Clarity on Seas Thor Kit

[planet10]

Originally posted by jackinnj
the second -- "Fat Thor" or "Short Thor" -- what do you think?

It would be nice to have both, but if only 1 then the "Fat Thor" since it is a direct result of Joe's missteps in measuring. "Short Thor" is more an alternate.

dave

[jgwinner]

I've had my Thor's for a year or two now, and like them.

I had originally built them 'as is' with the intention of trying some alternates. I was originally thinking of a ribbon tweeter instead of the seas but most of this was just conjecture.

I did the Mathcad workup a while back and posted pic's of the Thor's output, but I don't think we had this much of a rolicking discussion.

I use them now in my home theater. I want to build a center channel with the same line length and drivers, but 'flat' so that it'll sit behind our screen (I think I posted some musings a while back). My screen is a 'DAZIAN' fabric screen, it's acoustically transparent.

I had in mind building 6, but truth be told I wanted to try a curved Electrostatic for the front 3 speakers.

I went with the Thors vs Electrostatics because the horizontal dispersion is much better of course with the conventional speakers. I listened to some Martin Logan's and some Magnepans, but for home theater those I don't think would fit the bill (too directional). So I built the Thors with the thought of using the 'stats for the front and the Thors for the rears.

I haven't posted pictures because the walnut veneer bubbled up all over the speaker. I haven't figured out how to repair that. I used 'self stick' veneer because I didn't want to mess with vacuum bagging or glue. Now the wife has picked Mahogony for the trim in the hallway so I may have to rip off the walnut anyway.

For some odd reason my wife actually thinks the Thors are smaller than my old Technics 8" 3 way's ... apparently height and depth weren't the issue, just the width. So if the 'Falstaf' is kept deep but narrow, the cabinet might have WAF (at least mine )

I'm in the middle of a HUGE renovation to our living room. I have 12 pairs of 12 gauge plenum rated speaker wire running to 6 corners of the living room, and need to seal up the big hole in the attic Making enough wire to biamp all 6 speakers (6.1 setup).

Maybe in a month or two I could build another set of cabinets.

Anyway, I'm rambling. The Thors seem to have a good range to me and seem accurate - meaning that one time while watching a movie with an actor speaking to stage right, I thought someone was standing in our dining room. That split second of 'holy cow who's there?' in the dark room was astounding. All due to the Thor's. (my center channel is an unremarkable Sony speaker).

Anyway, when I get the house reassembled anyone is welcome to come listen, with advance notice. At the rate I'm going, that'll be Christmas

(I'm in Torrance, btw, SoCal)

[jgwinner]

That's Christmas 2006

I just hope I don't flail around in the attic again playing twister.

You have to play twister in the attic - one toe on each beam. Step in the middle (the white part) and you fall all the way through.

Last time I slipped I flailed around and cut my hand open on a roof nail - got a 1" gash on it a few weeks ago. I kept a knee on the beam though, ceiling still intact. This renovation thing isn't killing me yet, but I'm working on it.

Two days ago as I was just finishing up the wife says she wants the projector on EITHER end of the room. So now I have to run a VGA cable from one end (with the stereo gear in a built in), to the other end of the living room, so the projector can get a signal.

The Fat Thors will have to wait ...

[DJNUBZ]

got 2 questions

1. Do any of you feel there is a better kit out there then the thor for the same amount of money? It seems to me that the Thor is not only a truely high end speaker but it also is affordable (relatively).

2. If you had to compare this seas design to a retail product what would it be? Mabey giving people on this site a retail speaker they can hear in a store will encourage them to build this speaker.

[jackinnj]

Originally posted by jgwinner


I haven't posted pictures because the walnut veneer bubbled up all over the speaker. I haven't figured out how to repair that. I used 'self stick' veneer because I didn't want to mess with vacuum bagging or glue. Now the wife has picked Mahogony for the trim in the hallway so I may have to rip off the walnut anyway.

Sometimes you can repair these types of veneer problems by applying a hot iron to the surface -- it will remelt the adhesive. You can also get a metal "turkey baster" type of glue injection gun and apply a bit under the surface.

The best, most reliable veneering for the DIY'r is done with the nasty polymer contact cements --

Wasn't Mediavision (later Aureal Semi) in Torrance ?

Edit: my THOR parts arrived early this week. Per the previous discussions I am building one standard, government issue THOR and one which incorporates the new calculations. (if I can only find my calibrated microphone!!!)

[jgwinner]

I think I'll need to slit the veneer and inject the glue to make it work. I haven't tried the iron thing - but the glue is still sort of sticky, if I push the bubble down it makes a sticky noise before it pops up.

You'll almost certainly beat me on the box.

If I turn the speakers on the 'side' and put the drivers in the side instead of the front, that's theoretically the same speaker, right?

As near as I remember Martin had earlier said something about the standard Thor port being too small. One experiement I was thinking about was to make the port bigger - but I didn't see that that was a conclusion in this thread.

Are you building the angled version or building a pedestal?

Oh - I also have a Radio Shack SPL meter - if anyone wants me to do some testing with the speakers I might be in a position to do that this weekend.

Not sure about Mediavision ... there's a lot of stuff in Torrance you'd never know. It's really LA but no one wants to claim that Stewart is here, if I got a commercial screen the delivery would be easy.

[planet10]

Originally posted by jgwinner
f I turn the speakers on the 'side' and put the drivers in the side instead of the front, that's theoretically the same speaker, right?

The only concern there is that you will screw up the baffle step compensation in the XO

If you were going to go as far as fixing that time to consider just making it a bipole as well.

dave

[indoubt]

Originally posted by DJNUBZ
got 2 questions

1. Do any of you feel there is a better kit out there then the thor for the same amount of money? It seems to me that the Thor is not only a truely high end speaker but it also is affordable (relatively).

2. If you had to compare this seas design to a retail product what would it be? Mabey giving people on this site a retail speaker they can hear in a store will encourage them to build this speaker.

1. there are designs that might be better but gennerally will also cost more. It's up to what you like as well.

2. There is a loudspeaker, the "Xanadu HR33" which looks like the Thor but has a Scan speak ringradiator as tweeter. I doubt whether they are sold anywhere near at your place. They are yours for a little over 10000 USD (a pair)

http://www.xanaduspeakers.nl/hrs33/

[DJNUBZ]

those are som beutiful speakers. Can you guys list some more retail speakers that use the seas exel driver?

[Scottmoose]

Nice finish. I bet that Nordost wire costs 4 times the price of the speakers though. Well, 4 times the price of the Thor kit anyway.
John -I don't think it's the mouth area that's the problem -that's pretty much fine as it stands; what does appear to be a problem though is basic cabinet volume or lack thereof (hense Shorthor and Fathor). The drivers are great though, few would dispute that.
Dave, I'm with you entirely regarding the bipolar notion. Perhaps a bipolar Fathor would be a good option? Given how deep that cabinet is though, you'd need a BIG room. And an understanding wife... That said, a genuine wide-baffle variation (would probably need to be widened another 6"-7" as a rough guesstimate) could be interesting.

Cheers
Scott