I think I only heard a pair of BIB influenced once during the earlier years of VI DIYfests as Dave’s place, which was certainly a large enough venue to support them. Like numerous of the “very interesting” designs exhibited there over the years, I guess you gotta try some things to get them out of your system. 😉
Update : After a month of flip-flopping - and lots of scouring the forum - I found Scott's big and tall MLTL for the alpair 10p called Nanga Parbat and fell in love. I was all set to go with a bookshelf mini-onken, but the thin profile of the tall mltl will fit in my space and I really want to hear what it sounds like. Started the build last week at my dad's shop about an hour away from where I live. We cut all the panels and finished the holey brace a couple days ago. Going back to rasp out behind the driver hole and do the glue up in a few days. I will keep the thread updated with build pics. I can't wait to hear it!
My earlier builds bounced back and forth between thick ellipses with heavily radiused edges, or simpler rectangular shapes with bevels.
Nice work on the interlocking braces - aren’t those and the driver notches a hole lotta fun?
Nice work on the interlocking braces - aren’t those and the driver notches a hole lotta fun?
Getting toward the end of my build! And coming to the sages of DIY audio for advice:
As you can see from the pictures below I used 1" fiberglass acoustic paneling as per @Scottmoose 's design notes. We are going to clamp on the back and give it a listen on Sunday to decide if more damping material is needed. Wondering if I should pre-emptively put damping on the brace (seemed like it would almost fill the whole box with material so I didn't yet)?
Thanks in advance!
As you can see from the pictures below I used 1" fiberglass acoustic paneling as per @Scottmoose 's design notes. We are going to clamp on the back and give it a listen on Sunday to decide if more damping material is needed. Wondering if I should pre-emptively put damping on the brace (seemed like it would almost fill the whole box with material so I didn't yet)?
Thanks in advance!
At a glance it already appears to have more than I would do unless critically damping it requires more.
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Zman01,
Not yet, planning to go listen on Sunday. They’re at my dad’s house, and the glue has now dried since I was there last. Very excited to hear them!
Not yet, planning to go listen on Sunday. They’re at my dad’s house, and the glue has now dried since I was there last. Very excited to hear them!
Trip to my pop’s house got delayed, heading out there right now to hook up the speakers and adjust damping.
Regarding the click test: I couldn’t find a place to buy resistors locally and they didn’t get here in time. I did try with just a D battery, no resistor, on my Blumenstein Orcas. Boxes are totally unlined, so I thought it might be a fun experiment.
I could definitely hear a “bong” sound. I noticed Clark’s later designs do feature a damping material, so I’m guessing the hollow boxes i have really did show up as less than critically damper via the test even without the help of the resistor (which I admittedly don’t know what effect it would have).
It looks like the damping Clark is using are wads of recycled fabric/wool inside of pantyhose. Shape of a ball. I had some materials lying around so I made a couple and hot glued them in, now click test with the battery shows up as more of a sharp click! Cool!
Anyway, thought I’d share the experiment since I’m on the ferry now. Will later post first listening impressions of the Nanga Parbat.
Regarding the click test: I couldn’t find a place to buy resistors locally and they didn’t get here in time. I did try with just a D battery, no resistor, on my Blumenstein Orcas. Boxes are totally unlined, so I thought it might be a fun experiment.
I could definitely hear a “bong” sound. I noticed Clark’s later designs do feature a damping material, so I’m guessing the hollow boxes i have really did show up as less than critically damper via the test even without the help of the resistor (which I admittedly don’t know what effect it would have).
It looks like the damping Clark is using are wads of recycled fabric/wool inside of pantyhose. Shape of a ball. I had some materials lying around so I made a couple and hot glued them in, now click test with the battery shows up as more of a sharp click! Cool!
Anyway, thought I’d share the experiment since I’m on the ferry now. Will later post first listening impressions of the Nanga Parbat.
Sorry for the long delay, after initially hearing these I spent some time adjusting the damping material - removed lagging from behind baffle and as per Scott's recommendation used a few layers of grill cloth behind port opening to damp until click test came out 'clicky'. The verdict is.... I absolutely love these speakers! Even on first listen with things a little wonky (mids a bit muffled mostly) the bass output from a small driver like this is just incredible. I thought I was prepared from reading other folk's experience on the forum, but wow! Really full deep bass. Especially love the way bowed double bass sounds, just fantastically full bodied. Even electronic bass sound great. I'm in love with Bjork's music (also in love with Bjork, but that's another subject), and her ultra deep bass synths come across as having great presence, and her voice out of these awesome drivers just blows me away!! The presence and body to the sound was what I was hoping to improve, and these speakers certainly did that.
Also, the low level detail is beyond anything I've owned by far which I wasn't bargaining for, but I'll certainly take it. Compared to the fostex fe83 in my other speakers these feel more clear and 'modern', although I did quite like the fe83. I am noticing however the a10p is revealing more weakness in my electronics, so I have since switched to the bottlehead stereomour and it made a huge difference. When funds allow I'd like to upgrade my DAC too. Not something I felt like needed doing with the fe83. The last month I've had these I've been listening to all my favorite albums again and hearing things I've not noticed before. I'm going on and on but imaging is also unbelievably good. Anyway, thank you so much to everyone who makes this forum so inviting and helpful, and special thanks to Scott for the design! I'm a happy camper 🙂
Also, the low level detail is beyond anything I've owned by far which I wasn't bargaining for, but I'll certainly take it. Compared to the fostex fe83 in my other speakers these feel more clear and 'modern', although I did quite like the fe83. I am noticing however the a10p is revealing more weakness in my electronics, so I have since switched to the bottlehead stereomour and it made a huge difference. When funds allow I'd like to upgrade my DAC too. Not something I felt like needed doing with the fe83. The last month I've had these I've been listening to all my favorite albums again and hearing things I've not noticed before. I'm going on and on but imaging is also unbelievably good. Anyway, thank you so much to everyone who makes this forum so inviting and helpful, and special thanks to Scott for the design! I'm a happy camper 🙂