Firsrtly, I'd like to say thanks for all the feedback. This has been my first venture into building 'proper' speakers, and also my first venture into cabinet veneering. Neither would have been possible without the generosity and willingness to share of the people in the DIY community.
When I can find some time to spare, I'll update my photo page with some detailed descriptions and a discussion of my trials and tribulations in getting the bottom porting to work properly.
With the exception of sorting out the room acoustics, which I'm currently negotiating with SWMBO
, I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out. I reckon I've got a very good pair of speakers whose looks and performance is probably up there with some of the commercial designs that are far beyond my financial reach. It has also been an incredibly rewarding and satisfying experience.
For me, that is what DIY is all about.
Best Regards,
Graeme
When I can find some time to spare, I'll update my photo page with some detailed descriptions and a discussion of my trials and tribulations in getting the bottom porting to work properly.
With the exception of sorting out the room acoustics, which I'm currently negotiating with SWMBO
, I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out. I reckon I've got a very good pair of speakers whose looks and performance is probably up there with some of the commercial designs that are far beyond my financial reach. It has also been an incredibly rewarding and satisfying experience.For me, that is what DIY is all about.
Best Regards,
Graeme
Hi there,
(first post, please be gentle)
Your project is awesome and really inspired me! I have been looking for an excuse to sell up my Monitor Audio Silver 9i, mainly because of them being cherry and the rest of my furiture being oak (I was tempted just to upgrade to the GR20s in oak).
I really like the look of the SS8531s and from what I have read they sound like a good starting point. I was planning to mate them to the SS9500 as nobody has a bad thing to say about it. So I had a look at the prices on Wilmslow Audio and then noticed that they do a kit that pretty much fits the bill called the Vogue 2. Then I read that the SS9700 gives an even more detailed sound and there is a pair going cheap on Ebay.
On to the question, would it be worth getting the SS9700s cheap, picking up the Wilmslow Audio kit and then relacing the 9500s with the 9700s and selling the 9500s? Or should I start from scratch? Does anyone have any exerience of the Wilmslow Audio kits?
Many thanks,
Ian
(first post, please be gentle)
Your project is awesome and really inspired me! I have been looking for an excuse to sell up my Monitor Audio Silver 9i, mainly because of them being cherry and the rest of my furiture being oak (I was tempted just to upgrade to the GR20s in oak).
I really like the look of the SS8531s and from what I have read they sound like a good starting point. I was planning to mate them to the SS9500 as nobody has a bad thing to say about it. So I had a look at the prices on Wilmslow Audio and then noticed that they do a kit that pretty much fits the bill called the Vogue 2. Then I read that the SS9700 gives an even more detailed sound and there is a pair going cheap on Ebay.
On to the question, would it be worth getting the SS9700s cheap, picking up the Wilmslow Audio kit and then relacing the 9500s with the 9700s and selling the 9500s? Or should I start from scratch? Does anyone have any exerience of the Wilmslow Audio kits?
Many thanks,
Ian
Sorry I haven't been back to this thread in a long time. Work and family issues have been keeping me preoccupied.
I'm not too familiar with the 9700 tweeter, but from the response curve and impedance curve on the Tymphany website, it doesn't look like it would be directly interchangeable with the 9500. Troels himself would be best placed to advise.
I'm not familiar with the Wilmslow kits, but the Vogue 2 uses a bi-wireable crossover, which means it's a parallel crossover. Troels' attempt at building a parallel crossover resulted in a very flat soundstage sound with little depth. His series crossover gave a much more 3 dimensional soundstage, so in all honesty I'd recommend going with the series version.
Troels knows his stuff, and is very meticulous about his crossover design.
I'm inevitably slightly biased, but the sound from the 8531 and 9300/9500 with the series crossover is very, very good - easily up there with 2 way floorstanders costing several thousand pounds a pair.
Use the series crossover, build a good cabinet and you won't be disappointed.
I'm not too familiar with the 9700 tweeter, but from the response curve and impedance curve on the Tymphany website, it doesn't look like it would be directly interchangeable with the 9500. Troels himself would be best placed to advise.
I'm not familiar with the Wilmslow kits, but the Vogue 2 uses a bi-wireable crossover, which means it's a parallel crossover. Troels' attempt at building a parallel crossover resulted in a very flat soundstage sound with little depth. His series crossover gave a much more 3 dimensional soundstage, so in all honesty I'd recommend going with the series version.
Troels knows his stuff, and is very meticulous about his crossover design.
I'm inevitably slightly biased, but the sound from the 8531 and 9300/9500 with the series crossover is very, very good - easily up there with 2 way floorstanders costing several thousand pounds a pair.
Use the series crossover, build a good cabinet and you won't be disappointed.
Hi There,
Thanks for the response, I can understand work getting in the way of play!
I have decided to take a slightly different approach now due to getting hold of a bargain pair of SS 8545, which combined with the 9500 make the Amish 45/95, which can be found here:
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/Amish_8545_9500.htm
Conveniently at the bottom of the page someone asked Troels about the 9700 and he seemed to suggest the only change that is needed is a lower value resistor in the crossover, so that is a bonus, as it fits my requirements perfectly. Hopefully this combination will give me 90-95% of the performance that the 8531/9700 combo would and for a lot les money.
I agree with your comments about the Wilmslow Audio Vogue kit using the parallel corssover and Troels saying he thought it seemed flat. Oh well, it won't be an issue now! However, I did wonder if I was going to lose out by moving away from the bi-amped set up I have at the moment, but having built and tried a chipamp now I am feeling much more confident that I'll still be moving forward.
So, in conclusion I will keep your project in mind for the future and, if you don't mind, I am going to try a terminal plate similar to yours and also the down firing port (though I think I may try it like the new Proac D28s with the side firing ports.
Many thanks,
Ian
Thanks for the response, I can understand work getting in the way of play!
I have decided to take a slightly different approach now due to getting hold of a bargain pair of SS 8545, which combined with the 9500 make the Amish 45/95, which can be found here:
http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/Amish_8545_9500.htm
Conveniently at the bottom of the page someone asked Troels about the 9700 and he seemed to suggest the only change that is needed is a lower value resistor in the crossover, so that is a bonus, as it fits my requirements perfectly. Hopefully this combination will give me 90-95% of the performance that the 8531/9700 combo would and for a lot les money.
I agree with your comments about the Wilmslow Audio Vogue kit using the parallel corssover and Troels saying he thought it seemed flat. Oh well, it won't be an issue now! However, I did wonder if I was going to lose out by moving away from the bi-amped set up I have at the moment, but having built and tried a chipamp now I am feeling much more confident that I'll still be moving forward.
So, in conclusion I will keep your project in mind for the future and, if you don't mind, I am going to try a terminal plate similar to yours and also the down firing port (though I think I may try it like the new Proac D28s with the side firing ports.
Many thanks,
Ian
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