What's New

27/12/2024 - Site visits 987,432! yes I am still alive lol

17/3/2021 - Nothing new. The few  Covid lockdowns had me thinking for some new ideas but none really eventuates. Listens to my S19 occassionally and loving it still. But most spare time I have now is doing outdoor stuff - camping, motorbike riding, 4wd :)

27/9/2015 - PSE-144 GTG

14/9/2015 - Princeton University 3D3A posted results of R16 measurements

2/9/2015 - Redefy TWO GTG

21/7/2015 - Amateur video of S19

5/6/2015 - 500,000+ visits! Wow thanks and hopefully this site is useful for you.

8/2/2014 - Walking around a dipole loudspeaker (YouTube Video)

26/1/2015 - First photos of R16 posted

7/9/2014 - Posted polar measurements of S23

31/8/2014 - Posted design of Cardioid loudspeaker project: S23

29/5/14 - Added Epiphone Les Paul guitar page

14/5/14 - Site visitors passed 400,000

18/10/13 - Melbourne Audio Show in GTG

15/8/13 - Investigation: Effects of Crossover Points on Loudspeaker Directivity

14/8/13 - Building a 2x 500w Class-D Subwoofer Amplifiers

20/7/13 - Added another 4 channels to the 8-Channel Gainclone amp. The channels are bridged

14/5/13 - Site visitors passed 300,000

22/1/13 - Red Spade S3 Synergy Horn measurement GTG

7/12/12 - Weekday GTG

8/11/12 - Posted EP12, Single Stereo Loudspeaker

20/10/12 - Posted full details of S20-Z. Config file is available for purchase

19/9/12 - Requirements for upside down / down firing subwoofer

14/9/12 - Updated stuffing information of S15 based on builder inputs

2/9/12 - Completed final cabinet for S19 4-way dipole radiator

28/8/12 - Random notes of work in progress

28/8/12 - Updated where to buy measurement microphone in speaker measurement tool

27/8/12 - Site visit 200,000

29/6/12 - Posted S20-Z design concept

27/6/12 - Musikelectronic Geithain 901K speakers in Visits and GTGs

14/6/12 - Investigation: Application of DSS filter for single-tweeter Dipoles

6/6/12 - LINN high end GTG in Visits and GTGs

29/5/12 - Updated Audio-Technica ATH-AD700 with  Passive Equalizer

24/5/12 - Audio-Technica ATH-AD700 Frequency Response Equalizer

8/5/12 - Project: 8-Channel Gainclone amplifier

7/4/12 - Added Investigations section and posted "Class D Amplifiers for Tweeters"

2/4/12 - First prototype of 4-way dipoles with Seas Magnesium drivers

25/3/12 - Seas W15CH001 received and tested

21/3/12 - Published 35hz LT version of S15

6/3/12 - Initial publication of S19 4-way dipole loudspeakers

6/2/12 - Experimentation with Linkwitzlab Watson with  S16/MSXT

4/2/12 -  S15 :  B&C DE250 andCelestion  CDX1-1745 variants posted

3/2/12 - Production version of original S15 documented and  posted. Visitors can also purchase the config file.

18/1/12 - Design of the rounded waveguide loudspeaker: S15R

1/12/11 - Update on S16 variant using Titanium tweeters DQ25SC16:  S16/MSTi

18/12/11 - Waveguide and Celestion compression driver GTG in  Visits and GTGs

1/12/11 - Posted basic measurement data for recently built S16/MSXT

27/11/11 Melbourne audio round-trip GTG. Also report at SNA.

18/11/11 - Major cleanup and progress on the Garage Audio Room

6/11/11 - Synergy Horn GTG

1/11/11 - Completed S16/MS

31/10/11 - Site visits passed 100,000

30/10/11 - Building S16/MS

26/10/2011 - Added report of "The Australian Audio and AV Show" Visits and GTGs

25/10/2011 - What's New page created

Garage Audio Room, the "Gaincave"

Before (13 June 2011)


Latest progress (18 Nov 2011)


Goal:
To construct a dedicated Audio room with sensible acoustics and aesthetics for under $500.

This is a journey in constructing a dedicated listening room. The room is a 1-car garage which needs major cleanup.

Build discussions is at StereoNet Australia.

13/6/2011
I tried playing the S9R dipoles in the garage. To my surprise it sounded very good despite tin roof and door. Later measurements revealed RT60 of 250ms, which is *more dead* than my living room (400ms). Looking at all the "junk" in the garage it will be a long journey, but acoustically it's very good already! Target room reverb for dipole loudspeakers are about 300ms - 500ms.












18/11/2011
Major cleanup and update
- Curtains
- Lighting and automatic turn-on sensor



Cost tracking

Heater - $60
Curtain accessories - $110
Downlight kit - $40
Automatic light sensor - $15
===
Total so far = $225
Target max = $500


S18 - DSP 3-way 100dB Econowave


The goals of these speakers are:
- Small form factor (24cm baffle width)
- Constant directivity to 2.5khz
- High sensitivity, 94+ dB depending the woofers used.

Waveguide: FaitalPro STH100
Compression driver: B&C DE250
Woofers: PRV Audio 8MR500-PhP-4 or B&C 8PS21
Subwoofer: 2x Eminence Beta 12A

Follow the discussions at StereoNet Australia here.


S17 - Constant Directivity Dipoles


While the S16 provides smooth directivity, they are lacking rear radiation. In this iteration I want real dipole radiation front and back, and uniform to very high frequencies. This can only be done with extemely short front-to-back distance.

Design


The "tweeters" used areTandBand 3" full-range. They allow three things to happen:

- Dipole peak to occur very high in the frequency range, allowing constant directivity
- Very open rear chamber for good rear frequency response
- Low crossover frequency.


Measurements

The directivity plot was measured indoor so there is room for improvement when I take it for outside measurement later.

Follow the discussion at DIYAudio.










These are respectable uniform dipolar radiation, impossible to achieve with traditional methods like back to back dome tweeters.

The tradeoff is high frequency resolution of the 3" fullrange drivers.

Visits and GTGs

Social events are part of a hi-fi hobby and as an amateur enthusiast I had been very lucky to enjoy the company of friendly visitors and as a guest to others.


GTGs (Get-Together) and Events


PSE-144 GTG - 27/9/2015
After hearing unity variants before (original unities, Yorkville) it's great to hear these PSE-144 from Red Spade Audio at Joz' house. I think they are the 'Ferraris of loudspeakers'.












Redefy TWO GTG - 2/9/2015
Spectacular speakers built by Henry at Martin's place. They follow the Econowave philosophy using FaitalPro drivers and waveguides.











Same64 (Marian) DIY speakers - 1/9/2015
Listened to great passive build by Marian. 12" subwoofers, 5" TangBand metal fullrange and small Dayton AMT

2013 Melbourne Audio Show - 18/10/13


Great event, and even better than the last 2 year. Beautiful venue.
I was most impressed with the build of Kyron Kronos. Although acoustically it's not the latest generations of dipoles (like lx521, Nao Note) there was definitely nothing wrong with the sonics of these loudspeakers.








Red Spade S3 GTG- 20/1/13
Measured S3 Unity Horn prototype. Excellent directivity to ~250hz !  I can't live with the size, unfortunately.






Matt's Hoyt-Bedrford - 22/7/2012
Had a great evening at Matt's listening to Hoyt-Bedford fullrange driven by valve amp and Kuzma + SOTA turntable.











Musikelectronic Geithain 901K (Pure Music Group) - 24/6/2012
Attended GTG at Pure Music Group Mornington.









These are exceptional speakers. They actually managed to build Cardioid radiating speakers from 30 to 250hz. This is not an easy task. 

LINN high-end system (Warren's) - 3/6/2012
At Patterson Lakes, which is very close from my place.





-->Synergy Horns GTG - 5/11/2011
Measurements and listening to various implementation of Unity Horns. We had Yorkville Unity by Tom Danley and Paul's DIY versions. They sounded great.

Report at StereoNet Australia.








The Australian Audio and AV Show

October 21st 2011


Roger's Unity Horns - 21/5/2011
My second visit listening to his Unity Horn system. These are extreme-SPL setup, the horns themselves are 100+db utilising compression drivers and 8 Misco midranges.

2x Unity Horns. Real ones from Tom Danley and only two in Australia (!)
2x 18" AE woofers, ported
2x 12" woofers in bandpass configuration
1x 18" Maelstrom, sealed







The system would easily power a hall and I don't have to mention the ease of which they play loud passages.

Linkwitz Orion - 25/2/2011
A very rare chance in Australia, this is my dream loudspeakers and are the reference for Dipole speaker design. Created by Sigfried Linkwitz himself their resolution and projection is very hard to match. The reason I don't have them is the lack of $14000 (or $4000 DIY) to own one.











Ching Chung's system (Switzerland) - 22/9/2010
Ching Chung is a collector of "ultra-fi". These are esoteric and very expensive equipments. Among his collections are Halcro amplifiers ($120,000+ !), Cary amps/pre, and various loudspeakers from Martin Logans to Cain-Cain fulrange horns which he likes most.










Waveguide GTG II at Paul Spencer's - 5/3/2011
This was the second get together between waveguide enthusiasts. This time we had more waveguides, compression drivers and even a plasma tweeter!










Read the results here on Paul's blog.


DSP GTG part II at Roger's - 5/12/2010
This time I constructed an instant-switching box. We could instantly switch between any two DSP units (both 4 channel inputs and outputs). This method is much more revealing and immediate than ABX blind test.







The reference speakers were Roger's very high resolution Unity Horns. Again, I felt I could not detect differences between DSP units although some prefers miniDSP.

DSP GTG part I at Keith's - 31/10/2010
We were very lucky in Melbourne to have a population of the following DSP crossovers to test:
- Behringer DCX2496 (Paul Spencer)
- Behringer DCX2496, modified (Cybermurphy's)
- Behringer CX2310 (Keith's)
- DEQX HDP-3 (Keith's)
- MiniDSP (Gainphile's)










The loudspeakers used were Acapella Violons powered by Cary monoblocks and SGR amplifiers. Some thought that MiniDSP is the best sounding, but I could not hear any difference between any of the units (with the exception of DEQX which did not operate properly).


Craig's Jazzman
Craig lives only 5 minutes from me, and offered free leftover stuffing from his Jazzman project. I had a listen to them. These are very intricately built speakers.












Very beautiful, very smooth sound and deep bass. We had great listen of Dire Straits and Muddy Waters LP.


Acapella Violon GTG at Keith's -
I enjoyed Keith's drop-dead gorgeous setup. A pair of Acapella Violon running actively with 4 (!) Cary monoblocs.









The dynamics and presentation was simply stunning! This was the first time for me to hear horns too.

Legend Tikandi & DEQX GTG

Tiono's System (Singapore) - 20/10/2010
He is my university colleague and avvid collector of vinyl. His system consists of Sonus Faber monitors, Adcom GFA amps, and REL subs. He particularly pay attention to intricate electonic details (as electrical engineers do!)











He has since replaced the loudspeakers with Magnepan planars.

Adam Tensor GTG at Michael's - 22/8/2009
A very enjoyable afternoon listening to a pair of Adam Tensor Delta. They had sand-filled enclosure. "The Prof" is also coffee connosieur and cycling fanatic. Showed us great pics of "Tour de France".










DEQX and Legend Tikandi - 20/6/2009
I travelled to Mark's beautiful house in Emerald to listen to a pair of Legend Tikandi. These Australian loudspeakers are using the venerable Seas Excel and Visaton Ceramic-coated aluminium tweeters. They are actively driven with DEQX DSP units.










Visitors

Weekday GTG - 7/12/2012
Marian wanted to hear the ultra compact S20z so I arranged a mini-GTG. Warren and David came along and Mike dropped his NaoNote for me to have for a week ! We listened to S19, Pluto clone, Warren's Linn Bookshelves, and S20z.





Waveguide GTG IV - 18/12/2011
Roger and Paul visited to measure various Celestion drivers. The driver is an excellent match to Pyle Econowave waveguide. Results of measurements at DIYAudio


Melbourne audio round-trip GTG - 27/11/2011
Paul, Warren, Matt, and Mike visited as part of a round-trip GTG. We later then went to Craig's place to hear the Jazzman and then to Trevor's to hear the Zingali horns. Report here.





Olivier & Inken from 2pi-online.de - 29/3/2011
Dropped by from Germany on their Aussie holiday to listen to S16, S15, and Pluto.











Olivier posted his impressions of my speakers on his site. His observation and preference is very much similar to mine.

Waveguide shootout I - 16/1/2011
A group of waveguide type speakers enthusiasts got together in Bonbeach for the 1st round of shootout. We had various compression drivers and horns of various shapes and sizes from D220Ti, DE250, BMS, Econowave Pyle, Oblate-spheroid, etc.










Paul Spencer had written about this event in his blog, he clearly explain how to read sonogram plots, etc.

Dipole - Omni Show & Tell - 27/6/2009
Paul Spencer and I arranged GTG in Melbourne to present dipole and omni speakers. I had my s8 and analogue-driver Pluto clone, and Paul presented his Vifa based dipoles (with Rythmic subs).













At the end of the day the visitors were most impressed with Pluto clone!


Paul's visit

Selwyn's visit

JPHoward visit