Journey of starting a hobby speaker company!

[iQ Speakers]

First day of building speakers in the new workshop. Finished the dust extraction system yesterday. So much easier everthing to hand.

A day of rescuing all the "experimental" builds that got me to this point of being able to produce a quality finish. Thanks for all the people that have helped or supported me getting this far. 5 months of balls out hard work and finacial outlay all coming together. Better start making some now! These pair went out Saturday morning.

 

[Andrewjvt]

Cool

 

[wilro15]

Everything looks great Colin! Looking forward to seeing pics of your new productions soon.

 

[iQ Speakers]

Thought I would share a breif build of the latest order the IPL SM2. They are pretty big at 550mm high simular size to Harbeth SHL5's. They will have an 8" driver and a Fountec CD3.0 ribbon tweeter and are front ported. These are going to be finished in Santos Rosewood. Hope to have them finished in a couple of weeks.

 

[Vladimir]

That MDF looks very thick. Any need for bracing at this cabinet size?

 

[iQ Speakers]

Hi Vlad, yes it is 22mm and yes they will have bracing top and bottom. I was a bit taken aback twith the size. They are going to sound amazing here is the blurb! A 35 litre front ported High Quality loudspeaker using the excellent 8" IPL/ 8/K shielded magnet Kevlar unit with its high power handling, low distortion, linear response and sturdy cast chassis, and the superb fast and transparent IPL/Fountek CD3.0 Ribbon tweeter. The sound quality of this speaker is outstanding combining smoothness, with amazing detail resolution, and transparency over the entire audible range. Because of its low distortion and accuracy this speaker is suitable for monitoring purposes as well as High quality Hi-Fi applications. The sound is fast, detailed, but delicate, combining a dynamic sound with a musical presentation covering a large bandwidth between 37hz and 30khz.. The IPL/Fountek Cd3.0 is similar to the Fountek Cd3.0 but pairs have been matched for response and sensitivity to the IPL/8/K bass units, This matching process is time consuming and involves specialist skills and test equipment and so incurs a small on-cost on the standard unit. The CD3.0 is now starting to appear in some very expensive commercial speaker designs. A flared port improves smoothness of air-flow and bass quality.

The crossover uses an 12db/oct Low pass and a 12db/oct High pass bi-wired crossover. Components used are high quality IPL Polypropylene capacitors, Super power and Steel laminate inductors and resistors. The Bi-wired crossover is mounted on the CP4L gold connection panel

 

[Vladimir]

I'd add the bracing in it considering everyone sings praise how it matters these days. I presume having a small box with high power handling demands bracing, but in the old days boxes were huge and typically unbraced, and not damped with material except for scarce wall lining. This seems like a large box for an 8" reflex ported system, so not much bracing needed I think. Add bitumen sheets on the walls and that will be less resonant cabinet than granite.

What is the crossover frequency of the ribbon HF driver?

 

[iQ Speakers]

Sides are covered in profiled acostic foam.
Impedance ohms.........8Cabinet material ........... 22mm MDFCapacity litres.............35Crossover......................3rd order 3.2 khzSuggested wiring..........5m HU1Efficiency db SPL...........89Frequency Response...37hz - 30khzDimensions mm .............548h x 304w x 308dResponse linearity......+ or - 1.0db (250htz-22k)Response Measurements by Audiosuite Sine and MLS

 

[Coll]

You may or may not remember my post Happy at last where I built some Troels Gravesen designed speakers. Well have a look at the last 3 posts I made a suggestion which you may find useful for future builds or as an optional cost.

I have fitted a toggle switch to my speakees with 3 different resistors in the cross over to the hf unit. This means that if I have bright recordings I can change the sound to suit. It can also be used to ovecome bright amps and rooms.

 

[iQ Speakers]

Yes it was high on my idea list, however the reality of geting the basics right took over! Would have to figure a reliable easy and relitavley cheap way to achieve, great idea though one of the benifits of kit speakers is that you can tune bass and treble.

 

[Coll]

You may or may not remember my post Happy at last where I built some Troels Gravesen designed speakers. Well have a look at the last 3 posts I made a suggestion which you may find useful for future builds or as an optional cost.

I have fitted a toggle switch to my speakees with 3 different resistors in the cross over to the hf unit. This means that if I have bright recordings I can change the sound to suit. It can also be used to ovecome bright amps and rooms.

As a matter of interest the cost is about £20.00 for materials.

It would stop all that stuff like the amp or speakers are too bright

 

[iQ Speakers]

Profiled foam in, Braces in, filler covering magnets for the grills, sides on. One side of Santos Rosewood on. The drivers are huge, can not wait to here them.

 

[ifor]

Looking good.

 

[iQ Speakers]

Do you know what I really hopes this encourage peeps to give Kit speakers ago. Will give them so much more sound for there buck.

 

[ifor]

I'm certain I'll build some IPLs in the not too distant future (that can can be quite a long time in my world), but I might drive them along the A40 to get them the finish they deserve.

 

[steve_1979]

I'm impressed by the way things are progressing.

Any news on the Mini DPS active speaker amp plates yet?

 

[ifor]

Maybe you should contact Richard Allen with a view to taking over the production of his EB Acoustics speakers.

 

[tonky]

Good shout on that.

Also very much agree on the kit speaker build. I might try an IPL kit once the summer is well and truly over and venture indoors more More spare time available too. Might try and arrange a listen one day too beforehand. Quite fancy trying a pair of the transmission lines S2tl k. How do these sound compared to equivalent priced non transmission line IPL kit speakers?

cheers tonky

 

[iQ Speakers]

It had vaguely crossed my mind, the strange thing is the IPL's would probally sound better. So the only thing I would be buying would be the name/reputaion/review. Dont know how many he sold but if it were more than a couple of pairs a month i would have to change the operation i have at the moment.

As to the sound of non TL IPL's i have built the M3M and M4M they sound so simular to the TL's just less bass. The little PMC DB1i size M4M are incredible they took me back when I first played them. Im building the SM2 at the moment. Not heard the floorstanders. If you need any help or just want to come and listen you are more than welcome pleased to help.

 

[Andrewjvt]

>Maybe you should contact Richard Allen with a view to taking over the production of his EB Acoustics

Thats only if he responds to emails

 

[Andrewjvt]

Hi colin

Just had a look at your s5tl
Would love to hear it when i get my hegel h360 in a months time. The hegels got a damping factor of 4000 and with that 10 inch driver wow.

I will have to take a day off to demo.

How would they compare to kef reference?

 

[basshound]

It had vaguely crossed my mind, the strange thing is the IPL's would probally sound better. So the only thing I would be buying would be the name/reputation/review.

You could probably do without that part !!

 

[iQ Speakers]

Yes I think the reputation would stick, I loath the idea of taking somebodies money and not delivering what ever the circumstance its not right.

As to S5's they sound pretty special I heard them at IPL I dont have a demo pair, not enough call for them at the moment. this is one guys impression from the IPL website comparing to B&W Nautilus! Hopfully I will finish the 8" driver SM2 this weekend they are big!

Mr P Carter writes regarding S5tl Kevlar Ribbons; Hello Ivan I have now had the S5tls running for a week or so. These things are incredible, so clean and deep. No tuning done yet as will run them in thoroughly first before I decide if it is necessary. Despite very heavy use they still appear to be changing as they run in. I have a pair of B&W Nautilus to compare these to (cost over £8000) and these are very much better. In fact we are having so much fun listening, my wife will not let me strip them down to finish the cabinets, but as soon as she does I will send some pictures of the finished articles , they deserve a world class finish. They go to very loud levels with my 38 watt valve amplifier and I dread to think how loud they will go with 200 watts. I may find out since I have a Musical Fidelity A370 power amp in the dining room system which will exercise them well. Thanks again for some wonderful speakers. These deserve a much bigger audience.

 

[Andrewjvt]

And make some haha

 

[iQ Speakers]

One completed just the Polyx to apply now, crossovers done, should be ready to launch tomorrow, can not wait.