S15 - Econowave DSP


The Original S15 Econowave DSP 
Eminence Beta 12a + Selenium D220Ti & Pyle WG 
(C1-W1-CD1)


Econowave is a cost effective controlled-directivity loudspeaker design. DIY folks at AudioKarma had investigated numerous driver + waveguide combination which would achieve the optimum polar response using off-the-shelf products.

Note: You could get lost in the thousands of posts in AudioKarma. But here's my refence links which summarise the variations of the designs: AudioKarma and  TechTalk

For this DSP build, follow my post in AudioKarma and DIYAudio forums.


Specifications
Topology: Active 2-way with pro-woofers and compression drivers
Radiation pattern: Monopole - Controlled Horizontal Directivity
Directivity: Omni-directional at lower  frequencies, smooth transition to 90 deg beam at 1.2khz
Frequency response: 20hz - 17khz. Critically damped LF Q of 0.5
Sensititivity: ~92dB
Dimension (H, W, D): 57 x 37 x 33cm
Vertical lobe (Listening position) : Tweeter axis, toe'd in 5-10deg
Amplifiers: 4-Channels required (2x stereo amps)
Crossover: DSP (MiniDSP + 2way Advanced Plugin)
 




Cabinet construction

The cabinet is basically made from 33cm, 18mm MDF cutouts. The offcuts are glued into the inside panels to provide additional strength and rigidity. The finished speakers are very heavy.

Cabinet C1


 Cabinet C2
(future design ...)

A handsaw was used and could not provide precise cuts. Hence the  construction can be made square and flush effectively by ofsetting 0.5mm and sanding.


Stuffing
The primary reason for stuffing is to dampen modes inside the box structure. With so much variations on stuffing material (dacron, acousta-stuff, natural wool fibers, etc.) how much stuffing requires some experimentations. I use dacron (those pillow-stuffing) and starts about this much, very loosely filled. After some listening I removed some. The goal is to have enough to reduce the modes, but not too much that it overdamps and reduce the box volume. It is a competing factor.



DSP Crossover Configurations

The DSP configuration is available below.

## WARNING #
I configured the speakers using an older version of MiniDSP plugin which had a bug in it
https://www.minidsp.com/forum/software-support/10857-minidsp-4x10-hd-slp-q-biquad-errors
The effect is that if you use the newer plugin (which is the fixed one) the bass will sound heavy. So please be aware of it. I will revisit these in the future with the updated plugin.

Important: do not forget to implement  L-PAD for the tweeters.

Woofer DSP crossover  

Woofer W1: Eminence Beta 12
Cabinet C1 
  • XO1250hz, LR2
    Crossover point is chosen by careful consideration of distortion, group delay, power handling, and polar response. See my investigation here on dispersion pattern of various xo points.
  • EQ1:  Notch Filter
    PEAK 618hz / -2.8db / 2.6Q
  • EQ2:  Linkwitz Transform Biquad (LT)
    LT: Select "Advanced", Copy and paste below, and click "Process".
    biquad1,
    b0=1.00329685429188,
    b1=-1.99470503770825,
    b2=0.991546613279961,
    a1=1.99477083461872,
    a2=-0.99477767066137
    The woofer is equalised to F3=20hz with critically-damped Q of 0.5. This means -3db@40hz and -6db@20hz. Please note that these values are driver and cabinet volume-dependent. If you change the cabinet volume drastically or change the Woofer, then you need to recalculate and remeasure the transform. No you can't just punch in factory-provided TS parameters.

    Read more about LT Biquad here and here, and also a calculator.

    Raw woofer measurement (nearfield)
    LT Biquad (simulation)
    Woofer with LT, Notch, and XO (measured nearfield)
    Green=raw, Black=Equalised woofer, Red=Target frequency response
  • EQ3:  Baffle step compensation
    HIGH-SHELF 206hz / -6db / 1Q
    Baffle step consist of shelving highpass with -6db/oct gain. It compensate the transition from 4pi (omni-directional) to 2pi (forward radiating) of box speakers. Read about baffle step here.
    Woofer response with Baffle Step (measured, nearfield)
    Woofer response from 1m
    Black=with baffle step
  • Ignore values of EQ4.. etc. 
  • Attenuation, Phase, and Delay
    With CD1: Attenuation 0, Polarity NORMAL, Delay: 0ms
    With CD2
    : Attenuation 0, Polarity NORMAL, Delay: 0.06ms

Tweeter DSP crossover

CD1 (Selenium D220Ti)
Compression driver: Selenium D220Ti screw-on
Waveguide:  JBL 1" thread-on Progressive Transition, Part# 338800-001, or Pyle Pro PH612, or Dayton clone. In Australia: DJCity YD-L033
Directivity pattern measured from 0-90deg, 10deg increments:






  • XO1250hz, LR2
  • EQ1:  Waveguide loading notch
    PEAK 1956hz / -4.8db / 2.6Q
    Raw and equalised Compression Driver + Waveguide (from 80cm)
    Green=raw, black=equalised.
  • Passive L-PAD
    Passive L-PAD is used at the compression driver to provide main attenuation for woofer level matching. The benefit is that noise from Amplifier will also be reduced. The remaining few dB is adjusted from MiniDSP.
    L-PAD-11db using 5.6 Ω  and 3.3 Ω 5w resistors
  • Attenuation, Phase, and Delay
    With W1: Attenuation -5db, Polarity INVERT, Delay: 0.04ms
    Measurement from 1m at Tweeter level

    Ignore lower frequencies.
I have a quick iphone capture of these loudspeakers in youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwSK8dmeqgU


CD2 (B&C DE250)
Compression driver: B&C DE250 + DJCity adapter (photo)
The adapter needs to be enlarged to 1 inch, so better ones may be found from PartsExpress.
Waveguide:  JBL 1" thread-on Progressive Transition, Part# 338800-001, or Pyle Pro PH612, or Dayton clone. In Australia: DJCity YD-L033
Directivity pattern measured from 0-90deg, 10deg increments:








CD3 (Celestion CDX1-1745) 
Compression driver: Celestion CDX1-1745 (photo) + PE Adapter
Waveguide: As per CD1 and CD2 (Pyle) 
I configured and listened briefly this compression driver at recent GTG and was pleasantly surprised as how similiar the frequency characteristic and sonics is compared to B&C DE250.
A longer-term experience and listening may be needed to confirm, but there were three of us who felt the same during that brief setup. We even set it up playing both drivers together left and right.
(update: this has been confirmed by another guy that CDX1-1745 is a poor man's DE250!)











Please follow the exact configuration of CD2 (DE250) for this compression driver.

Optional variations

35hz Linkwitz Transform
If the woofers (W1) are equalised to 35hz, Q=0.5 (instead of 20hz above), then further +5db can be obtained and that raises the loudspeaker's sensitivity to ~97dB. This also relieves the strain of the woofers when playing loud. In order to have this:

  • W1 EQ2 biquad needs to be changed to 35hz, Critically damped Q=0.5
  • W1 EQ3 Baffle Step SHP needs to be changed to Shelving Lowpass
  • W1 EQ4 biquad of -1db is added.

Crossover
Second-order Linkwitz-Riley crossover topology (LR2) was chosen for group delay, however you might want to play the loudspeakers at very high SPL continously. In this case a 4th order crossover providing 24db/oct slopes may be a better approach. This can be done by selecting Woofer and Tweeter crossover to LR 24db/oct and changing the Tweeter's Polarity to non-inverting.

Using Subwoofer
Subwoofers can greatly relieve the stress to the pro-drivers which has highish Fs. I would recommend at least a pair to minimise excitation of room modes. The optimum scenario is to cross with LR2 slope (Q=0.5) and this can easily be done by modifying EQ2 (LT) biquad values. For example, if you would like to cross with the Subs at 80hz the biquad values for the LT would be like this.

"Geddes" Foam Plug
Earl Geddess popularised and patented the 30ppi foam plug approach on his GedLee line speakers. Many users reported improvements in the sound quality. I also  tried it and posted my experience which was different. The foam will attenuate the high frequency. So you need to increase the tweeter level by 2dB. 
In Australia you can buy them from FlexFoam. Ask for "30ppi Mericell foam". They are also referred to as filter or reticulated foam.

Loudspeaker Toe-In
There is a view that these speakers are best listened at extreme toed-in angle, as much as 45degrees. It does seem to provide uniform coverage across listeners but with soundstage depth compromise. I find about 5-10deg off the normal triangle is satisfying.


Room response analysis

Elias Perkonen kindly performed wavelet analysis of the in-room response of these speakers.

Native frequency response, left and right:








Longer time windows, 150ms and 300ms:









Update 11/2/2011
Zilch (Evan) who is the champion of this design passed away. He will be sorely missed.
http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=350053
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvNH23XfeVI

Update 3/2/12
Production version of original S15 documented and  posted.

Update 4/2/12
B&C DE250 variant posted
Celestion  CDX1-1745 variant posted

Update 14/9/12
Added information on stuffing

Update 16/9/15
Check out these youtube videos :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwSK8dmeqgU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvTsjRXJgZQ

Update 19/6/16
Biquad values will be different for newer 96khz boards such as 4x10HD or 2x4HD. Use these two biquads instead. The first biquad is to shape the original response to 35hz with Q=0.7, and the second one is 35hz Q=0.7. Together they produce acoustic shape of 35hz LR4 highpass.

Try to remove the baffle step compensation first.  I did not need it in my room.








biquad1,
b0=1.00156217438683,
b1=-1.99720737914148,
b2=0.995679854523304,
a1=1.99722277903866,
a2=-0.997226629012953

biquad1,
b0=0.998612353349429,
b1=-1.99722470669886,
b2=0.998612353349429,
a1=1.99722278171542,
a2=-0.997226631682297



32 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about dipole mid-woofer with monopole subs? Dipole use avoids the nastiest room modes between 100-400hz(depending on room size and dimesion)and monopole sub retains punch and power at the bottom....

Martin said...

Hello,

very nice work! I have simillar 2way speakers with software crossover. I'm about to buy the same amps as you use but I don't know how to control volume.. (I was using old receiver but it died on me). How do you go about controling volume? Do you use some kind of 4-way pot?

thanks
all best
martin

gainphile said...

I simply control the volume before the xo. Not ideal but works fine and transparent enough.

meerkat said...

Been following econowave and enjoy the work youve been doing. I was thinking of using minidsp for a pair of 4 pi speakers, so its great to be able to see your cd graphs to understand this stuff a little better.

Do you know if theres much difference between the gedlee speakers and the wayne parham speakers? Look very similar to me, both using same hf driver de250, but you never hear wayne mentioned, only ged lee.

Anonymous said...

You said: I will post the crossover programming file here once completed.

Do you have info on crossover points and steepness? I`ve built the Econo with the same drivers and used a miniDSP.

Best regards, Frode

gainphile said...

Frode, yes the setting is long overdue. I will post the DE250 version first, then D220Ti. Been really busy.

Kalium said...

Hello, do you know what the crossover would be if using the Celestion CDX1-1745 tweeter instead of the Selenium D220Ti?

gainphile said...

Hi Kalium, it should be the same as DE250 which hopefully I will post very soon.

Anonymous said...

When using your DSP settings in my own system,I came across a problem.The way you have the BSC set in EQ3,as a high shelf for output 1,wouldn't it only give BSC up to the crossover frequency and not affect the tweeter? Wouldn't a low shelf at 206 Hz with +6 dB gain be correct?
Thanks for your work in controled directivity,it has given me a lot of inspiration.

Steve

gainphile said...

Steve,
That is correct, so the tweeter's attenuation level has accommodated this. The total frequency response is flat.

Normally +6db SLP is used, but the dynamic range has been used up for Linkwitz Transform. So alternatively -6db SHP is used.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the reply.I now see the method to your madness! I also see the problem with the dynamic range.
Keep up the good work.

Steve

Anonymous said...

You guys have sonographs with the Celestion driver? Super curious how it stands up to the B&C.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for sharing your work. :)

Frode

Noise Figure said...

It's a very good thing to use.






noise figure

Anonymous said...

Gainphile....
Have you done any further listening tests on the Celestion CDX1-1745 driver? This seems to be a very economical unit that doesn't give up anything much to the DE250.
What about the Denovo CD's? Have you tried these/

Cheers

Anonymous said...

Hello,
a lot of people claim that MiniDSP is noisy, especially with high sensitivity speakers. What did you find in your setup? How is hiss audible from hf driver?

Anonymous said...

Hello,
a lot of people claim that MiniDSP is noisy, especially with high sensitivity speakers. What did you find in your setup? How is hiss audible from hf driver?

gainphile said...

Hi, MiniDSP is very quiet and I do not hear hiss, etc. The HF compression driver is *very* sensitive at 106dB so that's why I use passive L-PAD. With this the audible hiss from the HF driver is only from 10cm max. Even with ClassD amplifiers.

Vladi said...

Hi Gainphile!
Very nice project but I don`t understand what about S15-R? It is still in the future?
I have 2 pair Eminence Beta 12A and Beta 12CX. I want to add Selenium D220Ti and build in a box as shown Cabinet C2. Is it possible?

Vladi said...

Hi Gainphile!
Very nice project but I don`t understand what about S15-R? It is still in the future?
I have 2 pair Eminence Beta 12A and Beta 12CX. I want to add Selenium D220Ti and build in a box as shown Cabinet C2. Is it possible?

NiToNi said...

Good info about the CDX-1 1745... but is it really a worthy replacement for the DE250 since Celestion recommend's a minimum crossover of 2.2kHz and a lot of users report that it sounds harsh and distorted below 2.5kHz? Also the exit angle is 20.16° versus DE250's 14.6° (or even 12° according to Geddes who used to work for B&C) which may or not matter (does this explain the difference in your measured frequency response of the two?).

Anonymous said...

hello. settings dont appear to be correct compared to your reference pictures.
LT 35hz EQ1-4 gives this result, notice the big bump between 100-200hz:
http://i68.tinypic.com/21o22rc.jpg
while your picture is flat:
http://i.imgur.com/TzQuK.png
typed in manually multiple times, same result
thanks

gainphile said...

This was due to me running an older version of the plugin which had bugs in shelving filters.

https://www.minidsp.com/forum/software-support/10857-minidsp-4x10-hd-slp-q-biquad-errors#18369

Let me revisit all these settings using the updated plugin.

Alexandre Alves said...

For the first time in my life I see a sound box bass reflex duct without tuning. The woofer will damage!

Tlmadsen said...

Hi Gainphil

I am a little late to the party, but..............

A. Did you ever implement the 2x12" dipole subwoofers ?

B. Any changes/updates to the Econowave-DSP I should know of before I take jump ?

Otherwise, very inspiring work

David Eisan said...

Hello there,

I know this is from a ways back, but when you recommend,

"Please follow the exact configuration of CD2 (DE250) for this compression driver."

for the Celestion CDX1-1745, you are recommending an LR2 XO at 1250Hz.

The DE250 specs recommend a crossover of 1600Hz LR2 and for the Celestion CDX1-1745, they recommend a minimum crossover frequency of 2200Hz LR2.

Can the Celestion CDX1-1745 be crossed at 1250Hz with an LR2 with no problems?

Thank you,

David.

gainphile said...

Hi David, yes that is fine and what we had found out during a group testing.
ps. thanks for visiting. I had not been active for quite a while. Cheers.

Lucifer Smith said...

Waveguide adapters

Mark said...

Very nice work..

Cue said...

Do you still have these speakers? Any update?

Grizzly said...


Hi Gainphile,

I'm wondering if you employed any traditional directivity correction for this waveguide? I can't see passive or active correction in your overview, only PEQ correction for waveguide/driver inconsistencies.

IME, the SEOS12 and Dayton H6512 both require directivity correction for a flat response with the DE250 in room.

How did you tackle the HF roll off on the directivity waveguide?

I typically use a high shelf from about 6khz to allow for directivity roll off.

Gainphile said...

Just a peak filter of 1956hz / -4.8db / 2.6Q. Raw and corrected response can be seen here:
https://i.imgur.com/3jnei.png