A new ultimate Duet10 is conceived using Accuton C90 mids!

[Clearwave]

I'm starting a no compromise design today that will use the new Illuminator Air Circ dome tweeter, Accuton C90 mid, and Scan Speak 26W aluminum cone driver. Kit pricing will be around $2800 for the drivers and crossovers. This should compete with speakers costing $20k or so.

We can't wait to hear this one. I'm shooting for completion by the end of April. I'll try to document the build with the cabinet builder here.

[RyanW]

Anxiously awaiting any updates. Work your magic!

[Clearwave]

Just about all the materials are ordered. The cabinets are going to be a nice Cherry veneer.

We are using the best possible parts for this speaker, without going past the point of diminishing returns.

Supra stranded wire, Sonic Barrier 1 1/4" on the back wall--3/4" on the side walls. The midrange chamber will have the same treatment but use Acousta Stuff filling.

I made some modifications to the original Duet10 enclosure to accommodate the larger Accuton C90T6 midrange. That includes increasing the height and depth of the chamber by about 1". The overall cabinet depth was increased by an inch to increase the volume for the woofer a bit and to make up for the lost volume taken up by the larger midrange chamber.

Every little detail will be ironed out before we take measurements. I could have used my stock Duet10 for preliminary measurements, but given the changes I think it wise to wait until the cabinets are done in a few weeks. That will give us a couple weeks for crossover construction and listening/tweaking.

[Clearwave]

I've got all the dampening materials and remaining parts for the speakers today. We're using 1 1/4" Sonic Barrier on the back walls, and 3/4" on the sidewalls. The ports will be downfiring like the original design.

After the cabinets are constructed in a few weeks, I'll begin the measuring process.

[Zero the Hero]

sounds awesome Jed - looking forward to hearing results!

[Clearwave]

Hey Zero,

I'll definitely keep you all posted. All the wood for the speaker should be cut up by the end of this week...

[Scottie2]

any progress updates Jed?? Thx

[Clearwave]

any progress updates Jed?? Thx

Will be done in about 2.5 weeks. These cabinets are fairly time consuming to build because of the angles that deviate from easy 90 degree cuts.

Will get a build sequence of photos up soon- baffles should be glued up in the next few days.

Jed

[Scottie2]

awesome. keep it up! cant wait to see

[Clearwave]

Should be veneering these beasts in a couple days... hold tight! Measurements soon after. I decided to veneer the boxes and then take the measurements after that is done.

[Clearwave]

The cabinets are all veneered... and should be measuring in 2 days! Sorry for the lack of photos. I'm spending all my time building and testing loudspeakers. That said I have been taking some pics along the way and will upload some of them when done.

[Clearwave]

Cabinets in flat cut cherry. Will finish them in satin poly.

[Clearwave]

Still lots of finishing work to do.... but the drivers are loaded for testing.

[Clearwave]

Crossovers are assembled. Cabinets need another 3 coats of poly. Stay tuned we're almost there.

[Clearwave]

2009 Version:
C173 T6 90



Here's the Illuminator Air Circ tweeter distortion at around 85-90db:


Here's the Scan Speak 26W 8 ohm:

This is on par with the best I've ever seen. Also the Frequency response was very flat. Sorry no picture of that right now.




It has a very linear FR and VERY low harmonic distortion profile. Plenty of Xmax to boot. There's not much better out there than the 26W. By the way this is the aluminum cone version. The paper cone version looks interesting as well, but the FR doesn't look as nice as the 26W from the graphs I've seen. Might have to test that out for myself sometime.

Note that even though the cone materials are not the same, the sonic signature is close because of each driver's low harmonic distortion profile and linear response. I do not detect timbre mismatching, which I deduce is because of those qualities. Also, I doubt the Accuton tweeters can hit the transfer functions I used for this speaker without audible distortion.

I ended up using a 28mm chamfer which works well to minimize diffraction.




The 26W woofer will work well in a 60L box tuned below FS. The bass is lean and tight. It is fast and without a hint of boominess. Just clean sound. If the track is bass heavy, so will the sound get portrayed through this speaker. One of the trade-offs was getting the deepest bass response (selected the 10" for that reason), and it had to fit in a reasonable sized box. Dual 8" drivers would work well, but the impedance would likely be lower with the parallel connections and would be limited to a higher F3. This speaker will hit the high 20s in room.