FS: Curved custom TL speaker box (Melb)

[paulspencer]

For sale is a pair of curved transmission line speaker boxes in Melbourne Australia. They were hand crafted around 2004. When you see them you'll realise why they are a one of a kind - very difficult to curve a TL speaker! They were "carved out" and shaped by hand using a hand plane (around 8 hours for that alone) and many hours work with a belt sander.



Front baffle is 36mm MDF, 18mm rear and the sides vary from 18 - 30mm due to the curve. The base at the bottom is made out of solid hardwood.

The veneer is Pommele Makore and was purchased as a long roll of 700mm wide to eliminate any joins. It has a redish colour and I stained it rosewood then sprayed many coats of satin varnish and polished by hand.

Driver recess is for Vifa P17 and D25AG drivers, but many other drivers are very similar in performance and identical in cutout requirements.

The inside is lined with open cell foam and dacron filling is also included.

Not shown but included are a pair of grilles which I made (I never really use them).

Reason for selling?
I now prefer open baffle. It's hard to let go of these but I'm simply not using them. When it comes to giving them up, you might need to bring tissues!

How do they sound?
IMHO they are a cut above conventional box speakers. Like sealed boxes, you can fill the box with stuffing to kill reflections and get a more neutral sound - you can do this without giving up bass. You get deep and natural bass. Going from these speakers only to subs was very disappointing as the bass was far less articulate than I was used to. Acoustic double bass is particularly good. They also go deep. I've measured ~23 Hz in room extension in rooms which didn't appear to have any room gain.

How much?
Make me a reasonable offer. Considering the work that went into them, a reasonable offer would have to at least cover the cost of materials. The original cost including drivers was around $1100. I've heard speakers costing over $3k that were inferior to my ears.

What is needed
Drivers + crossover - everything else is included. You can use the same drivers and crossover or other drivers if they fit and their parameters are suitable. I can help with this.

Demo
If you are seriously considering buying them, I'm happy to set up a demo and put the drivers back in.

Specs
1200mm high x 360 deep x 210 wide at front
Weight: 33kg each
Tweeter is at ~900mm high which is ear level on most couches

Photos - they are VERY hard to photograph! They actually don't look as dark in real life as this one:

Front view:



As you can see, the sides and top are curved which creates an interesting line on the top edge where the two curves join.

Top:


Rear view:


The rear chamber is lined with foam - I wanted the rear to look good as well. It's made 36mm thick around the terminus to create a more solid feel.

Top corner:


At each edge I made the veneer double thickness. The veneer itself is 0.5mm thick per layer. Two layers meant I could round over the edge slightly without going through the veneer. Gives it a more classy feel. It was very tedious and difficult to do with the curves. One thing I can't stand is sharp veneer edges and bits chipping off like cheap furniture.

Base:


I wanted to continue the curves to the base, so I added an inset base made of hardwood, painted satin black.

They aren't perfect. The veneer over the curves was difficult and there are some cracks, but most people don't notice unless I point them out.

[paulspencer]

PS - there are 2 of them!

[domtw]

I　ｃａｎｎｏｔ　ｓｅｅ　ａｎｙ　ｐｉｃｔｕｒｅｓ，　ｎｏｔ　ｔｈａｔ　Ｉ　ｗｏｕｌｄ　ｂｕｙ　ｂｕ ｔ　ｂｙ　ｃｕｒｉｏｓｉｔｙ．．．

[paulspencer]

This is puzzling. The pics work just fine from my end (yes they are posted on the internet).

[wigginjs]

Where did you learn how to apply veneer? Beautiful work.... I'd like to learn your technique.

[paulspencer]

Thanks. I learnt while doing this project! The flat parts are much easier, I can tell you that. The edges are the challenge, where I put an extra strip to get a very slight roundover, the strip along each edge was recessed with the router.