Feanor
Member
- Thread Author
- #1
A couple of years ago I conceived the goal of building a pair of DIY speakers that would rival overall my Magneplanar MG 1.6QR's. Though there are panel speaker attributes that no "box" speaker will duplicate, I feel I have succeed quite well.
For about a decade I have enjoyed my Maggies but their shear size and space requirement were obtrusive in our smallish living room which is also my listening room. My wife has been very understanding but we both would have preferred small speakers that could be place closer to the wall behind.
I had designed speakers myself on a couple of previous occasions that prove satisfactory for their purpose, (home theater). However this time I decided to go with an expert's design and I settled on Zaph Audio's ZRT (Revelator Towers); see http://www.zaphaudio.com/ZRT.html. This designed called for high-quality drivers in suitably sized small tower format.
The final result looks like this ...
Before and after listening room pics look like these ..
The Maggies were placed about 3 feet from the wall, (not the ideal 5+ feet on account of space limitations); the ZRTs are about 2 feet from the wall.
I built my ZRT's in slightly smaller cabinet than that called for by the Zaph design. I settled on Parts Express' 33 liter knock-down tower cabinet since Madisound's 38 liter cabinet is no longer available, and adjusted the vent length accordingly using Bass Box Pro. The drivers and assembled crossovers I ordered from Madisound.
I've been listening for only about 20 hours so my conclusions are <i>tentative</i> as yet. ZRTs are a bit more detailed, transparent, and airy than the Maggies; likewise the ZRTS are as good or better for bass and dynamics. They don't quite have the Maggies expansive sound stage but that's is to be expected.
For about a decade I have enjoyed my Maggies but their shear size and space requirement were obtrusive in our smallish living room which is also my listening room. My wife has been very understanding but we both would have preferred small speakers that could be place closer to the wall behind.
I had designed speakers myself on a couple of previous occasions that prove satisfactory for their purpose, (home theater). However this time I decided to go with an expert's design and I settled on Zaph Audio's ZRT (Revelator Towers); see http://www.zaphaudio.com/ZRT.html. This designed called for high-quality drivers in suitably sized small tower format.
The final result looks like this ...
Before and after listening room pics look like these ..
The Maggies were placed about 3 feet from the wall, (not the ideal 5+ feet on account of space limitations); the ZRTs are about 2 feet from the wall.
I built my ZRT's in slightly smaller cabinet than that called for by the Zaph design. I settled on Parts Express' 33 liter knock-down tower cabinet since Madisound's 38 liter cabinet is no longer available, and adjusted the vent length accordingly using Bass Box Pro. The drivers and assembled crossovers I ordered from Madisound.
I've been listening for only about 20 hours so my conclusions are <i>tentative</i> as yet. ZRTs are a bit more detailed, transparent, and airy than the Maggies; likewise the ZRTS are as good or better for bass and dynamics. They don't quite have the Maggies expansive sound stage but that's is to be expected.
