[petemoss]

Ok..some of you may think this is cool...others may hate it.  I had a pair of stock X-Statics in my living room but they took up too much room and my wife wanted something smaller..and i wanted to build something so the NX-Studio monitors were the ticket.  I had done leather on speakers before but always wanted to do cow hide.  These speakers were the perfect candidate...hide is think and it is hard to hide the edges.  The construction of the GR Research front panel design (not the flat pack) with the grills that went over the top of the side walls made this perfect.  I recessed the sides a bit to allow the hide to but up against the front panel and the top grills.  By the way...i have to say these are something special.  When i first powered them on...even side by side on my bench i was quite impressed.  They best the XStatics for sure and i loved those...these sound amazing.  Still have to play with placement and run new speaker wires but here are a few photos....













The faces were painted with a really nice rustoleum flat metallic chestnut spray paint.  I think the flat paint goes well with the non glossy hide!  Also the metallic has a bit of a copper hue to it which compliments the copper center on the driver.

the good news is that my wife had fallen in love with the xstatics and when i said i was going to put them in my office she said ... how about in the dining room!!  I was surprised for sure...it is not ideal for those speakers but i am happy they still have a prominent place in the house.




the only problem i have now is that they are so nice to pet...the hide is soft and its hard to leave the room without petting them!

[Early B.]

The cow hide is really cool!

[Peter J]

Hooray for you! I'm all for breaking the old mold when it comes to speaker finishing, so kudos for thinking outside the box.

 It's a little hard to tell from photos...this is the whole hide, hair and all, right? Where does one purchase such a thing? Or maybe you tanned yourself?

I don't know if you took photos along the way, but I'd love to see more process stuff if you're of a mind. Maybe close-up of the side?

[kwhitman]

Those are simply awesome!  I applaud your ingenuity.  I would love to have those in my living room.  They would match the mounts that are scattered throughout the room.   

[tortoiseman2542]

Very cool look here and definitely different. Love them!

Robert

[mlundy57]

Hooray for you! I'm all for breaking the old mold when it comes to speaker finishing, so kudos for thinking outside the box.

 It's a little hard to tell from photos...this is the whole hide, hair and all, right? Where does one purchase such a thing? Or maybe you tanned yourself?

I don't know if you took photos along the way, but I'd love to see more process stuff if you're of a mind. Maybe close-up of the side?

Both Tandy Leather and Springfield Leather sell hair on hides. Those are the two places my wife gets most of her leather from. I'm sure there are others.

[petemoss]

I live in central VA...there are alot of places to buy around here.  I bought an entire hide it was brown and white.  At first we were going to possibly have some of the white sections showing but in the end felt it made more sense to keep the brown sections.   It was full hair on hide.  Actually quite easy to work with, cut with a razer and glued with spray contact adhesive. 

I cut the pieces about 1" too big all around...then used a straight edge to cut the front that would butt up against the lip on the front panel.  Then flipped it over, sprayed the back of the hide 2x...i did a single sided glue because when you spray only one side you still can reposition if you have to.   I laid the speaker on its side....Then i had my wife hold the back of the hide up while i positioned the front edge tight against the lip on the front panel and pressed it in place.  Then we laid the rest of it down.  Used a roller to really press it down into the MDF. 

Flipped the speaker over so the hair was flat on a work surface and carefully cut the 1" overlap way using the razer against the bottom, back and top of the speaker side.

Kind of hard to describe but it was easier than i thought.  Everything was painted first.

the really important thing is that the hair has a natural "Grain" to it...you want to cut and glue the peices so the hair is naturally hanging down and not up.  I almost messed on of them and caught it at the last minute.

[Danny Richie]

Looks great.

[petemoss]

I don't know if you took photos along the way, but I'd love to see more process stuff if you're of a mind. Maybe close-up of the side?

I didnt take alot of photos but perhaps this will help...


This is the hide...it was a full hide...




This shows how thick the hide it...the front panel is outlined in red...the green area i removed..basically the same thickness of the hide.  I just carefully shaved a bit off with the table saw set at just the right height.   I think i made the box slightly deeper to compensate.




I masked the sides when painting so the glue would adhere to the MDF...not paint.  Not sure it it matters.  I used 3m 77 spray adhesive sprayed on the back of the hide.




These speakers are big and heavy.  It would be a disaster if someone knocked them off the stand...I would recommend getting a bunch of these threaded inserts...carefully drill a blind hole in the bottom MDF and set them in with a bit of glue.



I drilled matching holes in the stand and bolted them on...works great.