Curved Small Thor Build

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Thank you for the compliments.
And Yep, My order from Homestead Finishing today. Told ya.
I ordered the new MDF build and primer they just started offering it, well see how well it works. One quart.
One quart black high gloss Ultma laquer,
one gallon high gloss Ultma laquer. I need for other jobs not related to speakers.
I'll post my progress with my HVLP and turbine. Graco 700.
Ron
 
As it turned out the Fuhr primer was great! On the face of the MDF only 2 coats were required for stablization, however 4 coats were required for the routered / cut edges. No problem this stuff dries fast. Less than 10 minuites between coats. It does require sanding due to the build thickness / roughness after drying.
Highly recommended as a sealer / primer.

Renron
 

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These next 2 photos are kinda out of build order. Sorry, but still important in construction details.
Port tube cut to length, routered into backside of baffle and glued into place. Not shown is speaker grill cloth stretched and taped over the opening to prevent toy and food storage by children. ;)
It also prevents viewing of the crossover components.

Renron
 

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Gluing and clamping of baffles after routing proper depth to flush mount drivers. The baffle in the foreground has already been clamped and glued for 6 hours and the weight is in place for added measures until 24 hour dry time has been reached.

Renron
 

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After painting and before clear coating the sides / baffle with Oxford Ultma Waterbase Laquer in clear gloss.
Ultma Laquer black gloss on baffle / top.
6 coats black
5 coats clear over stained cherry veneer with dewaxed shellac base. Every thing is waterbase execpt the stain. All were sprayed with a deicated HVLP cup gun and 1.2 needle cap set. HVLP turbine was used and not a compressor / conversion spray gun.

Renron
 

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After 5 coats of clear USL. No sanding needed between coats, recoat in 45 minuites!!! Horray!! All finish coats in one day....unheard of. Gotta love waterbase finishes. Another plus is quick flash / skin time, this helps prevent dust nibs. Big plus over oil base finishes flash time.
The top and face of the baffle are a different finish than the corners, I wanted to give the baffle and top a slight texture but wanted to keep the corners a smooth semi-gloss finish. After the 4th clear coat dried to the touch, about 5 minuites, I resprayed the fronts and tops from a distance of 14"-16". This causes the finish to dry on aproach and form "beads" that split upon impact but still have a slightly dried film. The next clear coats were sprayed only on the sides and corners of the cabinets from a distance of 2"-3" and overspray was expected and wanted. You can see how they turned out. Great!

Renron
 

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A photo of the drivers installed and speakers living next to the custom HT cabinet I built. Just so you know for size comparison that is a 50" plasma Monitor. These are not small speakers!
They frame the Monitor perfectly with the black baffles and do not glare at all when viewing movies.

As to the sound:
The first disc we listened to was Metalica S&M with the San Francisco Philharmonic Orchestra. WOW! I was able to discern individual violins, French horns differ from other horns (all playing at the same time) each drum strike was unique and discernible, the guitars that were changed mid performance sounded different due to the changed configuration. Awesome...Very Happy. Even the wifee was impressed. We watched the entire DVD at a loud volume and never did it sound stressed or distorted. Later I tried full volume from the mid level Sony 100 watt player and noted the Sony distorted and not the speakers.
:whazzat: I knew that would happen. Upgrade advise anyone?

Next up was a Spanish acoustical guitar with maracas and bass acoustical guitar, I felt like I should tip them when they finished...It truly sounded like they were in the same room as us. :D I think I'll keep these speakers.....;)
I can't wait until I reach the 100+ hour break in mark.

Bass seems a little shy, but that could change when the drivers and x-overs are broken in. I turned up the Bass output from the receiver by +2 and they sound right on. A VERY slight addition of a sub-woofer fills out the sound image nicely when the Bass amp section is left at 0.

Thank you all very, very much for the input and calculations you made to make this build possible. I am in your debt.

AFAIK, I am the first to build a curved Thor:cheerful:

Renron
 

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Thanks,
Ya know...., these are really your two guys speakers!
Scott, I'll keep that in mind.

Dave, Yesterday. :D for 4 hours.

When these break in a bit I will take these to my friend Brian's High end HT store. Lots of Usher speaker to compare with, I'll let you know how the Thor's compare sound wise. My money's on the Thors. Brian use to have on online speaker parts store and knows Elliot from Zalytron well.

Call me prejudice.

Renron
 
More work was needed on installing the drivers....:whazzat:
Even though I installed the drivers (test fit) in the cabinets prior to painting them, the screw / bolt holes did not line up perfectly afterwards. My fault. I drilled from the rear of the baffle instead of from the front side. I installed threadded mounts because after flush routing the baffle for the drivers I was left with about 1/2" of MDF for the driver screw threads. I did not want to take a chance and thought that was not enough material for a good thread bite. Some of the threadded inserts came out when I tried to install the allen bolts. :( So the drivers had to come out completely and use different type inserts. I found a screw in type from OSH hardware that was a perfect use on MDF. I changed out about 1/4 of the inserts and then chased out the threads on the rest of the inserts. (should have cleaned the threads to start with) I was lazy! I paid the price for it too! :smash:

Now with all the bolt holes filled and drivers tightened in place the bass has increased and the snap from snare drums sounds like it should. ;) I won't be trimming the ports. Thanks thou.

A few last pics of the totally completed project.

Maybe this week I will get a chance to take them to the local Hi-End stereo store and make listening comparrisions. I'll post the results after the tests and what Brian's thoughts are on this design.

Renron
 

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Found some more Bass!!!!

I found a problem that I created myself during my build process.
I was trying to prevent the stray objects that somehow get inserted into the port openings of the speakers by covering the back of the port with speaker cloth.
While I was playing 10Hz - 300Hz test tones I noticed a tapping inside one speaker. I touched the inside of the cloth and the rattle stopped. So...out came the grill cloth.
Whamo!
Bass db levels jumped up by 3 points on my Rat Shack digital meter. Not measured properly just sitting on a stand. I played a ZZ Top song and the bass now sound just right. Happy guy!
Just for fun I started the test CD again and I CAN hear the speakers starting to make sound at 12dB. In the mid thirties they come alive!
I can only guess that the grill cloth was acting like a vario-vent and closing off the port.
You guys are supposed to keep us dumb-a__'s from doin' this kinda stuff.
:rolleyes:

Seriously though, thanks for all the help.
Ron
 
Tarasque,
I am very happy with my speakers and feel they serve my medium size room listening requirements well. I use them for stereo music / stereo with seperate subwoofer / home theater surround fronts. These speakers are extremely detailed and clear, especially in the full midrange and tweeter sections. You WILL hear everything that is wrong with the recordings.... That's good and bad.
If Iwere to build them again......I would build the cabinets 1" - 2" deeper than the build for the "Small Thors", somewhere inbetween the "Small" and the "Short" sizes. I'm not going to rebuild my speakers thou. I would also design into the plans changing the front baffle to (2) 3/4" thick MDF rather than (1) 3/4". I did not like the Plinth look so I used a smaller footprint and it seems to work just fine, No problems with being top heavy.

I suppose the reason I would build the cabinets larger internally is the "What If ?? " theory of thinking. Then again I built these due to a high WAF :smash: , always has to be taken into concideration. ;)

AS to where to find the plans... Its a Very long thread and you should read all of it and the other "Thor" threads on this forum too.

Thor designs

If you have questions about the build that may not be of use to other builders you may email me and I will respond ASAP. If you start a new thread put a link to it here and I will be notified of the new thread.

I just noticed that you mentioned you do not like a square box style. Sorry I did not notice that before. There are no plans (that I know of) for the curved sided Thor(s). I calculated the volume of the small Thor and then designed my own cabinets to match that volume. I made a template of the finished exterior sizes of both cabinets and drew outlines on paper, calculated the volume difference, multiplied that by the height of the interior then made up for the difference with an extra 1" cabinet depth. Worked out very close a little smaller volume than Small Thor but not by much.
Maybe 2"-3" ^.

Good Luck,
Ron
 
Hi Renron,

Congratulations on a beautiful set of speakers. That stained cherry looks fabulous. I always enjoy seeing designs other than a square box.

As for being first with a curved Thor, I don't know... I did mine two years ago ;) You can find some pictures of it here.
--
Rune R
 
Rune,
If you built yours 2+ years ago then AFAIK, YOU are the first to build a non-rectangular curved Thor based speaker.
OMG those look gorgeous! And I'm sure they sound just as nice too!
How did you recess the binding posts into plywood? Looks like solid wood to me. Did you have a 2x4 of solid wood underneath? and use a Ship auger style bit? Man. those speakers really do look wonderful. Very cool design. How is it I have never seen any posted pics on any of the discussions before? Too bad, I could have used you help with mine, maybe they would have looked as great as yours.
Very nice job Rune.
What type of components (caps and resistors and coils) (OH MY!) did you use in the crossovers. How has the sound changed over the two years of break-in?

Humbly,
Renron
 
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