Inspiration topic - alternatives to painting or veneering your cabinet!

[Pygmy]

I'm starting this thread because I'd like to see alternatives to the usual painted / venered speaker cabinets.

For my first build I wanted to make Cyburg Needles using slate and leather.
But because I didn't have any experience, I decided to do a test build with painted mdf and leather first.

DIY Needle Deluxe Bamboo speaker with leather baffle - Album on Imgur

I found out that the "simple" painted mdf version took me *way* more time than the final slate build (Sanding, painting, sanding again, ad infinitum); cutting 2 slate tiles and sanding the edges a little bit was done in no time.


And in the end the slate version wasn't much more expensive - 48 euros for two tiles, no paint needed.


DIY Needle SuperDeluxe. High quality filter components, leather baffle, slate stone sides. - Album on Imgur

I'd love to see / read about other people's experiences with alternative building/finishing methods, as well as links to images of speakers (diy or not) using other ways of construction/finishing.

Arad's "concrete HiFi" would be a nice example I think.
Stereo system - Concrete Stereo - Victoria & Albert Museum - Search the Collections

So - please post anything inspiring here!

 

[Nenola]

Here's my inspirational build!

The "center" part is wrapped in leather. That was easy, and with spray glue the job is done when you have wrapped the last side, no need to wait for the glue to hold.

The side panels are just thin pine board with couple routed edges and treated with black wax. Attachment was done with strong glue. They've held up nicely, the only thing is that some of the side panels started to curve a bit, so maybe MDF would be nicer if you don't need the wood grain look.

These speakers are built almost a decade ago and no complaints with the finish, well the cat obviously has some, you can see couple scratches in the front

I recently turned the rear speakers white so they wouldn't jump up so bad from the ceiling line. Have to say it was a horrible amount of work to get all the glue out from the surface, and the super strong adhesive pulled out some outer layers of the plywood, which the cabinet is made of. Well, nothing a few layers of filler and sanding wouldn't cover... And we are diy-people and love this

 

[Pygmy]

They look good! Using leather is always +1 in my book

My dream is to once build a set of floorstanders with leather and veneer that looks as good as the Sonus Faber Olympica...

 

[Pygmy]

Someone here practically did it:

Sonus faber amati !! Diy

That's such an inspirational build!

 

[Pygmy]

I've found this sweet baffle made out of concrete (I think) on a german forum.
The last pic shows the template used for the mold.

 

[nigelwright7557]

I have mostly covered my boxes in very thin carpet, as it is easy to work with and covers a multitude of sins.
Marshall usually use Tolex.

 

[Zen Mod]

wall-paper-ed OB ?



Tannoy Brute Force OB ….. now Absolute WAF Tannoy OB | Zen Mod Blog

 

[Pygmy]

I guess my grandma would have liked the wallpaper, when she was still alive

 

[Pygmy]

Since I forgot to include pics of my first build, here's some pics..

Edit: sorry, somehow the rotation of the 2nd pic messed up... :/

 

[Pygmy]

Another inspirational topic I found on a german website - a complete how-to on creating the expensive Sonus Faber look.

I won't try to duplicate the post here as its very elaborate - see for yourself and use Google translate / your webbrowsers translate function to get the gist of it!

How to: Oberflächenfinish mit Schellack (meine Sonus Faber Nachbau ), Projekte der Nutzer / Nachbauten - HIFI-FORUM

 

[pggriff]

Built a pair of bookshelves with polished concrete enclosures, I’m happy with them though it was a lot more time consuming than I had originally thought. They are 9 liter enclosures with no internal bracing. Some say that concrete will ring more than mdf, I don’t have any measuring equipment but it would be interesting to see how they would measure against a traditional enclosure. I may build a set of mdf and do a comparison once I finish my current project.

 

[Pano]

I've done carpet, faux fur and vinyl, though not all on the same speaker!
Here is faux lizard, which looks very nice indeed.

 

[pggriff]

3000 psi premix with a touch of black pigment

 

[adason]

That snail there is awesome!

 

[pggriff]

Thanks, that’s a fossilized ammonite. Not my idea originally, saw it on Dark Lord Reviews Dark Lord Reviews | The best reviews in the universe.

 

[Pygmy]

Do you happen to have a build log of your (awesome!) Speakers?
I imagine you spent eons on sanding and polishing them?

 

[pggriff]

Do you happen to have a build log of your (awesome!) Speakers?
I imagine you spent eons on sanding and polishing them?

Thanks Pygmy! I have a set of pictures detailing most of the process , I will try to gather them together and post a summary. It's funny, I'm quite happy with them but itching to start another speaker project after I finish my Aleph J . I'll likely use conventional construction methods for my next set as I'm looking at something larger, I follow a builder on Youtube -Impulse Audio- who has a design that I'm interested in.

 

[Pygmy]

Another find : this german page with help on building concrete speaker cabinets; again, Google Translate might help.

Hifi-Boxen aus Beton | Alle Bilder | selbst.de

 

[Bigun]

covered in letters and paper - then varnished. It's not mine, don't remember who did this, the image is from Commonsense Audio.

 

[Pygmy]

covered in letters and paper - then varnished. It's not mine, don't remember who did this, the image is from Commonsense Audio.

Nice!
Reminds me of this Cyburg Needle build:

Ralphs Needle - Ausgabe August 2011 - Lautsprecherbau-Magazin 2011 | Lautsprecherbau - Lautsprecher selber bauen