Question about Zaph 3.5 Tower Design

[KevinRoach]

Hello, i'm pretty new to DIY speakers but I'm eager to learn and ready to rock.

I'm just about ready to start building the Zaph 3.5 design as it looks like the best bang for my buck. It might not be the easiest choice for a beginner DIY project, but I'm confident I can manage.

I have a few questions so i hope some of you can answer or direct me to some answers.

First: What is the black part(Baffle?) made out of on the design? Is that MDF also?

Second: Are there any photos of finished crossovers of the towers out there?(I found some for the center channel)

Third: Can I make them as tall as I want without messing up the sound? Thanks for any info!

[HareBrained]

First Answer: Yes, but you're welcome to use some other woods. Finishing is a big part (time and money) to building a speaker. Many people use many different methods and materials. Keep researching.

Second Answer: There are many documented builds in this forum. I'd be surprised if there were any xover pics to be found. Maybe someone will post a link for you.

Third Answer: You can make them taller, but keep the relative positions of the drivers the same. And keep the baffle and cabinet width the same. And keep the spacing from the top the same.

Good luck with the build. Your efforts will be rewarded.

[ThomasW]

Crossovers:

[KevinRoach]

Awesome thanks for the reply/picture! The crossover will be a challenge but the pic will help

[HeatMiser]

That pic happens to be from my build based on the previous iteration of the ZDT3, the one designed for the Aura tweeter. Also it's the reduced baffle step version (I made a single sealed center channel as my first project). I'm not sure if there are major differences between the Aura-based crossover and the current ND20-based version beyond component values, but the reduced baffle step versions of either crossover omit an inductor and a capacitor in the woofer circuit, rendering the whole thing a 3-way instead of a 3.5 way.

Also I chose to split the crossover between woofer/tweeter on one board and midrange on the other board, to keep them manageable sizes and still be able to put some distance between the inductors.

I only bring this up because I don't want the differences to cause you any confusion down the line. Yep, you may notice some parts unaccounted for.

[KevinRoach]

Oh ok sounds good thanks. The picture will help with general assembly, I'll follow the original design as best I can.

[Blktre]

The only thing id say about making your towers taller that your seating position height should be relative to the tweeter axis.

Here are my x-over pics that stangbat bat helped me with...I also highly recommend using the 2ohm resistor on the tweeter as well.

[stangbat]

Here is the wiring behind what blktre posted. Red follows positive to a component. White is ground to a component. Blue is a run straight to positive.

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Thumbnail to a larger image:

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Here is the Center. I did my best to get them as compact as possible:

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If you make them taller, I wouldn't make the tweeter much higher than ear level when you are sitting down. The Zs tend to lobe upwards with the upper mids/treble. See the graphs on the design page. You can definitely tell this if you move your listening position from below the mid to above the tweeter.

As blktre said, the 2 ohm resistors are now pretty much a must on the tweeters. You may even want to go with 2.5 depending on your taste and room. There is a post about this in Zaph's blog.