InDIYana 2018: In a Nutshell (+pics)

JasonP

Wow, what a great event. Easily the best Indy I've been to over the years, not that I am an alumni of a decade like some. Got to meet a lot of awesome new people, chat with (and listen to a presentation by) Andrew Jones, not to mention reuniting with old friends in the hobby. So many speakers. So little time. Even with two days things kept moving at a good clip. First a big thanks to all that organized, helped, and supported the event: Ben (Wolf), Chuck (isaeagle1), Mark of Meniscus Audio, and Ben with the soundcheck RTA. I couldn't go into all the vendors that supplied the prize table but it was stacked with goodies, perhaps someone will reply with that list here (I can only hope!). So I took 40 pics, and I didn't get everything, but I plan on posting those images here and adding minimal noise... I mean commentary, your mileage may vary. Feel free to chime in if you attended with more information, or correct me if I get things wrong. I did try and snap a pic of everything, but I missed stuff and if your project is one of those it wasn't on purpose! There was just so many speakers I went into mental overload. e.g. I don't have a picture of Mike's Seos-8/RS28 and RS270P for instance, but it was a great speaker that sounded very natural.

I'm going to make multiple posts, so I can take my time with each. Of course this means I might not be done until tomorrow (*shrug*).

JasonP

First of all, my pics are in a folder on my site here: https://jupiteraudioworks.com/event/indy18/ So if you want to just download them or read the silly file names I did, go ahead.



Chuck lugged in a lot of front-end hardware (thanks!) Sounded awesome as usual. I think there is a preamp, cd player, and DAC by Emotiva there, and a nice older Classe Preamp (which I totally did not think I broke during a lunch break, but that is another story entirely!) Behind we had an iNuke 1000DSP for sub duty as needed.



The speaker basket stands were a terrific touch!

JasonP

These were up early on Friday. Design by Chuck but built by and for his friend. Real awesome. There is something about large deep guides that you either love or hate.



Javad's Pretty Persuasions for the "Keeping up with the Joneses" coaxial challenge. A real dynamic and terrific speaker. I didn't know what to expect from the faital pro coax, but it sounded great.

JasonP

Ani's SB15NRXC and CSS LD22C rounded two-way. That looks like a lot of CNC to me... sounded great. One of my favorites at the show. Another not pictured in this thread because I missed the shot and favorite of mine: The CSS P215!





Really surprised by this little SB Acoustics kits. SB 12CSC ceramic I think with the SB19. They put out some impressive volume for their size and did so well.

JasonP

When I walked in this tymphany sub was sitting on the prize table. Not by far the largest woofer present, but still really beefy:




These both sounded good and looked stunning. I don't feel this picture does their look justice. Super Bees, IIRC, and I love the clipped up crossover board. DIY ftw.

JasonP

Welp battery is getting low, so I'll post more later tonight or tomorrow morning!

D1PP1N

Ani's build was exactly 3 hours of cnc machining time.
Was 36 pieces minus the baffles! I did like the design too. Thanks for the compliment Jason. I'm hoping you finish your 3way build for the next diy! It sounded well balamced with the sub there. 

Bryan@MAC

Indy flyby. View on Youtube: https://youtu.be/QeGscGSpBw4

JasonP

It's been around a lot, but I still am always impressed by Ben's (Wolf's) DIY speaker selector switch (now with LEDs that don't burnout!):



From the back:



He also had some very interesting non-speaker projects to share:



At the top, a custom circle jig. Really nice and solid, really weighty. To the left a home wound multitap coil, 10mh IIRC? And at center a "Frankenstein" headphone with a peerless driver? Sounded really good even if it did need a bit of EQ to really dial it in.

JasonP

Javad and Jeff's collaboration work, the Ceramicos. All ceramic SB drivers. The new SB ceramics seem to perform at or just above the level of the their aluminum NAC line, and those are terrific. The bass on this speaker was impressive, until I was told it was heavily stuffed I'd have had no idea.



Continuing on with SB, I forget who brought this Satori tower but it looked and sounded terrific.



Much smaller, but not in merit, Craig S's two way with the SB15CAC and HiVi Rt1.3. Very smooth and detailed, the more I hear that tweeter the more impressed I am with it. I also think its on sale at PE right now for the crazy low price of less that forty bones.

JasonP

Chuck also brought this sub, with an Eminence Lab 12C and CSS passive radiator. 2 cubic feet IIRC and it sounded terrific. Of course I'm biased because it made up the low end of the demo.



These little things may be expensive, but given how loud they were playing you get what you pay for here. Audible physics full range with a very simple filter by Chuck, named at the show, Inunisons.



Another personal favorite (and crowd favorite too from what I could tell) John H's synergy horns. I can't recall the exact driver compliment, but it is a three way. Awesome in both visual and sonic aspects.

JasonP

Sadly I missed a part of these when they were demo'd. Steve's JaWS, and played with a set of large subs. Based on how effortless they sounded from what I did here, I wonder how loud they could really go! DE250 in a SEOS-10 guide, and Faital Pro 8FE200 in MTM.



Brian's "Reference" small three-way driven by was I think is software DSP to a multi-channel USB DAC and then through internal ICEpower amps. Heavily DSP filtered, but I don't think I could have known if I wasn't told. There was a clipping issue that made it hard to judge at the start of the demo, but on his own PC files they sounded very good.

From the rear:

JasonP

Scott S's HiVi DIY 3.1A, with a improved crossover. This is... the third time I think I've heard the 3.3A? and from what I could tell the word "vastly" should be placed before improved in the former sentence. It was interesting to compare and contrast this with Craig's RT1.3 two-way, as the tweeters are variants on the same model. No clear winners in the treble there, or maybe all winners depending on how you look at it.



Ben's Fenrir and Hybrid Vigor. Nice clean style visually and great sound. Really impressive with what you can pull from that tiny HiVi woofer/full-range. I'd like to hear it with and without that dot sometime though.

Another look at the Fenrir:

JasonP

Somehow without realizing it I got three in one shot here! In the front, an MTM with the same drivers as the Fenrir above. Sounded totally different. I'm sure even more than voicing the different baffle shape, move to MTM, etc. has impacts on sonics. This speaker was not afraid of volume and was revealing.

Under it, on the floor Dirk's Targas. Beston planar and Fountek woofer. Real nice.

To the left, one of my own MT to demo with a tweeter I can't replicate.



Nick's Americana coax challenge build. Man, that finish. These not only sounded great but put out a lot of very nice bass.

JasonP

For my final post this morning, let's do a stark contrast:

First a prototype by Henry Olsen from the 1950s, a 15" (IIRC) coaxial:



Now that is a serious roundover. It's too bad its sister speaker didn't survive the ages, I'd love to have heard these in stereo. Real sensitive and surprisingly good sounded once you stepped back a bit.

And for the contrast:



Dayton 4-way driven by their new 4x8 DSP (way affordable hardware based on what I heard them say). These sounded like they had a lot of dynamics and power to offer up. I'd love to have seen the DSP programming for these.

Alright that is enough for this morning. I'll try and finish this thread up tonight before work.

rjj45

Thanks Jason. Wish i could have been there!

Nicholas_23

Yes , thanks Jason for posting the pics! Man lots of neat designs there . I hope everyone made it back safe and sound. 

ThumperTom

WOW, I need to make it to Indiy

PWRRYD

I think the non-diy speakers that the Parts Express guys brought were pretty blah at best.  I could easily hear the sound shifting from one driver to the next.  3.5 kHz xo point for the RST28F?  Probably part of the problem.  I don't think it was any driver issues.  I don't think it was the DSP unit or the amp.  Just not good use of the good parts on hand.  They did say they only had about a week total to build the enclosures and play with the active crossover.  You would think that a company like PE, bringing out new drivers like the RST tweeters and the new soft dome version of the RS52 would have spent a fair more amount of time perfecting such a project before show casing it at a major DIY event.  JMHO.

jhollander

I got to listen to them with my demo track while you guys were at dinner.  I thought the mid was good but I missed the RS28 detail that I was use to.  I agree there were some integration issues but, I thought that about a lot of speakers at the event.

The bass bloom in the room was starting to bug me on Saturday afternoon

D1PP1N

Yeh my head was killing me most of Saturday. If you sat near the divider it was pretty bad bass bloom wise. 

Any feed back on my 2 builds would be appreciated. Seriously, good or bad let me have it. 

 I think my MTM lacked a bit. I took too much off the tweeter. I was debating and I think i chose wrong. They are laid back now whereas the first prototype was in your face with huge soundstage. Its just a simple resistor change which is easy to do. 

The waveguide build could benefit from a 3" port if you play above 102db. It was nice to have 4th order slopes for both drivers for once. I wish i could have played the indy2014 drum track demo  it impressed the shit out of me with this build. 

jhollander

Other than the competition, my listening lacked focus, I usually have pages of notes.  Mike wrt to yours, my initial thought was the MTM was good.  The RS28A in the wave guide was missing something on the top.  Might have been padded down a bit much or needs to be lifted up in the 8-10K range idk...

JasonP

Ok let's get done with the rest of this. Glad I didn't take more pictures honestly, this process could be exhausting.



Tiny tower featuring a modified Radio Shack full-range driver. I think the paper cone was stiffened with glue, and then weighted around the dustcap. Sounded ok. It couldn't hold a candle to a lot of the newer speakers but had some smooth midbass/midrange. Was interesting to hear.



Mike C's MTM with Neo SB dome and MCM 55-2669. I really love both of those drivers and it sounded very nice. My only critique was that I felt it was just a bit too laid back, and maybe needed a resistor tweak on the tweeter.



Kerry of CSS brought this beast of a tower, I've been told it was a three-way but you could of fooled me. When I closed my eyes I thought it was a fullrange driver. A really coherent loudspeaker. It has CLD on top of a rigid frame, and I think that really made the cabinet disappear acoustically. IIRC it uses the Morel Supreme tweeter and Vifa NE149 mid.




Nick's in-progress build. I can't recall if he actually mentioned the drivers, but looks like a Tymphany XT (or Scan) and a Dynavox woofer? All the large voicecoil woofers look alike to me... Like pretty much all the speakers there, sounded real good.

JasonP

Now for the Coax challenge speakers. I'm not going to say much about these, other than the fact that it was a very hard competition to judge. I felt I was splitting hairs often trying to decide between them. All in all, Paul K's was my favorite.

Keith's:


Ben's:


Bill's:


Forgot who this was, but don't let its rough looks fool you, it sounded nice:


John's:


Nick's


Paul's:


Javad's:


I feel like I must be missing some, since this is only eight and I'm sure we heard more than eight. Sorry if I missed a photo shot of yours!

JasonP

Chuck's audible physics two way, using a 2" fullrange and small woofer. I really like the way these drivers look, though the grills detract a bit, they have no effect on the excellent sound though.

Ge_off_me

PWRRYD said:

I think the non-diy speakers that the Parts Express guys brought were pretty blah at best.  I could easily hear the sound shifting from one driver to the next.  3.5 kHz xo point for the RST28F?  Probably part of the problem.  I don't think it was any driver issues.  I don't think it was the DSP unit or the amp.  Just not good use of the good parts on hand.  They did say they only had about a week total to build the enclosures and play with the active crossover.  You would think that a company like PE, bringing out new drivers like the RST tweeters and the new soft dome version of the RS52 would have spent a fair more amount of time perfecting such a project before show casing it at a major DIY event.  JMHO.

Thank you for your "feedback"

They are indeed DIY, as we designed, built, and tuned them ourselves. 

We were under some time restraints and didn't have a ton of time to get work done on them.

I do want to point out that very few people felt the way you did, and I think you may have a bit of a bias, I'm certainly not the only one that sees that. 

Either way, your "feedback" has been evaluated.

Best Regards,

Geoff Schneider

JasonP

And finally, to put the most chief part of the event last, here we have a very surprised Jeff Bagby accepting a lifetime achievement award for contributions to the DIY speaker community (photo by Javad):



He could not have been more deserving of this formal award. Many of us (myself included) would likely not be active in the community at all without his contributions (here is looking to you, Passive Crossover Designer).

Obviously he also brought designs, though I'm missing a picture of one (Viva Voce):



These are the Revolutions: 5" SB ceramic with a 29mm beryllium dome. As expected from Jeff, they sounded terrific. The design uses a rear passive radiator and a cabinet of about 13 liters. He also mentioned that interestingly you could decide to shorten the cabinet depth to make it smaller and only sacrifice low-end extension, without destroying the entire alignment (for example, if it had a vent). From the rear:

jhollander

@cssaudio1 Thanks to you guys for the LD22 tweeters (door prize).  Those tweeters were one of the highlights of the show, and I was lucky to be able to win the pair.  Not sure what they are going with.  Maybe the Rival woofers so we can do a heads up against Ben's with the TW022

Thank you.

NavyGuy

jhollander said:

@cssaudio1 Thanks to you guys for the LD22 tweeters (door prize).  Those tweeters were one of the highlights of the show, and I was lucky to be able to win the pair.  Not sure what they are going with.  Maybe the Rival woofers so we can do a heads up against Ben's with the TW022

Thank you.

You're welcome. I want to hear them in a 3-way with the Satori mid  

NavyGuy

JasonP said:

Kerry of CSS brought this beast of a tower, I've been told it was a three-way but you could of fooled me. When I closed my eyes I thought it was a fullrange driver. A really coherent loudspeaker. It has CLD on top of a rigid frame, and I think that really made the cabinet disappear acoustically. IIRC it uses the Morel Supreme tweeter and Vifa NE149 mid.

Thanks, Jason. I guess my last minute tweaking on Friday night paid off.

I find it funny that as I'm making these at home, I'm thinking "man these things are kind of big." They are by far the biggest speakers I've made to date. But then as soon as I get them to the show, it's a different story. They seemed pretty modest in size in comparison to many there.

4thtry

Thanks for all the excellent pics, Jason!  Enjoyed the event, the food, the conversations, the Andrew Jones presentation, etc., etc.   Had a great time.    Just like last year, I put together a  InDIYana competition montage that I would like to share.  It is a highly compressed version that looks "OK" on screen, but if you want to print a large poster to hang on your wall, you will need the high rez version.  When I send the InDIYana pics to Bryan, I will include a high rez PDF that can be used for printing (256 MB).

Thanks,

Bill S.