Building the TriTrix...

[fouchagalaga]

Alright. I'm building the Tritrix speaker project that I've encountered on Parts Express and now there are few things I'm not too sure about. Since this is my first project I'm a little confused.
These are the woofers that go in it.

First, I was wondering. since these have no type of sealing on the bottom part (where they will be in contact with the cabinet), should I add a type of caulking tape or something lke that? (I think i should but I'm not sure)
Also, here's what the enclosure looks like:

Where should I place my crossover? what is the best spot where it could be accessible but still wouldn't affect sound.
and finally, I have polyfill that looks like wool. When I put it in the enclosure, exactly how do I do that. Do I just stuff it in there and let it loose? Or do I Stick it to the inside walls of the enclosure? How far down should I put some?
These are small things that I am not too sure about and I have no idea how they affect sound.

[tech9_79]

Honestly having built the tritrix vented as my first project, I would build the sealed version and start dreaming about that sub your going to build next...

If im not incorrect the TL version will have less total output but will play a bit lower, which is not going to be much anyway.

The sealed version would be a much easier build as well.

[fouchagalaga]

The thing is: I'm already done 'building' it it's just these few things I'm not sure about. And I'm not really planning to build a sub. the picture of the woofer is the one that goes into those towers that are shown.

[66Panel]

Originally posted by fouchagalaga
The thing is: I'm already done 'building' it it's just these few things I'm not sure about. And I'm not really planning to build a sub. the picture of the woofer is the one that goes into those towers that are shown.

Hi fouchagalaga,
Why don’t you send the designer “Curt Campbell” http://us.geocities.com/cc00541/ an email and ask him your questions, he always takes the time to respond

66Panel

[fouchagalaga]

hmm.. really good idea

[djoffe]

I've built one of the pair of TriTrix transmission line speakers. The kit is pretty good, the directions included are not. Because of this, it make the TriTrix suitable only to fairly experienced builders. There are also some inaccuracies in the directions that should be remedied. Some of the info is available scattered on the web...it should all be in the directions.

1. directions don't show if woofers should be in series or parallel (series is the answer).

2. There are no phasing dots on the woofers.

3. There is no schematic of the x-over or the wiring in of the woofers.

4. The recommended hot-glue xover assembly method leaves a time bomb...the big inductor is heavy enough, it will break the hot glue at the worst possible time, and the speaker will fail.

5. There's no recommended order of assembly for xover and wiring the speaker. If you went crazy and built the boxes first, wiring the speakers and xovers last would be a nightmare.

6. The indicated binding post location is another time bomb...it's too far from the transmission line exit to be able to fix anything if a wire came loose.

7. Instructions say "It is recommended that T-nuts (not included) be installed prior to cabinet construction". Because of that, I went to Lowes, and bought 22 T-nuts at about $.50 each, as well as the accompanying screws. Only later, as I cleaned the last scraps out of the box, did I find that they supplied T-nuts. Oh well...there went $15.00 for hardware I didn't need.

8. About the hardware in number 7...the screws the supplied don't pass the tweeter holes...they thread through it...that would make two sets of threads in series, the tweeter and the T-nuts...that's not workable...you'd have to ream out the tweeter holes to pass the hardware.

9. You really need a #1 Phillips bit to assemble the kit...very few people have them...the most common Phillips bit is a #2....It would be handy if they included one, or at least called it out in the instructions.

10. The pictures are a good guide to the assembly, but the directions are kind of sketchy...I think they should recommend:
a. pre-wiring the box before completing assembly
b. pre-wiring, building, and installing the crossover and the terminal posts
c. better identification of the subtle differences in the pieces, including pilot holes and their orientation in the assembled result.
d. a schematic of the xover and its wiring to the speakers...the video is nice, but not a substitute for the paper
e. a precut and drilled hunk of wood for the xover assembly would be a nice, and hopefully inexpensive addition to the kit, plus a way to mount it.

Please forgive the redundancy in my exposition...it's a bit of a cut and paste of an email sent to parts express.

Summary - seems like nice quality components in the kit, but the overall impression is severely downgraded by the quality of the instructions.

[fouchagalaga]

I actually never had any instructions or nuts included in my kit.... but still I managed to finish building it a few months ago . Curt, the speaker designer answered many of my questions so I'd like to say thanks to him.. The only thing you got me worried about is that big inductor that I glued with hot glue I don't want to see my speakers fail!!

[djoffe]

I was lucky enough to have my inductor come unglued while it was still easy to deal with. Perhaps if yours is mounted on the bottom of the speaker, gravity will work in your favor.

Curt was also kind enough to answer the questions that the instructions didn't...

BTW...assembly of the second box is finished...I still need to sand the wood filler over the screw holes...then mount the drivers and see how the stereo pair sounds...

[fouchagalaga]

I actually didn't have a premade enclosure I built it from what was written on Curt's site, I bought components at my electronics store.. and ordered drivers from parts express.. I put the crossover behind the drivers. You'll see that they're a good sounding pair. They also can go pretty loud without distortion

[djoffe]

I finished building mine and have done some listening...I like them...well worth the $200 for the parts express kit....now if they'd just improved the directions a bit!