[dvdvideo]

My take on the Raw Acoustics RAW HT1 kit from www.rawacoustics.ca

Info on the kit:

RAW HT1 kit includes
:: 2- CSS WR125S drivers
:: 2- Aurum Cantus ribbon tweeters
:: Solen crossover parts, Solen Inductors,Solen Poly caps, Metal Oxide resistors
:: Binding posts, ports, wire,screws, damping material
:: 2 CNC cut Baffles with Magnet grills Included
:: cabinet constuction plans,crossover layout plans
:: build your own cabinets.Using our CNC front baffles (included)




Short form review.....please feel free to ask any questions....I bought my kit before the cnc front baffles were included so I cannot comment on them.

What I used.......

Amps:
Yamaha HTR5740, NAD T742, Panasonic XR50

Sub
Mission MS8

Stands
Built stands out of mdf and 3" pvc pipe, filled with sand.

Sources
Pioneer pd-5700 cd player, an audigy 4 (both 44.1 digital and analog) and the Mystique 7.1
95% if lossless songs........Some examples of groups I listen to.....Barenaked Ladies (one of my favs), Enya, Madonna, Shamen, C+C Music Factory, Culture Beat, Loft, Snap, Janet Jackson, Sash!, ATB (love his stuff)
Deep Forest, Enigma, Pet shop Boys, Phil Colins, a and lot of 80's and 90's hits......
Also I did some gaming with the audigy 4.

Positives:

-Al from Rawacoustics has been great, answering the many, many questions I had.
-Shipped out in a timely manner
-Drivers are of excellent build quality
-Kit was relatively easy to follow

-Aurum Cantus Tweeter is absolutely superb
-Crisp and clear with great detail and yet never sounds harsh
-Treble has depth and great transients
-midrange is excellent with good placement and toneality
-mid bass is punchy and tight
-speakers do not sound small....in fact there is a suprising amount of bass going on from these little drivers
-Overall a warm sounding speaker to my ears with a lot of detail
-Overall imaging is wide and deep
-Sounded fantastic with all the gaming I did (HL2, Battlefield 2, Farcry, Call of Duty, etc)

Negatives

-If I had a personal complaint it would actually be a bit too much mid bass, but most of that has to do with my room (I use them at my computer), I am in a small room with hardwood floors, and the speakers are too close to the corners. Not really a negative, more of an issue just for me. A front ported design would fix this for me but then they would be a much larger speaker. These drivers push a lot of air.....it's really amazing actually....
-Aren't the most efficient speakers, need a good amp.

Overall this is an really superb sounding set of speakers to my ears, I have no problem reccomending it.

Actual pics.
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dvdvideo/album?.dir=/59d8

[Cacophonix]

awesome finish on those speakers!

How did you trim the edges? I've done a couple of projects with veneer, and always screw up the edges.  And what sort of veneer did u use ... and where did you buy them?

[dvdvideo]

Actually, I knew I would screw it up so I paid a guy locally who had done it before.   Sorry.

By the way, I am selling these (not because I don't like them, they are great, just need the money)
Asking $350 U.S ($425 Canadian) plus shipping.

[Cacophonix]

I'd have given it a serious thought ... but i've just placed an order for HT-3 and am already worrying about the finish . I haven't even bought the MDF to make the cabinets.

The only speaker project i was involved with was the Dayton 3 ... and i finished them using vinyl wrap around..it looks okay but no where near a good veneer finish. Even there I managed to screw up the edges. Maybe i need a edge trimmer or a good flush trim bit.

[Bingenito]

13 ply birch plywood might work if you use something like Whispermat or Black hole 5 inside the woofer enclosure.

That way you can route out the edges, sand and use stain- lacquer or poly. Birch is more expensive then MDF but it saves you a step and the HT3 is not that large so the difference in cost is not that bad.

Ask Al if brich ply would work since these are his design.

[RAW]

We use MDF as the price of MDF is the cheaper material to use.
As for plywood do not use it to many voids in the material.If you use Baltic birch ok.But a lot of money for a materila you will just cover.
Not that Baltic Birch ply is bad.Not by far.
Dan from Adire has taken data to show what kind of freqencys vibrations is transfered threw MDF .75" or Baltic Birch.
And the Baltic Birch is by far better in helping with a materil loss for absorbtion.
This is due to the layers of material and over the solid single material of MDF.

Back to the MDF use the material as pointed out in the plans 3/4" and 1.25" braces top and bottom plates.
This helps to limit vibration of the cabinet walls with a wider brace contact area.This is why we use 1" or 1.25" when we can for braces.More wall to wall contact area the better.

As for vibration and aborbtion.

Well that is a larger issue.
In the short do not I repeat do not use BH5 or any other material that has a top layer as BH5 does.IF you do rip off that top layer of the material.

Why
Well the top layer is to thick of a material and what it does is capture the lower mid range frequency and does not release it.
This range is gone!




Here is just a few products we tested.
And in the end we had a product made for us that did what BH is said to to.
Help elliminate cabinet wall resination.(first off BH uses a barrier that is 1/16" thick with a PSA.This layer can not elliminate a resination at 3500hz let alone lower as it is so thin).In order to do this the first layer must be at least 1/8" or better to do any justice at all.

The product that had the best results is shown in the photo with the pile of 8 samples.Second from the bottom
3/16" barrier with a PSA (very thick)
1/4" 1lb foam High Density
1/8" barrier molded into the foam above and below not just placed as in other materials.
1" 1lb High density foam with no top coating at all.


Worked great on issue BUT each sheet weight was close to 20lbs.
And this would add a lot to a customer in shipping even if it did what BH does not.

So we took a step back and looked at this again with a company Vibra sonic who specializes in vibration issues.
As well as Acoustical.

We ended up with a vibration pad that can be placed every 10"-12" around a cabinet wall in 1" pieces and this material captures the vibration and threw the top layer a foil like material very thick this disipates the vibration as a low heat.This will remove the vibration were a solid mass just moves the vibration around!

For acoustical we use a 1" High density foam with top layer on it this foam but this layer goes to the walll side of the cabinet.

This is our RAW ICE material these sheets for abosrbtion of the vibration and then the foam for the acoustical inside of the cabinet.

Now for those who do not want to spend the money on any of this kind of material.
Goe to your local Home Deopt or Lowe's
Get yourself a few peel and stick floor tiles.
Now the trick with the tiles.Check the PSA on the back before you purchase them.
In the store peel a small amount of the sheet off and with your finger push it into the tile and see which stick the best.Or has the best PSA applied.
PIck the ones with the stongest hold.

After doing this wipe the inside of the cabinet walls with a clean damp cloth and remove all the dust.Very important to get any thing to stick.
Cut and apply the tiles every were you can get to.Not needed on the braces just the inside walls.
Push them in place very very well to make sure they stick.We use a small piece of MDF as a push pad to make sure they are pushed tight.

Now
Line the cabinet walls with plain open cell foam 1" thick.
Last put a small amount 4-6oz of poly behind each driver.

This will help to elliminate vibration from the walls.

Hope this helped you out
And enjoy them HT3 when they are complete.

[mumbles]

Al
 the idea of covering the inside surfaces of the speaker enclosure with self sticking floor tiles. Is this a substitute for a product like the mass loaded vinyl tiles that Parts Express sells?

[RAW]

Not sure of the product PE sells as we have been using the tiles for a few years and I know PE has not had that product near that long.