Speaker kit experiments - an archive of the Jäger Speaker development

[Doc B.]

Obviously pics didn't happen yesterday. Hope to get some done today.

[marantzfan]

I'm excited to see what you guys are cooking up.

[Audio Islander]

This is what I am picturing, "It's Alive!"

(https://chrisnegron.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/young-frankenstein.jpg)

[Doc B.]

Here is a pic of the proof of concept prototype. This is not the final box. We have not decided on a cabinet material yet. There are many details yet to work out. It's about 4 feet tall, about 9 inches wide and about 15 inches deep. My hope is that it will be something that can ship in a flat pack and be assembled using glue and internal cam locks rather than the external ones you see in the photo. This cabinet glued up nicely and seems nice and rigid, with a few horizontal planar braces stiffening the panels. I will be continuing to get some measurements today. We are using a crossover design that was worked out for a smaller test box and it needs some adjustments for this version.   

[Brent]

Awesome! I think these would be great in my living room. 

A couple of questions:

Will these work okay near a wall, or are they designed to be out in the room?

Also, am I correct in assuming driver protection (grills or the like) will be up to the individual builder?

I hope this project works out as a product, they are looking near perfect for my needs!

[Doc B.]

It's still very early in the design development so I don't have enough info to answer questions about how it's going to work in anyone's room. So far I am getting pretty consistent measurements moving the cabinet around in my listening room. How well that applies to your question I can't say, but it's what I know for now.

Part of the process in this is learning the room issues so we know what in the curves we measure is actual speaker response and what might be some quirk of the room. I hope to know a lot more by the meeting on the 15th.

[Rocketman248]

Lookin good!  This will go nicely with my new BeePre and Kaiju combo. 

[morris_fl]

as i sit here listening to my beloved Straight 8s, i think you're going to have
to do a pretty good job to better your previous WORK!

[Doc B.]

Well, thank you! So far I can say that the new speaker goes about half an octave deeper, and has better integration of the woofers and tweeter (we have learned a few things in 16 years...), and I suspect when I get two running I will be able to say it images better. I had a nice breakthrough on the tweeter on Friday, coming up with some horn damping changes that really had a positive impact. Then yesterday I removed a borrowed speaker cable I use on the tweeters of my reference setup, and replaced it with some simple cables made of CAT5 cable. Up to that point the bass had seemed a bit light (reminding me of why the borrowed cable was doing tweeter duty). The CAT5 seems to have done a nice job of bringing up the bass into better balance with the midrange. I think we will include enough CAT5 in the kit so that one can make a pair of cables along with wiring the drivers. Was hoping to show it off tomorrow, but it looks like we will be cancelling the meet due to the impending storm. POOP.

[morris_fl]

It's hard to believe that much time has gone by!

Looking forward to seeing (and hearing) what you come up with now.
Future listeners (and builders) can rest assured that what they build
will be with them for many years of wonderful sound

[corndog71]

Looks cool so far.  Is there a reason the drivers are mounted so low?  I would think bringing the tweeter up to the top would minimize baffle interaction.  Have you guys considered getting some outside help or is it just the challenge of doing it yourselves? 

[Doc B.]

Not sure why I am being asked to defend the design when no one has heard it, but OK, I'll bite. While I have friends I could call upon - Andrew Jones and Yair Tammam come to mind - I don't feel the need for outside help beyond that which we are getting from the cabinet makers. There are reasons the drivers are mounted where they are. The tweeter needs to be at ear level, not above it. And it also should sit near the woofers to aid imaging. The woofers need to be centered vertically in the box so they have identical size chambers without a lot of complex internal structure. We've done a few speaker designs over the years - some better than others. So this is not our first rodeo.

[corndog71]

Not sure why I am being asked to defend the design when no one has heard it, but OK, I'll bite. While I have friends I could call upon - Andrew Jones and Yair Tammam come to mind - I don't feel the need for outside help beyond that which we are getting from the cabinet makers. There are reasons the drivers are mounted where they are. The tweeter needs to be at ear level, not above it. And it also should sit near the woofers to aid imaging. The woofers need to be centered vertically in the box so they have identical size chambers without a lot of complex internal structure. We've done a few speaker designs over the years - some better than others. So this is not our first rodeo.

Sorry if I offended, Doc.  I was just curious.  I hang around a speaker forum and people question ideas constantly over there.  FWIW, their scale wasn't obvious.  They're apparently larger than they look.  I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[debk]

looking forward to these!

Debra

[Doc B.]

Would love to see a pair in your signature color!