Here is the original enclosure I used to design the crossover. The ports were added to the rear about 9" from the bottom to the center: Enclosure walls are lined, fill should be added both at the top half behind/above the driver and at the bottom below the ports to tame the vertical standing wave I noticed could become a problem in the enclosure if too little damping is used: Note four sets of window braces are used with some additional slot bracing added to the top and bottom panels.
You might be able to get away with two of the Dayton RSS390-PR Passive Radiators without added mass, those result in a tuning right around 35hz in the above enclosure. You barely use any of their usable excursion as the 15" coax isn't a high excursion subwoofer but you need two of them to get the tuning high enough. You can also use 4 of the 12" designer series passive radiators, this will result in a tuning of roughly 40hz which also works for this design and can play with adding mass to lower tuning as well.
I assume the center channel being in the center of the same dimension box sitting horizontally won't be an issue.
Well you will still be at the 17" wide cabinet it's just turned sideways, the length and depth don't matter as much. Again having the driver centered will result in some changes to the response but it shouldn't be too bad. I really wanted to build a more compact enclosure to test both the Vortex-15 and the Vortex-12 in as I doubt the current crossover design is optimal for smaller enclosures likely resulting in a hump in the upper bass/low midrange response. I just haven't had the time to design, grab materials and build the box let alone redo the driver measurements and determine what adjustments may be needed on the current crossovers.
Thanks Matt. That makes me feel better. Especially since modifications can be made to the crossover later fairly easily. Changing box size is a little bit more of a pain lol.
Matt/Erich or others that have purchased the clearance vortex, 1) Are the missing crossover parts readily available at parts express? 2) Can I substitute the plastic ports into slot port instead? If so, what would be the slot opening and length of the port?
Completely silly question. would running 3 of them in a line array on each speaker work? This is too good of a deal to not try something really crazy
I just ordered four of the Vortex 15's, was curious about the slot port idea as well! I do not have an answer on cross over parts unfortunately, I have not received the order yet so not sure what all is needed. Hopefully the parts are available.
All the parts should be able to be purchased at Parts Express but I have not checked if any of the values are currently out of stock. You could use a slot port of 1.5" high x 4" long or 2" high x 6" long (at full width in the cabinet original cabinet design so 15.5" wide). A line array would not work well at all as you will have severe comb filtering/interference pattern from the widely spaced high frequency drivers. You could plug the center hole and just use a single coaxial full range while the others run as woofers but that would require a brand new crossover design and is probably best done actively. Though at that point it's likely easier and would offer better performance to just use two dedicated woofers.
SOLVED - I was looking at the "other" forum and Erich explained on there. Plans for more back in stock later pending decisions on stocking I'm guessing sales were temporarily halted? I was planning on getting a pair, didn't jump on it as Erich mentioned having a ton in stock. Are they sold out already?
Matt, Erich mentioned you preferred vortex over the Titans when listening to music. Would you mind elaborating on your preference? Of all the HT speakers, this is marketed as HT and music. What makes these qualify for music listening compared to htm12 or Titans. Is it mainly because of the lower extension?
I missed the opportunity to place the order on time for a pair of Vortex15 kit. Did anyone purchase an extra pair that they are willing to sell?
I did design these in larger cabinet which gives them better extension then the HTM's and even the Titan's with the thought that they would be more suited for fullrange or stereo. With that in mind the crossover also uses more BSC so the bass is also a little more full then the Titan or HTM again so they work little better without a subwoofer to back them up. The HTM and Titan can be a little dry without a sub or at least a little manual EQ to fill the bottom end in. As far and the midrange and treble there are differences between the designs but it's harder to say which one has a clear advantage though the point source aspect of the Vortex Coaxial is a big positive in terms of overall coherence of the reflected vs. direct sound in the vertical axis compared to the more conventional driver arraignment of the HTM and Titan. Because of that Vortex is closer to an ideal sound source then those other designs.
There are more of the coaxials, Erich limited the number available for purchase to the number of compression drivers he had set aside not wanting to use up all those compression drivers as they are shared with the Titan designs as well.
Matt, I purchased 3 for an LCR primarily for music listening. The intention is to make a sealed box cabinet crossing over to a subwoofer around 40hz or so. Also intend to make at least a 2” round over to ameliorate any possible diffraction issues. One of my SMWTMS club members suggested offsetting the driver. In your design it’s already offset vertically, but could only be offset horizontally if the front panel became the 18” panel. Do you think this is a path worth pursuing? A multi channel MinniDSP with Dirac will be used for the crossover and any room tuning/adjustments. Thanks for your reply!
Hey Matt, was your reasoning for rear porting purely aesthetics or something else? I've got 3 coming for LCR and I want to use your original enclosure dimensions with the exception of the height. These will be placed on top of existing 15" MBM's and I don't need them tall or ported that low. I'm thinking 40hz tune, and height wise 28 - 30" with a front slot port, but if the rear aero ports change the sound I will go that route. The MBM's these will sit on are also rear ported, so would it be prudent to match them? Thank you
Horizontal offset won't matter with the cabinet being so close to the diameter of the driver, the minor change in distance to the cabinet edges (of the driver was offset) vs the frequencies impacted by the edge diffraction in this design are octaves apart. With the High frequencies being controlled by the central horn and partly by the woofer cone the edge diffraction from the cabinet isn't really an issue for the top octaves like it is for a regular dome tweeter.
It was for aesthetics, I didn't care for the look of the round ports on the front (I liked how clean it was with just the driver) but ports can certainly be put on the front without issue.
can we get a breakdown of the crossover parts? I'd like to order them so I can have them waiting for when the speakers arrive