DIY Speaker Help (Crossover?) - Page 2

Crossover can go anywhere. Many people mount them on the back (inside) surface of the speaker near the terminals, because it's easy there. You can build the crossover on a piece of cardboard, wood, stone, pegboard...look for something rigid and non-conductive. You probably don't want to build the crossover directly onto the speaker itself because it can be handy to: 1) test your components before assembly, and 2) tweak the crossover to get the speaker results you like

The ZMB4 would are really nice but ZA 5.2's would be an amazing speaker, probably $600-$800 retail range.

Going ported will give you more bass, sealed will give you less but the response will drop off in a more smoother manner. There isn't really much in the way of cons with going ported, some feel sealed sounds a bit cleaner that depends a on the driver and tunning of the port. I would trust anything Zaph dose though, so if you don't intend to use a sub go ported, if you will be using a sub do sealed. Also you can stuff the ports to effectively make the sealed, cabient size isn't overly critical when you are dealing with sealed designs.

I would suggest the side walls or top/bottom if you can. The back wall should ideally have layer of foam or some other material to absorb the woofers back wave and you probably wouldn't want to cover the crossover. The other interior walls should be lined too but the back wall is the most important.

Also in regards to the ZA 5.2 Madisound sells the kit with the crossover already built for you so you don't have to worry about what you want to mount the components too. That is unless you want to build you own just for the experience, personally I use 1/4 plywood. Drill the holes wherever they need to be and use a combination of hot glue and zip ties to secure them to the board.

Yeah ported is probably what I would suggest, you can always stuff the ports if you add a sub. Which I would recommend BTW, its a pretty easy and cheap when you DIY.

You can use a receiver but that probably wouldn't be the best way to go.

Will you be using the speakers on the same setup with the Little Dot I? If that has preamp outs I pickup a power amp like a small used Adcom or Rotel to run with the Little Dot. I'll be using an Adcom GFA-535 II for my setup, I think I picked it up for around $150.

Are you planning on making your cabinets for the ZA 5.2?

Ok I see it’s the Little Dot II and III that have pre-outs. The best thing to do would probably be to upgrade to a headphone preamp combo unit and then go to a power amp. If you like the Little Dot I the II or II would make sense but there are lots of options. Initially you can just run with amp and use software volume controls.

As far as amps I would advise against going with anything “old vintage”, I would say nothing older than 25 years. Rotel, Adcom, and NAD make some really nice fairly compact power amps that would work well, about the same price as a receiver and much better quality.

I would say you probably want about 15-50 watts if you are going to be using them on your desktop nearfield, my GFA-535 II is 50 watts into 8ohms. A T-amp might ok but they are a bit short on power but I’m not sure how efficient the ZA 5.2 is and T-amps are bit short on power. Not only that but their distortion quickly rises when you start pushing them.

As to the cabinets, personally I like a wood baffle (front) but if you like a matte black baffle painting it is really the only way to get that look. Matte black is probably the easiest finishes you can do, which is why you see it so often. Is there a reason you are opposed to it?

FYI, I have those very 0.25cuF Dayton cabinets you linked to (in cherry too!), I’ll be making a solid wood baffle for mine though, most likely maple. The quality is really pretty impressive, I would defiantly say they are worth it if you can’t / don’t want to build your own cabinets; building curved cabinets is quite the undertaking.

Yeah, I figured you'd be building traditional boxes. If you want curved the the Dayton boxes are great way to go, great quality, and relatively cheap.

The ZA 5.2 would be a great desktop speaker, Zaph even has nearfield specific crossover you may want to consider, but if you want to fill a larger room 10+ ft away you might want to consider a speaker that is a bit bigger.

Ebay is actually not a bad place to look here is a Adcom GFA 535 II on ebay, here is another. Here is a Rotel RB-951.

Audiogon is another good place too look, most of the stuff tends to be boutique brands but here is a nice deal Adcom GFA 5200 (some scratches though). Here is a Hafler SE120.

Any of those amps would be good choices.

Yeah, those would be the kind of amps I would (and did) go with.

Well if want to use MDF and want a wood finish I would go with veneer, its not too hard to apply with a bit of homework and the proper tools. I build my subwoofer out of .75" MDF and covered it with maple veneer, I can post a pic if you like.

I wouldn't put plywood over over the MDF but plywood itself is a not a bad material to use. All pro audio is plywood since its much more durable than MDF, its just not as dead. They do sell veneered plywood, not sure how local it is to you. Two .5" layers of plywood put together though would make for a very ridged cabient though.

The other option is to just use hard wood all around. Its not the best idea for larger speakers since wood can expand and split over time but for smaller speakers its fine. I had my TriTrix MT built out of solid cherry.

The Dayton cabinets are all MDF with veneer on all the sides, and the baffle is just painted matte black. Like I said its easy to get that kind of black finish if thats what you want.

Hah, man I forgot about this thread! Was it the ZA 5.2s you are building?

Yeah, plywood is fine, you just have to worry about hiding the plys. 0.5 would be plenty thick enough for smaller speaker.

Actually had a set of small two way monitors built out of Baltic Birch plywood (though I had it veneered over) and a solid Maple baffle, I'll try to get pictures.