[wgraft5]

Hi everyone I started a thread a while back and it took off on a life of its own and that's ok.

So on this one I wanted to go over the ups and downs of this build.

I have been trolling these forums for a few years. I like the xls encores and was kinda saving for them or maybe a amp. Then danny drops the Mini's and I jumped on it. I have had no real stereo for years. I've just been listening to my headphones into the computer. So along with the Mini's I picked up a Aiyima 07 amp. Then I picked up the FX D01 DAC preamp. I have to say this system is probably in the top 3 systems I have owned in the past. Clean sound. I have about $400 into the Mini's with shipping,DuraTex, and my diy stands. The 07 was $75 and the D01 $150 and came with all the cables I needed to get up and running. $625 ish for the system as it stands. Burning everything for the last 2 weeks 12-14hrs a day.

I did have several things go wrong mostly because I was too excited and impatient and wanted to rock out. In my excitement I glued the front panel in backwards Then I built the crossovers and broke the lead off one of the caps, then the flatpack. The drivers didn't fit 

So I was OK slow down take a brake from it. I came up with a plan to fix my mistakes and then buy a new flat pack. After i was looking at the cap i saw about a 1mm of lead sticking out. With a razor blade I scraped about another 1mm of plastic lead. After about 10 failed attempts I got the lead soldered on and it works fine. I will get a new cap to replace it but for now it works. Then a knock at my door and a unexpected delivery from GRR. It was a replacement flat pack. WOW!?!? Ok Checked and the drivers fit so I built them up. Next was speaker stands.

The Mini's are small but the did take up a lot of real estate on my desk so i wanted speaker stands. Looked at diy stands and came up with a style I like and looked easy to build. They came out good.

[wgraft5]

Speaker stands.

[subsonic1050]

Looks very nice! How do they sound?

[wgraft5]

And my Not $20k front end. Yes this is china made but was highly recommended and it really does sound good for the price. The sony UBP X800M2 is a nice blueray 4k player.

I will be constantly upgrading from now on. This is supposed to be my desktop system.

[wgraft5]

The first thing I noticed was that I can understand vocals now. I have 65 years old ears with a built in filter that rolls off steep on the high-end. And I think my midrange is out of phase lol I have trouble understanding people sometimes. But yes clear. I have been playing with speaker placement. The lack of low bass is a thing, that is to be expected with such a small driver, also not enough slam. I can hear lower bass but it is lower in volume. I do plan to add a bass module or subs. The speakers have good dynamic range. Imaging and soundstage seems to be good. I'm still messing with speaker placement and final burn in.

[Tyson]

Very nice!  I especially like those stands, very clever.  Did you fill them with sand or kitty litter or something similar to make them more inert? 

[wgraft5]

@ Tyson I have not filled them yet. I may run the speaker cable through the bottom of the speaker and then through the tube and out the bottom under the stand platform. Or maybe just drill a small hole at the top and bottom of the tube. Any way I want to wait till I am done messing with the tube so kitty litter dont go flying. 

[jriggy]

You can get ‘tubes’ of plastic to use as ‘bags’ for the sand or kitty liter. This plastic tubing comes in rolls you can cut to size and seal or tie the ends to enclose. Doing this will allow you any flexibility in the future without any mess.

[wgraft5]

@ jriggy I have been thinking about something like that, plastic tube bags. I will search for that, thanks.

[Hobbsmeerkat]

They look great, dude!
Glad we could get you fixed up and playing! 

[wgraft5]

 @Hobbsmeerkat, Thankyou very much.