Rons Austin A126 for the metric freak newbie

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#101
How not to add a SB

A tip found on Ed Schillings site, and maybe it´s one cause of Florians bass loss?

"The 126E is MUCH more difficult to seal than the 108 and this is a critical thing. The chamber MUST be air tight in order for the Horns to perform properly. A small leak will affect the bass response a great deal which in turn will affect the overall balance of the Horns. In the Horns the 126 has much better bass response than the 108. It is tighter and more extended provided it is sealed.

One thing to do is to apply a thin bead of silicone adhesive on the round lip on the basket where the round gasket would normally go. Also apply a thin bead around the square frame on the inside edge. I am assuming there is enough wire on the drivers to flip them upside down and have them sit on the cabinet while you apply the glue. Use your judgment here, put a big enough bead in both places to insure good coverage. Carefully put the driver back in the hole taking care to line up the mounting holes. Silicone WILL squish out around the edge of the driver frame. This is good. Let it dry completely and trim it off with a razor blade or something similar. Do NOT try to wipe off the wet silicone!"

Anders
 
#102
Anders,

Thanks for the tip. I found that the hard way and there is a big chance for that being the cause of my degraded sonics: The above report on the speaker sounding thin could have been due to an air leak.

To be very honest: I'm not sure if the leak was due to that my SB wasn't air tight to the front baffle (there's a small chance of that) or -- much more probable -- back mounting the driver to the SB made it leak some air btw the SB and the driver frame.

Anyway, right now my A126 have a temporary plate holding the drivers the old way (front mounted) and the volume reduced as per above. Sonics are better now.

Will report back after I put the finish on the speakers and SB. Yes, silicone sealing was my idea too.

Thanks for the tip anyway.

Florian
 
#103
Recreate A126 Rev H part II as Acad.dwg

I have now drawn a cad replica of Ron´s A126 rear firing (18mm ply).
I can´t get closer, so I will use this drawing for my set of horns.

I ran into some problems with the horn mouth, so I did an enlarged 1:1 zoom-copy of Ron´s gif as a master. Then I just glued it on top of my 1:1 scale drawing and it turned out pretty good.
That´s the way I verfied that I´m on the right track.
Have a look at my simple duplicating method on the attached jpeg.

I will post dimensions, linepath, partlength and some other stuff as pdf-files later this week.

Anders
 

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#108
A small leak will affect the bass response a great deal which in turn will affect the overall balance of the Horns.

So very true!
OK take the bong out of the box in the attic. Put in some smoking medium of your choice. Put on some bass heavy music and blow smoke around the seal. Any leaks will become apparent.
With the right smoking medium the music will sound better.

ron
 
#110
Well I finally finished getting my pair of SIDE-VENTING A126 listenable yesterday - meaning, they are just raw ply and not finished yet. They sound fantastic (at lower volume) even without the correct CC size. Will be creating supra-baffles and opening up the CC later. Still, as they are very impressive. Microdynamics, soundstage, and particularly the imaging is amazing. Very 3-D imaging. Also, even not broken in, with my Decware amp/preamp there is no midrange glare... they are very smooth and balanced sounding. Also, the driver and cabinet are completely un-modified except for a small piece of deflex in the CC behind the driver.
 
#111
Another pair of A126 rev H

I have just completed my A126 build and here are some pictures.
I have tried to follow Rons latest hints for the FE-126 driver.

2.1l CC with styrofoam tube:
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Upper lining:
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Side view:
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Wiring:
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I have used an industrial network cable. (Profibus DP 2x0,64mm) it´s basically one twisted pair with larger area than CAT5.
I have tried both and I prefer the Profibus cable.
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Front and rear view:
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I just have to agree with "bbaker6212", they sound better than I was expecting and there are still room for improvements, especially enabling and tweaking the drivers.

Anders
 
#113
Doing it Ron´s way

It´s a slow process and I´m first going to finalize my speakers and then add the SB and deflector. Ron has strongly explained the necessity of doing the full build. If I don´t do it then I´ll never tell the difference.

What I´ll seen and heard so far is an excellent cone control, low distortion when you crank up the volume and most of all an amazing sound stage.
Voices are so natural: Ben Harper, Pink Floyd, Eva Cassidy, Barry White, Norah Jones, Van Morrison among others comes alive through my pair of A126.

Anders
 
#114
a126 builds

I am considering building the a126 and after doing a search on this forum, it appears there are few pictures of builds for this design beyond this thread. This thread has been dead for awhile, but I want to revive it rather than post in a new place.

I downloaded the plans and am confused by the multiple design revisions. Can anyone help with making the CAD plans and instructions for the a126 clear? This forum could use a few technical writers.
 
#115
I built the 126A and a few 166A as well. The build is quite labor intensive and also worth the effort..... The 166A is a bit larger than the 126A, that is, it takes up more space, if thats an issue. The 166A is much better in presenting the signature of the instuments and generally is a big step above the 126A....My point is, that the build effort is about the same, but the 166A is just better.... I just moved my 126A to a home of a friend and it replaced some soft foggy sounding reflex speakers. He played some jazz and they sounded so good......I was amazed. Also pleased, that his level of sound had improved so well. If you are are open to the change, I would suggest looking at the 166A....If you go with the 126A, the mod on planet 10 is well worth the effort.
Bob
 
#116
I would agree that labor would be the same for either build, but already have a pair of FE126E drivers and space is a concern. Which version did you build on the a126. Obviously, you were able to understand the CAD drawings. I am not sure if the latest design reflects the larger 2.1 liter compression chamber.
 
#117
The original drawing had a 1.84 liter cc, so the one you are looking at must be the new design. Consider using body putty or knife grade epoxy on the turns. It will give more flow....A wooden sphere has been suggested for the back wall to break the reflection of sound.I think it was 2.5"...
Bob
 
#118
A126 one year later..

It´s nearly one year since I started this project.
I have now done the full build, with enabled drivers, supra baffles, deflectors and some additional stuff.
The full build sound pretty good, but lack some low end as well as the highest octave.
They are now driven by an EL84 Xindak tube amp hooked up to a Pioneer PD-D6-J CD player.

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Tweaked and enabled driver a la Planet10!
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3kg sand filled deflector cure reflections and improve the bass a lot.
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My setup with solid supra baffles and a sub to support the low end.
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I´m very pleased with the sub integration. It´s really seemless and easy to tune.
This sub: XTZ 99 W10.16 is very neutral, low cost and also tuneable by adjusting the bassreflex ports with foam plugs.
I have choosen to connect the sub with a replica of Ed Schillings "Magic cable" it works perfect!
Next step will be a rear firing Dayton tweeter to add some sparkle.
 
#119
That dark wood looks really nice!

You'll get more bass if you back them in the corners (if you can, or want to).

Just a suggestion, you might want to experiment with front firing instead of rear (or both) on the tweeter...
It sounded a lot better to my A166.
Robert
 
#120
More bass in corners

Thanks Robert

I tried to back the speakers closer to the corners and it makes a big difference.
(The surface is sanded baltic birch with alcohol based stain, polished with "Black Bison" dark furniture wax. A simple method but it looks good)

Anders
 
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