[Captainhemo]

man,  your cabinets look great  Mike,  I really  like them  .  don't know what happened the other day but somehow I meesed all the pictures you  posted of the stained cabinets... saw your  posts but   somehow didnt see the pics  , wierd

Anyway,     if you  want  a  darker finish ,  maybe go to a  darker  stain  on your next  cabinets.   I  think  the color you  have looks pretty  dam good  though   

One thing worth noting about using the wet/dry sanding method of staining is we were actually told to   pre sand   very smooth .  The  sanding  process  with the stain  is  , as I'm  sure you  can imagine, quite messy ,  so have lots of clean rags around  if you  give it  a try

Can't wait to see your   speakers   with the drivers/grills

-jay

[mlundy57]

Jay,

Thanks. I've already given it a try and it is messy. Trying to hold on to the sandpaper when it is covered in stain is interesting  . It seems like you have to do a small section at a time otherwise the stain thickens up too much to wipe off well.

The stain is red mahogany but initially looked more red than I cared for. I put a second coat of stain on everything and the cabinets darkened up more to my liking. I now have the first layer of amber shellack on them and they are beginning to look really nice. My wife saw the CS with the first layer of shellack and really liked them. She also liker the rounded over corners, she wasn't aware I was going to do that.

I plan on three layers of shellack sanding to 400 grit between layers 1 and 2 and 800 grit between layers 2 and 3. I'm not sure what to use after the 3rd layer before buffing it out.

Any recommendations on what to use for the final buffing, both material and method? I have an el-cheapo Coleman random orbit buffer with a synthetic sheep skin cover for polishing cars (though I've never used it on a car, it was one of my wife's ideas that I have managed to sidestep so far  )

Mike

[mlundy57]

Jay,

I hope to be able to finish the speakers next weekend. The grills may take a little longer though. I'm going to have to get a new stapler. The electric one I have fires multiple staples at a time and does not seat them very well. I'm thinking a small pneumatic stapler designed for installing crown molding would work a lot better but I may have to order one which will take a week or so.

Any other ideas on a stapler that works well for speaker grills made out of 1/2" stock?

Mike

[Danny Richie]

Questions on the port tube. I'm using the multi-piece flared port tubes like the ones used on the N-1X.

Do you glue the pieces together and if so what type of glue? Would the multipurpose cement you get in the plumbing department for abs/pvc/cpvc (red label)work?

How do you secure the tubes in the cabinets, press fit or glued in. If glued, what type of glue works best for this?

Mike

Glue in the outside flare to the cabinet first. Let it dry... Silicon works well.

You can glue all of the port tubes together with PVC plastic cement. It dries quickly (in seconds). So when you go to put it on put it all the way on quickly.

You can glue the rest of the pieces on in any order.

[mlundy57]

What's the best way to attach the wire to the driver tabs for soldering? On the crossovers I physically twisted the wires together before soldering but that is not possible on the tabs.

Thanks,

Mike

[rockdrummer]

I had the exact same question when building av 1 mini monitors for my parents. Strip the ofc, put  the heat shrink on the wire so it can be shrunk after soldering, lay the wire flat on the tab and make as much connection as possible, solder and then apply heat shrink.

Ben

[mlundy57]

Ben,

Thanks. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to try and thread it through those little holes or not.

Mike

[Danny Richie]

Ben,

Thanks. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to try and thread it through those little holes or not.

Mike

No, don't do that.

Do exactly like rockdrummer said and I will add to that to tin the wire with solder first and tin the terminal with solder first. Then put the two together. Again try to get the wire to lay flat on the terminal and run the length of it. Solder with high heat fast and then get off of it fast.

[rockdrummer]

Oh yeah, I forgot that part. I gotta brush up on the art of soldering. I will be doing it again soon. Been a while. Thanks for clarifying, Danny.

Ben

[mlundy57]

  They're done YEAH!!!!   

They sound GREAT!!! They have not had any time to burn in yet but in the main living room the X-LS Encores with the upgrades I installed kick the Klipsch RF-81 II (Reference Series II bookshelf speakers with 8" woofers) all over the field. The only adjustment I made was to change the crossover point to the sub (Rythmik F12) from 40Hz for the Klipsch to 80Hz for the X-LS Encore. Even more amazing is that I had not rerun the calibration software.

About the time I finished the X-CS Encore my wife decided she wanted to watch TV so I hooked the Klipsch's back up and moved the Encores upstairs. The upstairs room is only about 1/4 the size of the downstairs room plus upstairs the speakers are only a few inches from the wall instead of the 3 feet they are downstairs.  This resulted in the LS's having a much larger bass response than in the living room and much more than I had been getting from the PSB Image B6's that had been upstairs.  The CS Encore also sounds really good but I was only able to listen to it in enhanced stereo mode for less than 5 minutes when the wife said she was going to bed so turn it down. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

The upgrades for all three speakers included completely building out the crossovers with Erse XQ inductors, SoniCaps, SoniCap bypass caps and Mills resistors, all point-to-point wired with the high purity OFC wire plus NoRez and AcustaStuff. Additionally, the port tubes for the LS's were upgraded to the flared port tubes used in the N1X kit.

I'll get the rest of the pictures up by this weekend.

Thanks everybody for all your help!!! 

Mike

[Captainhemo]

Congrats Mike   

Just wait till you   get some hours adding up  on those ,  you'll be even more impressed 

-jay

[mlundy57]

Jay,

Working on that part right now. I have set up a playlist of various types of music and am letting it play all day while I'm out. This is the second day today. I started yesterday with the volume low, -30dB. Today the volume is a little louder, -25dB. Tomorrow I will increase to -20dB. By Saturday I should have about 30 hours on them.

Mike

[mlundy57]

Here are some shots of the LS Encores after the shellack has been applied. First from the side




Here's one from the rear showing the flared ports. You can see the tear out still shows, on well, it's on the back




And here's one from the front




Here are the finished grills. First from the back




Here's a closer shot of one from the back




And here's the front view




More on the way,

Mike

[mlundy57]

Here are some shots of the X-CS Encore after the shellack has been applied. First from the back,



Then from the front



Here is the finished grill for the X-CS Encore from the back



and the front



Here is a shot of all three speakers from the front after the shellack



Here is the CS with the crossover installed



Here are the LS's with the crossovers installed



Here is a shot of all three speakers with the crossovers installed



Here they are set up and playing in the upstairs room. First without the grills



Then with the grills on



They've been burning in for parts of two days now and have about 20 hours playing time on them. Sounding better but still have a ways to go. They do require more power than the PSB's they replaced (3dB less sensitive) but are well within the ability of the NAD AVR. So far I have not run them any louder than -20 on the volume scale (it goes up to +15). Right now they are playing at -20dB and I can hear them just fine downstairs in my office.

Mike

[persisting1]

The shellack really brings out the stain. Looks good