Family11
Loudspeaker kit Family11 (without cabinet)
The pitying look at the thin box that makes the little "bass" look quite lost, the fragility in need of protection that mutates the man into a mother hen, the appealingly low price are rather facts that explain the great success of this box. To iron out a few of the known weaknesses of such a construction, we wrote on the flags, when we began work on the Family 11.The kit contains a special PCB for safe and easy assembly, terminals, internal wiring, screws, original Sonofil, selected Audyn capacitors and coils, construction plan. Loudspeaker kit Family 11 with Gradient speakers without cabinet.
Loudspeaker self-assembly kit Family 11 with Gradient loudspeakers without cabinet.
Even the small Needle, our small transmission line equipped with a full-range speaker, is successful, although the membrane surface is actually too small for proper bass reproduction, although the excursion in the mid-high range is far too high for clean reproduction and although the treble range is far too focused.
So where does the success come from? Quite simply: She also does some things right. She's definitely fun to listen to. Even if it is technically clearly inferior to any two-way box. And if we derive a two-way concept from the Needle?
This should make it possible to get a little more clean level out of a floor-standing speaker with a minimal footprint. And at the same time to improve the omnidirectional behavior. The Family 11 faces this challenge almost intrepidly - because: It is not much bigger.
It was then combined with the W 115-4, which is celebrating its debut in these building instructions. The corresponding 8-Ohm is probably the worse choice in a low-efficiency transmission line, especially since the frequency response of both versions is almost identical - as is the other technical data.
After we have selected the chassis for the project, we start calculating and designing the housing, since we specified a slim construction. A TQWT (Tapered Quarter Wave Tube, i.e. a quarter-wavelength delay line loudspeaker) would have been possible, it would even have had a shape comparable to the Needle.
But we wanted to make the box even slimmer. In addition, we had not yet analyzed the acoustic chamber reflex principle further, corresponding measurements were still pending. So we devised a thin column with internal dimensions of 96 x 10 x 10 cm, which according to LspCAD as a reflex box tuned to 67 Hz should take the following course in half space:
The measurements were taken on our measuring station with a distance of about 1.5 m between the woofer and the floor.
The two measurements were made with different inner workings: one with half an original Sonofil mat (blue measurement curve), neatly folded into the box, and the other with three boards that left a passage of 80% of the membrane area between the chambers (red measurement curve). At first glance, the differences do not look very dramatic, but the impedance measurement shows at the latest that the acoustic chamber reflex cabinet results in a design that works similar to a transmission line. Further measurements indicated that the passage area and the size of the individual chambers have no decisive influence on the sound, but are only used for fine tuning, as we are used to from the length of the reflex channel of a bass reflex box.
That's why we only took a few photos of the fairly simple case assembly.
After the housing was built, the technology was installed: insulating material, loudspeaker chassis, bass reflex tube - wait a minute, is something missing? Yes, that's right: the crossover had to be developed by us first, if you copy the finished construction plan, it's much easier and you can fall back on a ready-made crossover.
So during development, we made sure that the cables to the chassis were accessible from the outside and set about dimensioning the crossover components. In doing so, we orientated ourselves on a previous project in which two W 115-8 were used, which, however, ultimately resulted in four ohms when connected in parallel. So we started trying to adapt only the voltage divider of the tweeter to the new situation - and listen, this kind of crossover development worked in this case - we liked the end result.
Another question almost inevitably arose: how does the Family 11 and the Family Center interact in the home cinema? With the same turnout structure, this is obvious. A combination with the Family 12 is also possible. Well, you can't use it to fill large home cinemas in the basement, but this combination is definitely an alternative in smaller rooms. The Family 14 and Family 18 are recommended for larger rooms.
We finally mounted the crossover with screws on the back wall behind the tweeter and pulled the cable through the maze down to the connection terminal with a cord weighted with a screw. Before the final assembly of the loudspeaker chassis, the insulating material was placed appropriately and the bass reflex tube, shortened to 8.5 cm, was glued in. Then finally the chassis could be soldered and assembled.
So we started the listening session with "Eleanor Rugby" by Musica Nuda on CD. The bowed bass provided a tremendous foundation, the singer stood in the room with an incredible amount of air. However, this performance came from a pair of Symphony 84s in the listening room - we had to hook up the High Jack pair first. So we prepared ourselves for a terrible experience when reconnecting - usually much smaller and cheaper boxes are hardly bearable in direct comparison to larger ones. But instead of disappointed insults, the Family 11 earned appreciative amazement from the audience. The sound surprised even with complex recordings like "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from the Apocalyptica cellos with resolution and stage, without drifting into an orgy of noise.
The comparatively called-in Needle didn't even do their job significantly worse, and yet the Family 11 are a completely different house number in terms of the coarse and fine dynamics and the depth of the stage. The Needle is still one of the best that can be coaxed out of a tiny full-range driver, and yet a larger speaker naturally has the advantage. In addition, the listening area of the Needle was limited to the middle of the sofa as a kind of sweet spot, while the High Jack acoustically illuminates the entire sofa. With the Family 11, we eliminated the Needle's design-related chess points, which we succeeded in doing, as was later proven by further sound tests. No wonder, because with the same housing width, the High Jack has a significantly larger membrane area than the Needle and the additional tweeter ensures not only better omnidirectional behavior but also faster resolution.
Since the visitors actually wanted to hear larger speakers, we switched a little before we finally went back to the Family 11, which gave us a spontaneous purchase of the inexpensive kit. The simple housing without complicated angle cuts can be completely cut to size in the hardware store and can also be easily assembled by beginners. Even in small rooms, it does not disturb the furnishings thanks to the possibility of being installed close to the wall. So the High Jack is a kind of "gateway drug" in speaker self-construction: You can already listen to music with it very, very well.
So where does the success come from? Quite simply: She also does some things right. She's definitely fun to listen to. Even if it is technically clearly inferior to any two-way box. And if we derive a two-way concept from the Needle?
Voilà: Here is the Family 11.
This should make it possible to get a little more clean level out of a floor-standing speaker with a minimal footprint. And at the same time to improve the omnidirectional behavior. The Family 11 faces this challenge almost intrepidly - because: It is not much bigger.
Speaker Chassis
As is usual with the projects in the Family series, we have once again resorted to the Gradient Select series with its unique price-performance ratio. So the tweeter was already determined, because there is only one in this series.It was then combined with the W 115-4, which is celebrating its debut in these building instructions. The corresponding 8-Ohm is probably the worse choice in a low-efficiency transmission line, especially since the frequency response of both versions is almost identical - as is the other technical data.
After we have selected the chassis for the project, we start calculating and designing the housing, since we specified a slim construction. A TQWT (Tapered Quarter Wave Tube, i.e. a quarter-wavelength delay line loudspeaker) would have been possible, it would even have had a shape comparable to the Needle.
But we wanted to make the box even slimmer. In addition, we had not yet analyzed the acoustic chamber reflex principle further, corresponding measurements were still pending. So we devised a thin column with internal dimensions of 96 x 10 x 10 cm, which according to LspCAD as a reflex box tuned to 67 Hz should take the following course in half space:
The measurements were taken on our measuring station with a distance of about 1.5 m between the woofer and the floor.
The two measurements were made with different inner workings: one with half an original Sonofil mat (blue measurement curve), neatly folded into the box, and the other with three boards that left a passage of 80% of the membrane area between the chambers (red measurement curve). At first glance, the differences do not look very dramatic, but the impedance measurement shows at the latest that the acoustic chamber reflex cabinet results in a design that works similar to a transmission line. Further measurements indicated that the passage area and the size of the individual chambers have no decisive influence on the sound, but are only used for fine tuning, as we are used to from the length of the reflex channel of a bass reflex box.
Casing
Since the computer simulation for the W 115-4 called for a chamber with 3 liters, we chose this size for the first chamber. We reduced the other chambers a little. Incidentally, the dividing boards to the other chambers serve to stiffen the housing.That's why we only took a few photos of the fairly simple case assembly.
After the housing was built, the technology was installed: insulating material, loudspeaker chassis, bass reflex tube - wait a minute, is something missing? Yes, that's right: the crossover had to be developed by us first, if you copy the finished construction plan, it's much easier and you can fall back on a ready-made crossover.
So during development, we made sure that the cables to the chassis were accessible from the outside and set about dimensioning the crossover components. In doing so, we orientated ourselves on a previous project in which two W 115-8 were used, which, however, ultimately resulted in four ohms when connected in parallel. So we started trying to adapt only the voltage divider of the tweeter to the new situation - and listen, this kind of crossover development worked in this case - we liked the end result.
Another question almost inevitably arose: how does the Family 11 and the Family Center interact in the home cinema? With the same turnout structure, this is obvious. A combination with the Family 12 is also possible. Well, you can't use it to fill large home cinemas in the basement, but this combination is definitely an alternative in smaller rooms. The Family 14 and Family 18 are recommended for larger rooms.
We finally mounted the crossover with screws on the back wall behind the tweeter and pulled the cable through the maze down to the connection terminal with a cord weighted with a screw. Before the final assembly of the loudspeaker chassis, the insulating material was placed appropriately and the bass reflex tube, shortened to 8.5 cm, was glued in. Then finally the chassis could be soldered and assembled.
Hearing Test
Then came the most exciting moment when building the loudspeakers (do-it-yourself): moving into the listening room with an explicit invitation to the sound test, because measuring devices have microphones but no ears. This time we used a veteran "Luxman L 215" stereo amplifier for the listening session for the test, which does its job quite well compared to many a new home cinema receiver. In line with the sound test, we received a customer visit who was of course excited about the newcomers when we let it be known that they had just moved from the test laboratory.So we started the listening session with "Eleanor Rugby" by Musica Nuda on CD. The bowed bass provided a tremendous foundation, the singer stood in the room with an incredible amount of air. However, this performance came from a pair of Symphony 84s in the listening room - we had to hook up the High Jack pair first. So we prepared ourselves for a terrible experience when reconnecting - usually much smaller and cheaper boxes are hardly bearable in direct comparison to larger ones. But instead of disappointed insults, the Family 11 earned appreciative amazement from the audience. The sound surprised even with complex recordings like "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from the Apocalyptica cellos with resolution and stage, without drifting into an orgy of noise.
The comparatively called-in Needle didn't even do their job significantly worse, and yet the Family 11 are a completely different house number in terms of the coarse and fine dynamics and the depth of the stage. The Needle is still one of the best that can be coaxed out of a tiny full-range driver, and yet a larger speaker naturally has the advantage. In addition, the listening area of the Needle was limited to the middle of the sofa as a kind of sweet spot, while the High Jack acoustically illuminates the entire sofa. With the Family 11, we eliminated the Needle's design-related chess points, which we succeeded in doing, as was later proven by further sound tests. No wonder, because with the same housing width, the High Jack has a significantly larger membrane area than the Needle and the additional tweeter ensures not only better omnidirectional behavior but also faster resolution.
Since the visitors actually wanted to hear larger speakers, we switched a little before we finally went back to the Family 11, which gave us a spontaneous purchase of the inexpensive kit. The simple housing without complicated angle cuts can be completely cut to size in the hardware store and can also be easily assembled by beginners. Even in small rooms, it does not disturb the furnishings thanks to the possibility of being installed close to the wall. So the High Jack is a kind of "gateway drug" in speaker self-construction: You can already listen to music with it very, very well.