Interested in building some Troels Gravesen W15-Neo3 Monitors

[Generic George]

I'm new to the DIY speakers stuff, so please forgive any ignorance on my part. I've been lurking for a while, so hopefully I've picked up some information.

I figured these were a good place to start, since they're something "different" than most mass market monitors with the ribbon tweeters and I need a pair of rear speakers to upgrade to 7.1 surround. They're also "moderately" priced compared to some of the designs I've looked at so, if I screw something up I'm not out a substantial amount of money. I realize these aren't exactly cheap speakers, but I want something nice enough to hold onto for a while and not something disposable. Besides I like the looks of these seas excel drivers.

http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/W15_Neo3.htm

A couple of issues though. The crossover parts he lists include a bunch of inductors with smaller wire gauge than I seem to be able to find. He's got them as small as 24 gauge and the smallest I can find at PE or Madisound seems to be about 20-21. Assuming I'm not simply overlooking them, does this matter assuming I can match the other electrical characteristics? Or does anyone have a US source they can point me in the direction of? Also he specifies dimensions for the inductors, does that really matter?

The second issue is they are a ported design. Given the small size of my AV room, they would pretty much have to be going on the shelf over my fireplace. Which means they would be right up against the wall and that's not a good idea as I understand it with a ported design.

Is there any reason I couldn't move the port from the back to the front of the design? I realize that I'd have to get a taller cabinet and probably reduce the internal volume to match what is specified. I understand that the width of the baffle affects the crossover design, but does the height?

[Txgrizzly]

George,
there are a lot of guys on the site with more knowledge than me and they will hit you up shortly but i think i can answer some of your questions.

1. moving the port to the front is usually not a problem
2. yes you need to keep the baffle the same width as designed but you should be able to change the length as long as you keep the same inner volume. don't bring the back wall in to much though as that can cause problems being to close to the driver.

Are you using similar speakers for your other surrounds? these will voice differently than most speakers due to the ribbon tweeter. and i also have to tell you this is WAY overkill for surround speakers but i love overkill ^_^

[Generic George]

George,
there are a lot of guys on the site with more knowledge than me and they will hit you up shortly but i think i can answer some of your questions.

1. moving the port to the front is usually not a problem
2. yes you need to keep the baffle the same width as designed but you should be able to change the length as long as you keep the same inner volume. don't bring the back wall in to much though as that can cause problems being to close to the driver.

Thanks, that's pretty much what I figured, but things don't always work the way you might think they do and there seems to be a LOT more interaction between the various elements of a design than is obvious at first glance.

Are you using similar speakers for your other surrounds? these will voice differently than most speakers due to the ribbon tweeter. and i also have to tell you this is WAY overkill for surround speakers but i love overkill ^_^

No, the other speakers are Polk LSis (15/C/Fx), but I'm not terribly worried about differences given the limited amount of work that surrounds seem to get most of the time. If I decide they really don't fit or I dislike their sound, I have friends and family I can pass them off to.

I know it's overkill, but it's a compromise between building something much more exotic and expensive and gaining experience. Plus, I'm curious about ribbon tweeter speakers since they aren't something I have experience with.

[Silver1omo]

If you want ribbon and on wall, you can try the R4 and R44 lineup. You will need to dive in the thread for the on wall XO for both.

[Rick Craig]

Nice design but I've built a 2-way with the same drivers and the crossover doesn't need to be that complicated.

[Generic George]

Nice design but I've built a 2-way with the same drivers and the crossover doesn't need to be that complicated.

Do you happen to have that crossover documented somewhere?

[Rick Craig]

Do you happen to have that crossover documented somewhere?

I have all of the information but would need to adjust it for your placement. The W15 also works well in a smaller sealed cabinet which is perfect for a surround.

[Generic George]

I have all of the information but would need to adjust it for your placement. The W15 also works well in a smaller sealed cabinet which is perfect for a surround.

They're going to be sitting on a shelf above my fireplace. The shelf is only about 8" deep, so it's going to be as flat up against the wall as possible. I was planning on using one of the 0.25 ft³ PE cabinets. But they are a bit on the deep side, so I may need to use some sort of a mounting bracket.

[Generic George]

Well I finally started ordering parts. Europe Audio had all of the inductors(coils) I was having trouble finding (though you needed to type just the Jantzen part # into the search box).

Aside from the obvious (crossover parts, box, drivers, port and speaker wire terminals), what do I need to get? Stuffing or padding? Little bits that aren't obvious?

[Generic George]

Started to do the crossovers and realized I needed 2 more of the 4.7 uF caps. Any reason I can't substitute these

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=027-780

for these

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=027-490

Since they are out of stock on the superior Z-caps for a month?

[Jed]

Let us know how it turns out. There have been more Troel's builds here lately.

[---k---]

Started to do the crossovers and realized I needed 2 more of the 4.7 uF caps. Any reason I can't substitute these

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=027-780

for these

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=027-490

Since they are out of stock on the superior Z-caps for a month?

That will be fine.