ARKE VADERS - Troels Gravesen CNO-4
Sept 22, 2022 17:46:43 GMT
antonio, gninnam, and 1 more like this
Post by Arke on Sept 22, 2022 17:46:43 GMT
Enter the ARKE VADERS!
Many of you will know that my beloved Ekta (mkIIs) are heading to a new home soon. Oli is interested in them, and pending a home demo may well be giving them a new home! We were both astounded at the sound of the Ektas in my room with Oli’s system (mostly). For both us it was frankly breathtaking! OK, maybe we’re biased, but neither of us have heard something that special before. Total system price… Probably £10k. It certainly sounded many, many times better than that. If they don’t work for Oli I will continue the search for the new owner.
I believe that the Troels Gravesen designs are exceptional and incredible VFM. I love my Ektas and will be sad to see them go. Whilst incredible speakers, I feel the Ektas may struggle in my new music room. We plan to renovate our house next year and the new music room will be a lot larger than my current room - about 3 times the volume and ceilings at 5m to the ridge. The room will take some driving and whilst the Ekta’s are great, I feel they may be pushed pretty hard in there.
To be honest I'm a bit scared and apprehensive - I want to better the Ektas in every way and don’t want to feel like the new speaker is lacking in any area. Oli has heard the Ektas and knows this will be a challenge. The Scanspeak Illuminator drivers are seriously good, so will take some beating. I have spend many hours, no days, no weeks perusing the Troels website - there is too much choice.
After speaking to Troels (via email) I eventually settled on the following criteria (in no particular order):
- Minimum 3 way speakers
- Active Bass below 100-200Hz - I want to fine tune the bass response and iron out room issues.
- Very highly renowned drivers
- 12” bass driver - I want some serious bass and a real visceral feel to music. I personally haven’t experienced this with 8” drivers and below - happy to be proved wrong one day!
- 90db+ sensitivity
- Bass response down to at least 30Hz at -3db.
After some time and lots of toing and froing I decided on these:
www.troelsgravesen.dk/CNO-4.htm
The highlights:
A 12" BMS Pro bass driver for below 80Hz - although that could be tweaked slightly. 500W Hypex per channel
8" SEAS Excel driver
6" SEAS Excel driver - An exceptional driver that's recently been re-engineered
The highly renowned SEAS Crescendo tweeter.
Quite a line up of drivers and an exceptionally elegant looking xover from Troels. Low order filters and no high pass on the 6" or 8", so a serious membrane area dealing with bass and midrange. I'm pretty sure these will be something else and can't wait to get them built!
Anyway, the elephant in the room…! IMHO the cabinets aren’t pretty! Some people love them, but I and my lovely wife are not fans. The first task is to design a cabinet with a more elegant look. At least more elegant in the eyes of my wife and I.
It’s not as easy as starting again - the cabinet redesign must satisfy certain constraints:
The driver locations must remain consistent;
The front baffle shape and size around the drivers must remain consistent; and
The internal cabinet volumes must remain consistent.
This must be respected or the crossover will not work as originally intended.
I have spent some time working on concept designs - the following shows the evolution of the new cabinets (still a work in progress):
These are simplified, but show the original truncated pyramid and my new shape idea:
Size comparison with the Ekta mkIIs:
The base of the speaker has been slimmed as much as possible - the BMS driver is 318mm DIA so that needs to fit. The designed has evolved further with some slimming chamfers and facets:
Some more exploration of the veneer options:
I and, very importantly, my wife are pleased with how the design is developing. Troels has also agreed that the new design will continue to work well with the intended crossover. Finally some images of the latest concept designs with the Ektas and the original truncated pyramid shape:
There is a lot more refinement to come and then it's on to the detailed constructional design. I plan to have the bass (12" driver and Hypex) in a separate enclosure with the tweeter, 6" and 8" drivers in a detachable enclosure on the top. It will assemble as one speaker, but having two parts will make this speaker much more transportable and practical. I reckon it'll weigh 60-80kg per side.
Stay tuned for the development of the design...
Many of you will know that my beloved Ekta (mkIIs) are heading to a new home soon. Oli is interested in them, and pending a home demo may well be giving them a new home! We were both astounded at the sound of the Ektas in my room with Oli’s system (mostly). For both us it was frankly breathtaking! OK, maybe we’re biased, but neither of us have heard something that special before. Total system price… Probably £10k. It certainly sounded many, many times better than that. If they don’t work for Oli I will continue the search for the new owner.
I believe that the Troels Gravesen designs are exceptional and incredible VFM. I love my Ektas and will be sad to see them go. Whilst incredible speakers, I feel the Ektas may struggle in my new music room. We plan to renovate our house next year and the new music room will be a lot larger than my current room - about 3 times the volume and ceilings at 5m to the ridge. The room will take some driving and whilst the Ekta’s are great, I feel they may be pushed pretty hard in there.
To be honest I'm a bit scared and apprehensive - I want to better the Ektas in every way and don’t want to feel like the new speaker is lacking in any area. Oli has heard the Ektas and knows this will be a challenge. The Scanspeak Illuminator drivers are seriously good, so will take some beating. I have spend many hours, no days, no weeks perusing the Troels website - there is too much choice.
After speaking to Troels (via email) I eventually settled on the following criteria (in no particular order):
- Minimum 3 way speakers
- Active Bass below 100-200Hz - I want to fine tune the bass response and iron out room issues.
- Very highly renowned drivers
- 12” bass driver - I want some serious bass and a real visceral feel to music. I personally haven’t experienced this with 8” drivers and below - happy to be proved wrong one day!
- 90db+ sensitivity
- Bass response down to at least 30Hz at -3db.
After some time and lots of toing and froing I decided on these:
www.troelsgravesen.dk/CNO-4.htm
The highlights:
A 12" BMS Pro bass driver for below 80Hz - although that could be tweaked slightly. 500W Hypex per channel
8" SEAS Excel driver
6" SEAS Excel driver - An exceptional driver that's recently been re-engineered
The highly renowned SEAS Crescendo tweeter.
Quite a line up of drivers and an exceptionally elegant looking xover from Troels. Low order filters and no high pass on the 6" or 8", so a serious membrane area dealing with bass and midrange. I'm pretty sure these will be something else and can't wait to get them built!
Anyway, the elephant in the room…! IMHO the cabinets aren’t pretty! Some people love them, but I and my lovely wife are not fans. The first task is to design a cabinet with a more elegant look. At least more elegant in the eyes of my wife and I.
It’s not as easy as starting again - the cabinet redesign must satisfy certain constraints:
The driver locations must remain consistent;
The front baffle shape and size around the drivers must remain consistent; and
The internal cabinet volumes must remain consistent.
This must be respected or the crossover will not work as originally intended.
I have spent some time working on concept designs - the following shows the evolution of the new cabinets (still a work in progress):
These are simplified, but show the original truncated pyramid and my new shape idea:
Size comparison with the Ekta mkIIs:
The base of the speaker has been slimmed as much as possible - the BMS driver is 318mm DIA so that needs to fit. The designed has evolved further with some slimming chamfers and facets:
Some more exploration of the veneer options:
I and, very importantly, my wife are pleased with how the design is developing. Troels has also agreed that the new design will continue to work well with the intended crossover. Finally some images of the latest concept designs with the Ektas and the original truncated pyramid shape:
There is a lot more refinement to come and then it's on to the detailed constructional design. I plan to have the bass (12" driver and Hypex) in a separate enclosure with the tweeter, 6" and 8" drivers in a detachable enclosure on the top. It will assemble as one speaker, but having two parts will make this speaker much more transportable and practical. I reckon it'll weigh 60-80kg per side.
Stay tuned for the development of the design...
