The 3-Way Classic, revisit 1.

I have now listened to my 3WC for some time so I thought it might be worth a quick revisit. This is the schematics for the filters I ended up using.

And this is the predicted power and DI simulated in VituixCAD.

I already know that the speaker measure quite flat but it was based on a couple of quick indoor gated far-field measurements. I am really looking forward to do some proper outdoor measurements as soon as the weather is nice (which unfortunately may take some time when you live in Sweden).

What I have been dreading is room measurements since the speakers are still without stands, pushed close to the wall in our living room. It is not a room primarily for musical listening, it is our living room and an acoustical nightmare. It is 6 by 6 meters (20 by 20 feet) in the middle of an open floor-plan. Hardwood floor, drywall and a retractable glass wall. It also accommodate a 110" screen and a projector used for watching TV and movies. Now you understand why I dread measurements in these settings but what the heck, it is Christmas and I got time on my hands so why not grab the bull by the horns and get it over with (please ignore absolute dB values since I did not calibrate with an SPL meter)...

This is the raw and ugly unsmoothed truth measured from one of the listening positions. But what to expect from a room where look and feel is prioritized over acoustic treatments?

It looks far better with some Psychoacoustic Smothing in REW. It is actually not that far from the predicted response in VituixCAD.

I took another seven measurements from different listening positions in the room. This is what they look like with Psychoacoustic Smothing applied.

And this is what the average looks like.

It actually looks better than I expected. It also looks like I manged to get the -1 dB/oct I was aiming for. So does it sound good? I have to say yes but with a couple of reservations. The first one is the bass. I don't miss the sub-woofers. It is actually impressive how much bass these speakers produce from just a couple of 8 inch woofers. But it comes with the price of a ported design. It can become a bit overpowering at times (maybe because of the -1 dB/oct slope) and I personally prefer the sound from a sealed cabinet over a ported one. The other reservation is mid-range. It is not bad but it is not stellar either. I miss the lush mid-range of the W5-2143. That being said, they are versatile and they doesn't cost a fortune, hard to beat.

NOTE (text in red above): I had to reevaluate my listening impressions of the 3WC. Read more about it in the post In the Ear of the Beholder.

One last thing. My 3WC uses an active filter between the woofer and mid-range. No problem for some but its one extra component to cater for. I got a bunch of vintage gear and I love amp rolling from time to time. Having the active filter built into the power amp was therefor not such a good idea. I also got a P03A PCB that I would like to build a power amp around. It might replace the 4-channel Tripath used in my PwrFUNK.

I have been playing around with a fully passive version of my 3WC in VituixCAD while I was developing the semi-active version. It actually looks quite good with a plain second order LR @ 600 Hz. This is what it would look like in VituixCAD, schema, power and DI.

I would loose the 3 dB attenuation by the active filter but it can be replaced with a voltage divider. This is what the result would look like.

Quite comparable to the active version don't you think? A version that can be used as a starting point if anyone want to build a fully passive version of this speaker.