Building the Nathan 10

[gedlee]

Markus

Not bad! Good work and thanks for the posts. You have been a great help in "debugging" the kit and I appreciate it.

Did you like the screw terminals for the crossover? I have found them very effective, especially given my disdain for solder. I've never seen the need for ferules at the wire ends though.

I put the circular cut foam around the woofer, precisely what you say not to do. I'm trying to stop sound from coming back through the cone. This material is so porous that its affect on the LFs of the woofer will be negligable. Some absorption at the tweeter end is fine, but a lot of absorption is not really required, although it won't hurt either. Stuffing the box might drop the LF limit maybe 10 Hz. if that desired. In that case I'd just use fiberglass in addition to all the foam that comes in the shipment.

But I really would put the foam piece arround the woofer basket. Thats what it is intended to do (need to put that in the manual too.)

Oh yea, I spray the plug, not the enclosure when I glue in the foam. There is no risk of glue in the throat.

Did you feel the throat for any mismatches? Your finger can feel what your eyes can't see. If it is significant it will feel like a cavern. Then simply smooth some of the dreeded clay to get a smooth transition from the driver to the waveguide. You could use your vynle here also I suppose.

At any rate - good job. Thanks again.

[markus76]

Some German guys did an empirical test with damping at different positions within the enclosure. And placing good old fiberglass in the middle of the enclosure had the best effect on standing waves. Maybe you have more data on that available?

Regarding clay vs. caulk: The stuff I used did shrink. So you will have to apply a second coat.

Best, Markus

[amiklos]

Nice work, markus. Looking forward to your listening impressions.


Now that work emergencies have died down I'm going to start working on mine this evening and I can't wait.

[pos]

Very impressive end result, congrats!!
I see that the capacitors are Solens, is that specified in the design, or any good cap would do? Did you consider using bypass caps?

[markus76]

Forget about the caps. All they need to do is to work to their specification and have close tolerance.

Best, Markus

[markus76]

It was fun building the speakers although I had to build them in our apartment with a limited range of tools. This is what I consider the absolut minimum tools you need to built this kit and probably any other kit that comes with pre cut boards and routed cut-outs for the drivers:



My expectations were very high because the vendor claimed that the whole concept of the speaker is superior to what is available on the market today. So I was very disappointed that the quality of the wooden parts were not near to that of other kits.
Furthermore I was not aware that the kit was still in development. Crucial parts were missing: screws, jumper for the crossover, internal wiring, gasket for mounting plate and driver, clay.
The vendor said to have fixed all these issues. Wooden parts are now cut on a CNC machine.

I recommend the kit only to experienced DIYers. This kit is not just a simple assembly of pre-painted boards, drivers and crossover. You have to build the crossover yourself. You have to drill holes. You have to treat the tweeter. And you have to apply some kind of finish to the enclosure.
If you don't have the skills to do that then I recommend buying the pre-built speakers offered by the vendor. They are a real bargain. Take into account that you have to add the price for all the tools and materials shown in the picture above to the kits cost.

The vendor was very responsive. Earl responded to emails within minutes. This is highly appreciated.

But now on to finishing the subwoofers as the Nathan 10 is not a full range speaker but part of a satellite/subwoofer concept:



Best, Markus

[Salas]

Bravo Markus. You are both competent, informative, just, and sincere.
I wish that your soon to be complete system will stand up to your expectations. I personally like the color you chose. We reasonably all wait for your subjective review when you are ready, set, and have spent enough listening hours on your new system. The multi sub tuning procedure will be very interesting to report too. I am sure that Dr. G. will be helping out as always.

[BERENO]

Originally posted by markus76

It was fun building the speakers although I had to build them in our apartment

Well I hope your neighbors will enjoy them too!

[noah katz]

"Some German guys did an empirical test with damping at different positions within the enclosure. And placing good old fiberglass in the middle of the enclosure had the best effect on standing waves. Maybe you have more data on that available?"

Standing waves are a subset of all of the sound reflecting around inside the box; I agree with Dr. Geddes that it's most important to keep it from transmitting through the woofer cone.

But you don't have to choose one or the other; as Dr. Geddes said, just fill the entire box w/damping material.

[gedlee]

Originally posted by markus76
Some German guys did an empirical test with damping at different positions within the enclosure. And placing good old fiberglass in the middle of the enclosure had the best effect on standing waves. Maybe you have more data on that available?

Regarding clay vs. caulk: The stuff I used did shrink. So you will have to apply a second coat.

Best, Markus

For damping interior standing waves that is certainly true, but, as I said, my intent was not to dampen internal resonances but to reduce the sound coming back through the cone. I have never been convinced that enclosure resonances either interior or structural are major effects once some simple techniques to reduce them have been employed.