[nlitworld]

Oh it'll definitely help.  Although the louder you can do it, the better.  Especially with those big caps, charging and discharging is what really gets them burned in.  For me, I usually try to turn it up during the day and then keep it running at lower volumes overnight.  Running them 24/7 REALLY lets you get some good burn in time on them.

Thanks for the info Tyson. Figured a bit of multitasking would be a good thing to speed up the process. I've queued up about 2 weeks worth of music and just left the room. Last night I had to crank the stereo to drown out fireworks sounds for the dogs, so I'll just plan more days like that while I'm finishing the cabinets. Oh darn... Tyson thanks again for all the help and for convincing me to go full tilt boogie on these compared to the other options. High fives to you.

[Tyson]

Thanks for the info Tyson. Figured a bit of multitasking would be a good thing to speed up the process. I've queued up about 2 weeks worth of music and just left the room. Last night I had to crank the stereo to drown out fireworks sounds for the dogs, so I'll just plan more days like that while I'm finishing the cabinets. Oh darn... Tyson thanks again for all the help and for convincing me to go full tilt boogie on these compared to the other options. High fives to you.

Happy to help!  Yeah, the NX series are big-boy speakers and deserve big-boy parts

[Hobbsmeerkat]

Oh it'll definitely help.  Although the louder you can do it, the better.  Especially with those big caps, charging and discharging is what really gets them burned in.  For me, I usually try to turn it up during the day and then keep it running at lower volumes overnight.  Running them 24/7 REALLY lets you get some good burn in time on them.

Thats exactly what I did with my NX Studios for about 2.5 weeks straight to get them up to 500+ hours pretty quickly.

That time was also spent burning in a tube preamp as well as my chip amp.

[tortoiseman2542]

Is there a way to quick burn-in speakers like this without playing music loudly. I live in an apartment and playing stuff too loud is frowned upon.

Robert

[Tyson]

Is there a way to quick burn-in speakers like this without playing music loudly. I live in an apartment and playing stuff too loud is frowned upon.

Robert

Best way is to reverse the speaker cable into one speaker (put the red lead into the black/white opening) and leave the other speaker as-is.  This wires one of your speakers out of phase, while keeping the other speaker in phase.  Now place the speakers facing each other, a few inches apart.  You'll be able to play them quite loud because they will cancel each other out.  Throw a heavy blanket over them to make it even quieter.

[nlitworld]

I've heard of people doing the opposing polarity trick before so that was going to be my next step if necessary when I get the cabinets completed. Problem is eventhough I identify more like a Gen X,  I'm technically a millenniall and the one trait I do possess is the need for instant gratification. 

[Hobbsmeerkat]

I've heard of people doing the opposing polarity trick before so that was going to be my next step if necessary when I get the cabinets completed. Problem is eventhough I identify more like a Gen X,  I'm technically a millenniall and the one trait I do possess is the need for instant gratification. 

Luckily break-in occurs within the first 50 hours, especially if you let them play bass-heavy "brown noise" on loop for about 2 days straight, to focus on the mid/bass.

Then after that, just let them play music as normal for the next 200-400 hours. That way you can turn them down at night, and turn them up during the day. Thankfully the burn-in process doesn't require the same volume levels as break in does. and you can occasionally sit down and listen to their progress as they burn in over time. That was the basic process I took with both my X-Statiks and NX-Studios.

[nlitworld]

Thanks for the heads up Hobbs. The closest thing to bass heavy brown noise I have on my PC is Billie Eilish and Daft Punk, so that'll have to do. It's pretty awesome to see those shiny black and copper woofers go crazy during the bass heavy parts. I did have to give a listen to a few songs today just standing in the room and Let's Dance by Bowie was AMAZING. So much going on in that song that I never properly heard before. I just still can't get over it.

Now that we broke our deep freeze in the NW, I'll get to finish priming and sanding them this week. My hope is to (fingers crossed) have color going on them by next weekend.

[Hobbsmeerkat]

There's a couple ways you can go about it since you're using a PC.

The easiest will be to use a free online noise generator:
https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/whiteNoiseGenerator.php
Here are the slider settings I used.



Or if you dont mind manually restarting the video every 10 hours this video has more focus on deep bass than the generator.
https://youtu.be/hXetO_bYcMo

If you want another great song with lots of really deep bass, check out "Deeper" by Pete Belasco
https://youtu.be/eaYQuHV6b4g

[nlitworld]

Hey guys, I had another question of something I just noticed. Most other NX-Studios I see built have had a router taken to the top and bottom of the front baffle. I was curious if that is a mandatory thing or just a common practice because everyone has done it in the past? I kinda like the mix of round corners and sharp edges around the speaker as-is, but if it would affect the sound I certainly wouldn't want to compromise function over fashion. With finishing primer this week it's a bit of my last chance to fix anything before it looks too fancy to go back.

Thanks for thr help,
-Lloyd

[Hobbsmeerkat]

Hey guys, I had another question of something I just noticed. Most other NX-Studios I see built have had a router taken to the top and bottom of the front baffle. I was curious if that is a mandatory thing or just a common practice because everyone has done it in the past? I kinda like the mix of round corners and sharp edges around the speaker as-is, but if it would affect the sound I certainly wouldn't want to compromise function over fashion. With finishing primer this week it's a bit of my last chance to fix anything before it looks too fancy to go back.

Thanks for thr help,
-Lloyd

It's not necessary,  I did the top of mine for aesthetic reasons, also due to the earlier flatpacks having a different design to the updated design, which puts the tweeter and woofer closer to the top. The roundover on the top helps to balance the distance from the tweeter to the top edge.

[Captainhemo]

Anxious to see what  you  do for  paint on these as we've   had some   speakers  done in  House of Kolor   paint with very good  results.

Also,  just  a heads up for  anyone ordering   the flat packs  for these,   if you  want the roundover  across the top,  just  let  me know  and I can do that  prior to shipping  for  you.

jay

[nlitworld]

Just wanted to post an update along with some more little tips on prepping for a paint job. Right now I've applied the 2nd round of primer and am block sanding with 320 grit before finishing to 600 on the DA sander. I should finish sanding today and begin cleaning the garage for painting this week. I wanted to mention when building these that no matter how careful you are with clamping inevitably the corners will need to be flushed up unless really rounding them off. One help with getting smooth flat sides from edge to edge is using guide coat while you're block sanding. There's aerosol versions or dry powder versions but essentially it's super thin spray paint that will quickly show any high and low spots as you sand so that all your sides are super flat and smooth. Without that it would have been terrible on where the sides join together.







I'm getting super anxious and excited to get color on these. Let's be clear, I HATE body work and sanding, but I'm not willing to shortcut these steps. They're too important to making a perfect paint job. As you can see in those photos, the backs had a tiny bit of a high spot where the sides poked out a bit farther that I never saw until after the first couple swipes sanding with the guide coat. In the end, all the work will be worth it. Another thing that is mandatory for proper block sanding is a hefty size bottle of ibuprofen. No matter your age or physical conditioning this is still hard work.

Stay tuned for color photos coming soon! 

[nlitworld]

So I really didn't feel like cleaning the garage tonight so I could paint the boxes. Instead I decided to "test fit" the drivers til the weekend. Pardon my french, but HOLY SHIT do they sound amazing. Far better response and more clarity than even on my "test bench". I'm crossing over subs at 80hz and running full range to the speakers as everyone has suggested and it blends together so smooth.

I'm glad I test fit the drivers early as I did learn a few things along the way. First, it is highly recommended to begin building your boxes AFTER you receive all your parts. I say this because the holes for the inserts on the tweeter were +/- 1mm or so, but that put a bit of tension on the screws and actually backed out one of the inserts. I'll be able to glue and tap it back in just fine, but that was just something funky that came up. Secondly I learned my wiring for the tweeters was left really long, but to the drivers it is quite short. Assembling the boxes leaving a side exposed would have made measuring wire lengths a lot better. These are all things that are tiny and easily able to work around, just hindsight being 20/20 is all. Also, using speaker grill plugs for mounting a crossover board to the cabinet and using double sided tape to secure crossover components works fantastic. No slippage or movement of any sort, and the crossover board clipped right into place.

In the mean time, I'm enjoying my "test fitting" and I'll get back on garage cleaning in time for getting color on them over the weekend.

[Hobbsmeerkat]

If you think they sound good now, wait till they've got some time on them. Just dont get so lost in how good they sound that you forget to finish painting them.. 

But if those Copper Caps are in the same realm as my Miflex caps, you're in for a treat! 
The bass should really relax and open up over the next 200-400hrs as the Sonicap and Miflex bypass burn in as well.

Looking forward to the final product! 

[Peter J]

Even using the inserts and machine screws for tweeter, I've found opening up the slots on the tweeter flange to be beneficial. There's just no leeway and there needs to be. Also the two halves of the frame are frequently misaligned a bit. If you use a Dremel or die grinder, be sure to mask off the slots to keep metal chips off the magnets.

https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=172552.msg1824407#msg1824407

[nlitworld]

Peter you always seem to have the perfect little tips at the right time. I'll definitely give those tweeters a little workout. I kinda figured that would need to be the case, and you confirmed it.

So far the speakers have a little over 200hrs of play time on them. I've had them running for the most part of 2 weeks now, some loud, some soft, some music and some of that brown noise video. As of right now there is actually a surprising amount of presence and body in their presentation. The best way I can describe it is they are extremely truthful and honest without being harsh or blunt AT ALL. No matter what I played through them last night there was never an ear cringe or harsh edge on cymbals or loud vocals, but they are extremely detailed especially in the pluck of an acoustic guitar or the slam of a kick drum. I was surprised, it even made AC/DC tolerable. I'll have to tear myself away from them tonight so I can prep the garage for painting, but it's gonna be tough. 

I can't tell you guys how much I appreciate all the help. This would have been a mess without you guys.  Thank you.

[jlucas]

You can also just use a drill bit, just 1 size up that doesn’t already fit in the slot is all you need.  That is what did.

[nlitworld]

Tonight is the night for the first round of color. Just sprayed sealer and I have to say, spend some $ on decent sealer as it makes your job SO much easier. I had some cheaper stuff laying around (Omni epoxy primer) so I sprayed it last night with mixed results. Sealer came out a little textured and I really wasnt happy at the idea of spraying basecoat on an already kinda bumpy surface. So I used some of the nice stuff I had laying around (Spies Hecker 8590 primer) and as always I remembered why I love that stuff so much. Absolutely perfect smooth. If I wanted aomid gray speakers, I could clearcoat them right now because they are as smooth as basecoat.





I'm letting this flash off for 20 minutes or so. Then its TIME FOR COLOR!!! I'll post an update shortly with exuberant joy or cursing frustration. Stay tuned.

[Speaker Challenged]

Tonight is the night for the first round of color. Just sprayed sealer and I have to say, spend some $ on decent sealer as it makes your job SO much easier. I had some cheaper stuff laying around (Omni epoxy primer) so I sprayed it last night with mixed results. Sealer came out a little textured and I really wasnt happy at the idea of spraying basecoat on an already kinda bumpy surface. So I used some of the nice stuff I had laying around (Spies Hecker 8590 primer) and as always I remembered why I love that stuff so much. Absolutely perfect smooth. If I wanted aomid gray speakers, I could clearcoat them right now because they are as smooth as basecoat.





I'm letting this flash off for 20 minutes or so. Then its TIME FOR COLOR!!! I'll post an update shortly with exuberant joy or cursing frustration. Stay tuned.

Nice work nlitworld, I can't wait to see the colour on them.