I think I must have gotten the (or close to) the last kit Meniscus had because the RS28A-4 tweeter is NLA, seemingly for awhile, as I notice it's been taken off of PE's site as well.
Really strange because, I am not a bookshelf or small monitor type. I bought this kit on impulse, and a bit of novelty due to having heard one pair of LS3/5a's in the later part of the 70's. I had a shop foreman, who was from England, who had carted that pair of speakers with him quite a ways around the world by that point. We (myself, and a few of the other shop guys) all hung out together after work and on weekends. Our stereo speakers were typically louder, party type speakers, so we used to joke with him about his little monitors. I had to admit though, in the small efficiency he lived in at the time, they actually sounded quite good, especially after a few beers. Anyhow, that was the only time I have seen/heard a pair of those and had totally forgotten about them.
I have already built a pair of Jeff Bagby's Fusion-12 design from diysoundgroup, which I am quite fond of, so I have a bit of confidence with his designs. So I start reading about the design goals with the Continuum and I come across a picture of the LS3/5 speakers! That tickled me just enough to instantly click the "add to cart" option! And I need another pair of speakers like a hole in the head.
Still, they're little speakers and I didn't expect much, figuring I'll use them for desktops or something trivial. I made the cabinets out of MDF so not committing to any real money in the finish in the event that they just sound so-so. Well, when I fired these little chunks up, I was so pleasantly surprised by how nice they sounded, that they instantly became pricelessly valuable. An instant, favorite small possession.
Is this the best sounding small speaker I have ever heard? Hard to say. All I can say is that even if it isn't, I don't care. I don't, or will never need a speaker that sounds better than this one in this category for a small, 2.1, music only setup. I have it accompanied by a Dayton 12" Ultimax subwoofer.
Really strange because, I am not a bookshelf or small monitor type. I bought this kit on impulse, and a bit of novelty due to having heard one pair of LS3/5a's in the later part of the 70's. I had a shop foreman, who was from England, who had carted that pair of speakers with him quite a ways around the world by that point. We (myself, and a few of the other shop guys) all hung out together after work and on weekends. Our stereo speakers were typically louder, party type speakers, so we used to joke with him about his little monitors. I had to admit though, in the small efficiency he lived in at the time, they actually sounded quite good, especially after a few beers. Anyhow, that was the only time I have seen/heard a pair of those and had totally forgotten about them.
I have already built a pair of Jeff Bagby's Fusion-12 design from diysoundgroup, which I am quite fond of, so I have a bit of confidence with his designs. So I start reading about the design goals with the Continuum and I come across a picture of the LS3/5 speakers! That tickled me just enough to instantly click the "add to cart" option! And I need another pair of speakers like a hole in the head.
Still, they're little speakers and I didn't expect much, figuring I'll use them for desktops or something trivial. I made the cabinets out of MDF so not committing to any real money in the finish in the event that they just sound so-so. Well, when I fired these little chunks up, I was so pleasantly surprised by how nice they sounded, that they instantly became pricelessly valuable. An instant, favorite small possession.
Is this the best sounding small speaker I have ever heard? Hard to say. All I can say is that even if it isn't, I don't care. I don't, or will never need a speaker that sounds better than this one in this category for a small, 2.1, music only setup. I have it accompanied by a Dayton 12" Ultimax subwoofer.
I have more build pictures if anyone is interested but figure since this design has been around awhile, there really isn't that much I can add to the world of kit speaker building.
I do have 3 rolls of different kinds of veneer, one of which is a birch burl that a buddy traded to me that he was going to wrap some drums in at one point that would probably look nice on these. I am hesitant to reproduce these cabinets in solid wood, since where I live has high humidity more than not. Plus, they sound fabulous in MDF and I don't want to really mess with that. I know Baltic birch plywood is a popular material but I am not especially fond of that and it's considerably lighter than this MDF.
Here's one photo that shows where I mounted the crossover on the battens that the rear panels are attached to behind the tweeter. Figured it couldn't hurt to have it further away from the larger magnet of the woofer. Not really sure if the flux from the woofer magnet would interfere with the inductors or not but it seemed like as good a place as any.
Still, I am feeling lucky I ordered these when I did. They've been pretty much playing non-stop since I finished them last weekend, or anytime I have been home, at least.
I do have 3 rolls of different kinds of veneer, one of which is a birch burl that a buddy traded to me that he was going to wrap some drums in at one point that would probably look nice on these. I am hesitant to reproduce these cabinets in solid wood, since where I live has high humidity more than not. Plus, they sound fabulous in MDF and I don't want to really mess with that. I know Baltic birch plywood is a popular material but I am not especially fond of that and it's considerably lighter than this MDF.
Here's one photo that shows where I mounted the crossover on the battens that the rear panels are attached to behind the tweeter. Figured it couldn't hurt to have it further away from the larger magnet of the woofer. Not really sure if the flux from the woofer magnet would interfere with the inductors or not but it seemed like as good a place as any.
Still, I am feeling lucky I ordered these when I did. They've been pretty much playing non-stop since I finished them last weekend, or anytime I have been home, at least.
One thing else I did was throw together a pair of quick and dirty stands for them out of pipe scraps at work. For now I just have speaker rounds from a subwoofer build screwed onto the tops of these. It took me about 45 minutes so not a lot of design, or aesthetic thought went into them but they actually are ok and more stable than they look. I had them atop my Fusion Tempests and they were too high up, although, they even sounded great up there.
Still working on the speakers adding veneer. Haven't painted the stands yet for the rain every weekend since I built them.
The birch burl I got has many holes around the figure so I opted to use epoxy because the brown of the sealed MDF is about the same color. The epoxy transmits the background color through the surface and you cannot tell of any inconsistencies. Otherwise, I would have had to use a colored glue, which could stain the veneer or just look like off colored filler.
Here's what the veneer looks like where the epoxy seeped through. I had visqueen between the press and the veneer. I will epoxy seal the entire works and then block sand everything level. I can use any clear varnish or urethane over epoxy and this veneer will never creep, blister or split and be highly resistant to any seasonal changes.
The birch burl I got has many holes around the figure so I opted to use epoxy because the brown of the sealed MDF is about the same color. The epoxy transmits the background color through the surface and you cannot tell of any inconsistencies. Otherwise, I would have had to use a colored glue, which could stain the veneer or just look like off colored filler.
Here's what the veneer looks like where the epoxy seeped through. I had visqueen between the press and the veneer. I will epoxy seal the entire works and then block sand everything level. I can use any clear varnish or urethane over epoxy and this veneer will never creep, blister or split and be highly resistant to any seasonal changes.
A follow up long overdue. I had crated up the drivers/crossovers for these speakers when we fled Hurricane Irma last year. Figured if I came back to a leveled home, I could use these to jump start my audio rebuild. I had already listened to them in their plain Jane enclosures in which to arrive at the conclusion that I could live with these speakers pretty much indefinitely. Not a bad way to live.
They're veneered and currently under about 10-12 coats of unsanded gloss, nitro lacquer. I wish I could take as good a photos as this clear actually sprayed and leveled. I ended up using Behlen music instrument lacquer uncut, except for approx. 7% retarder for my hot and humid climate here. I will give them a month or three to sufficiently harden up before cut and polish or, cut and flash coat, depending on how the sanding goes.
Here's a shot before assembly. I did not have to treat the woofer cutout. The epoxy sealed MDF is a great brown for this species. The grain ends up telegraphing through the many clear (epoxy and lacquer) coats to look believable as a natural end grain result. Totally by luck, but I'll take it. The photos don't do any justice to the 3D depth effect of the lacquer over this burl.
Since the veneer was not ordered for this speaker specifically (I ended up with this via customer indecisiveness) I could not keep the grain orientations 100% true. I was not going to veneer the backs initially but this is what the drops I had left over allowed so I used it up here.
Still love listening to these speakers. Also ended up with a spare set of diaphragms for the now NLA Dayton RS28A-4 tweeter, along with another pair of the tweeters themselves.
They're veneered and currently under about 10-12 coats of unsanded gloss, nitro lacquer. I wish I could take as good a photos as this clear actually sprayed and leveled. I ended up using Behlen music instrument lacquer uncut, except for approx. 7% retarder for my hot and humid climate here. I will give them a month or three to sufficiently harden up before cut and polish or, cut and flash coat, depending on how the sanding goes.
Here's a shot before assembly. I did not have to treat the woofer cutout. The epoxy sealed MDF is a great brown for this species. The grain ends up telegraphing through the many clear (epoxy and lacquer) coats to look believable as a natural end grain result. Totally by luck, but I'll take it. The photos don't do any justice to the 3D depth effect of the lacquer over this burl.
Since the veneer was not ordered for this speaker specifically (I ended up with this via customer indecisiveness) I could not keep the grain orientations 100% true. I was not going to veneer the backs initially but this is what the drops I had left over allowed so I used it up here.
Still love listening to these speakers. Also ended up with a spare set of diaphragms for the now NLA Dayton RS28A-4 tweeter, along with another pair of the tweeters themselves.
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I have them temporarily sitting on, and crossed over to my two, RSS315HF-4 subs. A match made in heaven, really. Another plus I had not considered since these were first built and used with a single ultimax 12" instead.
The monoblocks in the photo are Pass DIY ACA amps that I have been powering the Fusion-12's with. These Continuum speakers I am running on the Denon 3805 crossed over at 80hz to the subs. Really nice sounding setup.
The monoblocks in the photo are Pass DIY ACA amps that I have been powering the Fusion-12's with. These Continuum speakers I am running on the Denon 3805 crossed over at 80hz to the subs. Really nice sounding setup.
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