Focal Utopia bookshelf /w pics - Finally, I finished something!

[SpeakerNut]

Hello all,

I built this for a friend. Lucky him, it was for cheap! No more freebies from now on. The cabinet is mated with the Focal Utopia 165W car kit. Believe me, it sounds good for home too! Lacquer based Dupli-Color automotive paint, applied with a spray gun, wet sanded and buffed to near perfection. Phew, lots of hard work!

See my website if you wish to learn more about spray painting (note: I said it takes 1 week to dry, but it really depends on how much paint applied.. In this case, I waited 2 months).







Now that I got this out of the way, I will work on my new bookshelf cabinet. I'm using the Audiom TD5 and 6W midrange. My current setup sounds very impressive, but looks ghetto. That'll change next year. :-)



James

[SpeakerNut]

BTW, go here to see in progress pics:

http://www.exquisiteaudio.ca/bookshelf/

James

[Kittle]

nice looking stuff there!

I wish I could afford some of those TD5s for my own project.

[Vikash]

Hi James, that is a great effort. Every time I get to a cabinet finishing stage things seems to stop but that is a fantastic finish you've got on those speakers

But why car drivers?

[SpeakerNut]

Thanks all,

Tweeter is Focal TN51
Midbass is Focal Utopia 6W4331 (or something like that).


As for why car drivers? Well, he bought it for his car but then decided to try it for home first and it stayed that way. :-)

James

[jomor]

Originally posted by SpeakerNut
Thanks all,

Tweeter is Focal TN51
Midbass is Focal Utopia 6W4331 (or something like that).

if you re refering to the car kit, the midbasses are 6W2.

Great work.

[Mos Fetish]

Nice job, James.

Did you use PVA for cabinet gluing?

Any concerns about joins showing in the shiny finish?

What did you seal the mdf with?

Mos

[SpeakerNut]

Mos:

Thanks. I just used normal yellow carpenter's glue. I used a biscuit jointer and butt jointed everythying together. For the seams, I used fibre glass automotive filler (really hard stuff too, unlike the pink filler). It looked like it worked at first, but the seams started to show up after a few days. IT doesn't look obvious, but under close examination, you will see the seams in some areas (popping upwards). For the time being, I'm not sure what else to use. I'll definately be looking for alternatives so if someone knows what to use forsure, let me know. :-)

Before I sprayed the automotive black paint, I sealed it with Dupli-Color automotive primer and sprayed on ~4 medium coats and lots of sanding in between.

James