[chenson]

I’ve been working on this build for months now, fitting in time between chores, work and taking care the kids — it’s been a side project. It’s not finished but the cabinet is mostly done (minus the no Rez). I’ve learned a lot along the way and I would certainly do things a little differently if I were to start over but I’m mostly happy with how it has come out so far.


The front baffle is painted with House of Kolor (automotive paint). Galaxy Grey with Oriental Blue Kandy layered on top. I don’t own a hvlp spray system but I do have a couple airbrushes, one of these has a fairly large needle. So, I used that for applying the automative paint.


The flecks in the paint have a nice sparkle when the light hits it just right but under normal lighting it’s barely noticeable. It’s not coming through well in this photo but it has depth. I like that it has some bling but it’s normally very subtle. Mostly you don’t see it at all.


Another view of the bling.

The veneer is walnut with a couple applications of a dark danish oil followed by a 2k clear coat over everything.

And now, my sins…


This one is the worst. I almost decided to start over at this point. I burned through the veneer while trying to prep the surface for the finish. I should have known better (or picked a thicker veneer).


I like that there’s a cut here to make a very intentional transition to the sides but if I was doing it again, I would use a smaller bit. The worst part is I had a smaller bit coming in the mail but I was impatient.


It turns out, using a polishing compound on veneer is a very bad idea, even with many coats of 2k on top of the veneer before the compound. I spent hours with a toothbrush trying to remove all traces of the compound but as you can see here I wasn’t able to get some of the white streaks that got into the grain. But under normal lighting its not really even noticeable.

Also, not pictured, I had some damage to the veneer from the blue painting tape I used to mask it off. That stuff is horrible. Should I have used drafting tape or is there a better masking material for veneer? The damage wasn’t that bad so I’m not too concerned about it but that’s something to keep in mind.

Most of my errors were related to being impatient or overworking it. If I was doing it again I would simplify the approach slightly. I would paint the baffle the same way but I wouldn’t have tried to sand off the orange peel and polish it. Despite my best efforts I couldn’t get the full gloss I had with the 2k straight out of the can. For the veneer I could have simplified things by just using a wax polish to finish it, with minimal sanding. Or I could have gone with a thicker veneer.

Learn from my mistakes. But I still think it looks pretty cool and I’m excited about the next steps.

I plan on the top grill using a charcoal grey fabric and a chartreuse fabric tab to use as a pull/handle to remove it. The chartreuse is the same color you see in the inside/top of the cabinet, which is also House of Kolor paint fyi (“Lime Gold Kandy”).

Oh… did I mention I’ve never done any of this before? 

[chenson]

Here… the sparkle from the flecks might be more visible if I use the flash on my phone



Bling 

[Peter J]

They look nice. I'm a big walnut fan. When dinosaurs roamed that was THE premium veneer on the speakers of the day. I seem to have started something with the bright interior slope. It's kinda  visually unexpected which I gravitate towards...

Not to add insult to injury, but others may benefit from the why. Almost all commercial veneer is 1/40" or close...it is what it is. A hard pad on DA (random orbit) sander or flat sanding block is best bet to keep from rolling edges. Random orbit sanders with soft pads are notorious for this.

The problem with blue painters or even standard masking tape is it's not designed to handle the solvents in automotive paint. Masking tape from automotive paint supply will be your friend. It's a damn confusing landscape. There must be twenty different masking tapes just by 3M alone.

Forgot to add, and of course you already know. If you're going to cut and buff, the grain has to be filled. Either with finish or grain filler.

And if it's any comfort, I've committed all the same sins. The best we can hope for is knowledge to improve.  I like repeating this, which I picked up somewhere along the way. "Next time I'll...(fill in the blank). Keeps us open to new ways of thinking and doing things.

[chenson]

Yes, I was inspired by your post with the bright mint on the inside. It’s a nice pop of color.

Thanks for the info above. Also your videos were super helpful when I was gluing it up.

[jorfila]

The little imperfections in life are the ones that makes perfection. the look superb.

[chenson]

I managed to finally finish these speakers. I also put together the 24 strand cable from GR-Research. I hooked everything up this morning and - yup everything works. 

I know they have to break-in and the sound started to change within the first hour but my first impression was holy crap these things have more bass and mids than I expected. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by that considering how much smaller the woofer is on my Kef LS50s. Pre-break-in the bass was exaggerated and a bit boomy but even after a short time it’s moving in the right direction. I’m sure it will sound balanced once it has had more time playing.

I’ve got them setup in the basement playing continuously on a backup amp while I wait. My plan is to not listen to them while they break in and then move them up to my main system when they are ready. I thought I was being clever by flipping the phase on one speaker (in Roon DSP), putting the source in mono and then pointing them at each other in close proximity. In theory that should be quieter… but it wasn’t much different. So, I threw a blanket over them to dampen the sound slightly and called it a day.

How long is it recommended to allow break-in for NX-Studios with standard parts? 200 - 400 hours?

[mkrawcz]

How long is it recommended to allow break-in for NX-Studios with standard parts? 200 - 400 hours?

The majority of it happens in about 100hrs. The Miflex cap will take 200 or more. You will notice the speakers getting much better after 50hrs. 

[chenson]

Thanks. I’m not the most patient person but I can wait at least 100hrs. My stretch goal for myself is the full 200 hours. We will see how long I can hold out.

[mkrawcz]

Thanks. I’m not the most patient person but I can wait at least 100hrs. My stretch goal for myself is the full 200 hours. We will see how long I can hold out.

At 50hrs they will be more than listenable. One thing that will help at least with the driver break in is face the speakers at each other really close, then swap the speaker cables on one of the speakers so its out of phase. This will cancel out a lot of the waves and you can turn them up louder.

[chenson]

As an experiment I just went downstairs, turned off the DSP phase invert and did it the old fashion way by flipping the cables as you described. As far as I can tell, it sounds the same as with the DSP phase invert filter (as you would expect). They’re resting on chairs, pointed at each other, about a cm apart… maybe the slightly upward slope of the chair seats are causing this not to work… or the open back of the tweeter. Oh well. It might be slightly quieter with the phase change on one speaker, but not by much. I heard about this technique a long time ago but this is the first time I’ve tried it. Not a big deal. I can barely hear it upstairs when the AC is off. As long as it doesn’t keep up the kids, I’m good. I might have to turn it a down a few notches at night.

I’m so excited about listening to these in a week or two. It’s like Christmas Eve when I was a kid.

[mkrawcz]

Haha, I missed the part where you already did the speaker phase trick using DSP. My bad. Anyway, you are going to fall in love with those speakers. I have yet to hear their equal as a 2 way boxed monitor.

[chenson]

Quick update… I screwed up the spade connection to the amp for one of the speakers and wasn’t getting sound in that speaker for the past week of break-in  . I’m mystified by how I didn’t notice this sooner. In my own defense it’s the first time I’ve used a spade connector (I’ve always used bananas) and I had the speakers pointed directly at each other at close proximity, so it’s not obvious that one of the speakers is not working unless you touch the edge of the woofer (which I thought I had). I assume I didn’t hurt the amp or speaker with this stupid mistake because everything seems to be working now  . I’m not sure exactly how I messed up the connection. When I finally realized one of the speakers wasn’t working, I just disconnected it and reconnected it at the amp, and then it worked.

So, I presume now one of the speakers has a week of break-in and the other only a few hours. I’m hoping this uneven break-in is not an issue once the neglected speaker has some time.

On the plus side, putting one of the speakers out of phase totally works now and is not even a little subtle. It’s much quieter.

[Tyson]

Once both speakers get past 100 hours you should be fine.

[mick wolfe]

I'm a shade over 60 hrs. and the NX Monitors are totally listenable at this point IMHO. Did the early break-in (about 50 hrs.) streaming Pandora using a 25 watt chip amp. This to preserve tube life and avoid unnecessary wear and tear on the main rig. I know everything will continue to improve with time, but as I've said, they're totally listenable at this point in the main rig.