10 Inch 3 Way High Power Speaker Kit

This is a slick little kit, great for one of those winter projects. It is the basic components needed to fit a 10 inch 3 way speaker system. Kitted from name brand components it makes for a nice sounding system, heck make a nice set of cabinets and complete a pair of speakers. 

Your wife will love it, since it will keep you out of her hair for a while. You can even bust a button when your buddy asked where you got them. You just smile and said, "I built them..." Watch your buddy's mouth drop open, "You did what?" He asks... "I built them, sound good don't they..." I can see it now, can't you?

The basics on the kit, as said I've put this kit together using name brand components and matching them with a nifty little Cerwin Vega Crossover. 
All known, I would be comfortable powering this speaker with any good quality home receiver up to 200 watts of power. That is RMS, not peak. 
Likewise if you opt to use this kit in your car, as long as the Amp has low distortion then we're good to the 200 watt mark. 

Quick break down on Amp requirements, if THD is 0.1% then I'd keep the power down to 125 watts RMS, if your THD is 0.05% or better, then blast away with 200 watts easy. 

Detail on what is in the kit, remember you get two of each of the items listed below...

• 10 inch Good Quality Woofer
• 5 inch ESS Labs Closed Back Mid range speaker
• 1 inch Samsung high output tweeter
• Adjustable Cerwin Vega 3 Way Crossover 

This is a nice little setup perfect for home or as a component system in your car...


G e n e r a l 
S p e c sSony Woofer

• 10"  good quality single voice coil 8 ohm woofer
• Revc = 6.62 ohms
• Fs = 30.7895 Hz.
• Zmax = 154.2536 ohms
• Qes = 0.3011
• Qms = 9.7537
• Qts = 0.2921
• Le = 1.3388 mH (at 1 kHz)
• Vas = 48 L
• SPL = 92 db at 1 watt at 1 meter
• 2 inch voice coil
• 32 oz. magnet
• Good wattage rating of 200 watts,  This is Clean Power in a cabinet
• This is spec'ed for a Home system since the THD is much lower. In a car system your power handling will be the same or less dependent on the THD of the amp at rated power. Truth is Car Amp makers lie about specs.  You see a 4 x 400 watts ( 1600 watts total ) amp.  You check the specs, and find that it is more like 80 watts per channel with .01% thd, and that the rating is based on peak power, which may have a thd of 10%.  This will KILL YOUR SPEAKERS. So be aware and and Amp smart.
  
   

ESS Labs 5" Closed Back Mid Range Driver

• This is a super mid range speaker, it is a paper cone with cloth roll
• Closed back
• 8 ohm
• 60 watts
• 3/4" voice coil
• 12 oz. magnet
• Protective grill

Samsung 1" High Output Dome tweeter

• 1" or 25mm voice coil
• 8 ohms
• SPL 95dB at 1 watt at 1 meter
• Response 2.5K to 20KHz.
• Magnet type standard Ferrite
• Square Black Plastice Face
• 20 watts free air power rating 
   

B a s i c 
B u i l d 
I n f o r m a t i o n
As a quick and dirty test, I threw together a cabinet made of partical board. (I use 12" shelving since it's cheap and easy to work with) The cabinet size is in the range of 12"w X 11"d X 26.5"h which resulted in a volume of 1.59 cf. (at 48 L the correct volume is 1.695 cf )
This should give you an idea of the basic size cabinet needed for the project. I mounted the speakers and used a ported design, the port was a simple 2" tube 3.9" long.

I test the speakers using a variety of music, rock, classical, pop and opt for music with a great deal of dynamic range. The speakers were tested using a 120 watt Kenwood A/V receiver.

My taste tends to be middle of the road, I'm not one for a lot of booming bass, but like to know it's there when it's needed. I like the highs to be warm and rich, so I match components for that taste.

As for the test instrument, I use a very complicated human ear, mine. So the quality of reproduction reported is subjective to my ear and taste, but again middle of the road...

The speakers did a good job, the bass was clear and not muddy, crisp and tight, and was at home producing a classical bass note as well as pounding out a rock drum solo. Don't get me wrong, they aren't as heavy on the bass as a 12" or 15" woofer, but the attack and recovery was much better and you know the bass is there.
The mid and highs transitioned smoothly, I find I repeat myself in this write ups because again I test with the same type and style of music. I find a good test is guitar for mids and highs, I like to hear when each string is plucked, if they run together then the speaker isn't doing it's job. The reproduction was good, again tight and crisp. When I listened to a brass section it was warm and not harsh, again to my taste. 
Now one good thing about this kit is that the crossover is adjustable somewhat, so you can tune the speaker a little bit to help match your ear.
So over all I was happy with the performance and sound of the speakers, build a nice set of cabinets to hold them and you can't go wrong. The key is to keep the volume to 1.5 to about 1.9 cf and the system will do a good job.

What you will need to do this project are some basic wood working skills, and use of hand tools. The components supplied are everything needed to fill the cabinets with the exception of some speaker wire, and terminal cup for the rear of the cabinet. Oh, the port tube and acoustic batting...

 

   

          

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E N L A R G E