[randog]

Dave & friends,

I'm working on a design for custom stands/cabinets for the 1801's Darren is making for me. I'd like your opinion on the following ideas.

We have small children and although they can be 'trained'   (they are girls   ), it will be hard to keep little visiting neighborhood fingers at bay.

I plan to have a custom cabinet made to house the speakers with the lower portion to house the amps. If you can picture something similar to a jelly cupboard... totally enclosed except for the back.

Option 1: make a cabinet with a front door, a false back and sliding shelf so that when the door is opened the speaker can slide out to the ideal distance from the back wall. Problem with that idea is whether the side walls of the cabinet now mostly behind the speakers will cause imaging problems, etc.

Option 2: the top half of the cabinet comes off completely to expose the speaker and at that point the rest of it becomes basically a stand.

Opinions???

Also, what is the ideal height stand for these speakers?

Thanks!
Randy

[Darren Thomas]

Hi Randy,

I'm just thinking outloud here but I'm concerned that the cabinet around the speaker will do bad things to the bass response of the 1801's. Dave will be much more help on this but it raises a red flag for me. I'm not sure it would hurt your imaging if the baffle of the speaker sticks out beyond the sides of the cabinet but I'm pretty sure it will mess with the bass being that they are rear ported. It is good that you will be leaving the back open but I still think it might be a problem. Seems it would be a pain to take the entire top off of the speakers when you want to listen to them too...

HEY! Whatcha wanna hide the beautiful speakers I'm building for you anyway!!!!  

Did you see the pics of the walnut I found for ya?

Check it out at http://dagmandt.home.attbi.com/hardwoods.htm

Scroll down to the last 4 pics...nice figure eh?
Darren

[randog]

et tu Brutus? Where did you find it??? Looks like a beautiful chocolate river!   Say it's so!

Yea, I also have my reservations about Option 1. Option 2 is kind of cool in that we would stash the tops or make another use for them and only pull them out when I find myself hosting a mini monster convention. It may sound like a lot of effort for nothing, but only a father can appreciate the peace of mind of being able to kick your feet up and smile while you hear the pitter patter of a dozen little feet flying back and forth in a tag-your-it frenzy right through your beloved audio treasureland. Worth it? Oh yea... bigtime.  

Randy

[David Ellis]

Randy,

I will address your comments in no specific order.

Presumably you have read my remarks here: http://www.ellisaudio.com/spkrstands.htm

I must admit that I don't hear any difference between the 1801's on a good spiked stand and a barstool.

I must also admit that a component sized cabient below the 1801s might resonate, but I really don't know.  It will have some theoretical effect on the baffle response, but it will be VERY minimal.

I have some experience with the fingers of neighborhood kids on my tweeters.  They have been poked in twice.  I recommend a vacuum cleaner being used to suck-out the dome.  This works effectively without sucking out the Ferrofluid in the tweeter.  This is because, uh, the OW1 doesn't have any ferrofluid.

I have subsequently measured said tweeter and found no change in response.  There is also no audible change.

I have two small children (boys) and have leared that good learned behavioral consequence (and some cuddling)  will prevent many problems with the issues you describle.

Dave

[audioaffliction]

good learned behavioral consequence

Brilliantly put, Dave. ROTFLMAO.