Drivers are in the cabinets... time for a pic
Drivers are finally in the cabs!
Too tired today to attempt stuffing/tuning, so connected as is (even backs are open).
Wow... sound is so clear, detailed, and layered. Loads of detail (on certain tracks besides the music I can clearly hear the guitar strings vibrate), great imaging, lot of treble - but smooth and no harshness. Sounds musical too, not flat or boring in any way. With no stuffing and open back, bass is understandably less at this time.
Got 120+ hours on my pair, so still running well within limits. need to chalk up some more hours really fast.
-Zia
Drivers are finally in the cabs!
Too tired today to attempt stuffing/tuning, so connected as is (even backs are open).
Wow... sound is so clear, detailed, and layered. Loads of detail (on certain tracks besides the music I can clearly hear the guitar strings vibrate), great imaging, lot of treble - but smooth and no harshness. Sounds musical too, not flat or boring in any way. With no stuffing and open back, bass is understandably less at this time.
Got 120+ hours on my pair, so still running well within limits. need to chalk up some more hours really fast.
-Zia
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Zia,
Wow! Those look amazing! Beautiful cabinets!! Just wait till you get the stuffing in and backs on, it really brings everything to life and gives it solidity. You'll love them even more
Until then, enjoy!!Scott
Thanks Scott and UL. I was lucky to find some really nice Teak veneer. The workman did a great job with the finishing too. The Mark Audio Alpair 12 drivers are really beautiful - they look wonderful in the cabs.
I am sure the stuffing will make a huge difference - will get that done hopefully within the next few days.
Scott, how are your Super Pensils playing? Have you got the baffle fixed?
-Zia
I am sure the stuffing will make a huge difference - will get that done hopefully within the next few days.
Scott, how are your Super Pensils playing? Have you got the baffle fixed?
-Zia
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UL,
The veneer I had was very thin and pretty flexible, so we went for wrapping the veneer around the front of the baffle right to the edges of the sides. So there are no joining/edge marks at the front.
The top veneer came out of separate pieces, but again maybe due to the thinness of the veneer, there are no perceptible edge marks.
-Zia
The veneer I had was very thin and pretty flexible, so we went for wrapping the veneer around the front of the baffle right to the edges of the sides. So there are no joining/edge marks at the front.
The top veneer came out of separate pieces, but again maybe due to the thinness of the veneer, there are no perceptible edge marks.
-Zia
With flexible paper backed veneer and iron-on glue method, it's not particularly hard at all - depending on the figuring and your particular aesthetic for grain matching, etc, it might take half an hour to layout the cutting plan for the veneer, and a few hours to apply veneer to all faces. (something like the beveled Fonkens take the best part of half a day by the time all the port slots and driver cut-outs are trimmed/sanded)
Paper backed veneer is easily cut with good kitchen (oops, workshop) scissors, and trimmed/sanded flush with plane blade and 150G sandpaper on hard block.
Care does need to be taken to avoid getting glue on face of veneer as each adjoining face is applied (masking tape is your friend).
At the most, the very thin paper backer (usually kraft brown) will be exposed on seams, and will in many cases virtually disappear once the finishing coats are applied. As Zia noted, it can usually be wrapped in the long grain direction around radiused or chamfered edges.
I use the hot iron to scorch the demarcation of enclosure edges and recessed driver cutouts.
Listening with some damping material in...
Started to experiment with the damping.
I have attached a picture of how I have my cabinet filled with hollow fiber fill - is this the right way? Or am I missing something?
Initial listening impressions - it's handling what I'm throwing at it pretty well - again very detailed, excellent imaging, got decent bass with weight too. The bass is very tight, bit different from typical woofer bass.
Treble is nice and transparent, but I am not finding it harsh in any way. I remember one magazine showing some charts that indicated treble harshness, but the top seems smooth to me. I am listening slightly off axis.
Playing it with a 5 watt/channel SEP. Plenty of SPL, but my experience tells me that the speakers will really like something with more watts.
-Zia
Started to experiment with the damping.
I have attached a picture of how I have my cabinet filled with hollow fiber fill - is this the right way? Or am I missing something?
Initial listening impressions - it's handling what I'm throwing at it pretty well - again very detailed, excellent imaging, got decent bass with weight too. The bass is very tight, bit different from typical woofer bass.
Treble is nice and transparent, but I am not finding it harsh in any way. I remember one magazine showing some charts that indicated treble harshness, but the top seems smooth to me. I am listening slightly off axis.
Playing it with a 5 watt/channel SEP. Plenty of SPL, but my experience tells me that the speakers will really like something with more watts.
-Zia
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Zia,
I doubt you're doing anything wrong with the stuffing but I'm no expert I have mine evenly distributed throughout each of the cabinets and it works great but would it be better doing it your way, I dunno! I'm sure Dave or Scott will chime in.
As far as power goes, I've got my Onkyo TX-SR805 receiver powering my Supers ... with 150wpc. Yeah I know, its a receiver and they're usually WAY over rated but there's been lots of independent tests and they show actually MORE power than the 135wpc claimed by Onkyo. Its not the cleanest amp in the world but its pretty good overall. I'm sure with the tubes you have they sound fantastic though!! I'd love to do tubes ...
Scott
I doubt you're doing anything wrong with the stuffing but I'm no expert
I have mine evenly distributed throughout each of the cabinets and it works great but would it be better doing it your way, I dunno! I'm sure Dave or Scott will chime in.As far as power goes, I've got my Onkyo TX-SR805 receiver powering my Supers ... with 150wpc. Yeah I know, its a receiver and they're usually WAY over rated but there's been lots of independent tests and they show actually MORE power than the 135wpc claimed by Onkyo. Its not the cleanest amp in the world but its pretty good overall. I'm sure with the tubes you have they sound fantastic though!! I'd love to do tubes ...
Scott
Scott,
I tried all four chambers - it starts sounding compressed, smaller - probably due to the quality of material I have. My Acousta-Stuf should arrive early next month. Then I can explore this in more depth. When I opened the cab to adjust I found some fluff closer to the driver, so it probably looks more like the attached image with this post.
However that still leaves a lot of the line open - I think this is less than ideal.
Strange thing is that cones hardly move. I've thrown some pretty bass heavy stuff at them, but don't see them agitated in any way.
-Zia
I tried all four chambers - it starts sounding compressed, smaller - probably due to the quality of material I have. My Acousta-Stuf should arrive early next month. Then I can explore this in more depth. When I opened the cab to adjust I found some fluff closer to the driver, so it probably looks more like the attached image with this post.
However that still leaves a lot of the line open - I think this is less than ideal.
Strange thing is that cones hardly move. I've thrown some pretty bass heavy stuff at them, but don't see them agitated in any way.
-Zia
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There are no chambers in the Pencils. If you have any, something is wrong somewhere.
Damping is specifically intended to be adjustable to allow the user to tailor things as they wish. That's why they have the removable backs. Default is a uniform density throughout appropriate to the desired system response.
Damping is specifically intended to be adjustable to allow the user to tailor things as they wish. That's why they have the removable backs. Default is a uniform density throughout appropriate to the desired system response.
Hi Scott,
Sorry for the confusion, the holey braces kind of divide the lower section into 4 parts - I was referring to that only - definitely no separate chambers! I built the Super Pensil 12 exactly according to plan.
The hollow conjugated fibre fill that I have is very light and springy - I haven't had much luck with this
- seems to mess up tuning all the time. I have ordered some acousta-stuf and that should reach me in early August.
-Zia
Sorry for the confusion, the holey braces kind of divide the lower section into 4 parts - I was referring to that only - definitely no separate chambers! I built the Super Pensil 12 exactly according to plan
.The hollow conjugated fibre fill that I have is very light and springy - I haven't had much luck with this
- seems to mess up tuning all the time. I have ordered some acousta-stuf and that should reach me in early August.-Zia
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