[Rick Craig]

Nearfield bass response. What's great is that when testing nearfield you remove the effects of the room (like an anechoic chamber). The high signal-to-noise ratio gives a much better indicator of what the system is doing.

[Rick Craig]

Here are some different voicings for the design. The MiniDSP amp can store up to four presets which gives you flexibility for variances in recordings, rooms, and personal preferences. Many audiophiles end up chasing their tails switching out cables, DACs, etc. when the largest variances come from rooms and recordings. Being able to compensate for these two things can help your sound quite a bit.

[Mgivens]

making some progress on the cabinets!  everything coming together.  hope to be priming the cabinets by next weekend.

[mresseguie]

That looks tremendous! You make it look easy, but it's not (for me anyway).

Thank you for the updates.

Michael

[Rick Craig]

Looks like things are moving along nicely. I'm just about finished with a DSP powered center channel. 

[Mgivens]

Thanks for the kind words!

Well I broke my big rule in speaker building...I set one up and listened before any finish work.  adding to that the baffle was only held on with a few clamps and no stuffing was in place.

all I can say is wow....despite having to keep the volume low due to the baffle rattling they sounded incredible.   honestly with just one speaker playing in beyond sub optimal conditions they impressed not only me but my wife who is always luke warm on my all my new speakers.  I don't want to get over excited here but I listened late into the night and got up early to listen more.  lost hours I could have been building but ohh well.  motivation to work harder as I'm sure once finished properly and positioned correctly I will not leave the room for days. 

[Mgivens]

finished cabinets.  have been applying west systems with fairing compound and sanding... finished 3 coats of primer (no pics) and will sand that in the morning then paint.  hopefully have them up and running by thanksgiving weekend.

[richidoo]

Boy'z got skilz     

Nice job!

[mresseguie]

 

[Mgivens]

Thanks guys!

Here are some shots of the primed cabs.  4 coats of bin shellac sanded down with 220-320

then pics of the first coat of the black enamel done sunday.  roll and tip.  this is right after so the paint has to settle.  im wet sanding it tonight to apply a second coat then it is polish time hopefully Friday.  the white area will be painted flat black.

-Michael

[monte]

That design looks great.

[stlrman]

Beautiful finish !! Wow !!

[AvFan]

These speakers look great and I bet you are anxious to get the drivers installed to start listening!  What kind of enamel paint are you using?  I see a heater in one of the photos so what temperature is your garage when you are applying the black enamel?  Lastly, I'm curious about how you intend to rub out the final coat of enamel.   (OK, I'm woodworker and always interested in new techniques).  Thanks!

[Mgivens]

Thanks guys

Avfan,

I am NOT a woodwork, so always looking for advice! The finish is a alkyd enamel for roll and tipping on boats.  I'm in the marine industry s I always seem to default to marine based products.  Honestly it's been kind of a pain to work with up to this point.  The garage is dusty and the paint was too thick on my first coat.  Hence the orange peel. I have sanded it back down and applied a second coat with more thinner.  It's better but not perfect.  I'm going to let it dry until Friday, with the heater it's maybe sixty five degrees in the garage.  I'm gonna experiment with polishing. Maybe start with a light wet sand with super fine grit then move onto a polish system from the chemical brother which is a car based system.  We will see, any advice is appreciated.  If it's not what I want by the end of this weekend I may just scrap the gloss idea and go satin.

I have read your ottavo thread and will keep this one updated once I get a chance to play around with the rew and room e.g. Features as my room also is sub optimal.

Michael

[AvFan]

It can be hard to figure out how much to thin a finish that will be applied by hand.  Too much and it runs, too little and it won't self level.  Humidity and temperature also play into how a finish lays down.  I have only used a marine type finish once, a very high solids spar varnish and it took forever to cure so I have not used it again.  My theory is marine products must accommodate wood movement and changing moisture content so they are designed to be more flexible.  That may make your black enamel a little tough to rub out unless it has fully cured. 

I look forward to your reports on how your new speakers sound and how the REW/MiniDSP combo work.  From Rick's earlier glowing comments I expect your speakers will be stellar.  Enjoy!

[Mgivens]

DONE.   

Finished the speakers day after thanksgiving with a lots of help from my dad while my mom was babysitting….

Had some issues with the gloss paint that I will discuss if anyone is interested at a later point.  Will post pics at some point as black speakers in a badly lit room are hard to shoot. 

Now, wanted to post a short review as they are still breaking in along with my ears.  Have also been playing around with position and feel I don’t yet have it perfect.


Spectacular, honestly lived up to my expectations and more.  Blows my previous reference system out of the water along with my headphone setups(which I was not really expecting). 

Detailed and revealing without ruining the listening experience on sub-par recordings.  This was an issue I discussed with Rick as I’ve had problems with previous systems.
Bass is amazing and headroom is crazy.  These things get LOUD.  Soundstage and depth is like nothing I’ve heard before, honestly just totally different experience then I’ve ever had. 

Vocal realism and clarity is mind blowing.  I listen to a lot of mid 90s British stuff, massive attack, Portishead.  These guys are hard on speakers due to the bass.  Ricks speakers handle it better than I could have hoped for.  Honestly this was a huge make it or break it moment for me as ive tried so many setups to get these records to work and it finally does.  Sealed is great, totally different to the ported speakers and subs I’ve gone through.

My issue now is dealing with my crappy room.  More updates to that as I play around more with measurements and the dsp and rew…however I will say all the corrections ive tried don’t sound as good as just leaving it alone.  Ive got a LOT more to learn and some more ideas so ill get back to this.

Thanks Rick should have just gone to you years ago!

[uncola]

Wow nice to see a project live up to expectations.  I hear you on the bass.  Massive attack - angel is a track I use to check bass.  That design is really interesting..  my open baffle friend is always recommending as wide a baffle as possible to enhance bass.  I guess having the big woofer on the side panel has the same effect!

[Rick Craig]

DONE.   

Finished the speakers day after thanksgiving with a lots of help from my dad while my mom was babysitting….

Had some issues with the gloss paint that I will discuss if anyone is interested at a later point.  Will post pics at some point as black speakers in a badly lit room are hard to shoot. 

Now, wanted to post a short review as they are still breaking in along with my ears.  Have also been playing around with position and feel I don’t yet have it perfect.


Spectacular, honestly lived up to my expectations and more.  Blows my previous reference system out of the water along with my headphone setups(which I was not really expecting). 

Detailed and revealing without ruining the listening experience on sub-par recordings.  This was an issue I discussed with Rick as I’ve had problems with previous systems.
Bass is amazing and headroom is crazy.  These things get LOUD.  Soundstage and depth is like nothing I’ve heard before, honestly just totally different experience then I’ve ever had. 

Vocal realism and clarity is mind blowing.  I listen to a lot of mid 90s British stuff, massive attack, Portishead.  These guys are hard on speakers due to the bass.  Ricks speakers handle it better than I could have hoped for.  Honestly this was a huge make it or break it moment for me as ive tried so many setups to get these records to work and it finally does.  Sealed is great, totally different to the ported speakers and subs I’ve gone through.

My issue now is dealing with my crappy room.  More updates to that as I play around more with measurements and the dsp and rew…however I will say all the corrections ive tried don’t sound as good as just leaving it alone.  Ive got a LOT more to learn and some more ideas so ill get back to this.

Thanks Rick should have just gone to you years ago!

Great to hear that you're enjoying the speakers. Next time don't wait so long. 

Seriously, measuring and adding room correction can be a little tricky. As a rule you want to only notch out peaks. Response in the low mid / upper bass are often due to a floor reflection and trying to smooth out a cancellation won't work and only wastes amplifier power. Above 300hz it's often a diffraction or reflection from the cabinet or nearby object. You may smooth out the response at a specific angle but also create a peak or dip at another angle.

[navin]

DONE.   

Had some issues with the gloss paint that I will discuss if anyone is interested at a later point.

In 2012 I built speakers using Rick's designs. I avoided going for a glossy finish because it would show fingerprints and any imperfections.

That said. One mistake I made was in the installation of the small NdFeB magnets. I installed the magnets under the veneer and installed similar magnets with opposite poles in the frame of grill. This works well to hold the grill.

What I have noticed is that every time someone brushes past the grill the grill gets dislodged. What I should have done was to make small indentations in the baffle so that the magnets on the grill sat inside these indentations. Sonus Faber does this .

I am unable to embed an image so I will include a link.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0653/5587/products/SFVen2.5wal.jpg?v=1428599479

[JLM]

Many audiophiles end up chasing their tails switching out cables, DACs, etc. when the largest variances come from rooms and recordings. Being able to compensate for these two things can help your sound quite a bit.

++1

But I leave the recordings to the professionals.

Nice design, but the best/most efficient bass reproduction comes from distributed bass (read Floyd Toole's "Sound Reproduction") so I'd vote for a 2-way stand mount with 4 DSP'd subs.