Flex-8 - GRS 8SW-4

I initially didn't expect much from the GRS 8SW-4 but since I was running through all my 8" woofers, I had one of these and it fit the woofer cutout I dropped it in just to check and too my pleasant surprise it had a very smooth frequency response up past 2 kHz which made suitable for this design.

The woofer does have a rather high Qts and this results in a small bump in the bass response centered around 80-90Hz,  I ended up using a little less BSC to prevent that bump from becoming boomy which leaves a shallow dip in response between 150-300Hz.  The slightly lower energy in that range gives the speaker a subtle forward sound to the midrange and treble though not excessively so, with the lower bass bump providing a nice little bit of additional kick to most drums in music.  Bass response is ok, with an f3 of about 58Hz (4pi) it makes it fine to run without subs if using for background music but you probably want subs if they music you are listening too had any kind of deeper bass notes.  On that note since these are sealed they would respond well to some EQ like a shelf filter to extend the bass response if used at modest output levels.

 Distortion performance from the woofer is nothing special, it's a basic design after all.  At low output levels harmonics are mainly 3rd order and the more benign 2nd order harmonics take over at higher output levels with no erratic behavior up to the 105dB sweep level. Actually it performs reasonably well in the upper bass/ low midrange at the higher sweep levels compared to the Silver Flute or Dayton SD215 but being sealed low bass distortion is higher due to the increased cone excursion.    

The high frequency performance/sound quality is largely the same in all the designs so this section will likely be a cut/paste for each.  The LaVoce DF10.101LS with the Celestion H1SC-8050 is a very nice combo, the smooth easy to work with  frequency response  results a very clean clear uncolored high frequencies with remarkably low distortion and compression.  The high frequency driver has to work very little in this design so its composure is maintained well beyond the point where the 8" woofers are begging for mercy.  The only negatives are the slightly narrower coverage of the horn then I would have liked and the early drop in high frequency output past 16kHz.  For the cost I don't mind as they are not glaring issues that you notice immediately and the narrow dispersion could actually be a benefit depending on the desired use of the speakers if wanting a more focused dispersion pattern to keep excessive energy off the walls.

Overall I was very pleased with the performance of this design considering the cost, certainly the best value of the Flex-8 Variants and makes for an excellent entry into horn loaded high frequency designs without loosing the frequency response smoothness of conventional direct radiating high frequency drivers.

Crossover Schematic:

On this crossover the C1 cap on the high frequencies should be a polypropylene style cap but all the others in the crossover are designed to use non-polarized electrolytic.  The ESR in the NPE capacitors adds additional damping in the low pass circuits which proves beneficial to the shaping of the frequency response without the need for additional resistors on the C2/C3 parallel legs.  C2 and C3 can be changed to poly but it will result in some additional output in the midrange near the crossover.

Resistors are standard 10w wire-wound. 

L1 inductor should be a 20 gauge air core, L2 and L4 should be 18 gauge I-core, L3 should be a 18 gauge air core.  


Crossover BOM with links to suitable parts.

C1 - 3.0uF Poly

C2 - 27uF NPE (15uF + 12uF) or (17uF + 10uF)

C3 - 27uF NPE (15uF + 12uF) or (17uF + 10uF)

C4 - 2.2uF NPE (can also be a 2.2uF Poly)

C5 - 22uF NPE

L1 - 1.2mH 20 Gauge Air Core

L2 - 1.25mH 18awg I-core (a 1.2mH value can also be used)

L3 - 0.50mH 18awg Air Core

L4- 2.0mH 18awg I-Core

R1 - 10 Ohm 10w

R2 - 1.2 Ohm 10w

R3 - 6 Ohm 10w


-Optional crossover PCB I developed for the Flex-8 design-

Loudspeaker Drivers / Horn:

Compression Driver - LaVoce DF10.101LS

Woofer - GRS 8SW-4

Note: This page contains affiliate links which if used allows me to earn a small commission if those products are purchased at no additional cost to you.  All of the drivers and parts for this design were purchased, nothing was provided by the affiliated retailers. Any commission earned just helps offset the cost of the build and allows me to continue to design and publish more free DIY speakers like this one.

Full measurements for the Flex-8 GRS 8SW-4 Variant

The following measurements were performed on my 10' tall outdoor turntable, measurements taken at ~5.66v / 2M on the tweeter axis which provides the same approximate SPL as 2.83v / 1M.  (Since this is a 4 ohm design subtract 3dB for the nominal 1w/1m efficiency)  

The measurements were gated at 14ms and blended to diffraction adjusted nearfield woofer response below ~300hz. 

No smoothing applied to the frequency response measurements.

On Axis Response

CTA-2034 Style Spin

Estimated In-Room Response

Flex-8 (GRS) Harmonic Distortion at 85, 95, 100 and 105dB/1m

Compression at 85/95/100/105dB normalized against 75dB:

Flex-8 (GRS) Impedance: