Well, Usher's seem to be all the rage in the DIY scene these days, so maybe it's time we had a thread on an Usher two way system here at HT Guide also!
Last weekend Cdub and his brother, who hail from the same Tri Valley area as I live in, came over to make some MDF dust for their Projects. Nick is putting together a sub based on an AV12 and two PR's, with a nice plateamp- we did some cutouts and hole drilling for his amplifier. But the real reason for getting together was Chris's Usher two ways, based on the design by Dennis Murphy.
If you're not into the DIY speaker scene, probably right now you're wondering what the heck an Usher two way is- no, it doesn't have anything to do with the house of Usher, unless you think that's a speaker manufacturer in Taiwan. There drivers have something of an interesting reputation, because of their more than subtle resemblence to some ScanSpeak models.
The woofer is an User 8945, which has more than a few similarities to the ScanSpeak 8545, excepting the price.
Like it's Scanspeak progenitor, it has a rather massive magnet in order to get low Qts (for tight bass in relatively small boxes) and decent efficiency. It uses a carbon fiber pulped cone which some say is sourced from the save vendor as ScanSpeak's- it's a free world, afterall. I don't really know how the motor system compares with the SS SD1, but most users are quite pleased with the performance, especially considering the savings.
The tweeter is the User T-9950, which again, has a rather close resemblence to the ScanSpeak SS9500.
Dennis Murphy developed a two way system using 4th order L-R crossovers, (net acoustical, not electrical), and implemented an LCR trap to help deal with the bump in the response around 900 Hz, which both the Usher and ScanSpeak have. (you know, you can take cloning a little too far...)
Chris elected to build his system using the prebuilt PE cabinets- from my own experience, they're an excellent value, I'll never build small boxes again, in all likelihood.
We used the same front panel layout in Dennis's design, since the crossover was optimized for this layout.
Because of the large magnet system, the rear window area for the midwoofer was an item of concern, especially with the thick front panel of the PE cabinets. So, we elected to use a bevel bit with the router to relieve the backside- this made a huge improvement in the rear clearance. I had to take similar measures with the system built with the HiVi D6 for my daughter earlier this summer.
After some consultation with Chris prior to getting together, we settled on the new 2" Precision port (flared) as probably being the best approach available for this size box- if they made a 2.5" I would have preferred that, but this one is pretty nicel, considering the size.
Here's a veiw of the back of the enclosures with the port mounted, the Whispermat installed and cutway for the cup, but the rear cup not installed.
The convenient thing about the PE cabinets is that they're delivered with the baffles removable (held in just by screws), so doing interior work on the cabinets is quite easy. Here's a view of the inside of the cabinet, crossovers not installed, but everything else ready.
I'm in the process of building the crossovers, and wiring the boxes right now. Chris sprung for upgraded crossover components with foil inductors, film and foil bypass caps, and Mills resistors. I'll update before assembling the boxes and running tests. I also plan on doing some driver measurements before final assembly.
Best regards,
Jon
Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....
Last weekend Cdub and his brother, who hail from the same Tri Valley area as I live in, came over to make some MDF dust for their Projects. Nick is putting together a sub based on an AV12 and two PR's, with a nice plateamp- we did some cutouts and hole drilling for his amplifier. But the real reason for getting together was Chris's Usher two ways, based on the design by Dennis Murphy.
If you're not into the DIY speaker scene, probably right now you're wondering what the heck an Usher two way is- no, it doesn't have anything to do with the house of Usher, unless you think that's a speaker manufacturer in Taiwan. There drivers have something of an interesting reputation, because of their more than subtle resemblence to some ScanSpeak models.
The woofer is an User 8945, which has more than a few similarities to the ScanSpeak 8545, excepting the price.
Like it's Scanspeak progenitor, it has a rather massive magnet in order to get low Qts (for tight bass in relatively small boxes) and decent efficiency. It uses a carbon fiber pulped cone which some say is sourced from the save vendor as ScanSpeak's- it's a free world, afterall. I don't really know how the motor system compares with the SS SD1, but most users are quite pleased with the performance, especially considering the savings.
The tweeter is the User T-9950, which again, has a rather close resemblence to the ScanSpeak SS9500.
Dennis Murphy developed a two way system using 4th order L-R crossovers, (net acoustical, not electrical), and implemented an LCR trap to help deal with the bump in the response around 900 Hz, which both the Usher and ScanSpeak have. (you know, you can take cloning a little too far...)
Chris elected to build his system using the prebuilt PE cabinets- from my own experience, they're an excellent value, I'll never build small boxes again, in all likelihood.
We used the same front panel layout in Dennis's design, since the crossover was optimized for this layout.
Because of the large magnet system, the rear window area for the midwoofer was an item of concern, especially with the thick front panel of the PE cabinets. So, we elected to use a bevel bit with the router to relieve the backside- this made a huge improvement in the rear clearance. I had to take similar measures with the system built with the HiVi D6 for my daughter earlier this summer.
After some consultation with Chris prior to getting together, we settled on the new 2" Precision port (flared) as probably being the best approach available for this size box- if they made a 2.5" I would have preferred that, but this one is pretty nicel, considering the size.
Here's a veiw of the back of the enclosures with the port mounted, the Whispermat installed and cutway for the cup, but the rear cup not installed.
The convenient thing about the PE cabinets is that they're delivered with the baffles removable (held in just by screws), so doing interior work on the cabinets is quite easy. Here's a view of the inside of the cabinet, crossovers not installed, but everything else ready.
I'm in the process of building the crossovers, and wiring the boxes right now. Chris sprung for upgraded crossover components with foil inductors, film and foil bypass caps, and Mills resistors. I'll update before assembling the boxes and running tests. I also plan on doing some driver measurements before final assembly.
Best regards,
Jon
Earth First!
_______________________________
We'll screw up the other planets later....
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