that speacial Scan Speak driver Madisound is selling.  BUT the TC9FD is not designed to produce any usable bass.  I'm hoping the ND90 works well enough at lower volumes.

Mzisserson

isaeagle4031 said:

I may do a version using the alpha 4-8. It will be bigger and i will probably add a nd16. 

The alpha 4-8 smooths out remarkablly well on a baffle and has a wonderful timbre. They did a nice job with it balaning overall fidelity, eff, and range. 6 of them are in my second design team project. I rolled the dice with them and was plesantly suprised. 

All to be posted in the loony bin in a couple of weeks. 

PWRRYD

Here's what I'm doing:










These are prototypes using $5 of PB.  I may end up changing the dimensions and such.

Mzisserson

Dude, you are a buliding machine!!!!!

kennyk

Why not flush mount on the baffle back? You got a nice, smooth round over on that PB.

PWRRYD

The TC9's are flush mounted on the back.

kennyk

OOPS! I meant surface mount. 

PWRRYD

I could have surface mounted (rear), but I was trying to keep the front holes as shallow as possible, hense the 1/2" thick baffle.  I didn't want to front mount those particular drivers because they have such a tight frame (small windows) for the rear wave to escape.

I will probably "shape" the top of the baffle purely for looks and round over the baffle's edges.  It will improve the tweeter's diffraction a little.

jhollander

Sweet project.  I cut and bent some copper pipe holders to hold the rear mount drivers in place.  That was after I had a short screw poke though the front. 

For the ND90s I use a 3-1/8 hole saw then a 3/8 inch rabbet for the recess.  I had to clip off the corners of the ND90 to make it fit.  There are more details here http://projectgallery.parts-express.com/uncategorized/mini-tl/

Mzisserson

jhollander said:

Sweet project.  I cut and bent some copper pipe holders to hold the rear mount drivers in place.  That was after I had a short screw poke though the front. 

For the ND90s I use a 3-1/8 hole saw then a 3/8 inch rabbet for the recess.  I had to clip off the corners of the ND90 to make it fit.  There are more details here http://projectgallery.parts-express.com/uncategorized/mini-tl/

Hey John,
  Thought the pipe holder trick was very slick. I filed it mentally for my next micro-build.

PWRRYD

Hi John.  Good to hear from you.  We just got back from a short family 2 day get away and I was able to bore the holes for the tweeters.  Really enjoying how easy PB is to work with for prototyping.



I just need to bore holes for the port tubes and the terminal cups, then it's on to mounting the drivers and the baffles to the boxes.  Then comes the measurement fun!!!!

jhollander

I have this (unproven) concept where I fill, paint, or stain particle board or OSB, then sand back and clear finish over it.

Turn2

This site has been seriously devoid of speaker porn lately, so I thought I might throw this up. Even though it might be more obscene than seductive, speaker porn is speaker porn.



I've decided to go full Brio Trio clone, rather than incorporate the ND105-4 like PWRRYD. These should be finished and rolling on the weekend, when I can get more photos. That finish is NOT duratex, but a rattle can abomination of Mineral Brown Stone finish with a wisp over of satin Espresso. There's about a whole 6-pack of value in parts in these babies, so there're gonna sound fantabulous. (See post #3 up top for the "before" pic.)

Nicholas_23

Curious how you think they sound

Turn2

I'll let you know in a few days. 

D1PP1N

I hope to have a few builds after my cnc machine is going. I have an expensive 3way (TL ceramic, vifa ne149 vifa mid, sb10" woofer (not sure if i want to go active woofer or not im a bass head).  I always find myself wanting to be able to adjust dat bass on the type of music since nothing is ever mixed the same. Also TM, a MTM and also need to find an affordable 8"-10" woofer to mate with an rs28a in the denovo diysoundgroup wave guide that can play up to approx 1000-1200hz plus 90-91 efficiency , small box and good low end would be perfect since its a wish list lol.  Anyway they are all on hold at the moment but want to work on them soon. 

Craig can crank out some speakers man. Hopefully he will still have a little time to help me with my upcoming builds. I still have trouble with the damn blending. 

Turn2

Okay, keep in mind that I have only the following tied up in these:

4 - TC9's
2 - $0.98 terminal cups (Which also provide all the wiring.)
2 - $0.98 spring terminals
4 - $0.60 buyout caps, 10uF
2 - 1" x 4" port tubes.
A handful of screws, nuts, some scrap 1/2" MDF and rattlecan paint

Turn2

I hooked these up to a SMSL Q5 Pro connected to audio out on my LG by optical cable. There is a subwoofer involved, but disregard the center channel. It is not playing in this setup. I ran through some of the music channels on the top end of the DirecTV line-up, just to see what sounded best.

First off, these things play stupid loud if you want them to. The imaging is pretty startling. You have to think about it to realize that there isn't a tweeter. They sound just unbelievable on jazz, reggae and light classical. One particular tune with some stand-up bass was cool to listen to. The Eagles sounded superb. Heavy symphony passages had me reaching for the volume knob once.   Rock and blues were hit and miss. A Muddy Waters tune sounded like it was recorded through a tin can. Maybe it was.

I don't imagine these would measure up to the open baffle 3-way you heard at DDIY. But keep in mind how much less went into these. With certain sources and genres you could listen to these all day. I watched an hour of regular television programming and was very pleased. They are very good with dialogue and brought background sound to the fore that I had never noticed before.

Session one was a definite success. Who says you can't build any audio fun for ~$50?