Home Speaker Asylum

General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

I don't think I can solve that problem, but, FYI...




Hi,

I have been designing a wonderful home-office monitor speaker for a private client who is a music industry professional of 40+ years standing.

Strangely enough, the prototype is just back from the crossover re-design by Curt Campbell, and I am listening now, and the client will hear the final result tomorrow.

Both Curt Campbell and co-designer Jim Tuomy (a recipient of Bose's President's Medal) were blown away by the PTT5.25 woofer mid (photo).

I chose the 5.25 over the 6.5 because the 5.25 has the same magnet and motor structure as the 6.5, and therefore is 33% more powerful per CM2 of woofer area.

Also, that choice allowed for a cabinet that is only one or two sizes up from that of a BBC Shoebox.

I finessed the box tuning by employing two Purifi 5.25 passive radiators per speaker, which puts the box tuning 50%+ lower than the original LS3/5A, which had a box tuning of 93Hz. My design has a box tuning circa 41Hz, and extension to about 34Hz. I call that spending more, but getting more.

The lovely but powerful Beyma TPL-75 AMT is crossed over at 2,400Hz.

Problem is, you add up all the nice parts, and the usual multiplier puts the triple-tier-retail up in the highest or next to highest tier of 2-ways, by which I mean the "Audio Salon" retail price would be over $10,000 the pair.

Expo: Woofers $425 ea.; passives $110 ea. x 4; AMTs $316 ea. Plus cabinets and crossovers and hardware.

Regrets? None.

Lessons Learned? Yes.

If I had to do it all over again, and the client could live with a box silhouette almost twice as large, I'd go with an MTM design, and perhaps even use a 3-channel DSP plate amp. Which may or may not allow for a sealed design with no passives.

All of which is an attempt to answer why nobody offers such a speaker made in the US.

Nobody wants to become a public laughing stock by putting a $425 woofer into a cabinet that looks to be made from toilet-paper-roll cores flattened out and glued together (believe me, I looked inside one speaker and that's what it looked like) to hit a low price target.

The earlier generation of this project had an Eton 5-312 woofer ($183 ea.) and Fountek's NeoCD3.0 ribbon tweeter ($130 ea.).

NO COMPARISON.

I think that your best bet would be if Purifi made a deal with a cabinet builder and sold Kits through Madisound.

I used to work in a foreign car garage that also built SCCA tube frame race cars. I used to ask, "How many cubic... dollars do you want to spend?"

In other words, what would your Dream NAFTA-Zone-Made loudspeaker with Purifi drivers look like?

all my best,

john


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