BillFitzmaurice.info

Hi!
I just finished the woodworking with OmniTop 15. Tried them out with a small radio in the garage. I though to myself; this isn't very loud yet, is it? (low volume, thinking about the neighbours) a call interrupted my music and my younger brother asked me if i played music or if it was his neighbour. My younger brother lives 400 meters from me. With forest in between... Cant wait to put some watts into them!

Now to my question, i go to sleep searching for inductors, i wake up looking for piezos and this is the only place i'm not ashamed thinking about the sketchup model having s*x. (a good tip for the days you want to last longer). Jokes aside: - I want to build more.

Can the Otop15 be stacked with Otop12?
Can the 15 be arrayed?
Omnitop12 in the bottom with melded array and OmniTop 15 on top with CD-Horns? The reverse?
Pros and cons?

Thanks

No.
Yes.
No.
Never mix different speakers.

So that seems to make the first choice of tops quite a bit more important that it seems. Once you start down a path...you've got incentive to stay on it.

Fastskiguy wrote: ↑Sat Jun 03, 2023 12:02 pm So that seems to make the first choice of tops quite a bit more important that it seems. Once you start down a path...you've got incentive to stay on it.

Or, if he built just one and he's planning to use subs..... Bite the bullet and start over with OT12s. Smaller, lighter and if crossing over above 100hz, works just as well as the OT15.

Bruce Weldy wrote: ↑Sat Jun 03, 2023 12:08 pm

Fastskiguy wrote: ↑Sat Jun 03, 2023 12:02 pm So that seems to make the first choice of tops quite a bit more important that it seems. Once you start down a path...you've got incentive to stay on it.

Or, if he built just one and he's planning to use subs..... Bite the bullet and start over with OT12s. Smaller, lighter and if crossing over above 100hz, works just as well as the OT15.

Intended to build ot12 first, some delta 15" drivers came out second hand and cheap so i ordered the ot15 plans aswell. After all they suite me best now since i can move them around and leave the subs when not needed. Buuuuut the idea of ot12 remains, therefor the question best would maybe be the j-array ot12, and build a couple every year starting on my second titan48 now aswell

But drivers here now are a joke, doubled in price and The piezo tweeters are about 15$ each. Buuuuut i found some similar ones for 3,90$ but with a deeper horn. Will find the right place to ask for that.

Bruce, (and other if u want) whats your opinion on crossover and tweeter choice, 2 ot15 used both outdoors and Indoors and mostly with a clooose distance to the audience. Does the dispersion beat the sound that some say is better in the cd with lower crossover point?

Camillo wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2023 10:01 am
Bruce, (and other if u want) whats your opinion on crossover and tweeter choice, 2 ot15 used both outdoors and Indoors and mostly with a clooose distance to the audience. Does the dispersion beat the sound that some say is better in the cd with lower crossover point?

The closeness of the audience isn't an issue unless they are close, but off to the side. I always recommend the CD option with the 1.2khz crossover. Why? Because I have that option in two cabs and I have melded arrays in two other cabs. The arrays do have a wider dispersion, but the CDs just sound so much better to me.

With the cost of piezos at $15 - it would actully be cheaper to build the CD option....(unless the drivers are stupid expensive).

With the trade off being wider dispersion vs. better sound - I'll go with the better sound. Of course, I'm rarely in venues where I can't position the speakers to cover the room and that the wider dispersion would make that much of a difference. If you are constantly in small areas where people are close to the stage but outside of the speakers, then the melded may be the right tool. But, I believe that the audience will typically seat themselves where they want to be based on the volume of the sound. So, if I can give better sound to the 90% with the CDs, I'll trade off the wider dispersion of the array. And the array is 120 degrees vs. 90-100 degrees of the CD, so the difference is there, but not huge.

Full disclosure, I always run all 4 tops. The arrays on the bottom and the horns on top. Do I get a little better dispersion for the audience on the side? I'm sure I do. But, when I run a check after setting up by making sure each speaker is funcioniong, there's no question that the CDs sound richer.

The issue is not CD vs. Array - it's lower crossover point vs. higher crossover point. If I was considering the higher crossover with a CD, I don't think there would be a ton of difference between that and the array with both crossed at 2k.

And since I'm writing a book here - I'll state that the difference between 2 OTops and 4 is HUGE! The coupling of the cabs makes everything warmer in the vocals - it just flat sounds better. So, even if the venue could easily be handled by 2 cabs, I set up all 4 - just because it sounds better. Once we were playing in a really small spot where two was plenty, so I used a mono stack - putting the two OTs on top the sub (It was up against the wall). I got the coverage I needed, but still got the warmth of having them coupled.

On a side note, that night was with the band where we did a whole lot of Allman Brothers songs. A guy came up to me at the break and said, "Man, you sound just like Joe Allman!" Since the Allman brothers were named Gregg and Duane - I don't know if he was talking about their third cousin or if he was just clueness.....and considering the location of this venue and the collective IQ of their clientele, I'd go with the latter.

Bruce Weldy wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2023 11:53 am

Camillo wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2023 10:01 am

The closeness of the audience isn't an issue unless they are close, but off to the side. I always recommend the CD option with the 1.2khz crossover. Why? Because I have that option in two cabs and I have melded arrays in two other cabs. The arrays do have a wider dispersion, but the CDs just sound so much better to me.... "

Hahaha!

Thank you! Are your OT12 the j-array version or the ordinary ones?
I see. Have you tried/heard the 2k crossover aswell?
This settles it i think, Even if i looked forward to gluing my fingers together with the melded arrays. Perhaps later then.. Haha

Camillo wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2023 3:08 pm

Bruce Weldy wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2023 11:53 am

Camillo wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2023 10:01 am

The closeness of the audience isn't an issue unless they are close, but off to the side. I always recommend the CD option with the 1.2khz crossover. Why? Because I have that option in two cabs and I have melded arrays in two other cabs. The arrays do have a wider dispersion, but the CDs just sound so much better to me.... "

Hahaha!

Thank you! Are your OT12 the j-array version or the ordinary ones?
I see. Have you tried/heard the 2k crossover aswell?
This settles it i think, Even if i looked forward to gluing my fingers together with the melded arrays. Perhaps later then.. Haha

I have the regular OT12s. Running only two per side doesn't necessitate the J-Array. Plus, the regular ones stack way easier.

I have the 2k crossover in the melded array cabs. I haven't heard the 2k CD option. Only the 1.2k. Again, it's not so much what device delivers the highs, it's how low that device can go. That's where it gets warmer.

Bruce Weldy wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:29 pm

Camillo wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2023 3:08 pm

Bruce Weldy wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2023 11:53 am

Hahaha!

Thank you! Are your OT12 the j-array version or the ordinary ones?
I see. Have you tried/heard the 2k crossover aswell?
This settles it i think, Even if i looked forward to gluing my fingers together with the melded arrays. Perhaps later then.. Haha

I have the regular OT12s. Running only two per side doesn't necessitate the J-Array. Plus, the regular ones stack way easier.

I have the 2k crossover in the melded array cabs. I haven't heard the 2k CD option. Only the 1.2k. Again, it's not so much what device delivers the highs, it's how low that device can go. That's where it gets warmer.

Ah, i see! When i looked for alternative piezos, it was quite different responses.. Some 3 khz - 15k some 1.8k-20k. The gt-1016 is somewhere around 3.5k-27k? Do you think there would be a difference using piezos that state lower response
i'll focus on the cd-horn instead now i think

Camillo wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2023 10:01 am The piezo tweeters are about 15$ each.

https://www.speakerhardware.com/goldwood-piezo-1016.php