I think I may have that backwards, it's been a while since I curved foam core. Actually, you score the concave side and leave convex side alone. Sorry about the mixup and thank to Cal for catching that.
Great thread thank'sAs a small addon to this great thread, I would like to share my 2nd foam core build. First one was a 0.4x Karlsonator with Faital 3FE25s. They sounded nice, great clarity and mids and reasonable bass with a BSC added to them. I'm planning to build a pair of Frugel XLs to replace my main speakers at home, but that wont happen for a while, so to satisfy some building itch and curiosity i decided to build the frugel lites in foam core, reusing the faital pros.
I've added a few images of the process. I enlisted the help of my dad (i belong to the younger generation of DIY'ers and live in a small apartment with limited access to clamps and the likes), and adapted the official planset (thanks to planet-10 for making these freely available) to suit 10mm foam core boards. A nearby art supply store had the boards in 700x1000mm sizes, which was perfect to cut the sides and front from.
Aside from adapting the lengths to fit the 10mm thickness we kept the build as original (no outward folded fins like Xrk's version). It seems plenty stiff and quite solid all around - though i dont think building it in 5mm foam core would've worked as well.
We glued with PVA glue, and left it to harden for a few hours between each gluing. Finally i went over the outsides and sealed any cracks with hot glue to make sure no air leaks were missed (though what happens inside the speaker is anyones guess). So far one's finished, the other one is clamped and will be left overnight.
Soundwise, the first one sounds really nice! It's been playing in a room slightly larger than i would expect it to fill, but will probably end up in a smaller one. Like the karlsonator, the speaker has great clarity and surprising bass - much more than the karlsonator i should add (to little surprise). I can't wait to get both of them up and running and will post an update and picture once they both going
Anyways, just wanted to say thanks again to Xrk for putting foam core thoughts and ideas in my head, and of course to planet-10 for a great (and great looking) design!
I've added a few images of the process. I enlisted the help of my dad (i belong to the younger generation of DIY'ers and live in a small apartment with limited access to clamps and the likes), and adapted the official planset (thanks to planet-10 for making these freely available) to suit 10mm foam core boards. A nearby art supply store had the boards in 700x1000mm sizes, which was perfect to cut the sides and front from.
Aside from adapting the lengths to fit the 10mm thickness we kept the build as original (no outward folded fins like Xrk's version). It seems plenty stiff and quite solid all around - though i dont think building it in 5mm foam core would've worked as well.
We glued with PVA glue, and left it to harden for a few hours between each gluing. Finally i went over the outsides and sealed any cracks with hot glue to make sure no air leaks were missed (though what happens inside the speaker is anyones guess). So far one's finished, the other one is clamped and will be left overnight.
Soundwise, the first one sounds really nice! It's been playing in a room slightly larger than i would expect it to fill, but will probably end up in a smaller one. Like the karlsonator, the speaker has great clarity and surprising bass - much more than the karlsonator i should add (to little surprise). I can't wait to get both of them up and running and will post an update and picture once they both going
Anyways, just wanted to say thanks again to Xrk for putting foam core thoughts and ideas in my head, and of course to planet-10 for a great (and great looking) design!
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An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
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Hi Silasmellor,
Thanks for making the little FH in foam core! Would love to see images but the links don’t work. Can you upload as attachments to the DIYA server? Mine have been in storage for some time now but I do recall them sounding big. I had the flared sides to give stability to them. I can imagine that 91dB sensitive Faital Pros will sound quite big.
Congratulations!
Thanks for making the little FH in foam core! Would love to see images but the links don’t work. Can you upload as attachments to the DIYA server? Mine have been in storage for some time now but I do recall them sounding big. I had the flared sides to give stability to them. I can imagine that 91dB sensitive Faital Pros will sound quite big.
Congratulations!
There you go.. looks like you can't link to Dropbox directly and show the images, although opening them in another tab or window works...
I would like to try a FH, but they take so much space in a room compared to the TABAQs. I'm pretty sure I can expect the almost same performance with the TABAQs as with the FH... and just as easy to build, if not easier since there are no curved "wings" on the TABAQs.
I would like to try a FH, but they take so much space in a room compared to the TABAQs. I'm pretty sure I can expect the almost same performance with the TABAQs as with the FH... and just as easy to build, if not easier since there are no curved "wings" on the TABAQs.
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Thanks for reposting the photos Perceval. The miniFH sounds very different than a Tabaq. You should try it - as it is a BLH, a totally different alignment than a MLTL like the Tabaq, the bass comes out in an acoustically horn-amplified manner and reflects off the room wall. It sounds very big and does not have as much bass falloff as Tabaq. Size wise it is same width but maybe 4x deeper at the base. It needs to sit away from back wall though for best results.
