Hi guys,
Thanks for the comments.
I used elves hair because I happened to have a couple of hundred grams I had purchased several years ago. Elves hair is exactly the same material as angel hair and unicorn tail. Angel hair is very short strands and unicorn tail is long strands that makes it good for transmission lines. Elves hair is medium length strands and is perfect for this application.
As far as balancing or suspending the speakers... The easiest way is to show you a speaker sat on a stand.
I'm using the stands that I was using with my previous speakers. They are solid wood and were probably originally designed as plant stands. I found them at a local recycling centre and picked them up for pennies. I added adjustable spikes to the bottom. The stands are tall. The centre of the driver is about 200mm above ear height. For these speakers I added 3 large marbles, I live just around the corner from the house of marbles. These hold the speaker nicely and allow it to be tilted. I rather like having the speakers slightly above ear height and tilted down. I find it helps to give a more natural soundstage, many megabucks speakers have this arrangement. Look at the Wilsons.
The stands do work with the speakers visually. The solid wood construction might not be the best sonically. With the speakers mounted on the stands a knuckle rap on the cabinet has a slight woody sound. I think this is the sound of the stand. It might have been a better idea to use squash balls rather than marbles as this would have helped to decouple the speakers from the stands. The marbles do look good.
I've reterminated my speaker cables with banana plugs at the speaker end. The cable is run up the back of the stand and held in place with cable clips so is virtually invisible.
Niffy
Thanks for the comments.
I used elves hair because I happened to have a couple of hundred grams I had purchased several years ago. Elves hair is exactly the same material as angel hair and unicorn tail. Angel hair is very short strands and unicorn tail is long strands that makes it good for transmission lines. Elves hair is medium length strands and is perfect for this application.
As far as balancing or suspending the speakers... The easiest way is to show you a speaker sat on a stand.
I'm using the stands that I was using with my previous speakers. They are solid wood and were probably originally designed as plant stands. I found them at a local recycling centre and picked them up for pennies. I added adjustable spikes to the bottom. The stands are tall. The centre of the driver is about 200mm above ear height. For these speakers I added 3 large marbles, I live just around the corner from the house of marbles. These hold the speaker nicely and allow it to be tilted. I rather like having the speakers slightly above ear height and tilted down. I find it helps to give a more natural soundstage, many megabucks speakers have this arrangement. Look at the Wilsons.
The stands do work with the speakers visually. The solid wood construction might not be the best sonically. With the speakers mounted on the stands a knuckle rap on the cabinet has a slight woody sound. I think this is the sound of the stand. It might have been a better idea to use squash balls rather than marbles as this would have helped to decouple the speakers from the stands. The marbles do look good.
I've reterminated my speaker cables with banana plugs at the speaker end. The cable is run up the back of the stand and held in place with cable clips so is virtually invisible.
Niffy
I have a little tradition. Every time I upgrade or make a significant change I always play something by Leonard Cohen first.
Niffy
Straight out of the box. Very pleased.
I haven't done any proper set up yet as far as positioning. I'm running them by themselves without the sub to start with. I'm going to have a good play with them over the next couple of days, adjust the position, dial in the sub and let them run in a bit.
Then I'll post some more pictures with them set up in the system and give you my listening impressions. I'll try to be as impartial and unbiased as I can.
Niffy
Niffy - well done! I'm a big fan of unusual design especially when it's been given a lot of thought like you have. I, like you purchased a pair of Eikona 2's about 2-3 years ago just before they were due for a price rise and they've been sitting in their box waiting for me to be inspired (also life gets in the way). Anyway, now's the time I think. I'm planning on a similar style that I've used before with Tang Bands and Mark Audio Alpair 7.3. I really love the sound of the MA's. Dave at Planet 10 designed the rear firing rectangular vents for me and I see no need to skirt around that this time.
Regards John L.
Regards John L.
Looking good, sounding nice. What more could one ask for. Well done.
Regards
If I may, I guess drivers at front, large radius at middle and solid core material at back more or less will have equal distribution.
Regards
I went to the Bristol hifi show in February this year. The eclipse speakers produced one of my favourite sounds of the show. They are similar to mine in several ways, the shape and use of a full range driver. Their shape is more industrial like a jet engine where I think mine is more organic like an egg. The eclipse imploy a very interesting driver decoupling system. I did think about decoupling the eikonas but couldn't find an elegant way of doing so that would decouple well below the passband without compromising the rear radiation. They are also ported and control the rear wave in a very different way. They still really need to be run with a sub so porting isn't really necessary in my books. An excellent speaker. The biggest difference is that they cost almost 10 times what it cost me to make mine.
Niffy
Niffy
The marbles are also quite widely spaced out so the centre of mass is well within the triangle produced.
Yes. Lots of videos on youtube. But may be ply grain being crisscross may be helping damping in this design.
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By birth we are carpenter caste, in the past I used to watch amazing Japanese wood working skill.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=japanese+wood+working+skills+
Regards
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By birth we are carpenter caste, in the past I used to watch amazing Japanese wood working skill.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=japanese+wood+working+skills+
Regards
They are probably less precarious than most stand mounted speakers that sit on spikes or cones.
It could indeed be turned on a lathe, either from a single piece of wood or from a block made of translam. As I don't own a wood lathe or have the necessary skills I decided to use flap sanders and a slow turning turntable. I could possibly have achieved a better finish with a lathe but it might have been more difficult to get the shape right, especially the inside. I think that translam will be a better option sonically but a solid piece of wood, especially something like burr walnut, would look amazing.
Niffy
Hi Sumotan,
The idea of making the inside smooth is to make it act as an acoustic mirror so that all sound is reflected towards the rear and none is reflected back towards the front. The internal wadding increases in density towards the rear. The idea is to absorb rather than scatter the energy.
Niffy
The idea of making the inside smooth is to make it act as an acoustic mirror so that all sound is reflected towards the rear and none is reflected back towards the front. The internal wadding increases in density towards the rear. The idea is to absorb rather than scatter the energy.
Niffy
Thanks Niffy, I'm playing around with Faital 3fe22 now, after applying some damping compound it's sounding really good. Just recieve a 12 inch conical horn which I will mod & test how it sounds, if it fails then I'll like to build an enclose like yours but will add a woofer for bass.
Many thanks again
Many thanks again