stevie

Thanks guys. There aren't any local retail outlets near where I live. Photobox looked quite good - so I'm uploading to them now, or trying to anyway.....

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1390226176' post='2342778'] You're still welcome to it but I appreciate you might want to change your mind! Let me know what you think. [/quote] That's very good of you but I think that I'd rather see if I can get a PC with a working power supply. The power supplies do seem to be the weak link on those. Unfortunately, you can't fit a new power supply - it has to be an original one capable of supplying the special voltage to the ISA card. I appreciate your looking anyway.

No screen needed, thanks. I gave my last CRTs away on Freecycle. Oh, and there's no rush on this, by the way. Please take your time.

Just bought a Markbass amp from Pete. Ultra-speedy service. It was in great condition and came in original box and documents. Very reasonable price, too. Definitely a recommended seller.

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1389904975' post='2339471'] I'm pretty sure I've got a Dell XPS P2 333MHz and a Dell XPS T600r P3 600MHz somewhere. I presume they would have 8-bit ISA slots but you could probably check on the Dell website. I say 'pretty sure' because I scrapped a lot of stuff last year, but I think it was mainly CRT screens, and 'somewhere' because we moved last year and a lot of stuff is boxed up. Both were working when I stopped using them. The P2 box has Windows95 on it and the P3 box has Ubuntu. You're welcome to them if I can find them but I don't want to start searching high and low unless you're really serious. [/quote] I found the T600 on the web (http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=XPST600R-1B) but not the other one. According to that site, the T600r has an ISA slot, which makes it ideal for my purpose. I regularly use an old MS-Dos program based on a specific ISA sound card. If the P2 also has an ISA slot, I'd take that too. I'm happy to organize (or pay for) a carrier if you wouldn't mind digging it/them out and putting them in a box.

Anybody got an old Pentium II/III system with an ISA (8-bit) slot? I could use one of those.

I've finally bitten the bullet and sorted out the past 10 years of digital photos ready for printing. It was a major undertaking. I went online to look for a photoprinting company - but it's a minefield! Can anyone point me in the right direction? I have 380 photos to print - so I don't want to get it wrong. The range of prices is vast. How can you tell what kind of quality you're going to get? Which companies have easy-to-use websites? You're my last hope.

There's not much in the crossover but any faults should be visible (burning, frayed wires or bad connections). The L-pad may have gone - try adjusting it and listen for crackling and cutting out. A replacement is under £20 from the right place. You can also get replacement diaphragms for the HF unit for under £20 (from memory). £150 seems a bit steep to be honest. See if you can troubleshoot it yourself. If you locate the source of the problem, come back or pm me and I'll see if I can find a source for the spares. I had the same problem myself a while ago.

[quote name='6v6' timestamp='1389649952' post='2336649'] I had a look at the [url="http://profesional.beyma.com/pdf/8P300FeE.pdf"]Beyma 8P300[/url], do you have any thoughts on that for a compact bass cab? [/quote] It looks like a really nice driver. By the way, I've already plugged in my prototype mini-8 and it sounds surprisingly good. Lots of work still needed, of course.

People keep rediscovering this design. The Hughes and Kettner/ HK Audio empire was built on the Karlson cab. It was the very first product they made - and they did quite well with it. They called it the X-1 or something. Not a lot of people know that.....

[quote name='Steff' timestamp='1389545334' post='2335312'] I agree mate but even with an added midrange driver facing forward you still won't be able to hear clearly your cab when it's pointing at the back of your knees at high volumes on the stage. I remember gigging my Mesa 1516 and although a tall cabinet I still needed to move about 4-5 feet away to get a good clear full-range hearing. [/quote] You could, of course, add a midrange driver and angle the baffle if you wanted (ideally increasing the depth of the cab to compensate).

[quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1389544719' post='2335302'] Handles on all sides and jack sockets on one of the sides please. I hate having to f*** about blindly with leads around the back of the cab. Why not have the sockets on the side? Or even the top? Truckstop [/quote] Assuming we are talking strap handles, you can add as many as you want, and if you want sockets on the side there shouldn't be anything to stop you (although I don't think sockets on the top is a good idea). That's the beauty of a self-build.

It's good to see so many people concerned with midrange dispersion. I'm sure everyone reading this thread is aware of the problem of beaming with large diameter drivers. Altering the angle of the baffle can help but it is not the ideal solution, as it doesn't actually improve midrange dispersion - it just point the mids in a different direction. And even if you play with a cab with an angled baffle, step to the side of your cab and the mids are gone - not to mention the problem of midrange frequencies not reaching the audience. As you'll be assembling these boxes yourselves, there's nothing to stop you modifying the plans and angling the baffle upwards slightly, although I strongly suspect most people considering building will not be comfortable cutting acute and oblique angles. A better solution is to add a midrange driver, something that we have discussed and is in the pipleline.

[quote name='Marvin' timestamp='1389435046' post='2334072'] A 212 would be good. [/quote] One thing at a time..... [quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1389436108' post='2334077'] something based around parts that are easily sourced in the UK/EU would be nice. [/quote] Definitely. [quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1389437504' post='2334097'] My favorite cab ' tone' comes from the Aguilar DB212/DB112. If you can get close to that tone in a lighter smaller box it would be amazing! [/quote] That's the size of cab we have been looking at. I don't see a problem getting close to that tone, but first we have to know what it is (I've never heard one) and, more importantly, what they have done to achieve it. [quote name='funkle' timestamp='1389438364' post='2334104'] There's probably a couple of camps here. Those who want full range, and those who want a more coloured cabinet. [/quote] Transparent is actually easier than coloured because it's impossible to cater for every colour preference.

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1389188801' post='2331046'] I do believe I now own your old MiBass 550 Stevie . I find it plenty loud enough (although I do put it through a 4 ohm cab). I sold an Ashdown ABM 500 to buy the MiBass, and it's at least as loud as that. [/quote] Indeed you do. Which just goes to show that you should always take opinions on here with a pinch of salt, because one of us is wrong (I'm not saying it's not me ).

I had the Mibass 550 Mark 1. I liked the sound of it and loved the eq options (which they have now removed), but mine couldn't punch its way out of a paper bag. As soon as I wanted some heft, it just sighed and sloped off into a corner. It may have been the particular sample I had, but I thought it worth mentioning, as I expect the power stage is the same on Version 2.0.

The ideal volume for two of those drivers is about 50 litres - so I'm not sure what's going on there. If the box is tuned to 70 or 80Hz, that's not very good either. As far as internal damping is concerned, you need to line more than just the back panel. Just keep the foam well away from the ports.

I sold Armando a power amp. The entire transaction went without a hitch and communication was excellent. Nice bloke.

[quote name='RandomBass' timestamp='1387562472' post='2313465'] I go for cones that do me good. Not fussed about size. [/quote] You sound like my wife (bless her).

[quote name='funkle' timestamp='1387493877' post='2312765'] I'd like to know models of these, if you'd be happy enough to point me in the right direction? As a relative newbie to this I'd like to be able to look at the driver spec sheets...if I can... Again, did you have specific models in mind? (I've just bought some books on loudspeaker design and I'm trying to absorb more info on the subject.) [/quote] Just a quickie (I'll continue this discussion another time - some interesting comments being made) - check out the catalogues from these manufacturers, who are the BMW/Mercedes of the speaker world at the moment: 18Sound, B&C, Beyma, BMS, Faital, RCF. These companies also make very good compression drivers. There are other companies making very good speakers but these guys have an in-depth range and some state-of-the-art designs (3,200 watt 18s, for example). JBL drivers are excellent, but you can't buy them as a consumer, and companies like Ciare and Precision Devices make some very good stuff but don't have such a wide product range.

[quote name='LawrenceH' timestamp='1387489919' post='2312715'] Funnily enough I've just been tweaking exactly this region in a mix. But Ive flip-flopped on midrange drivers and now I think I favour two-way, only using nicer comp drivers that go adequately low not to leave a big dispersion hole. I actually like the 1-2kHz region from a nice 10 or 12" PA driver for bass. I've got several Celestion drivers and they all sound really good in this region IMO. [/quote] Yes, I know exactly where you're coming from. To do it properly with a compression driver you need either an expensive 1" (like an Italian one or a BMS) or preferably a 1.4". Then you have to find a nice-sounding horn. Unless you really need that 5-10kHz response, a cone driver will do as good a job, go lower, and be a lot cheaper (if you ignore the cost of the crossover ). I've often wondered what a 2" compression driver would sound like with bass - with the right horn, of course. Awesome, I expect. Tens and twelves can certainly sound really nice in that area also (and some of the Celestions I've tried have sounded wonderful), but they can't get round the beaming problem.

[quote name='LawrenceH' timestamp='1387489181' post='2312707'] I can't say Ive hunted the earth, but I have not come across 12" drivers that will do +/-10mm clean excursion as measured by any method that also give similar midrange sensitivity and extension as Alex claims for his (and I for one am happy to take his figures at face value). The ones with comparable linear travel weigh a lot even with neo magnets. The dispersion tends to narrow lower down on the long-excursion, big voicecoil diam subs too, which goes back to the original topic - cone construction. [/quote] Faital do a 12 with a specified 9.5mm excursion, although it's winding depth - magnetic gap depth) / 2 + (magnetic gap depth / 3. You can get them from Blue Aran. No need for 2 years R&D (yes, call me cynical if you like). The model number is 12HP1020. [quote name='LawrenceH' timestamp='1387489181' post='2312707'] Although I think the Eminence KL series were nothing special by today's standards, it seems to me like Alex has a genuine USP with the new line. For PA it makes more sense to separate sub from mid-bass anyway so the goals are a little different. But yes, the standard (and eye-wateringly expensive) B&C drivers in all those big PA boxes sound pretty good to me. [/quote] I still rate the Eminence Kappalite LFs for the money. The bass/mids are a bit meh but still better than what you find in 90% of bass cabs. I agree, Alex seems to be using a very good driver.

Interesting. I know those midrange units and they don't by any stretch of the imagination go up to 15kHz - although they go plenty high enough. There's not much energy from the bass above 4kHz - so I wouldn't worry about power handling. You'll be fine with the Celestions. The original Audax units were quality drivers, but Celestion are making good stuff nowadays and I'm sure you'll be pleased if you fit them.