Nearfield monitors


Background

These speakers are a rebuild of my earlier cinderblock monitors. The main reason for rebuilding was that the old speakers were overly heavy and I was sick of moving them around. I also wanted to try out a filter and cabinet design for the Tang Band 871S drivers by John Krute. Note that this design is no longer available on John's website, although a picture of the drivers in a low-diffraction cabinet survives in the archive section.

Details

The front, back, and sides are pine, while the bottoms are mahogany. Each speaker contains a parallel LCR circuit in series with the driver. This reduces the midrange somewhat, leading to a flatter response. The speakers are sealed and tuned for a cutoff frequency of approximately 150Hz with a Q factor of about .8. Obviously a subwoofer is a must, and I use an old Infinity home theater sub with an active crossover.

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Results

The sound is excellent within the limitations of a single-driver system. Imaging is very good and the speakers have a nice natural sound. I actually prefer them to my much larger and more expensive Eros for listening at my desk, though this is mainly because my room is too small to allow me to properly place the Eros.


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e-mail: jason@jasonwolley.com