Product Description

kit plans for Jeff Bagby’s Piccolo 2  Loudspeaker

Here is what you get:

• CAD Cabinet Drawings
• Crossover Plans
• Suggest sources for components
• Suggested Hardware
• Specifics for build
• Overall build suggestions.for the first timer

My goal was to design the best possible speakers for the cost, offering audio enthusiasts the opportunity to experience high-end sound on a more limited budget. Many loudspeaker designers claim that designing an incredible speaker using top-quality components is easy, but it becomes much more challenging when using less expensive components. However, this may not be the case with the new line of SB Acoustics drivers, which defy this rule and provide exceptional performance and construction for the price. With the law of diminishing returns in mind, there is no reason why kits using these drivers cannot achieve the performance of systems that cost significantly more.

The first speaker in this kit series is called the Piccolo. It is a compact two-way speaker measuring 13″ tall, 7.5″ wide, and 8″ deep, with an internal volume of approximately 7.5 liters. It falls into the same size category as the LS3/5a and other small monitor speakers that have evolved from it. The cabinet I constructed for the Piccolo is made of ¾” MDF with a double-layer front baffle and an internal brace, resulting in a very solid cabinet comparable to the finest small speakers.

The selected woofer is the SB Acoustics SB15NRX230-08-UC, which, despite its reasonable cost, is a well-made driver that competes with drivers costing four to five times as much. It features a cast frame and a state-of-the-art motor design that significantly reduces motor distortion. The cone is made of an uncoated version of the Kapoc cone, a paper composite cone with papyrus reed fibers for increased strength. This cone offers a desirable high stiffness-to-mass ratio for a bass-midrange driver. The tweeter chosen is the SB29RDCN-004 ring tweeter with a neo magnet. It is extremely linear and, like the woofer, has very low distortion within its operating range. This tweeter has gained popularity and is used in some high-end commercial speaker systems.

The crossover in this system achieves a level of coherence that is not typically found at this price point, and even in some more expensive speaker systems. It has been optimized both in the frequency and phase domains simultaneously. The frequency response is exceptionally flat from 100Hz and up, and the two drivers exhibit excellent phase tracking over a wide bandwidth, from 100Hz to 5kHz. The crossover point is set at 2.1kHz. The combination of this in-phase crossover design and the low crossover point enhances the performance of the speakers.

During the holidays, I invited Ben Shafer (Wolf) and Rory Buzka over to listen to several speakers and explore new music. We hadn’t listened to the vented Piccolos in a while, and this was the first extended listening session with them since venting them with the ports. All of us, including myself, were amazed by these little speakers. They produced an acoustic scaling that exceeded their size. The upper bass and beyond were extremely flat, but with the ports, there was a slight bump in the mid-upper bass range, extending down to about 50Hz before rolling off. This is exceptional performance for such a small speaker. Despite powering them with only a 75 Watt Receiver and never pushing them to their limits, they filled the room with impressive sound and more bass than expected. The bass was full and deep, and Rory even double-checked if the subwoofer was turned off.

These little speakers played much bigger than their actual size, and we all felt that they could satisfy 95% of people on their own. I was so pleased with them that I had my wife sit down and listen to them with me last night to get her impressions as well. She agreed with the rest of us. These truly are top-of-the-line mini-speakers, featuring low distortion drivers, a low crossover point, near-perfect phase tracking, flat response, stable impedance, great bass extension, and a solid cabinet. I would confidently compare them to any other speaker in their size range, regardless of price.

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