Part III: The Dampening of The "Le Petit" (English)

Das Video in Deutsch • Teil III: Die Dämmung...
Jean Hiraga developed 1979 the loudspeaker called "Le Petit" and fascinated with it many people. Still today this speaker sounds far better, then most of what is in the shop´s shelfs.
Curiosity made me want to build it to the exact details from 1979...
Follw me on this adventure!
Background Music @ 5:20 "Playing In Color" by Nullhertz found on pixabay

[@ralphhaas8584]

Grandios! Vielen Dank für die wunderbar klare und detaillierte Präsentation! Wieder sehr viel gelernt und noch mehr Lust bekommen selber eine Le Petite zu bauen.

[@antoniocruz5714]

More videos in English please! Thank you!

[@brucermarino]

A delightful presentation! I really enjoyed it. In a more technical note, I've been investigating cabinets without parallel sides to reduce the need for felt damping. Such damping seems to turn useful acoustic energy into heat energy. We may be wasting valuable energy that could be used to produce more and better bass. Thanks again for a great channel!

[@iam_mad]

Thank You, I enjoy making it!
The clue of the Petit is, the abnormal relation between the driver diameter (10cm) and the thickness of, lets say, the lower half baffle (5cm): its 2:1! So if You convert this to a 20cm bass driver, the baffle would be 10cm thick, which is nuts! This is why the housing excells like "HighEnd", You dont hear anything from this cabinet, it´s dead like Tut Ench Ammun 😂

[@realworldaudio]

Yes, in general a non-parallel cabinet is more desirable than parallel sides. However, non-parallels require precision non-90 degree cuts, which make them a nightmare, and entirely out of reach from a normal person wanting to do a first DIY project. Jean Hiraga designed LePetit to be as DIY friendly as possible without significant sacrifices to sound quality. As Jürgen writes below, LePetit does not need the non-parallel sides, although most speakers could very much do with it;

[@yodel_diploma2315]

Well done! Did Hiraga mount his felt only with clamps? Looks like...

[@iam_mad]

Thanks ☺ yes You are right, I did indeed try to improve and countermeasure my lower density, wich turned out well!

[@TheZpilot55]

Hi. In your answer in RWA you mentioned enameled wire that has solderability for Le Petit speaker cable. Pls confirm, is that the solid wire used for trafos and chokes windings? No PCV or Teflon insulation? Thanks and waiting for part IV, 🙂

[@iam_mad]

Yes, it is trafo winding wire. I am sorry, the translation from German is obviously not correct!
It is a solid wire with a layer of laquer on it. The recommended dimension for internal Loudspeaker and Speaker cable is ø0,5mm
You should go for solderable ones..

[@TheZpilot55]

@@iam_mad Yes. Translation was absolutely perfect. Again thanks a lot for assistance. Fillen danke.

[@realworldaudio]

@@iam_mad Definitively! Non-solderable transformer wire is a major PAIN to work with. :) Individually stripping enamel from 20-40-60 ends... ayayayay... nightmare. :)

[@iam_mad]

@@realworldaudio I tried everything, even burning it with gas flame, the enamel never came off, a nightmare!!!

[@realworldaudio]

@@iam_mad So true, only a utility knife will remove that blasted hard enamel! 😂 I also learned the hard way....