Mark, for the 12 inch woofer section in this design, which driver did you use, what was the alignment and are you using plate amplifiers for each woofer section?
Hi Alex. The woofer is the BMS12N630. The plate amps are Hypex fusion FA251. The whole speaker design is by troels gravesen. It’s called the CNO4. If you Google it you will see all the details. The file for the plate amp was downloaded from his website. I did nothing but follow the plans.
2 Likes
Still really enjoying recent additions into the house.
Loving the ND5 XS2
Currently listening as follows …
Qobuz + Roon →
ND5 XS2 → DC1 →
nDAC → HiLine →
SN3 + HC DR → NAC A5 →
Epos ES14 c/w Epos stands
One quick positive thought about the ES14’s.
In our 35+ journey together, they have been used with so many bits of hifi. On every single occasion, they have been good for all the additions or upgrades and found more to give. Including now, with these latest additions. Finding more detail, nuance, etc. We are so attached to them and what they do.
Sunday morning vibes - Listening, drinking coffee and browsing magazines and reading this forum…
Currently listening to Trentemoller “Memoria”, track 4 : Glow.
Happy Sunday listening to everyone
R
p.s. Yes, I know, still need to sort the levels on the Kallax 
45 Likes
Hi Mark - many thanks for your answer. They look a very well built speaker pair - well done. I will have a look at his website.
1 Like
We’ve finally finished converting two rooms into one to create our new sun lounge. For a variety of reasons it has been a long project but we are very pleased with the results.
71 Likes
Lovely room and system Alex. Those open-baffle speakers look interesting. How do they sound?
1 Like
Many thanks for your kind words. We only finished putting everything in the room yesterday afternoon but have already spent a lot of time in there already.
Regarding the speakers, they are my own design and build - process of evolution with different materials to reduce resonance of the front panel. They have a very open mid range and, unsurprisingly, a clear ‘box-free’ bass. The treble could possibly benefit from a little more extension but, if I get around to it, I plan to add an upward or rear firing tweeter with its own level control using an L-pad.
The 8 inch full range driver is driven filterless by the Arcam amplifier and the two woofers per speaker are driven in stereo using the Genesis Four Channel car amplifier in bridged mode using its active filters and producing up to 300 WPC into 4 ohms x 2. I need to adjust the gains to suit this room but solid output is produced down to about 40hz.
5 Likes
Thanks Alex. The open-mid and box-free bass make sense to me. I would have expected the bass to be perhaps rather light and lacking in power but you seem to have it all well-sorted with your design. Congratualtions on a wonderful set-up.
1 Like
lovely room
1 Like
Your OB design looks similar to Spatial Audio Lab designs. Their upcoming Q series pairs a wideband driver with two 10" woofers (passive) while my X3s with active woofers produce beautifully integrated and extended bass.
1 Like
Indeed a lovely space, and a smart use of Ikeas… Looks serene and relaxing.
1 Like
Hi Ratrat, I see the Innuos on the shelf and would like to ask how you would compare the Nd5xs2 to the Innuos Zen Mini MK3? I recently own one and the improvement is impressive with the Dac V1.
Thank you!
What a lovely listening room.
2 Likes
I did look up designs from both Spatial US and Spatial Europe when deciding how to approach these speakers. I can imagine your Spatials sound very good indeed.
I will look up the new Q-series. Interestingly SB Acoustics have just launched a 10inch woofer that could have been a good alternative to the 8 inch SBs that I used as the bass drivers.
1 Like
Well spotted - there is quite a lot of IKEA being used in the room: well designed and works well visually, creating the look we were going for. The lounge chair is the notable exception: a Boss Design Kruze high-back.
1 Like
I did also build a single Bianco 15 inch OB unit which I may call upon if needed - it’s just a bit cumbersome! Bridging the amp seemed to make a big difference to the level of ‘punch’ on offer from the dual 8s.
The SB Acoustics 8 inch woofers have a relatively low FS and are fairly sensitive. Traditionally OB drivers should have a relatively high QTS however this seems less of an issue when the bass section is driven actively. For passive applications a high sensitivity/high QTS woofer helps counteract the natural -6db/octave dipole bass roll-off. Using these baffles I found the FR driver began to roll off circa 200 Hz which was handy as 200hz is the upper frequency cut off for the Genesis LPF…
2 Likes
Hello @I.M
That’s an interesting question, which hadn’t occurred to me. Not yet anyway. I guess I’ve been so busy enjoying the new ND5 XS2, it never occurred to me to spend time comparing…
The ND5 XS2 is being used as streamer. For the time being, mostly Qobuz (via Roon). It’s connected directly to the nDAC. On occasions, I’ve played the odd ripped CD too, streamed from the ZENmini to the ND5 XS2 over the home network.
Our ZENmini is now set up as a Roon core.
Also, I’ve been playing my CD collection, from the ZM SSD archive, directly to the nDAC. Originally, we bought the ZM to compliment Olive boxes 72-HC-140. Which is how the ZM will be used in the longer term.
Eventually the ND5 XS2 will live in another room and a different system (see bio ). The big idea is to allow streaming, in another room. For access to our CD collection, (on the ZM SSD), as well as Qobuz.
At the moment, both the ND5 XS2 and ZENmini are connected directly to our nDAC with separate DC1 cables. Both items are providing digital out - as transport only - into the nDAC.
When I get a moment, I’ll try a comparison.
KR
R
1 Like
Thank you very much Ratrat for your comprehensive answer. I would be happy to share your opinion if you do a comparison.
Cheers!
They look great. There are also some OB designs on that website I mentioned. I considered building one once but they are huge!
1 Like
An unnecessary and crappy comment, if you don’t have anything positive to say, scroll on!
10 Likes