Re-Create: RL45.2 Prototype

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Christian Thams Posted: Tue, Mar 21 2017 2:58 PM

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Hej guys,

Long over due but here is a sneak peak of how we're prototyping the ReCreate project. We had a pair of old RL45.2 in the office that we thought needed some love. As our HW proposal is still under development we are using HifiBerry Amplifiers combined with Raspberry Pis to benchmark current performance on the market and investigate the open-source offering that exists in the community today.

I started by opening up the RL45.2, the driver might need a refoam soon but good enough for now. I cut the crossover and installed the wires in the correct ports in the Hifiberry AMP.

Close Up of the Raspberry PI + Hifiberry

The Raspberry Pi is running a Raspbian OS configured for the Hifiberry with Shaiport-Sync setup. In order to get the crossover implemented I coded the ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) configuration files using LADSPA plugins following this guide

As you guys might see for power I connected the loudspeaker input cables into the power input of the Hifiberry. Then the PSU cables were stripped so I can easily power the setup, however, can potentially give you a shock, but hey, I'm not that fussy...

In the end the RL45.2 looks original and sounds decent. Can't wait to try it with one of our amplifier boards instead (twice the power!) as this sounds a little weak which is probably due to the low power output of the current Hifiberry Amp+ (2x25W). But to be honest if I can figure out how to fine tune the ALSA settings I can probably push some more juice out of it.

Do you guys have any comments? Would you be interested in creating a similar project? Thanks for reading and I'll be posting more projects here within the next days (yes now insert an appropriate joke about it will take years...)

Cheers!

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Steve at Sounds Heavenly replied on Wed, Mar 22 2017 8:09 PM

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Hi Christian,

Thanks for the update and for adding the photos, this looks like an interesting project.  I was previously looking into using a "T-Amp" (basic Class D power amp) as a bolt-on upgrade for legacy passive speakers, to make them Powerlink compatible.  however, the release of BeoAmp 2 meant I had to put this project on hold, as B&O probably wouldn't welcome a cut-price alternative to their own product.....

For a commercially viable project, I think it could be very interesting to see an audio version of the BeoPlay S8 Hub, ie. one with DLNA, Airplay and wifi reception to give classic 1990's Beolab speakers a new lease of life with wireless music, all controlled from a B&O app.

I would personally go for 8 pin DIN outputs instead of RJ45, with the aim of easy interfacing with legacy setups (I understand that there are over a quarter of a million Beolab 6000s in circulation, just to name one legacy speaker, so there should be a good market!)  What do you think?

Kind regards, Steve.

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Christian Thams replied on Fri, Mar 24 2017 12:58 PM

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Hi Steve,

Regarding the "T-Amp" option, to be honest there might be departments who'd get a little upset but I think the overall good of offering affordable options that add value to legacy products is only good, if you can give us a run for our money I'm all for it. The ReCreate project goes more in depth allowing people to play with sound utilizing proven acoustic principals (passive loudspeaker designs) and we can actually improve the sound using DSP filters etc.

Regarding giving more life to classic BeoLab, I know the BeoLab guys are actually looking into this and I was part of a workshop where we developed a HDMI to PL converter allowing you to use any BeoLab loudspeaker as a sound output for any HDMI compatible TV. Still not clear what is happening with that concept but I hope they continue it.

Otherwise we at Create are right now focused to create a very sharp core offer that we can expand on in the future adding more value as demand raises.

Thanks for the feedback Steve and take care

p.s. love your cables!

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Steve at Sounds Heavenly replied on Fri, Mar 24 2017 2:59 PM

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Thanks Christian!

Kind regards, Steve.