Why staining Birch Plywood is not a good idea
Not a lot of bracing in these ... not sure how the originals are built?
But price ... is really good. What speakers should go in there?
But price ... is really good. What speakers should go in there?
uh yeah... it is very challenging to apply a dark stain to rotary cut birch veneer. I have seen professional painters do it, but they get a lot of practice applying stain to pine, fir, and larch trim and moldings... which are even worse.
Black india ink is in my opinion a nice look on birch plywood.
Totally black without it being a thick layer of paint so it still possible to see the grain. https://www.thehandymansdaughter.com/black-wood-stain/
I like that classic monitor look and the stands look extremely cool !
I have received them but have been procrastinating the install as that's how I am plus I have to reconfigure the baffle as the HPM100 woofers have a larger diameter cutout. Anyhow, a blown HPM woofer during a listening session has put this on the front burner and I will have this completed by the weekend and will report back on how they sound, pics, etc. Side by side with the HPM100 speakers the difference is quite noticeable. HPM's look puny.
@Gibbi I would recommend repairing the HPM100s and selling them to finance building new boxes for the 12RS430. If you continue with the upcycle consider replacing the port with a larger diameter and longer tube. The HPM100s are the only system I've heard port chuffing, the port is much too small.
That's the conclusion I came to. I like the liveliness at normal listening levels that comes with a good big-motor prosound woofer, even if their max SPL capability is never really used.
Years ago I used the Pioneer TAD TL-1102 in a two-way, crossed over to a horn at about 1.5 kHz. The TAD had a dip between 500 Hz and 1 kHz that the Faital does not have. I'd say subjective midrange quality is in the same ballpark, the Faital arguably measures better and definitely hits harder in the bass. I crossed it over at 1.4 kHz (passive).
I have a pair of the 12RS430 in each L/R speaker and have listened to them for about 2 months now and am quite pleased with the sound. I am crossing them at 600Hz and they do well in this range. Like the extra thump that I have with these over the HPM100 woofers that I was using prior. No more bottoming out of the coils for me. They do take alot of break in and I imagine there is a bit more left. When I first installed them I didn't like the sound so much. A bit too midrangie. The rubber surround will great for the long term but the breakin time was the longest I've experienced.
If truly rubber based, then a bunch of us 'painted' them with used brake fluid to either break them in and/or soften them up.
I also would estimate it's the spider cause it should be way stiffer as the rubber surround. I won't use dissolving and material changing liquids on the surround 🤓 and probably also would not go as far as "cracking" the spider. But a good old wobble near Xmax for a few hours in free air should help.
And be careful with that - when the spider get's weaker excursion get's higher - you probably need to reduce level over time to not go from Xmax to Xdmg ...
And be careful with that - when the spider get's weaker excursion get's higher - you probably need to reduce level over time to not go from Xmax to Xdmg ...