3-way Trio of Theater Speakers to build

Hi Marty. Have you considered the Clearwave Dynamic 4T and 4CC? I built these and they are amazing. They have 4 7" Dayton reference woofers, and two of the same mids as the statements per speaker, including the center channel.

The Cornscalas will give you all those attributes your looking for.

I would advise using driver combos that work with Bobs x overs or the ones from ALK
Edited by brian6751 - 2/15/13 at 4:46am

While the Cornscala looks like the best option of the ones you provided you might want to also look at the SEOS designs. they are simpler 2 way designs that will give you everything you want unless you have to have a 3 way.

Or do you not want a subwoofer?

The SEOS Sentinals would be a Great option with a sub. Since this is a home theater, I'm assuming you'll have a sub.

Well, it sounds like the 3 way Cornscala is what your looking for then. Don't let you're past Klipsch experience deter you. The Heritage Klipsch sound is not like the newer stuff. They will have all the slam your looking for with great detail.

i would ask this in the normal Speaker thread

If you don't believe him your alternative is to software model other drivers in the design.

Bob has no reason to lie about it. He's been nothing but helpful to everyone who deals with him even when they are not buying his components.

I think you should also give a listen to some other HE builds before completely ruling them out. Of all those you listed, they are just the tip of the iceberg. I am pretty sensitive to upper frequencies and I am still in love with my SEOS build which doesn't sound harsh to me at all. The RF7's tend to be a little "ringy" and harsh for a fair amount of people who have demoed them.

Preface - I haven't heard any of these speakers but I know the designer of the Statements and have used all of the drivers here except for those in the Sierra Towers. I think the Statements would hold their own and possibly be better overall than the other two.

why wouldn't you just go with the cornscala model d with hf140 driver and lth142 horn?

it fits your criteriea, the crossover work is already complete, and it is a great value.

thats what i have and im very happy with them. Marty has analysis paralysis with a dash of misconception.

there are only a very few drivers in the 1.4-1.5" range that can play the top end all the way down into the midrange and even fewer at a reasonable price.

the polars on the horn are really not bad at all. not quite constant directivity, but very smooth across their range.

if not for all the hype around the seos builds, we'd probably be discussing the crites model d quite a bit more.

one thing that i really like about the cornscala is that it is one of the few big, high sensitivity, full rangers left.

has anybody measured the woofer and/or the model d to your knowledge?

I never asked Bob if he measured them and I don't know of anyone else who has. The D style seems to be rare. I would be curios to know how it measures. They sound wonderful to me. Very even throughout with lots of detail. Not harsh at all. It's almost like they make you a more active listener.

You really need to re evaluate your stance on two ways. Just because you didn't like the two ways you heard, does not mean they are all like that. That's like saying bank robbers wear ski masks, so everyone that wears a ski mask is a bank robber.

This Faital Pro compression driver is really good. It's been compared to similar TAD drivers and tested down to 400 hz at 105 db with less than 2% distortion. Extremely detailed highs without being harsh at all.

A two way with this driver and 4 10's would be cool. Although I'm not sure of any real benifit the 10's woul have as the output from the single 15 is pretty massive.

Not saying the 3 way won't sound good. I just believe there's benefits to a 2 way especially when the horn goes down as low as this one.

I've never heard a 3 way Cornscala, but I prefer the sound of my 2 ways to my old La Scalas. Bob Crites has said he prefers the 2 ways.
Edited by brian6751 - 2/23/13 at 8:12am

I know your looking to make these and a pair of "hifi" speakers, but make these first. You may find, as i have, that they can fill both duties

Nope, they do not. There isn't a different sound inherent to a 3-way. In fact anyone running subs is using what I would call modern 3-way. The way a 3way hifi retail speaker with dome tweeter and 4" mids and 6" woofers sounds has nothing to do with how a 2-way horn with 15" pro woofer sounds. IMO 3way horns with a super tweeter above has no place in modern designs. It was used back in the day because the technology wasn't there to run a CD from 1khz and up and a woofer from 1000khz and down. The only case to design to this paradigm today is nostalgia.

Now we have 1" CDs that can play down to 800hz. We have 12" and 15" woofers that can play up to 1200hz and beyond. There are also coax CDs with 1.4/1.5" exits that play from 500hz to 20khz. Horns are also more advanced with designs like the SEOS, H290C, JBLs, QSCs, Geddes, etc.

Remember, with a sub you are getting a 3-way. Horn covering ~1khz and up, pro woofer covering 1khz down to ~40-80hz and the sub covering 80-120hz and below. With modern drivers and horns this is a far better approach. Of course there are potential improvements on this with using an MTM of high efficiency 6" side by side mids and a higher excursion 15" pro woofer running active or active hybrid. This would probably double or triple the price and the improvement would be small. For the price and footprint I don't see a way to trump the the 2-way horn pro driver configs like the SEOS or Pi speakers (not including Synergy clones because the complexity is a few orders of magnitude greater).

With all that said, assuming the Cornscalas have we'll implemented crossovers they should be good speakers. I would opt for the D version myself, but I don't see any measurements or crossover details. I would want that information. It is probably out there but I haven't looked.

The Faital pro drivers I'm referring to are the ones Bob uses in his D style Cornscala plans.

My speakers are the ones in my avatar. Style D Cornscalas. They are the 1.4" Tractrix ones. I wanted something with a little more dispersion.

As far as how they compare to my La Scalas, they are much more balanced and smooth. The top end is more airy and natural. The La Scala could be harsh, the Cornscala not at all. And of course the Cornscala can play bass much lower. It's a truly full range speaker. With full range output. The La Scala always needed a sub, even with music.
Edited by brian6751 - 2/24/13 at 12:57pm