Help understanding the internal structures of the Proteus

[jerseyguy1996]

Hello,

I am building the Proteus speaker designed by Tony Gee. I screwed up. On the image below, the internal structure that is highlighted in red has a hole cut in the side of it. There is another hole on the other side. This structure forms the enclosure for the tweeter as well as the sides of the ports. Well I glued everything up and then suddenly realized that I forgot to cut those holes. I can try to take everything apart but it is a lot of glue joints (some which I can't even reach now) and I am concerned that I will do a lot of damage this way.

So the question is: How important are those holes to the finished result?


Proteus_hole_question by jg1996business, on Flickr

Here is another view:


Proteus_hole_question-2 by jg1996business, on Flickr

One more image to show the internal structure of this component, including the piece of mdf that forms the back of the tweeter enclosure:


Proteus_hole_question-3 by jg1996business, on Flickr

 

[Juhazi]

Here original paper http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/download/Humble%20Homemade%20Hifi_Proteus_copy.pdf

The holes are not important because the length of reflex ports remains same.

 

[Greebster]

the effect of not cutting those holes will be minimal.

 

[jerseyguy1996]

Fantastic news! Thanks guys! I have a third one that is cut out but not glued up yet so perhaps I will cut the holes in that one and see if I hear any difference. I expect I won't.

 

[Inductor]

Make it the same (for stereo match) is my advice. They work only as bracing...
"Nuance" (resonant frequencies/distortions or reflections) is not affected if you are lucky.
Experiment. Use the inside space available with some light DACRON® Fiberfill damping.

 

[jerseyguy1996]

Make it the same (for stereo match) is my advice. They work only as bracing...
"Nuance" (resonant frequencies/distortions or reflections) is not affected if you are lucky.
Experiment. Use the inside space available with some light DACRON® Fiberfill damping.

Thanks! Tony Gee used carpet tiles and wedge moulded foam to line all of the inside walls on his. I was going to use either carpet tiles or carpet underlay and I purchased some of these:

Acoustic Foam 1-1/2" x 24" x 18" UL 94 260-516

I also have some polyfill to fill the space directly behind the woofers. I'm sure it will take some playing around with it to get it just right.

 

[Inductor]

I'm sure it will give you excellent speakers. Just having in mind if you remove a partial piece of wood from inside the speaker (let's say for the sake of an arbitrary example 1-2L with handles space, bracing, vents, drivers or other) in this case 2 circles of wood from each speaker, the alignment and net volume will change giving you minimal almost not measurable changes in fractions of a dB, as was posted by other members but make sure the speakers having the same form (internal/alignment) for more or less. After knowing the detail it makes sense...

 

[AllenB]

I'd put some wadding in there, just to be safe.