Zilch's AK Design Collaborative - Econowave Speaker

Crossover is done.

I finished my crossovers yesterday. Not as nice as the prefab boards from Zilchlab but made from some extra 1/4" Lauan plywood I had lying around.

Edit: These are the LE14 variants
 
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I picked up a pair of SVA1800's Friday. A guy could make some nice 2.5 way Ewave's out of them.

Nah, they sound too good as is. Damn good in fact. :yes: I am still looking for a donor woofer and cabinet for my Ewave components. Patience is a virtue...
 
Hey Zilch,

Congratulations on the Wired mag. feature.

This is a great project - I hope to apply it to some old towers my dad built in the 70's when in Germany (lesson he learned: Never use solid oak to construct speaker enclosures!)

I have inherited all his old Marantz amps and reel to reel machines. I have a lot to learn about crossover networks, but would love to improve the upper range of his old homemade goliaths.
 
TS, Solid oak is ok to use as long as you can line the inside walls with dampening material. I use the stuff they use in car audio shops. Can remember the name but it comes in a long triangular box.

There are many sites that explain all the rebuild tips for the Marantz. It is great stuff. What models do you have?
 
Second, the small hardware to mount L2 wasn't locall available so I used 1 minuit fast set epoxy from ACE hardware, I use this stuff a lot for things like this. While working time may be a bit longer the handling time comes within 30 min, overnight setting suggested before stressing the bond.

I used a hot glue gun instead of epoxy, a solid bond that thermal sets in about 2 minutes.
 
Yep Hot Glue Gun Guy here to. :)

Good hold, vibration dampening and you can get it back apart if need be.
 
That is true. Have you seen this type of mod on the Mazda Miada? It makes for a VERY COOL roadster. Side pipes and all. There is also a company that makes front and back clips that really dolls it up.

Coincidentally, I was just watching the Stacy David "Gearz" episode about this!

Wicked little hell-raiser there, once it's done. It's definitely the spiritual successor to the Tiger! :D

Regards,
Gordon.
 
Crossover Board Mounting Detail:

Chris is building the pair of Original Large Advent EconoWaves seen in the background of the WIRED video. After removal of the stock crossovers, the opening in the rear panel for recessed input terminals and L-pad high-frequency attenuation (originally a three-position toggle switch) is 3" square. We cut a pair of 4" square pieces of 1/2" scrap plywood (3/8" would work fine, too,) and thru-mounted Dayton (Parts Express) input terminals and a 50-Watt L-pad in a cluster on center, leaving extra room below the binding posts for finger clearance when installing speaker leads. The spacing for the terminals is 3/4" center to center:

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The 1" shaft L-pad stands off the board using the second nut and washer supplied with it such that its bezel and knob are flush with the rear surface. The binding posts are secured with one of the hex nuts provided, using the terminal lug as a washer. I prefer to save those, and typically use regular flat washers instead. At this point, the input terminal board would get foam tape to make a seal, and be screwed to the inside of the rear panel of the Advent cabinet, centering the control and input terminals in the opening:

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Next, a toothed lockwasher (also provided, shown installed above,) goes on to insure good contact with the PC board input traces, the board itself, a second lockwasher, and the second hex nut. A 10mm socket tightens them securely:

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The PC board then stands ~3/16" separate from the input terminal board providing clearance for the soldered connections and mounting hardware. 3/4" spacers at each corner (nylon shown, but metal is fine, too,) complete the crossover mounting in the cabinet:

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The same approach is suitably used for direct mounting integral input Indignia crossovers, or on any solid panels up to 1" thick, without a recess.... :thmbsp:
 

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Zilch, I hope you can help me with a problem I am having with WINSD. I am trying to model an enclosure for the JBL 127H woofer. I put in the TS parameters, then when after I put in the box alignment I get a message saying (Floating Point Division By Zero) and it will not do the calculations. Im stumped hopefully you can tell me whats going on here. Thanks.
 
Coincidentally, I was just watching the Stacy David "Gearz" episode about this!

Wicked little hell-raiser there, once it's done. It's definitely the spiritual successor to the Tiger! :D

Regards,
Gordon.

That is where I found out about it. I think he ended up with 10 or 12 K in the whole project which is not bad for whet he ended up with. You could do just the car and engine for under 8K if you shopped around.
 
Hey Zilch,

Congratulations on the Wired mag. feature.

This is a great project - I hope to apply it to some old towers my dad built in the 70's when in Germany (lesson he learned: Never use solid oak to construct speaker enclosures!)

I have inherited all his old Marantz amps and reel to reel machines. I have a lot to learn about crossover networks, but would love to improve the upper range of his old homemade goliaths.



It's best to never use any solid woods for speaker enclosures. It's not just oak.
 
Zilch;
Thanks for the explanation of the intended use of the terminal mounting holes in the crossover board. That makes for a much neater implementation than my Advents, but I had to include a fuse holder and 1/4" TRS jack as well as the terminals.. I ended up drilling a bunch of holes, using 10 screws and having the Lpad knob sitting proud of the back panel.
I see the new version of the board includes zip tie holes for the small choke and through holes for soldering in input leads as an option.
Regarding mounting parts, I'm a hot glue guy as well. It's amazing how many 'production' speakers I've worked on that have some thermoset on the crossover to hold stuff down. The only thing you have to be careful of is not to put too much heat on some capacitors. If you really get them hot in one spot it can compromise the dielectric. Otherwise, glue away.
 
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