This ugly duckling can sing! The Eminence Lil’ Buddy was designed to work in open back guitar amps. I decided to try it in an open baffle design for home listening.

I was drawn to this driver due to it’s high Qts of .84, high sensitivity of 98db per watt and very flat frequency response curve as depicted in the manufacturer’s chart. My initial impressions were positive – this driver has a neutral sound. A quick comparison with its cousin, the Eminence Beta 10A proved the Lil’ Buddy had a more refined sound better suited to home audio. I never could listen to the Beta 10A for extended periods and gave up on it after a month or so of trying to make it sound good in my apartment. As for the Lil’ Buddy, I immediately wanted to get this driver some help on top and bottom.

I built three different setups for the Lil’ Buddy. I placed it on top of an H-frame, a U-frame and ultimately on a simple open baffle with bass and treble support. In every instance, the Lil’ Buddy sounded great. It works well in any open baffle configuration. At a minimum, an 18” square shaped baffle allows it to play low enough to reach the woofer. A bigger baffle is even better, adorning the Lil’ Buddy’s midrange with an even fuller sound. Regardless, it always sounded good. 

Parts:

Eminence Lil’ Buddy 10” driver. This is the heart of the speaker.

https://www.eminence.com/pdf/Lil_Buddy.pdf

Eminence Alpha 15A provides bass powered by a Dayton subwoofer amp. 

https://www.eminence.com/pdf/Alpha_15A.pdf

https://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-spa250-250-watt-subwoofer-plate-amplifier–300-803

https://www.parts-express.com/90mh-20-gauge-ferrite-bobbin-inductor–269-2148

https://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-dmpc-68-68uf-250v-polypropylene-capacitor–027-449

For the Capacitor and Inductor above I followed Martin King’s Low Pass filter on pages 12 and 13 of this document.

http://www.quarter-wave.com/OBs/OB_Design_Part_1.pdf

B&C DE250 tweeter plus FaitalPRO LTH102 waveguide complete the driver selection. 

https://www.parts-express.com/bc-de250-8-1-polyimide-horn-driver-8-ohm-2-3-bolt–294-605

https://www.parts-express.com/faitalpro-lth102-1-60-x-50-elliptical-tractrix-horn-2-3-bolt–294-1041

Eminence PXB2:1K6 2-Way crossover at 1,600Hz along with an L-pad and a handful of capacitors ranging from 1uf – 4uf in order to attenuate and blend the tweeter. 

https://www.parts-express.com/eminence-pxb2-1k6-2-way-speaker-crossover-board-1600-hz–290-634

https://www.parts-express.com/parts-express-speaker-l-pad-attenuator-50w-mono-1-shaft-8-ohm–260-255

https://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-dmpc-15-15uf-250v-polypropylene-capacitor–027-412

Hooking up the crossover without any capacitors at the L-pad creates a rolled off and dull sounding treble. It certainly sounds pretty good but you can make it sound even better. To restore a bit of top-end to the horn driver simply wire a (.5uF to 4uF) capacitor across (connecting) pins 3 & 2 of the variable L-pad. Change the capacitor value to taste. Increasing the value allows more midrange frequencies in (plus, the position of the L-pad makes a considerable difference to the high frequency output). This was the most difficult part of building the crossover but it’s well worth it and once together you can experiment and tune the treble to your liking. You can go from a dull to bright sound just by changing a single capacitor. Essentially, the capacitor lowers the lowest frequencies the tweeter produces – this lowers (and balances out) the overall output of the tweete but since we are talking about a 108db per watt it’s not something to be concerned with. 

The above worked beautifully and provided flexibility in tailoring the sound (even with various compression drivers and waveguides). In my apartment, I settled on a 1.5uf cap but I’ve bounced around from 1uf to 3uf (3uf sounded too trebbly for me). 

This speaker has been my reference for nearly three years. That’s a long time for me – usually, I swap things in and out. It’s easy to live with and listen to for hours. And I mean hours! This speaker does it all without major flaws. The treble is liquid, bass full and rich – and the Lil’ Buddy produces gorgeous midrange. 

Only the Eminence 12LTA system I’ve built approaches the efficiency of the Lil’ Buddy setup. Powering either of these with a Topping TP21 digital amp (something like 15 watt into 8 ohm) will play very loudly without strain. In fact, music effortlessly swells with dynamic accuracy. 

So which sounds better, the Lil’ Buddy or the 12LTA? My subjective impressions are that the Lil’ Buddy is flatter, smoother and more accurate while the 12LTA is more colored and more forward thru the upper midrange. Both drivers are very detailed. Both are very efficient. Both are effortless in their presentation. I could live with either and enjoy music on either for extended periods of time. But the Lil’ Buddy could be classified as more accurate and sounds more like an audiophile speaker. And while I consider the 12LTA a great speaker for audiophiles its Pro Sound roots are more apparent due to it’s rougher overall sound. 

Pros:

• Effortless sound
• Lifelike size and scale of instruments and performers 
• Dynamic from top to bottom
• A piano sounds like a piano
• Amazing vocals, horns, strings
• The saxophone is in the room
• Brushed cymbals sound real
• Bass is full and rich 
• Texture galore
• Neutral, balanced sound 
• High efficiency

Cons:

• Bass could be tighter (but still very good)
• Revealing treble (but very clean)
• Large footprint (but smaller than boxed speakers with similar overall performance)

Verdict:

This is one of the best speakers I’ve heard. It’s not perfect but its flaws are small in comparison to what it does right. Personally, I would not change much at all although I wish I had greater technical knowledge of crossovers so I can further refine and perfect the blend between the Lil’ Buddy and the tweeter rather than using the stock Eminence crossover.  Regardless, the transition from Lil’ Buddy to the tweeter sounds seamless to me.

Among everything I’ve built over the years, this speaker is the least fatiguing, most relaxing and enjoyable. I wish I had better photos to share but the lighting in my apartment always seemed challenging for my iPhone’s camera. It’s a big, beautiful sounding speaker I can, and will, happily live with for many years.