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Please forgive the rambling nature of this post, a bit to much riesling tonight 
but I just wanted to start a light-hearted, non-contentious thread for musings on what's important in audio DIY (if such a thing is possible )
I find myself these days focusing much less on the "end all be all" of audio systems, focusing more on the art of loudspeaker and audio design itself. So many options, so many legitimate ways of doing things, all with different goals in mind. Cost effectiveness is rarely a consideration for me, save for the uber-expensive stuff. Price differences between say an RS180 or an L18 or the Usher woofers is of little importance to me, rather I see the art of integrating things, even simple things, as much of the appeal for me. I read endless threads about gigantic 15" ported subs that have been built over and over; and while they are certainly a good starting point and first project all I see is them being built over and over. Few seem to tackle, and I'm guilty of this for many years, of striving to expand what they can do from an experiential and even tinkering aspect, cost and performance be damned, so long as the result is pleasurable in some way, even if it is only in a feeling of accomplishment. For instance, I recently built a 10" passive radiator sub using Peerless XXLS stuff. The cost was astronomical compared to the performance, but I at least now can say that I've done a small PR sub and have learned what they can do, what they can't, what type of systems they are appropriate for, and how enjoyable such an on-paper limited design can be. I find myself focusing much less on <25Hz response, maybe perhaps because of the music I listen to or the volumes I listen at. In a similar vein I've started working on a small linkwitz transform sub, just a simple RS315HF in an overly small box (Qtc of .9 or so, I just made sure to underside the box to give the transform circuit something to do - I'll measure it later). I don't expect any sort of stellar low frequency distortion results, but I might be surprised, and I might learn something more of circuit design and electronics in general. I might even make a few bare bones PCB's available to others since the marginal cost of additional boards is so low. One of the things I regret most about posting in forums like these is that only a few individuals have real experience in these areas - and I certainly don't being a neophyte in the area of electronics- but reading pages such as Rod Elliot's ESP articles yields so much information that I wish were discussed more here. Perhaps this is a simpler forum, a place for DIY'ers to get started, or for people with no interest beyond loudspeaker construction and design in a conventional sense (and that's certainly not a knock, as such forums are always needed and that's in fact how I got started on my path so many years ago on the HTF DIY & Advanced Topics forum, learning from 'ol Tom Vodhanel himself when he had quad Hsu woofers in a big tube parked on top of his ATV's). And it's not like advanced topics aren't discussed, such as the dipole projects here, but it always seems acoustics and loudspeaker related.
Perhaps I should migrate to Nelson's DIYaudio.com, but such a large forum with folks I'm not familiar with isn't terribly appealing. I like the comradery here, and I like the people. Perhaps I should spearhead some projects like my LT board and make them available to people who want to experiment; I've certainly the tools at my disposal at work (which they actually encourage us to use for our own projects - helps out with the meager compensation)
I'm exposed to such diverse electronics work in my job, but none is audio or hardly even analog related - mostly simple control systems with the odd mad scientist project (just last week I got my 200ns pulse generator with a 2.5kHz repetition rate working at 6.5kW per pulse into a resistive load - with no smoke!) (my nickname at work is 'smokey' by the way) but even something as simple as a well-engineered linear power supply I have no experience with. It's a ridiculous dichotomy. I understand theory but little application. So much of electronics beyond the textbooks is experiential - I find myself learning more from data sheets and EDN series texts while my college texts are near useless.
In any case, I guess I'm just jaded or my interests have changed from pursuing the 'latest and greatest' and find more enjoyment in the learning behind the designs. Doing things out of the ordinary, even at a cost of performance of lower cost, just to learn something. That pulse generator I made initially consisted of a microcontroller, RS232 interface, a complex computer controlled delay generation system, and the damned thing never worked. The final design, which I'm quite proud of, is a 555 timer, a delay line, a 7400 quad NAND, and a simple galvanic isolator to protect the circuitry from the HV side of things. Works beautifully.
In any case, I hope to expand what work I've done in the past in ending my hiatus in audio projects given the time that my work and personal life allows. If anyone here is interested in such things, not critically but in more an experimental sense, I'd like to converse with you here on the forums. Maybe we could help others to realize how simple some of these things really are, and use our skills and available tools to help them get involved in them.
In any case, the Oscars are on, and I'm getting a bit snoozy. Hope this comes across as it was intended,
Mark
but I just wanted to start a light-hearted, non-contentious thread for musings on what's important in audio DIY (if such a thing is possible )I find myself these days focusing much less on the "end all be all" of audio systems, focusing more on the art of loudspeaker and audio design itself. So many options, so many legitimate ways of doing things, all with different goals in mind. Cost effectiveness is rarely a consideration for me, save for the uber-expensive stuff. Price differences between say an RS180 or an L18 or the Usher woofers is of little importance to me, rather I see the art of integrating things, even simple things, as much of the appeal for me. I read endless threads about gigantic 15" ported subs that have been built over and over; and while they are certainly a good starting point and first project all I see is them being built over and over. Few seem to tackle, and I'm guilty of this for many years, of striving to expand what they can do from an experiential and even tinkering aspect, cost and performance be damned, so long as the result is pleasurable in some way, even if it is only in a feeling of accomplishment. For instance, I recently built a 10" passive radiator sub using Peerless XXLS stuff. The cost was astronomical compared to the performance, but I at least now can say that I've done a small PR sub and have learned what they can do, what they can't, what type of systems they are appropriate for, and how enjoyable such an on-paper limited design can be. I find myself focusing much less on <25Hz response, maybe perhaps because of the music I listen to or the volumes I listen at. In a similar vein I've started working on a small linkwitz transform sub, just a simple RS315HF in an overly small box (Qtc of .9 or so, I just made sure to underside the box to give the transform circuit something to do - I'll measure it later). I don't expect any sort of stellar low frequency distortion results, but I might be surprised, and I might learn something more of circuit design and electronics in general. I might even make a few bare bones PCB's available to others since the marginal cost of additional boards is so low. One of the things I regret most about posting in forums like these is that only a few individuals have real experience in these areas - and I certainly don't being a neophyte in the area of electronics- but reading pages such as Rod Elliot's ESP articles yields so much information that I wish were discussed more here. Perhaps this is a simpler forum, a place for DIY'ers to get started, or for people with no interest beyond loudspeaker construction and design in a conventional sense (and that's certainly not a knock, as such forums are always needed and that's in fact how I got started on my path so many years ago on the HTF DIY & Advanced Topics forum, learning from 'ol Tom Vodhanel himself when he had quad Hsu woofers in a big tube parked on top of his ATV's). And it's not like advanced topics aren't discussed, such as the dipole projects here, but it always seems acoustics and loudspeaker related.
Perhaps I should migrate to Nelson's DIYaudio.com, but such a large forum with folks I'm not familiar with isn't terribly appealing. I like the comradery here, and I like the people. Perhaps I should spearhead some projects like my LT board and make them available to people who want to experiment; I've certainly the tools at my disposal at work (which they actually encourage us to use for our own projects - helps out with the meager compensation
)I'm exposed to such diverse electronics work in my job, but none is audio or hardly even analog related - mostly simple control systems with the odd mad scientist project (just last week I got my 200ns pulse generator with a 2.5kHz repetition rate working at 6.5kW per pulse into a resistive load - with no smoke!
) (my nickname at work is 'smokey' by the way) but even something as simple as a well-engineered linear power supply I have no experience with. It's a ridiculous dichotomy. I understand theory but little application. So much of electronics beyond the textbooks is experiential - I find myself learning more from data sheets and EDN series texts while my college texts are near useless. In any case, I guess I'm just jaded or my interests have changed from pursuing the 'latest and greatest' and find more enjoyment in the learning behind the designs. Doing things out of the ordinary, even at a cost of performance of lower cost, just to learn something. That pulse generator I made initially consisted of a microcontroller, RS232 interface, a complex computer controlled delay generation system, and the damned thing never worked. The final design, which I'm quite proud of, is a 555 timer, a delay line, a 7400 quad NAND, and a simple galvanic isolator to protect the circuitry from the HV side of things. Works beautifully.
In any case, I hope to expand what work I've done in the past in ending my hiatus in audio projects given the time that my work and personal life allows. If anyone here is interested in such things, not critically but in more an experimental sense, I'd like to converse with you here on the forums. Maybe we could help others to realize how simple some of these things really are, and use our skills and available tools to help them get involved in them.
In any case, the Oscars are on, and I'm getting a bit snoozy. Hope this comes across as it was intended,
Mark
This is one channel, not showing the output transformers or power supply. 
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