[rookster]

I have finally completed my Aksonics over the New Year and I am very happy with them.  I ran them in for approx 70 hours on a variety of music.  I fell they are far superior to my other speakers (Vifa 8" and Vifa 1" Silk dome in a 42 litre box).  I feel the bass is well controlled and the midrange and top end are smooth.  Female vocals are a real star for me.  They are connected to a Musical Fidelity X-A1 fed from a modified Marantz CD63SE, all connected with Sonicart and Eichmann cables.  

I made a couple of mods to them, these being;

Added heatshrink to the cross bars to prevent any ringing
Replaced the internal wire with Cardas chassis wire
Added rubber backing to the crossover board to give a more even  mounting face to the cabinet
Flush-mounted the drivers
Added bracing to attach the back panel to.
Rounded the corners on the front and side
Added plinths to seal the cabinets and to add mass.

The panels are Jarrah veneered chipboard, with iron on edge veneer.

Some of these can be seen in the photos at http://au.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/michael_rookster/my_photos

Go to the Aksonics page.  You can see that I have black anodised the front of my modified MF X-Cans2 Headphone amp (shown on the other page)

The photos also show the layout of the stereo and my 3/4 finished DIY turntable.  My version of the Aksacat can be seen in a smaller stereo version.  The cabinet is modified to hide the air compressor for my ET2 air bearing tonearm and the cabinet drawer will hold my record cleaning accesories, with the record cleaner on top.  The cabinet will be stained with Jarrah to match the speakers.

[rookster]

PS.

A big thankyou to Bluesky for cutting the panels for my Aksonics and a big thankyou to Hugh for supplying such a wonderful kit.  

I spoke to Hugh about my design when I visited him last July at his house.  He was very encouraging.  As I have mentioned before he is a very talented and gracious person.

My next project is to finish my turnatble then to complete my designs for 55N+ and GK1 cabinets.  Am I over designing if I was to use a pair of 55N+'s to power my speakers, ie 1 stereo pair biamping each speaker?

[bluesky]

Hi Rookster

Glad to hear the Aksonics are finished!  I couldn't see the photos on your link for some reason though.

I have just been having an email conversation with Hugh on building a bookshelf version of the Aksonics and trying out the Jung super regulator to see if it makes things any better.

I have been building lots of projects and would like to catch up with you soon for a chat and some listening in the next month or so.  Keith-Louis Eichmann has promised to make me some speaker cables from some $10 a metre he has and I will let you know if they make a difference.

Talk again soon,

Ian

[rookster]

Ian,

I have found the mistake, now it is shared.  Try that.

Catching up sounds good.  What projects have you finished since we last spoke?

[bluesky]

Hi Rookster

I have just finished a 100 watt guitar amp and preamp for my son's best friend and have done all the ESP PCB's for his 350 watt bass guitar amp and preamp.  They have formed a garage band and as I told Hugh, I am really sick of hearing "Smoke on the Water" played endlessly!  

I have also done the PCB's and power supply for a Silicon Chip 15 watt Class A amp, a LC Audio power conditioner, a subwoofer controller, a bench power supply kit and a soundcard preamp kit for an oscilloscope.  I have also done a lot of mods on my Shanling CD-T100 with a quite a few replacement caps in the power supply as well as the amp modules, a new Tent low jitter clock, diodes and replaced all the opamps.  

Whilst "improving" everything the diodes in one part of the power supply went up in smoke and blew one of the transformers!  I have sourced a new one but need to save up to actually be able to pay for it.  Before this happened it was sounding absolutely sensational and I can't wait to get it back playing again.

In the future I hope to get some of Gert Pedersen's upgrades for my Michell Gyro SE, biamp the Aksonics, get the Aksentre and the GK-1.  But these are just dreams at this stage.

I would love to hear your turntable when its finished.  Please don't hesitate to make use any of my Triton stuff if you ever need to.  It would be a pleasure to do some more work with you while we chat and listen to some good music over a cup of coffee.  

Send me a PM if there is any work you need a hand with, I obviously enjoy building stuff so it's no hassle at all.

Best regards

Ian

[AKSA]

Michael,

Beautiful work - very elegant rounding of the sharp edges on the AKSonics!

Very neat installation of the tone arm air compressor!  Your wife is very tolerant to have such a piece of industrial machinery in her living room!

The AKSAcats are appealing too.  Have you found they are a little sibilant?  I have one too and this was the final frontier.  Do you think there is mileage in tweaking their top end?  

Congratulations!  

Hugh

[DSK]

Do you think there is mileage in tweaking their top end?   Hugh

Possibly, but I suspect it would only be a whisker better!! boom boom!!

[rookster]

Hugh,

Thanks for your reply.  I do think the rounded corners soften the look of the speakers a little and make them look a little more like furniture.  I have not completed the grills yet, but they will not be a plain rectangular shape, but something equally curved.

The stereo is in the rumpus room so a lttle out of site, but yes my wife is very understanding and helpful and supportive, as is your lovely wife.

I have found that the Aksacats like Sara K the most so far.  As long as they don't decide to try and tweak the speakers or the turntable while we are at work I will be happy.

[rookster]

Unfortunately it seems that one channel of my Aksacat did decide to tweak my Aksonics and I now have several tears in the rubber roll surround on my woofer.

I have a couple of questions;

Am I better off to get someone to fix the surround, and if so, who would anyone recommend in Brisbane.

If it is best to replace the driver, then does anyone know what price WES components sell the drives for?  City South Electronics have them for AUS$122 each and that is where I got them last time.  Is WES any diffeerent?  I will put a dab of superglue on the biggest tear to stop is spreading further.

[bluesky]

Hi Rookster

I am sure WES components were much cheaper than what you quoted, but this is only from memory.  Send them an email and ask for a price, it can't hurt to find out.

I have to say I am looking forward to seeing and hearing your audio system.  It is obvious that you have put a lot of thought (and work) into it.  Your Aksonics really are a work of art, well done indeed.

Don't forget you are always welcome to use my Triton stuff.  I hope to start going to the local Triton Club meetings so I can learn a lot more about wood working and wood finishing, which I have found is a very important part of these projects.  I have been thinking about investing in a random orbital sander, they have come down in price lately, like so many things, the Chinese are producing quite decent quality home appliances for prices that were unheard of until recently.  I also find that people are always happy to share their experience and knowledge about their passions, whether it be audio or working in wood.

Cheers

Bluesky

[rabbitz]

Hi Rookster

Don't use superglue as it's brittle. Have a look at Speakerbits and send them an email if you need advice.
http://www.speakerbits.com

I've used the Best Speaker glue and has saved a driver many a time. It's a water based contact adhesive and works on surrounds, spiders, dustcaps and dries to a non stick satin finish.
http://www.speakerbits.com/net/catalogs/showpic.aspx?ID=GLU1050

WES normally charges RRP but if you have an ABN you're laughing.

These guys are a bit closer and might save a bit of shipping.
http://www.advanceae.com.au/catalog/

They also have two M18WO-09-08 for AU$88.38 each on their specials list.

Cheers

[rookster]

Rabbitz,

I have aquired some glue from Speakerbits and I am about to give this a go to fix the roll surrounds.

I have also built some "grilles" to cover the drivers.  They are comprised of a grill frame and then a 3mm layer of plywood was added to the front and then painted black and grill cloth added.  They look very good and should stop the claws of all but the biggest cats.  You can see this in photos 12 and 13.  I have also added photo 14 which shows my full stereo and the empty cases for my stereo pair of 55N+ amps and the case for my GK-1-M.  I just have to build it all.

http://au.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/michael_rookster/my_photos

[jules]

They look very good and should stop the claws of all but the biggest cats.  ...

Rookster,

This section of your post has me very worried. Where I live, there are frequent sightings of a feral black panther and from what you say it looks as though the Aksa cats might be alerting their bigger brothers and sisters to the virtues of speaker cones for claw sharpening. Should we be upgrading to a more industrial form of speaker protection grid   ?

On a less serious note could you tell me where you bought your grill cloth and is it everything you'd hope for in that sort of material.

jules

[rookster]

Jules,

It was one of our cats that scrathed the roll surround, but I just want to be sure it can't happen again.  Hopefully no bigger cats will turn up at our house.  The solid grill might stop feral black panthers, but if one of them got into your house, I think the last thing they will try their claws out on is your speakers.

I originally bought some grill cloth from Jaycar, but the cloth I used on my Aksonics came with the Aksonics kit from Hugh.  It is very stretchy and so fairly easy to work with.  The rounded corners were the hardest part, but my clever and crafty wife helped me out there and she did a great job.