Seas A26 kit

Discussion in 'Speakers' started by murphythecat, Dec 12, 2018.

  1. murphythecat

    murphythecat GRU-powered uniformed trumpkin

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    entire back wall. since its 4 inch thick, the sides needed only small amount because the depht of the rockwool already covered half of the side walls, same for the top. I used ultratouch denim since its less thick cause if I were to use 4 inch for the sides I didnt like how it was almost against the speaker cone.

    Ive let the floor of the speaker untreated, didnt want to block the airflow for the port.
     
  2. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    I'm looking at No-Rez to try in my speakers but your choice seems a hell of a lot cheaper. Home Depot?
     
  3. JayC

    JayC Resident Crash Test Dummy

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    I really want to get a kit ever since I found it on the Seas website some time ago and recent mentions + this thread have really made me look around for one in the EU but the only one I found was from Intertechnik without the cabinet. I have no clue how to begin searching for places to get cabinets made considering I have no space nor the tools/experience necessary.

    I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction so I can find my way, or worst case I ask madisound to send me their entire kit and I pay a bunch of money to ship/import it?
     
  4. murphythecat

    murphythecat GRU-powered uniformed trumpkin

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    I used roxul comfortboard for the back wall. Ultratouch denim for the sides and top, but I think its not available in canada anymore.

    Roxu of course is available basically at any hardware store

    Id skip the denim and go just for the rockwool, i just ahpped to have ultratouch denim left from other projects
     
  5. murphythecat

    murphythecat GRU-powered uniformed trumpkin

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    on a whim, decided to play with the ports

    well, weird. Seas recommend 12g of polyfill in front of the aperiodic ports. Madisound provide a foam bar that you simply put there to simplyfy the job, but it only weight 4g. wtf would they not just use the recommended Seas polyfill is beyond me

    look at the measurements!

    grey line is without foam in front of the port
    pink is with the A26 kit foam provided by madisound which weight 4g
    blue is the recommended polyfill 12g fill.
    guess Seas knows what they are doing
     

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  6. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    Yup. Not a usual port. But polyfill certainly reduced a bass peak and increased apparent volume. Or at least that's what it seems.

    Nice!

    Great warm and engaging signature, with great sensitivity.

    Amazingly simple crossover. Glad 15 ohms worked great!
     
  7. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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  8. murphythecat

    murphythecat GRU-powered uniformed trumpkin

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    Bought them used from ebay.

    0$ import taxes, the guy was cool enough to declare them at 50$ value!
     
  9. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    Do you feel like they're worth it at the price of new and importing to Canada?
     
  10. murphythecat

    murphythecat GRU-powered uniformed trumpkin

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    the A26 in canada would cost near 2000$ CAD with included cabs, a bit much even if I think the sound is good enough. The price of just the cabs plus shipping seems a bit too much.

    The A26 also really benefits from X bass boost from my ifi retro amp, without it, the sound lack a bit of bass.

    Personally, if I hadnt got the ebay deal, i would have bought the drivers in canada and made a oversized ported cabinet of about 80-100L. that should get you a -3db point around 40hz and cost you about 1200$ CAD.
     
  11. murphythecat

    murphythecat GRU-powered uniformed trumpkin

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    Ive just played with the Resistors cause I found my measurements gave a definitively too rolled off treble, so put back the 12 ohm resistors. this raises the tweeter by a few db, and make it more flat.

    well, screw that, the 15 ohm resistor is back, the 12 ohm resistors shifts the sound and for my taste makes the sound too bright.

    Problem with commercial speakers is that you are forced to deal with the flat tweeter sound that plague the entire "hi-end" audio. to my ears, ive always found this way too bright.

    just for this, I think this speaker is worth it.
     
  12. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    If your speakers have dual binding posts, could you achieve the same/similar by adding resistors to the speaker cables attached to the tweeter’s binding posts? Or could this create unintended issues for the speaker’s embedded crossover?
     
  13. murphythecat

    murphythecat GRU-powered uniformed trumpkin

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    definitely not. its doable in the A26 because its a 1st order xo with only 1 resistor in serie with the tweeter and because the woofer has no crossover.
     
  14. bixby

    bixby Friend

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    To clarify, are you using the Roxul comfortboard 80 in 1.5 inch thickness or their Comfort Batt Insulation?

    Also, has anyone tried this: "Armstrong 420 contractor series fiberglass ceiling panel glued to the rear wall behind the driver will absorb more high frequency reflections than convoluted foam, loosely stuffed pillow stuffing, or even fiberglass ceiling insulation. This material is about 3/4" thick, and the piece needn't be much larger than the driver itself." ?
     
  15. murphythecat

    murphythecat GRU-powered uniformed trumpkin

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    comfortbatt, 3 inch or 4 inch thick.

    https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.comfortbatt-r14-16-inch-oc-for-2x4-wood-studs.1000122327.html
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2019
  16. spwath

    spwath Hijinks master cum laudle

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    I find that hard to believe, based on the absorption coefficients of the materials.
    Absorption coefficients for 125, 250, 500,1k, 2k, 4k, and 8k hz respectively, followed by the NRC.
    For the Armstrong 420:
    armstrong 420.PNG And 1" of fiberglass:
    Fiberglass.PNG
     
  17. murphythecat

    murphythecat GRU-powered uniformed trumpkin

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    yes, the Amstrong claims highly dubious

    moreover, in the Seas A26, the frequencies I want to absorb are under 3khz, therefore the thicker the better
     
  18. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    The 10" woofer has some breakup modes around 2kHz which might be exacerbating the issues. I was going to suggest a cap for a first order LP to help clean this up, but the woofer has a seriously rising impedance which would require the use of a Zobel and that means two more parts. Three parts might be too much. Keep it simple, take the good with the bad, and resort to physical mods (stuffing) as you already have.
     
  19. murphythecat

    murphythecat GRU-powered uniformed trumpkin

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    some random thoughts ive wanted to share

    Ive owned 4 speakers using a 8 woofer as a midbass in a 2 way: AN-J LX, Ref 3a decapo be, Graham ls5/9, Harbeth shl5+. There's really no replacement for displacement, the Seas A26 bass is superior to all of them. With any of the 8 inch based speakers, while the bass was very decent, you still didnt feel it in your guts, the bass didnt go threw your body, it stayed cerebral rather then physical. The A26 bass can be felt, its not like a tannoy 15 inch or even a 12 inch like my previous jbl lsr32 or genelec 1038, but the bass can be felt non the less. So id guess one need minimum a 10 inch woofer to finally start experiencing the physicality of bass.

    I'm now contemplating going straight to a 15 inch woofer, but then I have to get into a 3 way design, which seem to bring all sorts of difficulty for a beginner like me to build and design

    but then im left wondering, since I have a small room, is a 15 inch in a 200L cabinet in a 10 x 14 inch room be overwhelming?
     
    Last edited: Jan 18, 2019
  20. Hrodulf

    Hrodulf Prohibited from acting as an MOT until year 2050

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    I'm going to assume you meant feet. A 200L cab will be visually overwhelming in most rooms, as for acoustics... you can always turn it down. A big cab will also limit placement options, but a REW room simulation should tell you what you're getting yourself into.

    As for speaker design, unless you feel like you could teach a thing or two to guys like Jaff Bagby, Zaph Krutke or Troels Gravessen, I'd very much recommend sticking to proven designs. Troels' DTQWT seems like an appropriate design for the amp you're using. Maybe Zaph's SB12.3, if you don't listen too loudly.

    I'd very much like to steer you away from making a 2-way from anything larger than a 10". Not many 10"-ers will play nice in a 2-way and not many dome tweeters will like to go low enough for that. Or you'll be forced to design with very steep crossover curves.
     

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