[virtue]

Guys,
A central part of the Melissa enclosure vision was that customers would build their own.  JT built a bubinga top for his Sensation which was cool.  A special customer of mine in England (Danny B.) who is building some spherical carbon fibre speakers totally tricked out his Sensation and Piano, see pictures below.  Full-on carbon fiber from the guys at MCT who do the Red Bull F1 race car.  This is not amateur hour.  Nevertheless, you can do it t0o...

I'll have separate rails to sell in around 60 days, for now you must sacrifice the factory top.  Also note that I also have some degreased, non-annodized aluminum sides (around 10 pairs) for any adventurous metal-worker out there who can propose a design.  You can drill them, paint them, scratch them, whatever. 

I hope Danny joins the forum to vouch for his amazing project.

This is one of the driver modules on Danny's experimental speaker.



Here are the matching Sensation and Pianos.



How cool is that?



Trippy or what?



 

[dba]

Hey Seth,
Great to see some of the pictures published, just a shame they were only iPhone ones

To explain, the pics above are raw carbon, un-lacquered. I'll post some further pictures once they've been thru the 4 part process (as per external steering components on F1 cars, a Patented finishing process), 2 of which are completed but its quite a labour intensive activity although the finish is more than worth it 

The Speaker picture is of our Companion Speaker; 1 piece F1-Grade* Carbon 8.4" Sphere with a super-wide-band 3" Carbon-polycomposite woven driver powered by a tiny 2024 Class-T amplifier...

[virtue]

You are a master, Danny!  Be sure to tell our customers where they can buy your speakers (the ones without the amp inside, although I do appreciate that detail on my forum, grin

[cynan]

That carbon stuff is gorgeous. (Having dabbled in road bikes - though sadly not F1 racing - I've known a bit of an obsession with carbon fiber parts myself)

A question regarding that picture of the Companion Speaker: How do you guys generate a powerful enough magnetic field to get the speaker to float equidistantly between the gold prongs of that stand apparatus? And most importantly, how dow you successfully shield the speaker driver so such a magnetic field does not interfere with the sound?   

[dba]

I see your point Seth, although Michael knows the Class-T device in question all too well ...
...for myself and the others involved in dba, the definition of the reproduction from the sphere and its associated interior and exterior finishing tends to satisfy a certain type of amplifier topology, for us that is Class-T and Tube.

As the Companion is very much a device for the smaller environment, an accompaniment to a room rather than the center-piece an equally petite but competent amplifier is used - they are not exclusively offered with an internal amplifier, the Virtue ONE.2 would be a superior partner - we should spoil ourselves with a demo in the future

...and Cynan, once you start being mesmerized by carbon and its qualities, if like me i am like a moth in front of a flame
Sadly there is no trick to the self-floating, anti-magnetism stand instead what isn't shown is the solid turned aluminum base with a dynamic polymer interface that seals to any surface

Q. is the Virtue ONE.2 capable of powering a Dual-Voice-Coil driver and operate in the lowest part of the spectrum - i ask because we have a 13" Sphere with a very-long-throw pulp-composite 8" woofer that accompanies the Companions (for AV applications), again an ideal partner perhaps for the qualities of the Virtue ONE.2....?

[Xcalibur]

Wow, carbon fiber looks AMAZING on this gear.  I know what I want on mine when my pennies are saved.     

[dba]

Here are a couple of pictures of my fav weave, its a Black-resin weave and gives a bean type of effect rather than the linear square look of most Carbon. This however has ti-glass in the weave so has a lovely deep black and titanium dark silver finish - please note that this is straight out of the oven so no lacquer process yet (i'll post again when that is done)


 
from another angle



...hope you like
danny.

[dba]

....its been a busy week this one, nice to be grounded by the Volcanic ash

Anyhow, if we start with the 2 pics below that is as the post above BUT with 2 lacquer stages, really starting to look glass-like (and i am hoping slightly clearer pictures also )

...and close....


Now here is the original from the first post above, now with all lacquer but not machine polished as yet

...and close...

 

And now for something a little special, as used in the Red Bull F1 cars fuselage

...from another angle, just for good measure...

 

...stop me if i'm boring you all, a few last stages to go and then a real photo-shoot

[Don_S]

Bored?    Heck no, not me. 

The tops look great. I think they are a perfect complement to the anodized black chassis.  I look forward to seeing the pictures of the finished tops but I bet they look even better up-close-and-personal.

Reminds me of the Time carbon/Vectran fork on my Merlin road bike. Very attractive in a hi-tech way but almost impossible to capture in a photo.

[mikeeastman]

Seth please sign up for some rails ,I've ordered some granite,marble and some flagstone to make tops out of.

[virtue]

You got it, Mike.  PM me if you're out there and need rails to make your own top.  I'll give away the first 20 pairs for free + shipping.

[OzarkTom]

I can use 2 pairs Seth. I bought clear acrylic to make my Sensation and Piano more transparent.

[dba]

Hey QzarkTom, Acrylic is a great material to work with and test ideas but unless you pay the earth (far more than glass) you'll not get a grade of material that will be resistant enough to fend-off scratches (even from good MF cloths)...

If i could plant a thought in your head i'd advise using inexpensive Acrylic to make a test piece, you may need to mask-off the sides and color or even route-away and insert suitable interface material, perhaps 10mm from the rail edge to clean-up the tops visible surface once in place (a material to aesthetically join the Melissa chassis to the Acrylic).
After that, once your look is matured I'd opt for getting some glass cut. Colored or plain glass will last longer and its condition deteriorates infinitely slower than plastics (unless you pay the earth for it).

Anyhow, below please see the finished Black-Resin Ti-Glass 400 grade Carbon:
[Process: 3 grades Primary flattening, Primary Lacquer, flatten, Sealing Lacquer, flatten, Final Lacquer, flatten, Final Lacquer 2, 2000 flatten, 3M Ultra-fine Cut machine-polish at 1000rpm, 3M Ultra-fine Finishing Cream machine-polish at 1000rpm and a final treatment of Zymol 50% Brazilian Yellow Carnauba Wax]










...under natural light, middle of the day this type of carbon looks like glass (when finished in this way). Under false lighting this is the darkest type of carbon you'll see and when light catches it you see streaks of rich titanium pattening. Whereas most well finished carbon looks far deeper than the depth of the material this black resin type seems to raise from the surface in a 3D effect to the eye quite mesmerizing

[OzarkTom]

As long as it works for the Lone Star Audio Fest, that will be fine. I bever use a cloth to clean acrylic, I only use a small burst of aur from afar. We frame a lot of pictures with plexiglass, so great care has to be taken.

So what do I win as the best looks and sound at the show?

[dba]

You win respect

[barbarous]

I thought this might help anyone who tries to take off one of these tops. They are a very tight fit. After removing the first two "obvious" screws I wasn't able to budge the top. Prying it out I suspected would either damage the top I was removing, or worse, the aluminum front. So I removed another six screws from the bottom. This loosened the frame a bit, enough to slide the top out, though it was still a tight fit.



And here, for curiosity's sake, is a view inside the Piano M1.

[virtue]

Sorry to have made you work so hard!  Thanks for posting!!

[barbarous]

Oh, no problem! I take the snug fit as a mark of excellence, actually. Cheers.

[dba]

The snug'ness (that can't be a word?) is very satisfying from my perspective having adapted quite a few different enclosures from other manufacturers...not only can you gain tolerance by loosening the screws on  Melissa as shown above but even better, you can tighten the enclosure to suit - no rattles in this design

A note when making a new top for the Piano; Tolerance between the lower surface of the top-plate and the top of the mech is small so do make sure you measure twice and cut once