Robert_J

I've built recones on both Fi supplied baskets as well as an Eclipse TI style basket with the six hole pattern. Both bolted to a TC-9 motor without any issues. It's the 3HP motor with the 4 bolt pattern that has to be re-machined to fit. -Robert

A lot of people with high end video still don't send their video through the receiver. Most receivers offer more than just video switching. You want to run the audio directly out of your TV into the the amp (or pre-amp) and power the speakers in stereo. What TV is it? What are your video sources (cable, satellite, OTA)? Better than what? Some pre-amps do have equalization features. They can be as simple as volume controls only. Are the audio outputs of your TV variable? If so, then you don't even need a pre-amp. Get something like the Behringer A-500 amp.-Robert

2 way, 3 way, etc is the number of different passbands the frequency range is split into. 2 way speakers have the incoming signal "split" into highs and lows by using the internal crossover. 3 way has high, mid, low. It has nothing to do with the number of speakers used. A popular speaker is the D'Appolito design or the MTM design. It uses a midbass on the top and botton of the baffle with a tweeter placed in the middle. It gets its name from its designer Joseph D'Appolito. Since you want to learn, start reading. There are some great internet articles on the research done by Theile and Small as well as Hoffman and his Iron Law. Once you finish that, the Loudspeaker Design Cookbook by Vance Dickason is required reading for every speaker designer. For hands on learning start by building a kit or use a proven design. Especially one that has the entire process documented. You learn what the designer did and how it impacted the sound. One design that is very popular with the car audio guys is the Dayton 8. It's big and loud but has surprisingly good quality. Finally, and I hate to say this, you will not learn full range speaker design hanging out here. There are forums at DIY Audio, Parts Express and HT Guide that cover full range design in much more depth. Plus some the guys that are on those forums have been building speakers for over 30 years. I built my first speaker in 1987 and I still learn a little each day from those guys. -Robert

A 3 way speaker will sound better than a 2 way IF it is properly designed. The majority of the 3 ways speakers on the market are crap. Open your speaker up and take a look at the crossover. It probably has 50 cents worth of iron core coils and electrolytic caps. A properly designed 3 way crossover will probably cost more than the all of the drivers combined.The crossover is the heart of a quality speaker. A good one can make average drivers sound outstanding. A bad one can make the most expensive drivers in the world sound like crap. -Robert

I will have to disagree with your opinion. My system is used mainly for high def TV and movies. I use Dolby Digital surround on almost everything I watch. It all depends on your goals. If you have no center channel your receiver will have a 'phantom center' mode. Some people like that mode rather than using a real center channel. But if you are going to use a center, make sure it is timbre matched to the mains. I have a LOT of concert DVDs that are in full surround sound. DVD-A and SACD also have discs that are in full surround sound.-Robert

And for receivers, look for something with automatic calibration. With the Pioneer receivers, it is called MCACC. You can spend thousands on a setup and it will still sound like crap if it is not set up correctly. Since you are new to the game, the auto set up receivers aren't perfect but they are much better than no calibration at all. -Robert

Ok. Budget. The receiver is going to be 200. And I plan on having 4 speakers. To be honest I dont want to spend more than 800 for those 4 speakers. I dont know if that is a lot or not enough for tweaters and mids, but idk. If i go over the 1000 mark for just the speakers then I give up. I know the subwoofer alone is going to cost 700, but that comes last. Im just focusing on the speakers Why four speakers when you want 5.1 audio? Here's a nice 5.0 setup from SVS - http://www.svsound.com/products-spks-sbs01.cfmAs much as it will pain others on this forum, the ED home speakers get good reviews. And finally check out AV123.com . They have speakers that will fit any budget as well as excellent customer service (SVS is no customer service slouch either). -Robert

As mentioned earlier, the sub is the easy part. Most plate amps are rated into 4 ohms. That is not the case for receivers though. Where 8 ohm speakers are the norm, some of the higher end receivers will drive a 6 ohm and even a 4 ohm load. Some will list that in their specs but it is usually found out via trial and error. So I will answer with a "Maybe".Will it sound good, probably not. Car speakers are designed to play in doors and most of the time you are not on-axis with the tweeters. A properly set up home theater will have the tweeters exactly at ear level (mine are). This will make your car speakers sound overly harsh. A good home theater speaker crossover is built around the enclosure as well as the speakers. Since car audio mids are usually mounted in the door, the crossover is tweaked for that mounting arrangement. In a tower speaker, the mids will be weak. Couple that with harsh tweeters and that doesn't make a good combination. -Robert

After my first amp crapped out, I called an authorized Behringer repair center in St. Louis. Talking to him, he just wanted to repair the amp and get paid by Behringer. Outside of warranty, it isn't worth getting these things repaired. It was going to be $250 to repair mine but I could get a new one for $275.-Robert

But I don't have enclosures for every driver ranging from 3" to 18". I've been trying to find information on using the added mass method. I think it would be easier but I need a known mass as well as a method of attaching it to the cone. I don't want to leave a mark on the cone either.I just tested my TC Sounds/SVS Ultra/Audiomobile Mass driver. Interesting results: Re 3.547 ohms Fs 25.57 hz Qts 1.145 (much higher than expected) Qes 1.383 (much higher than expected) Qms 6.656 Le 1.092 Mms (missing) Vas (missing) Once I run my Vas test, the Mms should be filled in as well. Also, the parameters change depending on the orientation of the driver. The specs above were taken with the driver sitting cone up on the floor. Here they are with the driver horizontal on the floor. Re 3.428 ohms Fs 26.24 hz Qts 1.152 Qes 1.343 Qms 8.109 Le 1.092 I need to find the preferred driver orientation and stick to it. All in all, I'm happy with the tool. As with most precision measuring devices, there is a learning curve and I am at the bottom of it. But with the number of drivers that I don't have info for and the recones that I have been doing, it will at least give me an appoximation of the T/S parameters. -Robert

Reversing the flow is as easy as turning the fan around. I did that. I used the resistor method at first because I was cheap. The fan did not always turn on. I'm now on my second EP-2500 because my first overheated. The hot glue takes about 3 seconds to pull off. Yes, it does tell them if you made a change but I don't think it is a big deal. -Robert

The amp's fan is just a 24v DC version of a PC fan. To me it sounded more like a house fan. As you can see from the picture, it sits in the front of the room under my screen. I'm sitting about 12 feet from it. With the replacement fan, I can only hear it from 3 feet away with nothing else in the room on. It is worth the $12 to replace the fan. And if the amp craps out under warranty, I can put the old fan back in when I send it for repairs. As your driver's approach xmax, you will begin to hear distortion. Once you reach xmech, you will hear the voice coil slam into the back plate of the magnet. It's a metal on metal CLACK sound. Turn it down immediately. Fi has some pretty strong voice coils but even they will not stand up to this kind of abuse for very long. Basically, don't go nuts. Learn how your system sounds and keep increasing the volume until you reach your preferred listening level. With the auto calibration of your system, it should be very well balanced. A lot of people try and calibrate by ear and end up running their sub 10db higher than the rest of the system. Here's a nice link for movies with bass - link. The movie Pulse has a scene that has killed many lesser subs so be very careful with these movies. They bass can sneak up on you quickly. -Robert

The stock fan sounds like a small airplane motor. Unless you are putting the amp in a closet, you must swap the fan.http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/diy...ger-ep2500.html It's a long thread. I used it for basic info. Picked up a Panaflow fan from DigiKey and used a power connector from a PC power supply that connects to a 3.5" floppy drive. I had to modify it with a pair of pliers and a Dremel to get it to fit. But 20 minutes later, I had an extremely quiet amp. My box is not a cube. In fact, they are still in their test boxes. I never quite finished the real boxes. -Robert

In an earlier post you asked about dimensions (length, width and height). I didn't know your woodworking skill level so I wasn't sure if you could do the conversion from L to a box in inches. You can use any shape box as long as the net volume is 1.44cf. And bracing can be anything you want. That is the best along with window pane braces.I enjoy my forward facing subs very much. In brighter scenes of a movie I can see them move. But mine do have silver, titanium cones so they reflect more light. The dowel was for legs if you wanted a downfiring sub. -Robert

According to Unibox, I modeled it as a 41L (1.44 cubic foot) enclosure. If you aren't very sure about plans, etc. then use the sealed plans here. By the time you subtract for bracing and driver displacement you will be very close. I would go with downfiring if you have a pet that might destroy the driver (chewing dogs or cats that sharpen their claws) or a kid (too many negative things to list). Just put 4 legs on the box and face the woofer down. I would go with 3" on hardwood or 4" or carpet. Use a dowel rod from Home Depot or Lowes and cut it to length. -Robert

I have it. I just picked up a 15ft USB extension cable so I don't have to sit an 18" sub on my desk. I also have to work on finding the Vas which is a little more difficult than the other parameters. -Robert

Download the instruction manual for the EP amp from Musicians Friend, Guitar Center or even Behringer. On the back, there is a set of DIP switches. One is a setting for the SSF at 30hz or 50hz. The other is setting the SSF to On or Off. I had mine set to On accidentally. There was no really low bass coming from my pair of 15's. I checked the manual again and noticed I had the switch set wrong so I changed. Tried the same demo and was blown away. Proper calibration is key in the home theater. I use a Pioneer VSX-1014 that has MCACC. I place the included mic on a tripod which puts it at ear level in my seat. It takes a few minutes to run through the automated calibration but it sets EQ, level, distance and crossover for all of the speakers. I do tweak it a little after that If your receiver doesn't have something like this, then you need to do it manually. I used to use a DVD called Video Essentials and a Rat Shack SPL meter for my calibration. I still use it for video adjustments. But it took much longer to set up levels, there was no automated EQ and setting the distance required that my wife sit in my seat and I measured from each ear to the speaker (I'm that anal about getting things set up correctly). I also use a Behringer Feedback Destroyer as a 12 band parametric EQ to flatten my sub's frequency response. But that's another thread. I'm only a guy that has a passion for sound. I've learned a lot from the forums and I add my own experiences. As long as that e-beer is a Lazy Magnolia Southern Pecan Nut Brown Ale, I'll gladly accept it.-Robert

The EP series amps have a defeatable SSF at 30hz or 50hz. That is perfect for live audio which is what they are designed for. I accidentally set my SSF to 30hz when I first set up my amp. I was completely dissapointed in the output. After two hours of searching, I realized my mistake and fixed it. The low bass in action movies just flowed then. It was great. Using a more powerful amp on your sub doesn't necessarily mean that you will damage it. It could last for years in a properly calibrated system. But most people don't take the time to properly calibrate their system and they also run their sub way too hot trying to recreate the same experience that they can feel in the car. That just won't work unless your media room is actually a closet. Looking at the graphs from both the Sundown subs and the Fi sub, it is pretty much a toss up as to which one to use. The Fi does require a smaller enclosure but output from both is similar. Either way you are building a sub that will crush anything available from the big box stores like Best Buy and Circuit City. You are getting into the high end sub arena that is dominated by Epik Subwoofers and SVS. -Robert

In the car you listened to music. Low bass in music is 30hz at the most. Action movies have MUCH lower bass. A good one will have special effects around 20hz. A few go extremely low with material down to 8hz. Now, the RMS rating on all subs is thermal only. They run a 1,000hz tone through the voice coil until it melts after a period of time. In home theater this rating is useless. In this environment subs are excursion limited. As you go down an octave, excursion quadruples at the same SPL. That means if you listened to music with a 30hz note and pushed the excursion out to 15mm, then at the same volume a 15hz explosion in a movie would send the sub out 60mm. An SSD can't move that much. You will either smash the voice coil into the back plate or rip the spider and tinsel leads going the other way. But you will have a dead woofer.I use the Unibox spreadsheet to model all of my designs. I adjust the simulated input power and look at the excursion graph from 10hz to 200hz. If the graph hits xmax at any point, I lower the input power and check it again. Here's the graph: What did you expect an ED salesperson to say? "Go ahead and don't buy our product." I run an EP-2500 in my home theater. I use a $5 cable from Radio Shack to go from RCA to 1/4" mono phono plug. I swapped the fan in my amp for a low flow, 24v Panaflow model from Digikey. Cost was $10 and it took 15 minutes to install.-Robert

According to ED, their amps do not come with a subsonic filter so I would definitely run the SSD sealed. 41L, heavily stuffed. The LT/1300 is WAAAYYYYY overkill for that sub. I modeled it with 500w of input power (like the LT/500 with no SSF) and it graphs great. You won't exceed xmax ever but you very close starting at 20hz.-Robert

It look exactly like the 270w amp that Parts Express used to sell. Even the transformer on the back of the plate. And I say EXACTLY because I have one sitting on my office floor about 3 feet from me. I don't know how they came up with those power numbers using the same sized transform. On the other hand, if it is the amp that PE used to sell, then I think it was built by Keiga and is a quality amp that has been in production for years. I just modeled a pair of drivers in Unibox. In a sealed, 2 cubic foot box with a 500w plate amp (ssf set at 18hz), you have a Qtc of .431, an Fb of 46.77 hz and an F3 of 29.5 hz. Throughout the passband the driver is always below xmax (just barely sometimes). It looks like a great sub that should perform well for both movies and music.-Robert

The B.A.S.H. amps from PE are always a good choice. They have been used for years with great success by companies like SVS and Klipsch. As for the size of the amp you need, that is totally dependent on the alignment you choose. If you are going with a large, ported enclosure, you will not need as much power as with a small, sealed enclsoure. Before you can determine what drivers or amps you need, you have to set your goals. What are your listening preferences? Home theater, music or both? Percentage of each? How large of a room are you putting this in? Do you listen at Dolby Digital reference levels or lower? Finally, what is your budget? -Robert

All of the subwoofer plate amps on the PE site have crossovers built in. But if you have a quality A/V receiver with an LFE/Sub output, then you don't even need to use the plate amp's crossover. Bypass it or turn it as high as possible and use the crossover in the receiver.-Robert

The ART Cleanbox has a pretty steep roll-off on the low end starting around 35hz. Home Theater Shack has modification details. -Robert

And don't forget about Resonant Engineering and before that FRC Sound. Scott has had a LOT of experience but not all under the Fi name.-Robert