Archive
Model: BOSSA NOVA
Construction and Tuning by Aidan Conrade
These are assembled realizations of the Samba MT Loudspeaker Kit, found on Parts Express. After going through what I wanted out of a loudspeaker and how much money and time I had to work with, I was approved to choose a solid knock-down kit with drivers and a passive crossover to build! I built them to be flexible since I want to do many things with them, so they can handle mixing, instrument monitoring for my bass guitar, and a good listening experience for music and television. They are a manageable size since I wanted them to be easy to fit anywhere I need them to be, as well as be easy to move with. I eventually want to hit them with a layer of primer and some nice burgundy water-resistant paint to make them look nice. While they are speaker kits, I wanted to be able to connect with them more and give them a name, and while I was finishing my work on them I came up with the name Bossa Nova, since the original name was Samba MT, and while Bossa Nova is my favorite style of jazz to play it was also derived from the roots of Samba, much like this speaker was derived from the kit I purchased at the start of this adventure!
The Dayton Audio Reference Series drivers carry the performance of the loudspeakers with their consistent frequency response at a budget price. Each speaker kit cost $165, including all of the parts for the passive crossover, and with the fact that I already had cables and an amplifier that could handle them, I only spent ~$350 on them, with a surplus of $20 going to a kind person on eBay who designed PCB’s for the crossovers in these speakers and sold them in pairs with mounting hardware for the board and wire terminals for your cables so you can easily replace cabling inside of your speaker. For those interested in purchasing this kit for yourself, be aware that they do not come with a circuit board for the crossover like the Dayton C-Note kit.
Specifications:
- Dimensions- 15″ x 8.5″ x 11.25″
- Frequency Response-
- ± 3 dB from 60 Hz – 1.2 kHz, a shallow dip from 1.2-4 kHz, and a boost from 4-20 kHz that stays back in the realm of ± 3 dB
- Port gives extra bass extension down to 30 Hz
- Drivers-
- Dayton Audio RS180P-4 7″ Reference Series Paper Cone Woofer
- Dayton Audio RST28F-4 1-1/8″ Reference Series Fabric Dome Tweeter
- Sensitivity- 90.8dB @ 1m
- Power Handling- 60W per cabinet
- Max Power Handling- 90W
- Crossover Frequency- 2.4 kHz
Selected Measurement Graphs:
Technical Paper:
This paper still needs some work and I ran into some tuning and measurement issues so I hope to update this page at a later date and make everything look nicer!
Tech Speakers 