[greenklein]

Well I really enjoyed building my A/V-3's and A/V3s last year, but I've always wanted to build the X-LS Encores, so I finally pulled the trigger on them.  I just finished them a few days ago.  I hooked them up, turned on the stereo and smiled.  I'm not even sure what I'm going to do with them.  They match the A/V's so they would be nice as the surrounds, but I'm thinking they're too nice for that.  Oh well, I'll figure it out.  Present to the Parents?  Well, here are a few pics.  No upgrades on these besides the No-rez.  I had some extra from the A/V build.  Ok, I've spent enough time trying to rotate the images...They look right in the gallery...Sorry.



White Oak Veneer and rattle can gloss black.  White oak finished with stain sealer and 7 or 8? coats of wipe on poly.  I don't believe the imperfections will show up on the pics!  I hope...











Just testing them out next to the A/V-3's!


The A/V-3s was feeling left out...  The A/V-3's were painted with a semi-gloss enamel using my airless sprayer.  I was originally going to do that with the encores, but it was too much of a hassle to run paint through the airless and clean it out for the size of these, so rattle can it was.

Thanks everyone for posting pics/builds etc.  It is very helpful...There is some incredible work done by people on this site. 

What's next?  I kinda want to build a new sub box for the existing sub, but have no idea how to go about that.  I would like to build one of Danny's subs, but that is not going to be in the budget. 

Thanks Danny for the cool projects!

Todd

[mresseguie]

Very nice looking!

 

  (Crying over my poor carpentry skills and lack of tools)

Michael

[mlundy57]

Very nice. How did you get the painted baffle with the veneer?

Mike

[cody69]

Nicely done -- look great! The black baffle and veneer look great.
No doubt you'll enjoy these.

[Guy 13]

Really nice work greenklein.

Guy 13

[Captainhemo]

nicely done 
Pretty impressive little speakers  huh ?



-jay

[Rocket]

Hi,

Very nice looking speakers.

Thanks for the photos.

Cheers Rod

[jeffh]

greenklein,
Your speakers look very nice.  I really like your finish on the veneer 

[Danny Richie]

Looks great! Nice job. 

[devinkato]

Looks great - best value in DIY!

[greenklein]

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate it. 

Very nice. How did you get the painted baffle with the veneer?

Mike

Mike,  I glued the baffle on after I did the veneering and finishing.  I used some blue tape on the seams to keep the glue off too.  I'm not sure I needed to since with the finish it would have been easy to use a wet rag and clean the glue off.  After using the flush bit and round-over I masked up the rest of the speaker using "frog" tape on the baffle edges (it makes a very clean line), prepped and painted away.  I did 4 coats of primer and 4 coats of paint.  I let the finish dry for a couple of days before I removed the taped edges.  It came off very cleanly.  I thought I would have to use a knife, but nope!

Todd

[mlundy57]

Todd,

Do I understand correctly, you ran a flush trim bit around the baffle after you finished the veneer? If so, didn't that mar the finish?

Thanks,

Mike

[greenklein]

Mike,

I put some blue tape on the finished veneer right up to the baffle.  The bearing of the trim bit didn't seem to bother it at all.  I don't believe I finished the A/V's before I put the baffle on.  Finishing the encores first was a good step I think.  Tape went on nice and came off nice and it made glue clean up easier too.  After I clamped the baffle on, and the glue spilled out, I pulled the tape and then ran a wet cloth around all of the clamps (kind of a pain) but the glue came right off.  I'm sure there is a better way to do this, but it seemed to work just fine.  The lines on the Encores are cleaner than the A/V's although you really have to look.

Thanks,

Todd

ps.  I've enjoyed looking through your build threads the past year and a half.  Thanks for posting. 

[mlundy57]

Todd,

Thanks and you're welcome. Having all these folks to ask questions and bounce ideas off of is a real blessing.

Mike

[Ron]

Nice work Todd. Your speakers look great ! Do they have the performance upgrade mods ( Sonicaps, Mills, No- Res ) too ?

[rockdrummer]

Todd, I have always leaned towards black for the entire speaker, regardless of size, but I really like that front baffle look.  I am going to look into learning about veneers next. 

I built a pair of those for my brother and I'm going to get a pair of them for my daughters' dance studio.  Great sounding speakers.  I used to work at Audio King back in the day.  I don't remember any small monitor speakers ever sounding as good as those encores or AV 1's my parents have.

How do you like those white lightning speaker cables?  I read about that and wanted to try it.

Anyway, great looking work.

Ben

[HAL]

People should think of the X-LS series as the Dynaco A-25 of the 21st century.  One of the best sounding mini-monitors I ever heard.

Still have two pair of them in piano gloss rosewood.  They sound and look great.

I took one pair of X-LS Classics that I had upgraded the crossovers parts into a gathering one time with a pair of X-LS Encores as a comparison.  The crossover upgrade made the Classics sound great. 

Still have to build a pair of X-LS Encores at some point.  Ruben is doing flat packs soon.

[greenklein]

Do they have the performance upgrade mods ( Sonicaps, Mills, No- Res ) too ?

Ron, I did not do any of the upgrades.  I had some no-res from my A/V build last year that I used (a full sheet and a few small pieces - perfect!).  I opted to save a little $$.  Tempting to build another pair w/ the upgrades to compare, but since I don't even know for sure what I'm going to do with these...haha.  I think they sound great as is.  I am very happy with them.

Todd, I have always leaned towards black for the entire speaker, regardless of size, but I really like that front baffle look.  I am going to look into learning about veneers next. 

I built a pair of those for my brother and I'm going to get a pair of them for my daughters' dance studio.  Great sounding speakers.  I used to work at Audio King back in the day.  I don't remember any small monitor speakers ever sounding as good as those encores or AV 1's my parents have.

How do you like those white lightning speaker cables?  I read about that and wanted to try it.

Thanks Ben.  I've found veneering to be fairly easy.  I used paper-backed veneer with the iron-on method and Titebond.  Using raw veneer appears to be a little tougher, but I would like to try that sometime with some more unique veneer than good ol white oak.  I was nervous the first time I veneered (the A/V's in the pics above), but after a trial piece I was ready to go.  Thank goodness for the internet and youtube and the various builds on this site.  I did take some pics if you're interested and I can detail the process a little more if anyone would like. 

As for the White Lightnings...I did that because I thought they looked better than the traditional speaker wire.  I'm pretty sure that I couldn't tell any difference sound wise.  I personally like the looks though and even though no one can see them, I know they're cool looking!     This time around I need some new cable so I just ordered 14 gauge monoprice in-wall cable and did basically the same thing with that.  I also bought some flex-tech from parts express for $6 just to see how it would look.  Looks kind of cool!  To me anyway.  I would not be able to offer any opinion on the quality of either and whether it makes any audible difference.