My DIY 1/2 Orelo attempt. (Orelo/Orelino)

I used a calibrated Behringer microphone and REW 5 to evaluate the response of my prototype.

I needed to run these sweeps prior to continuing my build in order to evaluate the effect of changing the throat size from the 170mm that Bert recommended. Since this is not a horn, I wanted to see what the throat changes do. I need to decide on the throat size before continuing the build.

I tried the 170mm size, an intermediate 250mm and the full driver width of 370mm.

There is a response improvement between 160Hz and 600Hz with the 170mm throat vs. the 370mm. The 250mm plots fall right in between the 170mm and 370mm.

Right now I am leaning to the full 370mm throat...in the region I am interested, the response is nice and flat from 120Hz to 320Hz. With any of these throat settings, I will have to EQ the 80-120 Hz....unless the room adds some low end assistance which I am hoping will happen.

For comparison with my double bass bin, here is the response of that bin superimposed with the DIY Orelo. The DBB was tested a few years ago in the same outside location.

I would certainly appreciate any comments or suggestions.

My thanks to Bert for allowing me to work on this and to discuss this build on his forum.

Finally completed the build of the three half sized DIY Orelo bass wave guides and had a chance to take one of them to the media room prior to committing paint to the project.

Very interesting results of the performance of just half an Orelo. I can't imaging how much bass the full size units put out. My room is 20'x 27'x 9 and they had plenty of output....actually, a little more than my current DIY bass bins which use the same drivers.

Here is the three parts to be assembled. Much easier to lug upstairs by myself than a whole speaker!

The plan is to place the Oris 150s on top of the wave guide once the project is complete.

I ran several tests on the setup, first up was the Impedance curve for both Eminence Kappalite 3015LF drivers once mounted on the Baffle.

This is the first sweep taken in the room with the mic 3' from the mouth of the waveguide. Reasonably flat for an in room measurement from my experience.

I then compared the measurement I took outside against the in room response. I'm not sure why the in room measurement seems to lose output above 200Hz. Any ideas?

Just by ear, I could tell the waveguide was 'louder' or more efficient when compared with the right bass bin. I then ran a comparison of the waveguide against the bass bin with identical mic location and all other settings the same.

I guess my ears weren't lying to me. I was pleased to see better response and the only difference is the enclosure vs. the waveguide. Looks promising based on that alone. The waveguide also seems to offer an overall flatter response. I had not expected that.

Bert had asked about taking a reading from behind the baffle vs. in front. While playing music I noticed that the back of the baffle is pretty quiet and not nearly what I expected from an open baffle type setup.

I placed the mic 2' from the back of the baffle and then 2' from the front.

There is obviously more output in front with than behind the baffle.

Overall, I am very pleased with the results of this project. Bert is definitely on to something with the Orelo. However, you will need a large room to accommodate these waveguides.....they are large.

I am new to the concept of open baffles and waveguides and am very impressed with what they can do.

When I get time I will get to painting them and then installing them in the media room. I will have the front three channels set up the same. The center channel will be interesting since it crosses at 800Hz with a compression driver and horn. I will post some plots on that when I set it up since it uses different woofers.

Please feel free to offer suggestions or comments.

Bert,
One question for you in anticipation of setting these up at a later date. How far from the side and rear walls do you recommend placing the waveguides?

I sit 14' from the front of the room, so have a bit of leeway on placement.

I finally got a chance to set these up today. Although I have not had a chance to run any tests on these, I did listen to them with the settings for my previous bass bins. Boy they sound good. I'm looking forward to testing the in-room frequency response.

I thought I'd share some pictures of the project in the final stages. I still need to add the speaker spikes, which will raise them off the floor over an inch.

Having three of them in a room fills up the front of the home theater...good thing WAF is not a factor in 'my' room.

Bert,
Your little idea is just fantastic for use with an Oris horn. This was perfect for me since I use a subwoofer from 20-70Hz. The DIY Orelo picks up from 70-200Hz or 70-750Hz depending on which channel.

Your design works extremely well, very clean and efficient. I ended up having to reduce the sensitivity on all three amplifiers powering the DIY Orelo's when I was running frequency response plots.....just proved that the Orelo concept is more efficient than the ported enclosures I was using.

Thank you for all your help and the great idea.