A Loudspeaker
please - or - my kingdom for a pair of Hi-Fi
speakers
I have been speaker-lees for some years now; well
not entirely I have a B&O Beo-1 CD-payer,
sounds kind of okay, but nothing fancy.
So after at lot of investigations and many
thoughts I’m going to build my own High
Fidelity loudspeakers, following the DIY (Do It
Yourself) path from the F3/Lyd loudspeakers I
made back in the 80ties.
On the path to the decision I have been listening
to 3 different B&W (Bower and Wilkins)
loudspeakers in the shop HiFi-klubben in
Elsinore. The CM07, XT8 and 804S, speakers in the
price range from DKK 6.000 to 15.000 each.
B&W are a very serious loudspeaker firm
manufacturing reference speakers to studios and
other high-end business. The top speaker costs a
stunning DKK 72.300. There were no doubt in my
mind, the 804S were the better of these, but I’m
not ready to pay DKK 30.000 for a pair of
speakers at this time, though they sound
brilliant, with well defined sound in the mid-
and high-range, and also plays a fairly solid
bass.
The DTQWT are designed by Troels Gravesen in 2008
and are, in his own words, the best speaker to
date. Troels have been experimenting and
developing speakers for several years and have an
impressive range of speakers behind him, based on
his informative website I would guess Troels have
made at least 30 speakers to date. The DTQWT are
not a small speaker with a volume on almost 150
l. and two 10” bass units. The bass units
are mounted in the back of the cabinet, and on
the front there’s a tweeter and an 8”
midrange unit. The midrange speaker JA8008
developed also by Troels in collaboration with
SEAS, a well renowned Norwegian loudspeaker
manufacture.
So based on specifications and drawings on Troels
website in will take on this project, the cabinet
are not easy to build and I will need all my
handicraft skills in the process, but this is a
very important part of the process, and I’m
looking forward to this. I expect, based on the
quality, feedback from users around the world and
expenses going in this project that the DTQWT
overall will play far better than the B&W
804S.
I might tweak the dimensions on the cabinet to
reduce the depth of the cabinet a bit. I have
been emailing Troels a few time, and he was kind
enough to reply and comment on my questions about
the DTQWT and also on some alternative baffle
speakers projects I have been looking at. So I
want to thank Troels for sharing his design and
skills, and also for his time answering my
questions.
Read more on Troels website: http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/JA8008_DTQWT.htmFinally
– quality (high fidelity) music are back in
my life
Finished the speaker project last week.
So finally the DTQWT speakers are in a state
where I can listen to them. And this is a great
joy. Actually I finished the speakers two weeks
ago, but some trouble with my new HARMAN/KARDON
amplifier did set me back for some days.
The new HK-990 amplifier arrived with no sound at
all in the left channel. And listening to the new
high end speakers in a mono set-up were a bit
dull. The amplifier had to go to a shop in
Helsinge to be repaired. Initially I was told
that the repair would take two weeks. I was not
happy with this at all, and I decided not to let
this pass, so after some discussions with the
dealer I was told they would fix the problem
within two days. So after the weekend I collected
the amplifier at the shop Monday afternoon, just
to experience another fault in the electronics.
The amplifier would start up, then flash the
message ’AMPLIFIER PROTECTION’ and
simply turn off again.
I went back to the dealer and told him I wanted a
brand new amplifier instead of the broken one.
After some time I received a email stating that I
would get a new amplifier. 3 days later it
arrived – and no trouble with this one.
In the meantime my plus 30 year old DENON PMA-630
amplifier had the job of braking the new speakers
in – so it got its renascence, and worked
like charm. After the arrival of the new
amplifier I can tell that quality sure have
improved over the last 30 years, sure my new
machine are a bit pricier – but still a
enormous improvement.
The speakers are big - around 150 liter in
external volume, with two 10” bas-drivers on
the backside, a 8” midrange driver and a 1”
tweeter on the front. The two bas driver runs in
a transmission line, or tube open in the bottom
of the cabinet. To be more precise all the
drivers feed the transmission line. The sound in
the lower frequencies is benefiting the most from
this setup. And the result is a deep, very deep
bas, crisp and solid. The midrange is very
pleasing and well defined.
So my spare time have been spent listening and
enjoying that quality sound are back in my life
after some 25 years with designer speakers.
And my current set-up are surely the best I have
had in my lifetime -by far. I have been busy
experiencing my old CDs and LPs all over,
enjoying details and deep bas I have never heard
before.
Peter.
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