3 way custom made hifi speakers to suit really bass heavy music with mid and top clarity as well.

My aims:

To sound good at everything from quiet volumes(late night use), to medium volumes(general use) to pretty loud volumes(sometimes).

Total budget £500 max for the drivers,"wood"(MDF),passive crossovers and the amp.

The bass drivers would need to be the pa type as I much prefer the sound of cloth edged drivers to give that rough sound as I don't like too smooth or clinical clean sounding bass on those types of music give for the kind of music(which rubber or foam surround would give).
I play mostly, which is roots reggae, dub, digital reggae, dancehall, dnb, old skool jungle, although I do play other types of music I play the ones listed THE MOST.

First the amp, I want to avoid a normal intergrated hifi amp due to the very power they put out which would give weak low bass.

And buy something like the Behringer A500 which puts out 2x 230w rms into 4 ohms (fanless convection cooled amp) for £156.

Pa bass drivers to get low enough(can always add a sub if needed later though), without being too expensive and too large is the tricky one....

First the tweeters, either these:
Monacor RBT-95SQ Hi-Fi Ribbon Tweeter 30w rms/4.5-22khz/98db, £22 each
or this silk dome tweeter: Number One DT-80 HiFi Dome Tweeter, 45w rms/3.5khz-16khz, 97db £16 each

Mids to make cabinet design much easier would be better if they had sealed back like the:
Celestion Truvox TF0615MR 6 inch, 50w rms, 500hz-5khz, 97db sens, £24 each.
Or if it sounds much better I can get hold of Beyma Mi-80 6 inch mids rated 100w rms, 98 sens with a phase plug in them for £35 each used.

Bass drivers, I'll ONLY as stated above want to go for drivers with a corrugated cloth surround for that ragged pa bass sound, which foam and rubber surrounds don't give for the type of music I listen to mainly.
Most cheaper pa bass drivers don't have big xmax, but after searching for a bit, I found one that does.
Beyma SM212 looks like a great 12 inch to go for as it has 7mm xmax, has an fs of 40hz, frequency range down to 45hz, sens of 98db and is £76 each.

But then I'd need the Eminence PX-LPAD rated 100w rms for £16 to lower the sensitivity of the mid and high drivers to match the bass driver....

If I went for this

Crossovers I'd probably use these:
Beyma 3VHIFI 3 way crossovers meant for hifi/studio monitors, £45 each.
http://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?id=BMA3VHIFI&browsemode=category

What could I tune the enclosures to if the Beyma SM212 has an fs of 40hz, would it kill the driver to tune it to 40hz, or better tuning it to 45hz?

Yeah I see 3 way might be quite an issue around an off shelf crossover and those 3 drivers.

But I do NOT like the sound that a foam or rubber surround gives for those types of music I play often.
As a pa type woofer has a much tighter suspension to suit the kind of music I listen to.

So after looking for a while online, maybe the 2PI towers would be the solution for me?

Cheap to build, which use Eminence Alpha 10 inch pa woofers, Vifa dome tweeters, kept simple by being a 2 way design and easy to make crossover network.
And hopefully give the bass extension I'm looking for as they are towers....

Also I don't use an ipod, I play music from vinyl and cd.

If I could afford it I'd get a valve amp, as I much prefer the sound of valves over transistors. Especially the KT88 type.
Edited by ItchyTasty42 - 10/12/12 at 7:42am

Still the WRONG type of suspension/surround for the type of music I listen to mostly. A corrugated treated paper or linen surround gives really tight bass. Whereas foam or rubber surrounds do NOT.

Something like JBL 2226 would be perfect as they sound great and not crap like the cheap pa speakers usually do, but are way too expensive for me.
So maybe the P.audio copies would be ok.


Or the 2Pi speakers that use the Eminence Alpha 10 inch pa woofers, however they ain't good drivers imo, certainly wouldn't have much xmax.

I don't want the music such as reggae I listen to most to sound clinical clean and too hifi,as it needs a bit of harmonic distortion on the bass end, but don't want the whole spectrum to sound low-fi either. In between basically. Mids and highs have to sound clean, bass needs that ragged bit of harmonic distortion.

This is basically the kind of thing I'm after, yes back to my original 3 way idea:

http://francois.mastroiannidiy.pagesperso-orange.fr/_seville.htm#photos
http://francois.mastroiannidiy.pagesperso-orange.fr/_Historique.htm

Or this: http://en.audiofanzine.com/tweeter-compression-driver/beyma/CP21F/medias/pictures/a.play,m.130818.html

But I only got 1 Beyma 15K200, so if I can find another one it would be great, or use different drivers in a slightly different design.

Or better yet, this all in one cabinet: Adire HE12.1 http://cognitivevent.com/av_he12.html Plus it uses a 12 inch co-axial driver with tweeter, which is fairly cheap to buy as well.
Edited by ItchyTasty42 - 10/21/12 at 1:53pm

Maybe this would work:

A decent dome tweeter,planar or ribbon tweeter, or small decent(non harsh) sounding compression horn tweeter.

This driver:
http://www.usspeaker.com/rcf%20-%20L8S800-1.htm

RCF L8S800, whilst having a corrugated linen surround it also has a carbon fiber cone, 5.8mm xmax, and cast frame, HUGE magnet.


I found someone on youtube using exactly what I'm thinking of building:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsV5xhCpukM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzrIdZNtH-c


And for the really deep bass bass part I'm trying to get maybe use a Peerless XLS10 driver with the Peerless XLS10P passive radiator.
Or there's an Eminence Lab 12 I can get for £90 from a store which is ex-demo if it's any better.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKjveCxCIMc Really nice vid of a Peerless sub in a ported enclosure driven by a plate amp.

Both of them are expensive drivers out of my price range. The JBL are really expensive.

I can get the RCF L8S800 cheaper on bluearan and an additional special discount on them.

Or could make the 2PI towers(cheaper to make, as they use the Eminence Alpha 10 mid/bass with Vifa dome tweeters) with a sub with either the Eminence Lab 12 (£90) special offer on bluearan or £90 for the Peerless XLS10.
And this plate amp:
http://www.europe-audio.com/Product.asp?Product_ID=11350
It's 300w rms into 4 ohms or 150w rms into 8 ohms, so would give about 200w rms into 6 ohms to power the 6 ohm Eminence Lab 12.
Or this plate amp: http://www.bkelec.com/Modules/bsbp200.htm

Looks good, but still want a pa type surround on the mid-bass as it won't give me the desired sound I want otherwise. And I don't think you can get Madisound speakers in the UK....

As I want a really tight chest thumping bass on the mid/bass for reggae, but also have decent sub lows and good sounding highs. I find hifi drivers for mid/bass on reggae sound too smooth and/or don't give that harmonic distortion/ragged sound I'm after.

I used to have some large-ish 3 way pa speakers in my room at one point, whilst the highs on them where way too harsh out of a compression driver and horn(would be ok in a large hall or outside, but deafeningly harsh in the bedroom). The bass was just spot on and chest kicking whilst being deep out of a 15 inch driver, the mids weren't bad being an 8 inch.
So would like the highs and mids to sound hifi or near hifi, and the lows to sound pa, if that's possible... Without spending too much.

I've had hifi speakers in the past, I either didn't like the sound of when I play reggae and music like dnb through them. Or the bass cones got destroyed completely by bottoming out and going over-excursion.
Had drivers as large as 12 inches on big Jamo's and still managed to mechanically or thermally damage the bass cones. Whilst they didn't sound right on the bass either, too smooth/clean sounding. And the mids and highs were rubbish sounding on them as they were cheap-ish speakers.

This kind of thing I'm aiming for:
http://lsv-achenbach.de/images/lautsprecher/eigene/duett/duett_roh.jpg

As long as the horn compression driver isn't harsh or deafeningly loud.

Or these:
http://en.audiofanzine.com/tweeter-compression-driver/beyma/CP21F/medias/pictures/a.play,m.130814.html

I already got 1x Beyma 15K200, would need to find another one, or hunt down different suitable drivers for that...

Cheers for the link, would the sealed design make a difference to ported that I'm used to for the type of music I play?

As I heard sealed takes much more amplifier power compared to ported, but goes lower. But as the drivers are high sensitivity and high-ish wattage, I guess in a home environment, a sealed design doesn't matter?
Or would it with the type of music I play?