Feb. 2013: Ekta Grande
started in 2007 and has maintained a steady interest among
builders - and for good reasons. These Revelator drivers are
among the most diy-friendly drivers ever made. Smooth frequency
response from appropriate front panels allow simple crossovers
and excellent sound. The 18WU Illuminator drivers may provide
increased dynamic headroom compared to Revelator, but comes at
extra cost, more than 100 € per driver. A significant increase
when we're dealing with four drivers. The 12M middriver is a
darling and an example of excellent performance and delicate
industrial design. I don't think it can be done better. The
R2904/700000 tweeter is not exactly cheap and you may start out
with the R2604/832000 tweeter if budget is tight.

The up-dated version offers
simpler cabinet construction compared to the curved side panels
of the original. Front panel width has been increased by 3 mm
and overall height reduced by 100 mm. The 120 cm height of the
original was the most common regret by builders. The two
ports of the former version and their placement were not ideal as the
upper port had to be above the mid cab causing some obstruction
in air flow, thus one port of 100 mm diameter and 200 mm length,
which can be added to the front or rear. The cabinet net
volume is 65 liters minus bracing and mid cabinet so we end in
the range of a little above 60 liter. Port dimensions provide a
port tuning (Fp) of 33 Hz. The upright drawing seen
below is
meant for those you may prefer to build a straight rectangular
cabinet and tilt the cabinet by adding different length spikes
to the front and rear of base plate. My preference is the right
hand drawing where a 5 deg. tilt is built into the structure.
The crossover is exactly the same as before and two tweeter options will be given, no more, so
please do not ask for other tweeters. The R2904/700000 and R2604/832000 are so alike that only minor changes to
the crossover is needed and the exceptional
linear response from both tweeters on this baffle
allows very simple crossovers.
Initially a 3½-way crossover, quite similar to
the Ekta, was constructed. 4th order to the
tweeter and the lower bass working like a
semi-sub. This made an even more heavy low-end
and all in all it sounded quite nice. Flat
response and a balanced presentation of all kinds
of music. Playing around with the LspCAD and
looking at the almost ideal response of all
drivers, the idea of making a minimal crossover
was obvious. SPL of individual drivers seen
below. Making a minimal crossover would also
allow the use of some of the best components
available. 2013: I think this choice was right as few
builders not having the option of decent out-on-the-floor
placement have had problems with excessive bass.
The crossover is 4 coils, 5 caps and 6-7
resistors, depending on whether the 7000 or the 8320 tweeter is
used. I like the 8320
version a lot. Really can't tell you why, but
difference in the coating of the two diaphragms
may be the reason. The 7000 has a thinner
coating, probably providing some of the extra
sensitivity and probably reaching a bit higher in
frequency response. The 8320 has a slightly
"darker" presentation compared to the
7000 and despite the two versions being tuned to
render the same frequency response +/- 0.5 dB.
The rise in impedance at Fs is much higher for
the 7000, thus my guess on a thinner coating.
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The crossovers
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The Crossover Kit
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Complete crossover kits available from Jantzen Audio:
contact@jantzen-audio.com
(copy parts list above and attach to mail to
Jantzen Audio)
Download kit sales presentation 7000 version:

Download kit sales presentation 8320 version:

You may include damping materials as
well in your order: 2.0 sqm 8 mm grey felt and - 1.0 sqm 30 mm
acoustilux
All technical
questions to me at:
troels.gravesen@hotmail.com
Drivers
available
here,
directly from ScanSpeak factory.
Crossover Layout BACK
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Crossover layout for bass (left)
and mid-tweeter (right). This for the 7000 version. If 8320 is used,
leave out tweeter 1.5 ohm and replace 2R2 with 1.8 ohm. Also replace 3.9
uF with 5.6 uF.

Click image to view large.
The cabs
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Click image to view large.
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Use 22 mm MDF for sides, top and rear panel, 19
mm MDF for bracing and 2 x 16 mm MDF laminated for front. Do not
forget to chamfer driver holes for 18W and 12M drivers, in
particular the 12M needs a lot of space for breathing freely.
Check
this page.
Bass cabinet volume is 65 litres and with a vent tuning of 32 Hz
we need a port of Ø100 x 200 mm.
The upright drawing seen
above is
meant for those you may prefer to build a straight rectangular
cabinet and tilt the cabinet by adding different length spikes
to the front and rear of base plate. My preference is the right
hand drawing where a 5 deg. tilt is built into the structure.
I suggest starting with the front panels and mark the placement
of bracing according to drawing. This is not critical and no
exact dimensions will be given as this may vary a little
depending on materials used. I suggest 19 mm MDF for bracing.
I suggest adding fillets at the bottom of the cabinet to fasten
bottom panel and get access to interior for mounting the crossover.
Damping of cabinet: Use 8 mm felt material and 30
mm polyester foam (Acoustilux). Add felt to all internal panels
incl. mid cab except front panel and bracings. Add four layers
of 30 mm Acoustilux to the bottom of cabinet and two layers to
top. Place two layers of Acoustilux behind 18W drivers and
behind 12M middriver.
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Measurements
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Left: D2904/7000 tweeter
response on Ekta-G baffle. It doesn't get much
better than this.
Right: Impedance of 7000 tweeter. The high peak
indicates a softer suspension compared to XT25TG
tweeter.
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Left: XT25TG-30-04
tweeter response on Ekta-G baffle. Flat as the
XT25 use to be.
Right: Impedance of XT25TG tweeter.
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Left: 12M/4631G00
response on Ekta-G baffle. Minor bump at 800-900
Hz and minor dip at 550 Hz.
Right: Impedance of 12M/4631G00 middriver. The
12M has a remarkable high resonance peak,
indicating high Qm, and so it has; 5.57 according
to SS claims.
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Left: Response of one
18W/8531G00 on Ekta-G baffle. Remarkably extended
and a smooth decay. Very few 6½" driver can
manage this. Right: Impedance of 18W/8531 driver
(one) in cabinet.
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The final systems

SPL response of 7000 and
XT25TG versions. 2.8 V @ 1 metre distance.
Response is merged with bass nearfield response
at 350 Hz.
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7000 version with mid
connected with same polarity. Response taken at
between-mid-and-tweeter height a 1 metre
distance. Points of crossover are 900 and 3200 Hz.
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Connecting XT25TG tweeter
with negative polarity display a deep suck-out at
~3.5 kHz = point of crossover.
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Impedance of complete
system with 7000 tweeter. As can been seen we
reach an impedance of 3 ohms from running two 18W
bass drivers in parallel.
The minor peaks in impedance around 100-300 Hz strongly
suggest you place some more damping material at bottom and top
of cabinet.
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Inpedance of system with
XT25 tweeter. Not much difference from 7000
version. Wasn't expected either.
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SPL of drivers @ 1
meter/2.8 volts, driven from crossover, plus
summed response merged with nearfield response at
350 Hz.
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