Building the RA-8 from Raw Acoustic

[TedPolzin]

Ok ... I've been thinking about building some new speakers for a while now and with fathers day comming up my wife gave me a early gift ... I can build new speakers

I then set out to find something new that would wow me. After speaking with Al for a good hour on the phone and countless e-mails (how does he ever get any work done ) I decided to go with the RA8. Part because they should sound fantastic ... part because my wife approves and likes the way they look (as long as the finish is "shiny" she says)

So what did I build ... a total of three RA-8's for the LCR ... I have a front projection system so the center will fit nicely there.

For more info on the build process please see the thread at AudioCircle



For my impressions,

Anyways ... amazing is what I have to describe the sound ... clear is another ... speech has always been "hard to hear" unless I turn up the calibration on the center way to high ... of course that lead to other problems .... I have also never had a properly matching front stage ... now all I can say is wow ... speech is clear and there ... I can hear everything I'm supposed to ... both in movies and TV. Also I was playing with things last night and went outside ... I had not realized I turned it up that loud .. I could hear it clearly to the garage ... hmm .. always in the past if I turned it up louder it would hurt the ears before I got to loud ... not this time ...

I put on short passages from the following movies

Black hawk down .... very very good .. could hear the bullets and still hear people talking ... in the past that has been hard ..

Resident evil 2 .. say what you will about the movie the sound is fantastic ...

Star Wars 3 - opening scene .. wow things were buzzing around me every which way

War of the worlds - scene where the tripods first emerge ... again wow

Also it was amazing how the speakers melded ... it really was one very big speaker across the front ... nothing else to say ....

Well I'll let things break in for a while before doing a better demo .. I've also got some new electronics coming in a week or so ( the UL's from Mark Schiffler .... I'm in the first shipment ). I'm looking forward to seeing what those electronics do for these speakers....

Feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Ted

[Cal Weldon]

Very nice Ted. Both you and Al must be very pleased. He has always been very accomodating. He's also a really nice guy by the way.

[MarkR]

Good job Ted

How about posting a pic of all 3 from the listening posistion?

[RAW]

Thanks guys for the comments
Ted is doing a very good job with his speakers.

Yes we have talked a lot on the phone to get him going with veneer and he really sounds like he did not mind the veneer work.

Pictures would be good he for those not sure what the speakers is here is his fine work

pict did not work

For those who have not seen the glue he is using, this stuffworks sweet.
Apply it let it dry and iron on.

A lot stronger than Yellow glue as this product has crossbinders in the glue that set with heat.


Well done Ted

[blue934]

al or ted, could you explain what exactly you are doing with the tiles and what kind of tiles they are?
thanks
david

[RAW]

Vibration damping of the cabinet walls.
These are just peel andstick floor tiles from HD or any other supplier.
The trick with the tiles.Pick a tile that has a very good PSA (glue)
To check this just peel back a cornr of the paper in the store and push your finger into the tile.

You will see that not all the best PSA (Glue) in on all tiles.