Wow!! It’s been almost 2 months without any blogs… it’s not like I’ve been terribly busy, more like super lazy.

Anyway, finally EJ came visiting and had a listen to my DIY speaker… almost immediately he detected some ‘missing’ freq… to cut to the chase, it prompted me to review the xo. Did some experimenting and finally ended up removing the mid/bass totally out of the xo circuit.. i.e. only the tweeter is with a high pass 2nd order.

Also took out the notch filter.. it sounded significantly better - the mids are much fuller, the bass also seems more rounded… hhmmmm think I’ve to redo this in the long run… actually was playing with the idea of rebuilding a new design with the ring radiator tweeters and a dedicated mid-range - thus a complete 3-way design.

From current xo values, the lowpass seems to be too low. Based on std 1st order, the cut off is less than 2kHz and the high pass 3.3kHz (2nd order). From simulation this gives a smooth and flat FR… but from actual listening, it is too thin on the mids.. haizz..

But at the end of the day, the ear is the deciding factor… thus, I am rethinking the xo design,… maybe lowering the HP and increasing the LP.. this may create a peak in the mids, but I think acoustically would be “sweet and warm”.

Now to get some CHEAP caps and inductors for testing..