When Kirk contacted me, I knew right away he was serious about wanting something really special. This was our most ambitious HT3 project to date (and, thus, the most expensive).
First, we searched high a low for a spectacular piece of African bubinga. Kirk wanted it to run the full length of the front baffle. We found a 2"-thick board for about $400 and had it re-sawn into a book-matched pair.
The boards were more reddish in tone than normal bubinga and didn't quite match the veneer we were using on the rest of the cabinet. So we ended up shooting a light coat of red aniline dye on the veneer to achieve a perfect match.
Unfortunately, although I certainly tried, I was unable to take pictures that even came close to capturing the beauty of this wood. Hopefully you can at least get the hint that they are stunning in person:
Here is the top portion close-up:
And some corner detail:
Kirk wanted the woofer mounted in the same plane it would have been mounted had the front baffle occupied only the top of the cabinet (as is normally the case). This meant mounting it about 1/2" below the surface of the solid bubinga. So we did a special round-over on the woofer cut-out. It should work well sonically and looks very nice (IMO):
To give you just a flavor of other custom options used in these pairs, Kirk decided to go with the Sonicap upgrade, DH Labs internal wiring, silver tweeter faceplates and a hand-rubbed finish.
This pair of HT3's is one I will certainly hate to ship. But they are headed to Atlanta.
Happy listening Kirk!
- Jim
