They'll be fine for bass.
High end response may be a little 'polite'.
These are an ambitious project you've built.
Kudos
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Will make a new posting when I had a little time to listen. I need to allow some hours to make sure speakers elements are "broken in".
Plan for painting is to spray with car paint. I have done some earlier on my kids furniture using a self made spray booth in the garage. Result was ok. Will try harder this time. Really want complete all of it myself 🙂
Looking at some dark grey metallic colors. Want the color to have a little contrast against black speaker elements.
Good Luck! You'll be rewarded with amazing sound! It will expose the weaknesses in your system. Be prepared. The components and design are that good to impart a great sense of
transparency and detail.
I've built a similar Illuminator 13" 3-way project with the 32W/8878T01 + 18WU/8741T00 - D2904/66000 using a series fed 2nd order crossover for the M+T. Don't skimp on caps and coils, and don't be afraid to voice the speakers to your taste and room. You may have to tweak the tweeter to your ear and room. Allow for 50hrs of break in before any tweaks.
The 18WU is dynamic and transparent. It can handle a lot before any compression. The large Superior Z mid caps are unbeatable for its price - they give the most neutral and coherent sound. I tried Mundorf Evo Oil + Superior Z combination, and it was too edgy for the Scan-Speak cones. For the highs, I'm using Mundorf Silver Oil + Audyn Reference combination and it's very airy, smooth, extended, coherent, and detailed.
Here's a photo of my crossover - version #5. Duelund 0.01uF Silver Bypass caps on mid and tweeter increase the transients and sense of realism. The Vishay MKP1837 Bypass caps increase the separation of instruments and render slight 3-D imaging... Again all this is a matter of taste and experimentation.
Post the final pics! 🙂
transparency and detail.
I've built a similar Illuminator 13" 3-way project with the 32W/8878T01 + 18WU/8741T00 - D2904/66000 using a series fed 2nd order crossover for the M+T. Don't skimp on caps and coils, and don't be afraid to voice the speakers to your taste and room. You may have to tweak the tweeter to your ear and room. Allow for 50hrs of break in before any tweaks.
The 18WU is dynamic and transparent. It can handle a lot before any compression. The large Superior Z mid caps are unbeatable for its price - they give the most neutral and coherent sound. I tried Mundorf Evo Oil + Superior Z combination, and it was too edgy for the Scan-Speak cones. For the highs, I'm using Mundorf Silver Oil + Audyn Reference combination and it's very airy, smooth, extended, coherent, and detailed.
Here's a photo of my crossover - version #5. Duelund 0.01uF Silver Bypass caps on mid and tweeter increase the transients and sense of realism. The Vishay MKP1837 Bypass caps increase the separation of instruments and render slight 3-D imaging... Again all this is a matter of taste and experimentation.
Post the final pics! 🙂
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I am very happy with the speakers. Sound is extremely transparent og pleasant. You do need to watch out a little bit for speaker impedance. Moving to tube-amplifier caused issues. Even with 180-Watts Rogue M-180 was not powerful enough to drive speaker. Needed to use separate class-D amp for bass. After that all perfect.
From my own listening and also feedback from other builders, Mr. Gravesen's design is world-class. He is also very helpful in communication when you are building. He helped me out several times. I made some mistake in wiring that he was able to spot from my measurements.
Buying commercial designs would cost you 6-8X the kit price. Reason is all the people who need to make money on your speaker purchase. Here there is only Janzen audio making a small profit. They respond to emails and are generally very helpful. I had some missing components for one of the crossovers. It got fixed quickly. Also destroyed a tweeter that I needed replacement for. The replacement cost less from Janzen than I was able to buy online, so I think they charge normal profits for the parts.
But as you say, the proof is in the pudding. I have decided to build Loudspeaker-2. I would probably not do that after spending 300+ hours building Illuminator-4 if I was not very happy. Cost of speaker kit, materials and panting will be close to 10k EUR which I will happily pay :🙂
And no, the Illuminators it will not be sold, just moved to TV-room when new speakers are done in some months.
From my own listening and also feedback from other builders, Mr. Gravesen's design is world-class. He is also very helpful in communication when you are building. He helped me out several times. I made some mistake in wiring that he was able to spot from my measurements.
Buying commercial designs would cost you 6-8X the kit price. Reason is all the people who need to make money on your speaker purchase. Here there is only Janzen audio making a small profit. They respond to emails and are generally very helpful. I had some missing components for one of the crossovers. It got fixed quickly. Also destroyed a tweeter that I needed replacement for. The replacement cost less from Janzen than I was able to buy online, so I think they charge normal profits for the parts.
But as you say, the proof is in the pudding. I have decided to build Loudspeaker-2. I would probably not do that after spending 300+ hours building Illuminator-4 if I was not very happy. Cost of speaker kit, materials and panting will be close to 10k EUR which I will happily pay :🙂
And no, the Illuminators it will not be sold, just moved to TV-room when new speakers are done in some months.
