Tannoy Super Red Monitor Project

Update on the SRM12X

Well, it's been a while. I had to adjust my plans to my personal situation.

NO, I did NOT get COVID as far as I know that is. But I did get lyme disease which had a big impact on my life. So I had to set priorities and, although audio has been an important part of my life, it was not prio 1 :p

I had the drawing of the SRM12X (which is my own calculation on the self measured T&S of the K3149 AND holds a small mistake) did do the wood cutting and had started to assemble the first cabinet. That is still the case years later. The K3149's are waiting in storage to be used.

Last week I was looking in "Marktplaats" (second hand website where you can find nice stuff for a good price) and LOOK what we found. A abused pair of the SRM12X, with drivers said to be in good condition.

The veneer had been in such a deplorable state when the previous owner had bought these cabinets, he wanted do redo the veneer but because of lack of time as a temporary solution had painted them grey.

Long story short, he had changed plans and had put them on " Marktplaats" for sale at a VERY reasonable price. So I bought them, same plan, redo the veneer.

So, NOW I have 2x K3149 drivers with 1 filter AND a set of grey painted original SRM12X's. Looking at these original cabinets, they almost measure up to my calculated version. The "mistake" I addressed is that, as I did not know the size of the foot these cabinets have, I did not design my version with the foot but made it just as a standard box would be. This of course results in a VERY VERY slight increase in volume as opposed to the original, but the driver will not be audibly affected I'm sure.

My other concern was that, from what I could make up (using pictures as a reference and scale them) of the bass reflex pipe BEFORE I got this pair, the original bass reflex pipe does not really look like a match to the driver and the cabinet.
SO, as I have the originals now, I can measure them and figure out what the pipe tuning looks like according to Tannoy.

I already found that, as very often the case by most manufacturers, Tannoy did make a trade off on making this a bass monster (not very successful) versus a reasonable sized cabinet. Yes I know we had some arguments on this topic, BUT as I mentioned before, these will be soffit mounted in the end which will improve the bass response in a positive maner (6 dB as I found in numerous articles). Besides that, Tannoy is not a "bass monster" manufacturer but, MY opinion, always designed cabinets that sound natural and honest.

Pictures will follow, first search is for a nice set of veneer, being Walnut as I do understand? I have done some veneer jobs before, take your time and work meticulous is the recipe for a nice veneer job. I also learned a trick when working with large pieces of veneer to glue. After putting the glue on both surface, place some metal rods on the cabinet and place the veneer on top of the rods. That way you can align the veneer to the cabinet and then gently remove the first rod, pressing the veneer to the cabinet and check alignment. IF ok, remove the next and so on. As the veneer should be a bit oversized, there is still room for some error but this way, you can work at your desired pace.

Does someone know if this is European OR American Walnut? Input appreciated.

kind regards.
 
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