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• Some additional notes on EconoWave speakers.
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  Some additional notes on EconoWave speakers.
  Hi, all. I'm the author of the article. I'm dropping in to add some more detail and context to the project.
  This project originated from a group development thread on AudioKarma.ORG's Speakers forum. That discussion thread is still active at over 8000 posts and 420,000 views. It's an outstanding resource for learning about all aspects of speaker design and building. I doubt there's an issue with speakers that hasn't come up in the last 18 months of vigorous discussion, but if there is something you don't see covered, ask and there will shortly be an answer.
  The project in the magazine is a conversion of a pair of Large Advent speakers but don't think that's the only way to go. More than 100 pairs of Ewave speakers have been built and documented, and no two are the same. You can convert an existing pair of vintage speakers, build new cabinets and DIY the whole thing, use existing cabinets and all new drivers or however you want to roll. It's up to you and many variations yield outstanding results. The driver/waveguide/crossover system is very flexible and adapts well to a wide variety of cabinets and woofers.
  There is some soldering described in the article, but you can actually build these without soldering at all. The source for the bare circuit boards can also provide the drivers, waveguides, Lpads and crossover boards with all of the parts already assembled so you can build the speakers without soldering anything. Woofers can be connected with push-on connectors or wire nuts. It's pretty hard to mess this up with all of the soldering done for you.
  How do they sound? Pretty outstanding. There are a lot of Econowave speakers in audio hobbyists' hands and they've been turning up for auditioning at audio shows and meets for over a year. They've been surprising listeners with the quality of music reproduction. The system is based on pro audio technology that's very well developed and sorted out. More than a few well regarded high end speakers have been humbled by someone's garage-built DIY EconoWaves. In terms of price/performance it's difficult to beat.

  Posted by BAUHAUSLER on November 08, 2009 at 20:19:58 Pacific Time

• Some advice on choosing woofers for EconoWave
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  If you look through the Official Ewavers list (now over 70) on the first page you'll see that several people have had success with the Classic Series Dayton woofers from Parts Express. That's a low-cost option.
  Other than that it's pretty much up to you to decide on the following parameters:
  1)How much you want to spend.
  2)What size cabinet.
  3)How low you want the bass to go.
  and then search Parts Express, Madisound, etc. for candidates that will play cleanly up to the 1600 hz crossover region.
  
  What a number of us have done is to buy the parts for the conversion, build the crossovers and experiment by substituting this tweeter section into/on top of existing speakers. Once you've heard it a bit you may have a better idea of what kind of 'permanent' speaker you would make.
  
  I've done 2 pairs with Advent woofers. Yes, they're old and they're low-tech but they're cheap, readily available, easy to implement, play low bass in a reasonably sized box and sound very decent.
  
  There are a few limiting factors to consider in choosing a woofer:
  1) the above mentioned 1600 hz crossover point. Woofers designed as subs probably won't play that high
  2) the Waveguide is 12" wide, which establishes a minimum baffle size.
  3) woofers as large as 15" have issues with the center-to center spacing of the drivers, which should be kept a small as possible if you want a simple build.
  
  Things that are not serious issues:
  1) woofer sensitivity. Within a broad range this can be compensated for in the crossover with established parts sets.
  2) price/performance. Many very fine sounding systems have been built with modestly priced parts so you're not necessarily leaving a lot on the table if you don't spend hundreds on fancy drivers.
  

  Posted by BAUHAUSLER on November 08, 2009 at 20:29:59 Pacific Time

• Standoffs for mounting crossovers
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  The instructions for mounting the crossovers call for tubular plastic standoffs when screwing down the free edge of the printed circuit board. When I need a few standoffs of odd size I cut them from 1/4" plastic water line tubing. It's cheap, rigid, cuts easily and is available at any hardware store.

  Posted by BAUHAUSLER on November 14, 2009 at 08:56:38 Pacific Time