[jsalk]

You may not recognize the model HT8i.  That is because it is not ours.

We are often asked to build other people's designs.  In this case, Jeff asked us to build cabinets for a speaker originally designed by Al Wooley.  Al is a very competent speaker designer from British Columbia.  While running a speaker business much like ours, Al developed quite a following.  But the speaker business is tough and Al had more than his share of problems shipping speakers into the USA.  They would be damaged in shipping and the shipping companies on both the Canadian and US sides of the border would deny claims saying the damage was caused on the opposite side of the border.  This left Al hanging with a shipping bill and the cost of replacement speakers.  In the end, it became too much to bare and Al hung it up.

In this case, Jeff purchased a "custom" kit from Al about the time he was closing shop.  This was no ordinary kit.  No stone was left upturned in making these the finest pair of HT8i's ever built (at least I pretty sure of that). (Note that the drivers used in these speakers are no longer available, so this is not currently a speaker we can produce for others unless it is re-designed with new drivers.)

While we don't normally post pictures of speaker designs that are not ours, I thought these turned out real nice.  Here is a picture.



And a close-up...



Happy listening Jeff!

- Jim

[Meicheng]

Wow, beautiful work.

[SlushPuppy]

I've seen pictures of that speaker in many finishes, but that is by far the best. Congrats to the lucky owner!

[Nuance]

Those look great!  Thanks for sharing the story with us, Jim, and congrats to you, Jeff!  You certainly picked the right company to carry on Al's design.

[Gzerro]

Beautiful speakers!

What exactly is going on with the side-firing cones and the outboard boxes?

[jsalk]

Beautiful speakers!

What exactly is going on with the side-firing cones and the outboard boxes?

I shouldn't really comment about Al's work (for fear of getting his reasoning wrong), but the side-firing woofers are likely utilized to keep the front baffle as narrow as possible.  These are only 7" wide.  Since human hearing isn't good at localizing low frequencies, as long as you cross low enough you can get away with side-firing woofers.  I don't know what crossover frequency he used on these.

As for the outboard crossover boxes, the crossover components were chosen for maximum performance and were placed on three individual boards that were far too large to fit inside the speakers.  So we designed outboard crossover boxes to accommodate the crossover boards. 

- Jim

[mcgsxr]

I will let Al speak for himself, but I did have 3 sets of his speakers in my house a number of years ago, and reviewed them here on AC.

At that time, he was using 3 similar drivers in a smaller speaker called the HT3.  It had what appears to be the same tweeter, a mid below it, and a 7 inch side firing woofer.  In my room, the speakers sounded best with the side firing woofers facing each other rather than firing away from each other, but each room may be different.
 
Good speakers, I believe a it was a local AC member that ended up buying them after hearing them at my place.

LOVE that Ziricote finish!

[RAW]

Very nice work Jim

I will agree the nicest HT8i every made that i know.
Ya the model along with all my product is no longer available without complete redesigning them one speaker at a time.first off the tweeter was a custom Aurum Cantus ribbon made for me.The mids WR125ST matched sets of 4 custom treatment i did on the cones, then the woofers SDX7 also treatment on the cones as well.All of these drivers no longer available.Similar replacements can be found with some work.I am no longer selling kits or finished products rather doing crossovers, driver development testing for a few companies in my spare time.
Shipping large speakers was a issue and I did have it down but clearing customes doing my own paper work as I was 5 miles from the boarder was not a issue just time to do it all.
Shipping those here from canada is a joke UPS FED EX ect well over 1400 to ship them and if I spent 4 hrs drive across the boarder do all the cusomes paper work ship them from Blaine or Sumas WA. the cost was 240.00 including full insurance. Think its nuts price a box 14X 54X20 weight 95lbs each with UPS.ca .Shipping from here is just out of the world yet minutes away it is almost free
Had a gun pulled on me at my real world job and pointed at my head.  This and other things going on put me in a spot not very comfortable to say the least.So I shut down RAW Acoustics and took care of myself first.

OK Jeff enjoy them they sure look PURDY

Crossovers were built outside as Jeff wanted the best crossovers I thought possible.Mundorf supreme caps with Dueland resistors Silver and oil bypass caps.The complete cap value on the midrange were Mundorf Supreme with a silver and oil bypass cap.I believe 14G foils on the mid and tweeter then a 12G foil on the woofer with Mundorf caps used in the shunt cap on the woofer with another silver and oil bypass cap.Now for reference in the photo the 6 crossover boards in the rear were a set of HT8i that I had just assembled for another customer who purchased my last set of HT8i speakers in KOA.Those had 14G foil ,Mundorf Mk caps with a few Supreme bypass caps on them.Photos show none at the time but once that customer seen Jeffs and had a listen to them he could not afford that level but liked what he hear with the supreme bypass caps on the mundorf MK caps.
Below is the 2 different HT8i crossovers all the large boards are Jeffs.We talked about size and this was do able for him
No I will not be making any other HT8i crossovers or speakers for those interested.But the designs did work very well.Liked the low end and imaging from the 7" width



Nice work Jim I am glad I passed Jeff over to ya when he asked were to get them built.Just for your info any other RAW Acoustics old customers who would like to have the designs built.YES I recommend Jim.

All the best
Al Wooley

[jeffk]

First off I would like to thank my wife for supporting this habit. Also huge thanks to Al Wooley for all of his help. He went way above and beyond what I would consider great service. We exchanged maybe 100 emails and several long phone calls in the kit ordering process and also through the actual build. I originally heard the Raw Acoustics HT8's at the RMAF in 2006 I believe. The HT8's were the only set of speakers there that my wife was into. She tolerated a long day but really enjoyed the Raw Acoustics room. I too loved the Ht8's right away and the Ht3's for that matter. The combination of great imagining and deep low frequencies was just what I was looking for. We meet Al that day and he was, with good cause, proud of his work and a pleasure to talk to. So... we started saving money to upgrade our speakers and go with the HT8's. By the time we were ready to order the speakers from Al he was closing down Raw. Thankfully Al agreed to build one more kit with his latest version of the HT8, the HT8i.  Al advised some upgrade work on the drivers, tricked out cross over and some custom cabinet design. These should way out perform the HT8's at the RMAF. I can't wait to get them home. Al, I hope life is smoother now and the tough days are less frequent.

Also many thanks to Jim Salk. If you have been to the Salk Sound website or seen Jim's speakers in person, you can see the quality of his work. What you wont see is what a nice guy Jim is. It has been a pleasure working with Jim on this build. He has been very patient along the way. It took me a while to save up the money for all of the cross over parts, binding posts etc. Jim provided great communication along the way while giving his advice. Jim designed the cross over boxes and the speaker plinths, they look amazing. Jim also used his design on the magnetic grills. Al used magnetic grills on his speakers but he no longer had them in stock. Thank you Jim it's been a pleasure.

I will post more once I get the Ht8i's to their new home. Jim is packing them up this week for shipping. I can't wait to get them hooked up for what I am sure will be a long first night of listening.

Thanks for all of the nice comments

Jeff