Next up are the “Ocho’s,” designed and built by Scott S. ( @ScottS ). Scott said that this was a reclamation type project, bringing together parts from many sources (the tweeters were vintage Seas 27TFFC units courtesy of @jr-mac . And the ports were courtesy of @JohnH ). Woofers: SB Acoustics SB20PFC30-8 8" . Waveguide: Seos 8. Crossover: 1.4kHz using 8 parts.
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That Emtech with the OS images and 3d printer archives on it was mine, I would be happy to pay shipping or send a return prepaid envelope if you’re able to send it back.
Craig S. ( @PWRRYD ) designed and built the “Barchetta’s.” This was a 3-way design using the Rival R176KB (kevlar black) 8 ohm woofers, SB Acoustics PE buyout midrange units, and the HiVi RT1.3WE planar tweeter. The woofers were housed in a separate bass bin placed below a smaller T/M cabinet positioned on top. The speakers were still in the prototyping stages, so Craig had the crossovers on external boards connected via speakons.
In the photo, Craig is explaining how he develops his crossovers by lightly tack soldering and hot gluing parts to the board so that he can quickly disassemble and re-cycle parts from project to project. He leaves the leads long and does not use alligator clips, which can introduce connection resistance problems. Seems like a very good way to go about prototyping a crossover. Sound-wise, the tonal balance was very good from top to bottom from where I was sitting. Thumbs up. 
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Marvin S. ( @MarvinS ) brought his pair of “Ohm Walsh 5LE” limited edition speakers again for demo, this time completely repaired by the manufacturer. There were only about 500 of these made back in the day. This is a commercial design from yesteryear, not a DIY project. The speakers were placed about 1 foot from the wall for playback, as this is what the manufacturer recommends. They use a 12" Walsh woofer, facing down into a tapered, lead lined bass bin cabinet (very heavy). The titanium dome tweeter is mounted on top of the woofer magnet and turned at an inward angle facing into the room. Ferrofluid is used in both the tweeters and woofers. They sounded very good again, just like they did in Indy. Nice!
Sure, I can send it back in a small bubble envelope or such. I’ll PM you and we can exchange contact info.
Thanks Bill. Great pictures and details as always.
I’m going to add some personal comments about this project in my original “Barchettas” thread so I don’t clutter up this one.
Robert Clark ( @Life_of_Brian ) brought the Usher 2 ways designed by Dennis Murphy. Slightly modified by Robert. Drivers: Usher 8945A woofer and 9950 tweeter. Sounded just as good as they did in Indy.
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“No Name” 2-way budget build by JR. Drivers are the 8 inch GRS 8SW-4 woofer and the Dayton DC28F “silkie” tweeter. Crossover is 2100Hz (6 parts). Completely sealed box for a high Q woofer with an F3 of about 44 to 45Hz. In box Qtc is in the range of 0.9 to 1.0 and gives the speaker a nice, small bump up in the lower mid bass area. Cabinet has 1" roundovers all the way around. Very similar in appearance to the “Cabrini the Last” speakers that JR brought to InDIYana this year (see pic below for comparison). I’m thinking of building a pair, but I’m not sure if the xover is the same or changed since then. Sound quality was simply incredible. Big thumbs up.
“Cabrini the Last” from InDIYana 2025:
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The black ones and the ones JR had in Iowa are the same design. I built the black ones so that JR would have some speakers to show at InDIYana.
They sound great and are very easy on the wallet.
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What Ken said.
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Ron E. ( @ron_e ) designed and built an active/dsp loudspeaker. No name. Drivers were the Peerless HDS 850439 6.5" woofers and SB Acoustics SB19ST-C000-4 tweeters. Drivers were driven by a four channel Dayton Audio KABD-430 4x30W amplfier with DSP & Bluetooth 5.0. F3 was 42Hz. Excellent sound quality. I have always been impressed by speakers using this inexpensive SB Acoustics 19mm tweeter.
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Ani ( @Ani ) designed and built a very small active/dsp two-way. Drivers were the Vifa NE149 woofers and the Vifa NE25 tweeters. Power was supplied by a 4 channel amp with built in dsp & bluetooth. Crossover was 2400Hz. F3 in the mid 50’s.
The cabinet finish was striking. High gloss spray paint with no visible defects that I could see. And the very colorful artwork was handled by Ani’s children, Aanaya and Yaana. Sorry for the large number of photos, but I wanted to cover all the artwork displayed on each side of the speakers! Big thumbs up for a job well done!
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My entry was called “Micro Grand Utopia” ( @4thtry ). This was a four cabinet 3-way tower arranged in an MMTMMWW configuration. The upper cabinets were passive and populated with four Tectonic Elements TEBM46C20N-4 3" BMR midrange drivers and one Bozhen CQ76B ribbon tweeter. The lower cabinets were active and populated with two Tang Band W6-1139SIF subwoofers driven by Dayton SPA250 plate amplifiers. Crossovers were 175Hz and 1.3kHz approximate 4th order. Woofer cabinets were 2 cu.ft. tuned to 25Hz.
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Bryan did not bring speakers this year, but here is a shot of him presenting the “rules” for playback on Saturday (ie., phones on silent, no conversations in back of room, etc.) He also talked about the big technology upgrade this year, completely re-doing the MAC web site and forum software. A big thank you to Bryan, Jason, and JR for all their hard work in the background to support this community!
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Thanks for the write up and pics Bill. I think I’m going to call them the Da Actives (an abbreviation of Dayton Audio Actives). Think Da Bears from SNL. I’m trying to put together a post of my experience working with the DA boards and SigmaStudio.
I actually built 2 pair and need another board but they’re back ordered until January and the only other place that had some was Solen. The shipping and tariffs were insane.
Many thanks to JR, Bryan, Jason and Amanda for all the work putting the show on.
PS There were an amazing number of fine sounding systems this year.
Ani, thanks for the Barbie Girl - Mrs JR and I laughed and laughed about that. What cover was that?
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Glad you liked it!
Charles Berthoud - Barbie Girl Bass Cover: Youtube Link
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Thanks for the great pics and descriptions Bill. It’s really appreciated by those of us who couldn’t make it. It’s the next best thing to being there!
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Thanks for the kind comments about my photography! Much appreciated. 
I’m actually using a technique that I stold from Ron a while back regarding pulling still frames from video. I’m shooting the presentations in 4k high rez at 60 fps. Then, later on as I post away, I’m pulling a good looking still frame presentation picture from the video using the VLC media player software package. Not quite as sharp as all my other regular still captures, but not too bad either. Plus, the video playback gives me lots of additional detail as I prepare my summaries. It’s a win-win. I would never be able to remember all this detail without the videos.
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Good tips Bill. and thanks for highlightins Tom’s process of pulling tilsls from videos - might start using that. Current cell phones have come a long way and for posting on web, the resoultuion is good enough - just not for gallery prints!!!
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