|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
64.12.112.33
In Reply to: RE: My Unusual Speaker Enclosures, Pics posted by bake33@cox.net on February 02, 2011 at 15:49:20
The article that lays out the original design and the guy who created them was published in "Popular Science" in the early 1960s. I have that article around here, somewhere, but I will have to dig to find it. Generally they used a single full-range speaker in exactly that angle and position.
The enclosures can be scaled up and down by the do-it yourselfer. For example you could build a small 4" driver version out of 1/2 inch plywood.
The part I didnt know is that a company, Lafayette, actually built these as a commercial design at one point. All of the versions I am familiar with have been DIY.
IIRC I built an enclosure of the same design using a 4 inch speaker when I was about 16 years old--tho that is a long time ago LOL.
Follow Ups:
http://www.gough-speakers.co.uk/historical-and-technical-background
That is the speaker I tested at the thrift shop!
Dave
That is great info David. Just what I needed. Thank you so much!
I would take a look at the full range 8 inch drivers from Goldwood or maybe Pioneer. The Goldwood 8-inch full range driver PE part number 290-379 would be an interesting option for a Gough design (under $20) and being inexpensive, consistent with the original Gough approach of doing something that sounds way better than it costs to make.
The enclosure is not going to improve the high frequencies. I would be tempted to simply add on one corner of the woofer, a little Goldwood tweeter such as PE part number 270-175. ($2-$3 ea) The crossover would simply be a high value cap in series. How high a value might be an empirical experiment. A really fancy addition would be an L-Pad wired as a tweeter level control (another $3 or so).
The enclosure itself might be characterized as something of a folded horn. The original Popular Science article (they tried their best to look at the whole idea objectively) claimed that to their ears the enclosure produces considerably more extended bass than you would expect to get with the same driver in a conventional bass reflex enclosure. My experiments at age 16 using a smaller 4-inch full range driver in a scaled down version basically confirmed this.
The versions I've read about and built way back then were all made of plywood. Gough claimed that completely sealed joints were not essential for the enclosure to work. In the pop science article they said a quarter-inch gap in a joint made no difference in the sound whatsoever.
I do not see any reason why the cabinet could not be constructed out of modern 3/4 inch MDF, however, using screws and glue, sealing all the joints well.
Another option would be to try building a pair of these using one of the also readily available 4-inch full range speakers...maybe a Tang Band.
I wish I had space for more DIY speakers, but I already have too many pair.
A pair of these made with the Goldwood full-range 8-incher would attact a lot of attention at any DIY event for sure! I wonder how they would fare. Parts cost less the cabinets would run under $30
I have read that the Goldwood is a very good driver for the money, but If I were going to go to all that trouble to build such an elaborate cabinet, I would look to something better like a Fostex 8".
Dave
...is to take a most commonplace (aka cheap) very ordinary driver and make it sound way better than it has any right to...The Fostex no doubt would work and maybe work well. But there is something special in DIY in coming up with a speaker that sounds way better than it ever should given the parts. If people have really low expectations, then they are much more easily amazed and impressed.
In DIY, as in commercial speakers, a lot of guys in the backs of their head believe that drivers and parts that cost more just have to obviously sound better too, everything else equal. Its fun to mess with DIY guys in this regard, and nothing better to try than a Gough design with a Goldwood full-ranger. If you read the original Pop Science article on Gough and his design, he absolutely delighted in messing with the so-called audiophiles in 1961 this way. That he seemingly broke all the rules in his enclosure design made it even more fun.
You have to go with what works for you!
Dave
I re-learned my lesson on this when a pair of very stock Advents absolutely blew away a pair of B&W 602.2's with a B&W ASW500 sub. It wasn't even close; Kevlar cones, Nautilus tweeter, and dimpled ports notwithstanding.
Jerry
Post a Followup:
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: