just started veneering Rob, it feels good to be coming home in a rush
Been thinking what to call them, cindy is a bit too girly no?
So (and a prize to the first to work it out) as they were called the frankenspeakers, the franks for short, and I was re-enthused by the thread titled 'black, was thinking either black francis or franks black.
That of course would dictate which albums to choose from for the first serious listening session.
Been thinking what to call them, cindy is a bit too girly no?
So (and a prize to the first to work it out) as they were called the frankenspeakers, the franks for short, and I was re-enthused by the thread titled 'black, was thinking either black francis or franks black.
That of course would dictate which albums to choose from for the first serious listening session.
rob323 said:
MadMutt said:
Moondog55 said:
Black Francis...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Francis
As I said, kind of dictates the first toons I play
all veneered
happy with the match/join between the top and baffle, both removable
stained black
Ooooppps, too black!! dunno why, as far as I know I did everything the same with my test pieces, except for one thing I think.
As I was doing a much larger area, the stain had more time to stain and so is blacker (well, that's my theory)
have put a few coats of oil on them since that shot (took a pic but it looks rubbish)
So, think I will bite the bullet and strip it back and work out how to get less of a dense blackness
this is the effect I'm after, whilst dark it still has a bit of deep brown showing through. If it is all opaquely black, there was no need to go to the hassle of veneering!!
keep your fingers crossed the stripping and redoing goes ok
56oval said:
No malcom, I'm not THAT much of a glutton for punishment.
Did I ever tell anyone I hate hi fi? that I hate speakers? that most of all I hate building them??!!
You saw earlier that the stain was too dark so I stripped it back and started again.
Still could not quite get the colour of my sample, but kept going. Dunno why, but the finish with the tung oil just would not come no matter how many coats!
Got sick of it, and rang a mate and asked him if he could spray them for me, sure no probs. Set up a time with him, and-yep-stripped it all back yet again to bare wood.
Drove two hours to him on a late sunday, and when I get there he has no stain after all!! I HAD asked him if he wanted me to stain it before I arrived....5.30 or so on a sunday afternoon, nearest bunnings is thirty km away, give me a break!
There was an 'old timer' there doing some stuff, had a lot more experience than my mate with spraying etc, assures us that with not the slightest shadow of a doubt, not matter how well I had stripped them, there would still be oil on the pores and that the lacquer simply would not take.
load them back into the car, and drove home again.
Geez I hate building speakers!!
BUT, re-stain them for the third time..hey!! getting the colour I wanted, apply the oil again and blow me down if the shine etc is now appearing!!
go figure. Guess they needed that round trip?
Sooo, did I ever show you my base plate and spikes??
Ha ha, the spikes are made from 16mm threaded rod! Be strong enough ya reckon??
It was just the nature of the beast, mainly due to the vinyl, but as the baffles could not be glued (due to the vinyl, and how do you ensure an airtight seal, a bit hard to apply weights on the baffle with this shape), the entire thing is bolted together.
I am such a sloppy worker, that turned out to be a good thing. I had to re-vinyl the two boxes...I managed to gouge a hole in one tripping over stuff laying around, and the other got bog on it that I could not get off.
Having all the pieces bolt together means I can always pull it apart in the future and do things like that.
Hmm, what if I decided on pink vinyl for example? easy peasy!
So that was the base plate on one, with the other sitting nest to it with a spike in place and a spike sitting loose. Just turned up the holders on the lathe.
So screw the bottom on, bolt the baffle on then the top plate, then bolt the midrange chamber in. Bit of a pain, but watcha gonna do?
Hmm, all these potential leaks, the next step is to put it together, cross my fingers and hope like crazy that the thing is airtight.
A quick shot on the way inside, basically wasting time and putting off the big test.
and another
A shot of the old (RH) one from the LP
and a shot of the new (LH) from the LP
They are pretty dark (as can be seen from the outdoor shots) and my room is dark, so I had to slightly lighten that shot of the speaker.
Well, good news, no leaks! phew. Tonight the second was hauled in a fitted up, again no leaks and I am now listening to them as I type.
I can tell you, a bit of a relief!
If I had thought about it, I probably would have put a hard piece of wood to mount the speakons on (still under the vinyl tho), rather than on the foam under the vinyl. It compresses slightly, not too big a deal and nothing important enough to feel I have to fix.
I will probably put another couple of coats of oil on the top plates later, but I'll just let it all harden up for a couple of weeks. then a good wax, and it is finally finished.
It is very close to, if not actually, a year since I decided on the design and built the little model to see if it had legs.
And it feels it!
badman said:
I suppose that you're correct, but really (or I'm making excuses for my laziness!) the lip is maybe 2.5mm at a max. Spose that it not an excuse, as most tweeters are usually that 'flush' anyway.
In any case, if I was not going to flush mount the mid (and malcolm is right, the PHLs simply do not lend themselves to flush mounting easily w/out some sort of cad capability) then the tweeter is so close physically that I would always be getting interference from that anyway.
So in the end I decided there where bigger fish to fry.
I take your point tho.
Thanks for you compliment on the looks.
hey thanks peeps!
It's funny on the looks. As you know if you halfway followed the thread, it has taken a long time, with a very long period of inactivity in the middle (till the 'black' thread came along).
What that meant was I got very used to the look of 'just the carcass', and when the baffle went on it looked 'odd'.
Then I got used to the box and baffle, so now that the drivers are in it looks, yep you guessed it, odd!!!
So personally I am looking at them thinking 'they don't quite look right' ha ha. (tho the backs look great!!)
Hope I get used to it
How do they sound??
In short, surprisingly better.
The slight fear in the back of the mind was that, for whatever reason, they might not sound as good. That did not make a lot of sense of course, but you know...
So, I would have been happy with 'no change in sound, big change in looks'.
On an intellectual/analytical level you could always reason the a better built box, which has roundovers rather than sharp edges etc etc etc could only be an improvement.
But, I mucked up my box sizes and ended up with 90 l max internally vs 110 originally...so stuff like that put the slight 'doubt' or uneasiness there.
Ha ha, one of the 'fun' things we used to do was to rock the old ones on their feet. A few bits of pine slapped on the box, well even if they were the right length for one area of the floor (and hence were stable), just move them slightlyto another area and suddenly they are no longer stable. I mean you could rock them at least half an inch!
So, you could always make the argument that the bass, at least, should be better as the box is that much more rigid and the whole contraption that much more stable and solidly coupled to the floor. Yet the box was smaller, round and round the 'ifs and but's' went in the head, and it would only be decided when you could actually hear it.
Well heard it last night. They are no way yet optimised (just using the old filters in the deqx, yet as everything has changed it needs recalibrating etc).
The old ones had no problem producing exceptional bass. So I was not prepared for just how solid and authoritative the bass became. Everything became more solid and substantial. Now that I have heard it it makes sense of course, the more stable the box then yeah, the mids are not 'rocking' either etc etc.
that is apart from any benefits that a solid non-ringing enclosure may have brought.
Now, when I think of the improvements YET when I re-do the measurements and calibrations......(for example, the mid cavity is at least twice the volume of the old. That may enable me to drop the bass/mid crossover point if I wish. the point is tho that I am still running the old calibrations, tho everything has changed)
So all in all, I was quietly hoping that it would be at least as good, but I lucked out big time. The improvements are substantial and worthwhile.
Now....I was cranking blue man group at two am this morning (and 'fear' was my constant companion!! It was scary heh heh), so I get up this morning and...two tweeters not working!! WTF?
Have not gotten to the bottom of it yet, have pulled one out and it works (battery test), you know you could imagine blowing one tweeter up, but both simultaneously??
So something simple no doubt.....I hope......
did I ever tell you I hate building speakers?? If I didn't, well then I should have ha ha
Andy, coming to the bathurst gtg?????
It's funny on the looks. As you know if you halfway followed the thread, it has taken a long time, with a very long period of inactivity in the middle (till the 'black' thread came along).
What that meant was I got very used to the look of 'just the carcass', and when the baffle went on it looked 'odd'.
Then I got used to the box and baffle, so now that the drivers are in it looks, yep you guessed it, odd!!!
So personally I am looking at them thinking 'they don't quite look right' ha ha. (tho the backs look great!!)
Hope I get used to it
How do they sound??
In short, surprisingly better.
The slight fear in the back of the mind was that, for whatever reason, they might not sound as good. That did not make a lot of sense of course, but you know...
So, I would have been happy with 'no change in sound, big change in looks'.
On an intellectual/analytical level you could always reason the a better built box, which has roundovers rather than sharp edges etc etc etc could only be an improvement.
But, I mucked up my box sizes and ended up with 90 l max internally vs 110 originally...so stuff like that put the slight 'doubt' or uneasiness there.
Ha ha, one of the 'fun' things we used to do was to rock the old ones on their feet. A few bits of pine slapped on the box, well even if they were the right length for one area of the floor (and hence were stable), just move them slightlyto another area and suddenly they are no longer stable. I mean you could rock them at least half an inch!
So, you could always make the argument that the bass, at least, should be better as the box is that much more rigid and the whole contraption that much more stable and solidly coupled to the floor. Yet the box was smaller, round and round the 'ifs and but's' went in the head, and it would only be decided when you could actually hear it.
Well heard it last night. They are no way yet optimised (just using the old filters in the deqx, yet as everything has changed it needs recalibrating etc).
The old ones had no problem producing exceptional bass. So I was not prepared for just how solid and authoritative the bass became. Everything became more solid and substantial. Now that I have heard it it makes sense of course, the more stable the box then yeah, the mids are not 'rocking' either etc etc.
that is apart from any benefits that a solid non-ringing enclosure may have brought.
Now, when I think of the improvements YET when I re-do the measurements and calibrations......(for example, the mid cavity is at least twice the volume of the old. That may enable me to drop the bass/mid crossover point if I wish. the point is tho that I am still running the old calibrations, tho everything has changed)
So all in all, I was quietly hoping that it would be at least as good, but I lucked out big time. The improvements are substantial and worthwhile.
Now....I was cranking blue man group at two am this morning (and 'fear' was my constant companion!! It was scary heh heh), so I get up this morning and...two tweeters not working!! WTF?
Have not gotten to the bottom of it yet, have pulled one out and it works (battery test), you know you could imagine blowing one tweeter up, but both simultaneously??
So something simple no doubt.....I hope......
did I ever tell you I hate building speakers?? If I didn't, well then I should have ha ha
Andy, coming to the bathurst gtg?????
well this is most annoying.
as I theought (was pretty sure) the tweeters are fine. plugged the mid signal into them and away they went.
must be the amp on the tweeter. I got it from a mate (hey, just realised, the same guy who was going to spray them for me) that was complaining that that amp was 'intermittent', tho IIRC it was only on one channel.
Hey, I've had it for two years and not a problem, always worked for me.
till this morning.
hate building speakers.
as I theought (was pretty sure) the tweeters are fine. plugged the mid signal into them and away they went.
must be the amp on the tweeter. I got it from a mate (hey, just realised, the same guy who was going to spray them for me) that was complaining that that amp was 'intermittent', tho IIRC it was only on one channel.
Hey, I've had it for two years and not a problem, always worked for me.
till this morning.
hate building speakers.
No chance on getting out of Newy, Terry. Doing gigs nearly every Friday and Saturday evening now, and the occasional Sunday gig.. and working during the week. Struggling to find time and energy to do other things
BTW, if you need a tweeter amp, WES sell a small 22 watt stereo thing that would probably do the job, and its cheap
BTW, if you need a tweeter amp, WES sell a small 22 watt stereo thing that would probably do the job, and its cheap
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