General Speaker Advice and Recommendations

You might want to contact Justin Weber at Ampsandsound. He's a huge vintage klipsch fan and sometimes has stuff to sell. Along with custom crossovers and such.

 

The textbooks probably cost more than the Isoacoustics, that means they're better

But seriously, don't spend $100 on stands for $300 speakers. A couple textbooks and maybe a binder to angle them up will serve you better.

 

I went big. Bigger than I thought it would be....
For reference, the whole cut in it is for a 15" woofer. Big cab...

I plan to use it for my Altec 602a duplex speaker. Coaxial 15"/mini horn
I shall call it the monolith, due to its mononess and monolithicness.

And the 602a going inside:

Spoiler: 602a

 

interesting! what is the xo point, passive xo or active? what drivers will you use for bass?

 

To some extent that depends if you're listening with your ears or your eyes.

I won't belabor the point except to say that the little 5" woofer in the 705i/705p is a really remarkable driver, and that little woofer combines with the cabinet's DSP-assisted port tuning to make a deceptively impressive overall package.

I wonder if we're writing past each other, referencing loudspeakers that are different in every material respect except size and brand. I don't know anything about JBL's three-oh-five. I have never heard or even been in the same room as a 305. I am writing about the JBL seven-oh-five. Not even the self-powered one that just came out, but the original DSP-assisted 705i.

For instance, I would not call the 705i's cabinet "shit." It is made of Baltic Birch with interlocking braces.

Is that an old JBL PA speaker, or a DIY speaker with guitar/bass amp woofers and an old-fashioned diffraction slot horn?

Either way, "go home" and listen to something else sounds like the better choice there regardless of size of the woofers. Nasal and honky diffraction slot horns like the above are what made a generation of music fans wretch whenever anybody said "horn." Fortunately the audio world has moved beyond those tragic-sounding devices.

You miss my point, which was that if one tries to judge the 705's sound by sound alone one may come to a different conclusion than if one sees the little things first and sets expectations based on their size.

Beyond that, I do think there is a point to blind testing of speakers - removing biases arising from size, price, styling, brand, and so on. I am not going to personally do it, because getting it right is hugely complicated and because I think it's important for the industry to progress in terms of styling and finish quality as well as sound quality. But there is merit to blind testing loudspeakers if all you care about is how they sound.

 

well implemented 15 inch is the key.
I had the jbl lsr32 which uses 12 inch woofers, I honestly prefered, for bass, my p3esr with 5 inchers and my 8 inch sub. so yeah, its really not just about woofer size, but how well implemented they are.

the jbl 4430 or genelec big 3 way for example are stunning for bass and here id argue that a 5 inchers + sub will sound like a toy in comparison in the bass department. a complete toy, its not in the same league. it doesnt make a 5 incher speaker bad per say in the bass, but in comparison to well implememented 12 or 15 inch woofers, something is clearly missing

 

Most guys here are long past aesthetics (although there is the ongoing circle jerk for black Schiit's, whatever).
Even top dog 8'' struggle with acoustic bass. That is my experience and other's, who are shit-ton more experienced than me (T. Gravesen, Marvey, Donald North, J.Bagby) that small woofers can't produce the dynamics of bass notes of live instruments. Upright bass, timpani or practically any large drum.
You can go about the 705 being the second coming until you get bored. No game changing tech has emerged in speaker world in last 20 years.
Even superb 8'' monitor like Genelec 8050A can't do drums properly. It simply lacks the dynamics and presence.
The first reason why can't be any simpler: a 5'' or even a 8'' driver can't move the amount of air that a 10..50 times larger membrane drum does in linear fashion to realistic spl. 5'' membrane is on average less than 90 cm2, 8'' is 210 cm2, 15'' is 850 cm2. Largest timpani is 5500 cm2. Curiously, even at low level listening small bass driver can't deliver the goods, so it's not only the function of volumetric efficiency.

It depends on music that is fed to them as well. Most EDM and synthetic stuff is not that dynamic or tuneful to begin with, some 'very cleanly mastered' rock doesn't display drum dynamics much either.
You'd make better case comparing the 705 with something of comparable size. When you'd imply that it does orchestra drum like decent 15'' speaker then nobody believes you. Also what @murphythecat said, it's easier to find crappy speaker than good one. An ht subwoofer with cone mass approaching that of an anvil is probably not a good example.

 

Going to verify soon if the legend about 15" slam is true.

It's a popular DIY here with 18sound 15NMB420, NSD1095N/XT1086.

http://audiovideo.fi/opas/kaiutinrakennusohje-nitrosailio2-hifi-pa-15-tuumaisella-bassolla

This version is deliberately low to minimize floor bounce.

 

That's true to an extent. The math of pistonic air movement is pretty straightforward, which is why even 40mm drivers can do 20Hz. To do 50Hz with a small driver at realistic (>100dB) SPL's you need very long throw drivers and copious help from ports. Drivers like these tend to be heavy with usually too little magnet to support that weight. And relying too much on ports introduces high group delay, wether that's audible or not, I have no strong opinion about it.

A light 5" is pretty good for a high SPL 3-way upper mid. Keep mms under 9g and BL over 10. Like this - http://bcspeakers.com/products/lf-driver/5-0/8/5mdn38-8

 

I've been brushing up on theory again(, so shoot a dickslap if it becomes too much to bear):
Moving significantly usually means high 3-rd order distortion from motor (even heroic underhung and zillion shorting rings), and 5'' will move significantly when it tries to do even 50 Hz loud. At lower frequencies the heroic motor construction doesn't matter anymore (inductance control doesn't net shit at 20Hz) and 2'nd harmonics come in from asymmetric mechanical forces. By some amount push-pull driver alignment can cancel it out.
But why bother??

Observation or theory (that, imo actually backs up the observation in this case) all these issues can be practically eliminated by going larger.
All this skinny speakers appear because dudes get walked over by women and metrosexuality in their princess castles. Stan ground!

 

Here's a good calculator for this - http://www.baudline.com/erik/bass/xmaxer.html

 

It doesn't take into account baffle step loss that skinny speaker suffer from low midrange down.