Want to see some PVC speakers?

[Poultrygeist]

check out my gallery...

http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/audio//500/medium/PA2900041.JPG

http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/audio//500/medium/PA290002.JPG

http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/audio//500/medium/PA290006.JPG

http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/audio//500/medium/P9250016.JPG

http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/audio//500/medium/P9250001.JPG

http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/audio//500/medium/P9250013.JPG

http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/audio//500/medium/P9250021.JPG

[poppachubby]

First of all, gorgeous room Paul. The OB's look stunning as they contrast yet compliment the butter walls. Wood on butter reminds me of that Spanish Villa concept. Very warm and inviting, yet upbeat.

The PVC's look crazy. Aside from housing the speaker, does the piping add to the sonics? Is there any hole or reflex type port? How much labour and cash did that run ya? I am also curious about what type of speaker is in them.

[Ajani]

Is the PVC used a kind of back loaded horn and is the driver full range?

Very nice looking toys!!! One day I'll develop some DIY skills and have some fun too!

[Poultrygeist]

The "Tubal Libations" as I call them are Home Depot PVC pipes and adaptors with a fair amount of dampening ( cotton batting ) inside. A 3.5 inch full range driver from Parts Express is wired directly to the speaker wires and exits out the open bottom. The pipes stand a couple of inches off the floor on Home Depot "L" shelf supports. I believe these might qualify as transmission lines. They sound better than I thought with good highs and mids but are somewhat bass challenged. But after a couple of glasses of Merlot they really open up :-) The neat thing is you can easily take them apart and tune them by adding or subtracting dampening material. I probably spent no more than $30 on this project including the drivers. If I could ever find a PVC adaptor that flared into 5 inches at the baffle I would have room to mount some 4 inch Fostex full rangers which would take them to another level. If one chose a full range poly cone driver these things could be used outdoors in all kind of weather. I used foam window stipping as speaker gaskets.

[Poultrygeist]

Ajani,

My DIY skills are very limited. You may want to check out my latest thread regarding the Kreg Jig that is so simple to use anyone can build a speaker enclosure. With one of these, some plywood and Fostex drivers you can build your own Tektons.

[poppachubby]

Paul, how would those PVC's do for home theater?

Also, off topic. Rec me a subwoofer please. I am lusting after the Hsu Research right now, and they are priced fairly.

Are you aware of the whole Ring Audio/Frugal horn scandal? Dave Dlugos gave me the 411, 6moons still have the abandoned review on their site. Long and short is Ring Audio owner was in contact with the FH site and made a pair with their help...THEN..he decides to market a clone with no consent to be sold for almost $10K EU.

[Poultrygeist]

Chad,

How 'bout Alpha OB bass augmenters for your horns?

The stand alone amp below makes a fine external sub/bass amp as you can dial in it's crossover points plus it sounds good too. It was originally sold by Emotive ( you may recall seeing it ) and can be used as a regular stereo amp as well.

I would consider buying one ( or two ) of the big Eminence Alpha full range bass drivers from PE ( very inexpensive ) and mount it (or them separately) on a flat piece of plywood OB style with " L" supports on each side to keep them erect.

The Alpha's are very musical and everyone's favorite bass augmenters. Just google them and read up. I bet you could pull this off for under $250 including two Alpha's and the PE amp. I've read that this set up can sound nice with small FR speakers. I saw one at hornfest last year but never got to hear it. The Alpha's are so effecient the PE amp can easily drive both of them if you went with two.

Of course if you didn't want to spring for the PE amp initially you could start out by driving one Alpha on OB with any small amp and let it run full range and see how you like it. The nice thing is this set up won't over power the horns like a sub can do.

I use a Bob Carver Sunfire sub with my Tektons but it often seems too heavy handed when matched with the little Fostex full rangers. If my soon-to-be delivered Zu's are lacking in the lower octaves ( which I seriously doubt ) I could see myself augmenting with the Alpha OB bass if I decided to keep them. My low end requirements, however, are probably less than most and upright string bass done right is about all I need.

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-812

[poppachubby]

Awesome, thanks dude! I'll have to do some research. My current sub is barely "entry level" but it does have adjustable gain and crossover, I have it mixed quite nicely.

My Bozak preamp has 2 pairs of variable outputs, so the sub is on the second pair. It's nice because once dialed in, it never overpowers or drops out of the mix.