Hi Troels,
I'm listening now to my new SEAS 5inch Minis and I thought that the
least I can do to express my gratitude is to give you some feedback. I
attach some pictures showing my progress.
I live in apartment, I don't have workshop or electric tools, other than
cordless drill. My DIY effort is very modest compared to your work, or
the stunning work of other DIY-ers. I bought the enclosures that you
recommended, and the only work that I've done was to build front panels.
I used cordless drill, small hand saw and several sand paper grits form
80 to 2000. I also used cheap spring loaded clamps, RTV silicon for
fixing the crossover parts, Lepage carpenter's glue, and some Lepage
white glue called "No More Nails". That one was useful for gluing the
bitumen sheets on the walls.
The final panels shine was given with auto paint polish. I was thinking
a lot about which small speaker I wanted to build. I almost have decided
on Revelator 4R or Ellam-XT, but then I had had good experience with
Excel drivers. I always have liked them. I think that your SEAS 5inch is
a little bit underestimated by the builders. I can testify that the
Excel version sounds great.
These speakers are definitely better than my 2000$ much bigger
commercial speakers in about everything with exception of the amount of
bass. Not the quality of it, though. Anyway, I can live with less bass
and with lower output if the normal apartment listening levels are so
good.
Initially the speakers sounded slightly thin and honky, but in just few
hours they started to show their qualities. The most impressive to me is
that they don't change character when you listen to from anywhere in the
room. Going away from them, makes them sound more quiet, of course, but
they keep the same balance. Very impressive crossover design! Now I see
how your design skills and more complex crossovers pay off. Big
difference compared to my other speakers that have very defined
horizontal and vertical sweet-spot. These small guys are very
precise and detailed. Not just trough the frequency range, but also
those little spacial clues, that give so much enjoyment.
By the way, I have 5.6+4.7 ohms in the tweeter attenuation and not the
recommended by you 5.6+5.6 ohms... I guess a matter of personal taste,
room and also hearing :)
I find the speakers tolerant to amplifiers. I run them with 13W KT77
Class A SIPP tube amp. I have 4, 8, 16 taps available and also 0, 2.5, 5
db feedback switch, which gives me some control on the output impedance.
The sound is fine from both 4 and 8 ohms taps, with or without feedback.
In my system and room, the best to me comes from the 4-ohm tap with
2.5db feedback. I'm very happy with these little speakers. Thanks again
for sharing your designs with us! If more people were willing to try
loudspeakers DIY, you'd leave many companies without business :)
Regards, Wes
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