I'll add the info and specs when i finish :)

What are the absolute best speakers ever made?

I bought an old alarm clock/ stereo (no aux or bluetooth, only an ipod connection) from goodwill, I wanted to pull the speakers out to use them for my desktop. I think I need an amp but I’m not sure what my next step should be. Thanks!

PS I’m doing this as a fun small project, I know it would’ve been cheaper and easier to just buy old speakers but I wanted to try this out.

Three coats of Exohyde seemed to be the magic number to make everything look just right. While I did putty gaps and sand, I did not putty all the seams and edges or prime. I wanted to see how well Exohyde would cover. I’m pretty impressed so far. I also waited to drill the holes for speaker fasteners as I wanted to see what drilling through the finish was like. Next is mounting the drivers and wiring them up for measurement.

I have a pair of Polk T15 speakers that I want to get an amp for, so I can use them as desktop speakers. I was looking at barebones amp boards such as this one. I saw on the polk audio website that the wattage should be 20 watts → 100 watts for these speakers. I don't exactly know what this means, would I be fine to get the 20 watt amp or should I pay more for the 50 watt one? I would like to keep this project cheap (under $40) and it doesn't need to be super powerful as I'm just using them right at my desk for youtube/gaming.

So….

I just finished laying out and connecting my Home Theater system.

I have a Denon x1800h that I have been using, and I love it. I recently received my Crown XLS1502 amp so that I can finally connect my passive, dual opposed subwoofer enclosure to my system.

The enclosure is 2x 2ohm DVC 12” 500W RMS 800W Peak drivers that are wired in series for a monoblock configuration so that the resulting total impedance is 8ohm.

The XLS1502 can push 1050W in 8ohm bridged mode, so that’s a perfect fit. I set it up in Bridged mode and left the input sensitivity at the default 1.4V.

I connected the XLS1502 to my Denon via a single RCA cable. I then connected the subwoofer enclosure using the pepper terminals for bridged mode. The gain knob was at the 12 o’clock position (so, 50%, I suppose).

It was late, so I wanted to do a super quick test to make sure that everything was at least working.

While doing a test, I noticed that I couldn’t hear anything from the Sub.

When I put my head by it, I THINK I heard it working, but at a very low volume.

I figured that there was just some settings I needed to measure with, and that I would play with it in the morning.

While laying in bed, I was reading about possible causes, and one thing kept coming up - Input Sensitivity.

It’s seems to be a polarizing issue as some say that Denon receivers, and all other non-pro hardware, for that matter, do not output close enough to the 1.4V to make that mode work, so the user should set the Crown XLS1502 to .775V for the sensitivity so that the receiver can push enough power for the 1502 to receive/process.

Again, some say that Denon AVR units can do just fine with the 1.4V, others say no way - use the .775V.

THEN, to add more to the mix, some say that a pre-amp line booster like the CleanBox Pro is necessary to bring the levels up to the professional power level that the XLS1502 will love and work perfectly with.

Others, of course, say NO WAY, and it’s not needed.

I don’t mind picking up a Clean Box at all if it’s the better way to go.

I was just curious what you all have to say about that.

More specifically, is there another test I should do to be sure it’s needed? I haven’t been back to lower the input sensitivity on the XLS1502 down to .775V or to turn the gain knob up more just yet.

Should I try those two things first?

(Last night I did poke around in the Denon settings to make sure Subwoofer was enabled and I did try a movie mode and Direct mode) - still with the barely audible Sub response.

Thanks a TON in advance.

Thoroughly enjoying my last project, an RPi4 based high-end streamer so now I've been bitten by the bug!

Now I’m looking to add a built in streamer to an old but rather nice NAD-1020 preamp I’ve had for many years.

Anyone have experience running Volumio reliably on a RPi Zero WH? Also, will the Zero work with any DAC hat?

TIA

Long time lurker in this board but first time I am getting a chance to build my first speaker cab. I got a pair of JBL incommand Wall speakers with 8" woofer and matching tweeter for 40 bucks. I want to build a cabinet to house these speakers. Where should I start? What materials should I use to replicate the in-wall placement? I know the speakers and the tweeters are in great shape.

Hi! I made this 3-way crossover in VituixCad and would like your help and insight on this. From what I can see is wrong with it is phase they don't align perfectly, other than that it looks good to me. Important to note is I don't intend to build a speaker based on this crossover because these are not my measurements and for the mids I don't even have off-axis response in a normal graph way just directivity pattern and couldn't trace it with spl trace. I would like to build this speaker one day and if the cabinet will be done and all the speakers are in place than I'm going to do all the measurements required for this build and adjust the crossover design with the actual measuremnts, but until then I just wanted to see if I could design a crossover myself, also I have never designed one.

Let me know what you think and what should I change or improve and also how-to

Drivers:

SB Acoustics SB26STC

Visaton W130S-8

2xDayton Audio DC200-8 wired in parallel for 4 ohm

BTW: What are the pros and cons of TMWW or MTWW Driver arrangement? Would it be better to make an MTWW than the traditional one?

https://preview.redd.it/rttybr173pge1.png?width=1919&format=png&auto=webp&s=ef6dc790e7d5b02b6dfbb2139c54068c3a09b77d

I am planning on buying a pa amplifier with xlr outs but i have a car subwoofer with only speaker wire. Can u just split the xlr wire(and how do u do that) or can u buy an xlr in and install that on the subwoofer box or is there an easier way to have car subwoofers in ur home

Hi all!
Does anyone have experience repurposing an interface like the Digi003 Rack for a DAC?
I have one at home and since drivers are not updated anymore, it connects through firewire, and only runs on dated OS's, it's a hard sell for the second-hand market.
Since I like tinkering I was thinking of taking it apart to see what's inside. I know it has high quality parts, so maybe I could repurpose them for a DIY DAC.
Does anyone have experience with this?

The power supply runs steady until I turn on the amp. Even with the volume at lowest setting and no signal going to the amp, I see the power supplies blue LEDs pulse at about 1Hz! Like every second the woofers moving in and out, reminded me of one of my first stereos when I played warped records.

The sound isn't really audible but it sends a disturbance that pulses the normal bad sihnal to noise ratio in way that makes it apparent. It's easily masked when volume is added.

I tested the 450V 56uf caps and both tested @ 28uf each once removed from the board. I replaced them with a single 450v 150uf cap and the pulse is still there but not as bad. I haven't tested the 35V caps on the other end but I'm willing to be that they're only half of the 2200uf rating as well.

Both PSUs do this no matter where I plug them in, the subwoofer output has less obvious pulsing. Now I only have been testing using 1 of the left or right outputs at a time and have 1 speaker set up to BiAmp and the other is still using passive crossovers. I also have a 3-way active crossover I was planning on using to try and use the amps to tri power a 3-way system but the subwoofer output frequency will only allow sound up till about 250Hz from my tests. There's a hole at 400Hz till 600Hz (it's really not much different than the tests I ran using the passives) when using the sub output to the woofer directly and using the passives on the mid and tweet.

I really was hoping to use them to tri-amp a set of Heresy's but the power supply pulsing has thrown a caution flag. It's strange how the second the amp is turned on with no output, the pulse instantly starts and doesn't seem to make any difference how loud I turn up the amp, the blue led on the PSU pulses the same. The amp LED doesn't pulse, I can see the woofer moving to the pulse. I tried other outlets to be sure it's in the PSU and not the circuit powering it.

When I check the 35v caps I can put a bigger 450v in it right away. The only problem I see is the holes are not large enough to mount it using the leads and will require a jumper wire to connect it. I'm thinking of just soldering some wires with clips so I can swap out caps to see if I can cure it. I'll do the same on the 35v caps too. That way I'm not messing up the mounting traces.

I immediately figured it was a supply problem with the caps since it acts like it's running out of current on demand and starts the low frequency oscillation. The tiniest draw makes it happen. The amps are rated at 9Amps current and the PSUs are 20A so I can't see why there's a problem?

Sound is barely acceptable compared to my real 60lb amps that biamp my Electrostats, I just thought it would be a low cost way to make the Herseys a wireless system with control over each driver right away. I have to make new cabinets for them anyway so adding these tiny boards in the new build would be simple and make a very unique spin on a very old classic speaker system. I'll try and fix the lack of low frequency while I design the new cabinets and thinking of ditching the 12" woofers for some better 10s. The horns have a nice flat plot during sweeps the woofers have peaks at 170Hz then drop off hard from 400Hz to 600Hz, I have to do more tests with real amps before I can be certain that the issue is not these cheap amps.

I'll report back with some screenshots of sweeps using real amps and cheapos to see how the differ. I also have 1 speaker set up for biamping and have replaced the 12" for a monitor audio 10". So I'll have a few comparisons to show. This will take me most of the day to complete. I've been testing using my phone's headphone output and Bluetooth and running sweeps using SPECTRUM RTA app version 2.10 (the most recent version won't run on Android 14 but runs fine on 12. My phone is a Moto stylus 5G and I've found the mic in this phone to be as good or better than a mic I bought just for testing (Dayton). I do have a real testing mic but I can't get it to work through the OTC cable even with an outboard sound card with phantom power. So I can't compare the onboard mic to the test mic. I can however hear the sweep peaks very easily.

I can set up my computer to run REW but absolutely hate that program when there are apps that are so much easier to run and I get better results from the app. REW doesn't have the detail that the app has. My REW plots are like super rounded in comparison and even zooming in with no filter shows little variation in a flat line when I used it on my last set of electrostatics.

The SPECTRUM RTA app is available through Aptoides site (the playstore version doesn't start, I messaged the creator and he said he doesn't support playstore anymore, he's a Russian and a very nice guy that will answer your questions in the same day). I would suggest getting all 3 versions right away. It's the only app that will actually be able to do all tests within that app. Moto phones seem to have good mic elements (they're the same pickup that's used in the test microphonesl I've tried a bunch of phones and it's rare to find a good mic, most manufactures use the same mic in all their models, typically you will see 10KHz is the upper limit and the signal will roll off immediately. Moto and actual test mics will show a signal up till 20KHz or 24KHz.

Bought a pair of 120.2, but the bass is not moving at all. What might be the issue?

Is it possible to connect this 1960s Motorola Golden Voice speaker to a new amp? I’m curious if the speaker works or not?