German Buyout TMM (Series) 2.5way complete...

[Guest]

I know that you guys are on the upper end of the scale as far as designs go so go ahead and delete it if you feel that it's not appropriate for your forum. These drivers are no longer available but someone may have bought some so I thought I would post my results. Hopefully, I will get the writeup done and posted on my website this weekend. This was very unique in that the drivers are in series instead of parallel. The buyouts were 4ohms so it was pretty much a series connection to keep the impedance at an acceptable level. RomanB came up with that shunt circuit on the lower woofer. Without that, the project was destined for failure. It was a great learning experience and thanks for all who helped out. Cheers, Paul.

[JonMarsh]

Got any pics? How do they sound to you?

[poneal]

Here ya go....

Testing:
I had more caps, resistors, and inductors laying around for days that my spouse was getting a little upset with the mess. I'm glad I invested the money into spare parts for exactly this reason. I think it was you who or oldspeakerguy that one day told me you need to stock up on parts for testing. So thanks if it was you!

Sound:
This setup was very hard to get right--well more so than a 2way. I went through so many iterations and each one was a different sound. In the end this one was the absolute clear winner. I was amazed that a buyout could actually sound this good. The thing I noticed the most was vocals. You can actually hear the subtle nuances in tone pitch from their voices. I want to say magical but that's not appropriate considering the driver. Bass is OK but definitely not on par with 8" and some of the RS series drivers. Again this was a 7" paper coned woofer. I like the airiness of the tweeter. On axis it may be a tad hot for some but off axis it's perfect for me. I really have nothing bad to say about it, it sounds good on radio, cd, dvd, just about everything I threw at it. This was my first paper DIY and I'm surprised how different paper sounds. Of course I've heard paper before but it's been a long time. Definitely different than metal :-). It does have its limitations and the RS drivers to my ears sound nicer and cleaner, but this one is not bad.

I may put some 3/4" trim along the edges to cover the plys. That will make it look more professional. Just a plain old rectangular box made from scrap plywood I got from work during a cabinet upgrade. No bracing, no special care in building, just a plain old box :-). Could you comment on that shunt circuit on the lower woofer? RomanB saved me with that one. I thought I was going to have to cut some new baffles and go MTM. All in all, I'm very pleased with the results. Cheers, Paul.

http://home.stx.rr.com/poneal/gspkr.jpg

[jdybnis]

FWIW I like the aesthetics of the exposed ply.

[poneal]

FWIW I like the aesthetics of the exposed ply.

It does have a distinctive look about it now that you mention it. I'm selling these to a guy who is in need of speakers for his playstation setup in his garage. Perfect just like they are for him since he doesn't have lots of cash