My son asked me for recommendations regarding a bedroom sound system including bookshelf speakers. We built a pair of DIY Soundgroup Fusion 8 Alchemy speakers before he went to college years ago. This was a great experience and he is still using the speakers in his living room home theater. So we decided to build another Jeff Bagby speaker offered by the Diysoundgroup - the Helix.
Main reasons for this choice are reasonable price including the flat pack, high quality drivers, sensitivity of 88 dB and a specified 40 Hz - 20 kHz frequency range making a subwoofer optional. We did decide on upgrading the crossover with air core inductors, Mills resistors and Sonicap/Jantzen capacitors plus wire from GR Research and NoRez.
Over the Holidays we found time for the build.
The flat pack for the cabinet was high quality and precision cut.
While we initially planned on using the push-on connectors for the drivers I ended up deciding to solder the wires to the tabs.
We decided on using black Duratex for the finish. Remarkably, I still had half a can from the Fusion build years ago and it was in perfect condition. It took two coats.
We let the finish cure for a few days before the final assembly.
So how do they sound? In one word - great! Without any burn-in the fabric dome tweeters had absolutely no harshness, the highs were extended, the midrange smooth and the lower end seemed impressive for a small bookshelf speaker.
This was with my Almarro A318B but we also wanted to see how the speakers did with the Vista Spark that I ended up getting him. One concern was if the small amplifier could drive the 88 dB sensitivity speakers reasonably well. The worries were not necessary. The combination proved to be very nice and driving the speakers in my relatively large living room (25 x 15) to quite loud levels.
It will be interesting to hear the speakers after some break-in.
