Hi. I am new to Audiophile world. I currently have B&W 686 S1 that I use as Fronts and a Sub ASW610. I bought used ones (budget is an issue) that I currently use for Music and Home theater use. I drive them with Yamaha HTR-6230 and don't intend to upgrade as they sound OK to me for now and I have living room 13 x 10 feet. My intention was to build complete B&W 600 series setup bit by bit before I discovered DIY world. I have Front and center channel to go (current 686 will go as surrounds after having a larger front) I was to purchase B&W 685 or 684 for Mains and HTM62 for Center Channel. Now discovering DIY offers Audiophile level solutions I am considering to build my own speakers for Front and Center channels. I have read alot about Tritrix MTM and Aviatrix MTM kits. I would like to have suggestions from more experienced forum members weather Tritrix MTM or Aviatrix MTM Front and Center will match with my existing B&W setup If I use B&W as rare and Sub? If yes, which of them should I build? If not Tritrix or Aviatrix then is there any other DIY build to consider? Thanks
Centers are usually just a little more due to cost of the extra driver of an MTM setup. If you want to have a matched L/C/R with identical speakers then for $216 each you would be hard pressed to find something better than the Fusion 8. That includes components, flat pack and assembled XO. If you have soldering skills and a decent soldering station you can DIY and your total cost of parts is $192. If you don't have the soldering equipment I highly recommend you get the pre-built XO as you will have additional cost of buying the soldering station for $100 and some solder. http://www.diysoundgroup.com/waveguide-speaker-kits/fusion-8.html The Fusion 8 MTM Center comes out right around $296 and a guy who had both said it is comparable in sound to the $2500 Klipsch Palladium P-27c center. Note that the Fusion 8 was designed to be used with a subwoofer. Note: The F8 underwent an upgrade just two weeks ago with a new custom woofer and XO designed to match the new woofer. The notes on this are on the web page for this model. +++ Disclaimer: I have never heard the F8 in person, I do have the F10 which uses the same compression driver. I am relying on reading reviews on the DIYsoundgroup site and the opinion of people I trust who own F8's and other higher end speakers, like Klipsch and B&W. Your best bet for further research is to post on AVS.com forums and ask for suggestions or feedback from owners. You might also try reaching out to Erich as he has always been helpful to me, he suggested my Fusion 10's and some other DIY projects over the years which have been extremely successful. Be sure to read the 31 Reviews on DIYsound web page as it contains helpful hints and links to builds, as well as evaluations. The people who have them seem to like them, a lot.
hi, I did email Eric about it and he gave me few suggestions. He mentioned that his normal suggestion would be too big for the room or too close to seating position. (pic attached). he was going to suggest volt-6 or volt-8 but they would not fit the center channel in my space. To fit in my space, the matching mains and center channel he suggested would be OS MTM or Fusion 4. Most of the other speakers would be over kill in his opinion. He also thought about Hitmaker in one of his emails. He was not able to give me a comparison with B&W as he has not listen to them.
Now that Erich has made his suggestions and you have shown your room, I see what Erich is suggesting and why. He is looking at a speaker that blends nearfield. This makes sense to me because I have some large speakers Klipschorns that even at 10-13 feet away don't have enough space to "breathe" if that makes any sense. I was also thinking about the Fusion 4 for your center channel needs, but I didn't want to overwhelm you with suggestions. You could even use the F4 as L/C/R if you wanted to. If you search for "Fusion 4" on avs.com forums (use the AVS Google Search) you will find at least one great thread on the F4 with pictures. Here is the best thread on the F4: http://www.avsforum.com/forum/155-diy-speakers-subs/1797337-fusion-4-amazing-sounding-speaker.html
I wanted to deal with the Overnight Sensations separately. I have built 2 pair, gave away 1 pair for a student going to college, the other pair is powering my mancave HDTV and I am listening to them as I write this. (these are 9" tall) I have the original OS, not the MTM you referenced. For the record the OS has power handling of 30 wpc which I find a bit limiting for loud play. The MTM has power handling of 10-120 watts; different ball game. The OS is a very pleasant speaker to listen to when used with a decent sized power amp, it just makes the sound much more full. For TV you want voices to sound full which the OS does great. Despite the 4" woofer is puts out a LOT of bass, just not very low bass like sound effects in a movie. I wish I could listen live to the Fusion 4 or the OS MTM for comparison, but I haven't heard either of those speakers. Between the OS and the F4 I like the F4 better, I suppose because it has a larger box and in most cases bigger is better in terms of how efficient the speaker is and how big the sound is. I will also say that in general I like lots of little speaker drivers instead of great big ones for most of my listening. I like MTM's as a general rule and I like to hear voice through speakers that are 6.5 to 7 or 8 inches. If you go with the OS MTM they are priced at $99 each, so if you try them and don't like them you could probably resell them for something and go bigger if you needed to. +++ If you get this MTM kit, be aware you will need a 2" hole saw to install the ports. That is an extra expense you should factor in if ordering this kit. The same with the XO, if you don't have a soldering station and solder that is also a significant expense that adds to the cost of the speaker. I have a 10" Paradigm sub I use with the OS. Although it adds substantially to the bottom end, most of the time I leave it off. Believe it or not the OS bass is very full at conversational levels.
Thanks for your detailed replies and apologies for my late reply. I was attracted to Fusion 4 as one of the first DIY speakers I saw and read reviews about. Size was certainly a factor. I am in Canada so have to factor in the exchange rate/ duties/ taxes/shipping and these sort of things. On the other hand I am thinking of finding a design and ordering components from local suppliers like Solen. I don't have any woodworking skill, but I am ambitious and like building things. I did soldering a long time ago and I do not have soldering station. Good points you have covered there. I will have to factor in those costs. Those are the reason I am leaning towards building my own enclosure and to purchase the parts locally. I can rent out power tools or buy them 2nd hand. However a little research showed ordering from parts express for example was still cheaper than purchasing the parts from here for certain designs.