DIY Centerspeaker with Aerius

[Flavio]

Now that I have my main speakers sorted out (Ethos) I am looking for a matching center.
The ML centers are very hard to find second hand and very expensive, so I am looking to create one myself with a single Aerius I can buy for little money.

I plan to make a new enclosure for the bass driver(s) that will act as a support for the horizontally mounted ESL panel.
I will transfer the electronics from the Aerius enclosure to the new one.
A Crown XLS 1002 will act as the active crossover and amplifier for the bass section and ESL panel.

Two questions:

1. The Aerius panel crossover is 500 Hz, can it realistically play any lower?

2. I want the new bass enclosure to go as deep as possible (matching the Ethos), but it also has to play up to 500 Hz, see question 1. What driver or drivers could I use? The enclosure can be up to 3.5 cu.ft nett volume and I can of course make it sealed, vented or with a passive radiator, depending on the drivers.
As this will be a low budget project I am not looking spend big money on the bass driver(s).

 

[Tosh]

Aerius 'i' is crossed at 450Hz with the same panel afaik, so maybe you could do 400Hz with a steeper slope? Find out what is the resonance freq of an Aerius and stay above it.

Try to lay one on its side to see if it functions satisfactorily as a center channel for you, because according to theory, a line source that long would not be a good choice because of its dispersion. Cut one in half, and make two!

I've tried their little brother the HiVi L5-8R 5 inch, which are very articulate, but not these larger woofers yet, and they seem very promising. But they're not going to go deep...

Hi-Vi L6-4R 6" Woven Kevlar Cone - 4 ohm

Hi-Vi Research L6-4R Woven Kevlar Cone Woofer with Phase Plug Rigid woven kevlar cone Phase plug Cast frame Shielded magnet system Kapton VC former F3 of 55Hz in 12 liters (0.42cf) enclosure with 1.5" port by 4" long

www.madisoundspeakerstore.com

And now there's an 8-ohm version!

Hi-Vi L6-8R 6" Woven Cone Woofer with Phase Plug, 8 ohm

Hi-Vi L6-8R 6" Woven Cone Woofer with Phase Plug, 8 ohm

www.madisoundspeakerstore.com

 

[Russr]

How old is the panel in the Aerius that you're considering? It would be a shame if you put in all the work and the panel is on the brink of failure...

 

[Flavio]

Try to lay one on its side to see if it functions satisfactorily as a center channel for you, because according to theory, a line source that long would not be a good choice because of its dispersion. Cut one in half, and make two!

Based on what I read in this thread it should be fine horizontally.

ReQuest-based Center

I’ve been looking for a good center channel to match the ReQuests that I use as fronts. Considered all the existing electrostatic-based ML centers, but then decided to try out using some spare ReQuest parts as a center. Panel is placed horizontally with some proof of concept 3D printed clips to...

www.martinloganowners.com

 

[JonFo]

1. The Aerius panel crossover is 500 Hz, can it realistically play any lower?

At low volumes, maybe. At any decent level for a movie, I'd say not because the much larger Monolith panel drops off at around 300, and the SL3 panel I use in my center speaker is crossed over at 350Hz based on my in-room measurements.

Based on what I read in this thread it should be fine horizontally.

I am skeptical of how well that actually works, both the panel curvature and the line array are wrong for operating side-ways. I'd suggest first trying the unmodified unit on its side.

See this thread on the construction of my center channel for more details of what's involved: SL3-eXtreme Center channel speaker – a design and build story

 

[Brandon Hartwick]

I've always been curious about doing something like this. I've seen it done a couple times on the interwebs but I really have no idea how well it would work.

I would assume horizontal off axis response would be terrible with the panel curve being the wrong orientation.