[WazoooGuru]

Hello All!

My audio journey started as a wee lad in the late-70s. I was a DIYer very early on, collecting broken garage-sale transistor radios, unceremoniously disemboweling them to harvest speakers, volume knobs, battery contacts, and such. Then I proceeded to build my very own mini-Wall Of Sound, which was actually just a large cardboard box with about a dozen 2.5" speakers mounted on all sides (early omnidirectional sound theory at work), wired with a motley collection of Radio Shack alligator clips in a wildly unstable 1-ohm load or maybe it was a 64-ohm load, who really knows? I was 10, but I was in bliss.

From that point on, every electronic device that crossed my path became a Frankenstein creation of extra speakers, more power, occasionally more smoke and that very specific smell of burning electronics.

The '90s were the "Car Audio Years".  Mounds of money from my pizza palace job were thrown into my Chevy Beretta. Custom sub-boxes and door panels, neon plexiglass amp displays, and a full complement of Rockford Fosgate, Polk, and MB Quart equipment.   SPL was king.

The next 30 years were the lost years. Always had a stereo because the music was still as important as food and water, but never at the level of ‘Great’.

The next phase began in earnest with the advent of Work From Home. My home office became my sanctuary and since I spent most of my day in it, I thought I deserved an upgrade to the good-but-not-great mini studio monitors. One thing lead to another. The DIY bug came back in full force. And now my office is a constant rotisserie of equipment upgrades, experiments and wish lists. I purchased a nice set of German-made Canton speakers, but they were 4-ohm and my Sony AVR could not handle them. So what to do? Build an amp that could handle them! And down the rabbit hole I went. I am now researching, designing and building speakers. I want to build a tube amp or pre-amp, probably from a kit. I am building shelves and furniture for the music collection and components. It never ends. Mid-life crisis? Maybe.

My setup is coming together nicely and will be in a constant state of flux as I enjoy the same thrill that 10-year-old boy in brown corduroy pants experienced when he fired up that first cardboard speaker monstrosity and basked in the sound of his own creation.

Currently listening to a system made up of:
Pro-Ject Expression1 Carbon turntable with Sumiko cartridge
Audiolab 6000CDT CD Transport
Darlington Labs MM-6 Phono Preamp
Geshelli Labs J2 DAC
Emotiva PT-100 Preamp
DIY Amp - ICEpower 200ASC/AC Dual Monaural Class D Power Amplifier in Ghent Audio Enclosure
Canton Karat 30 Speakers
Customized CSS Audio Speakers
Occasionally, a vintage Yamaha CR-620 receiver gets put in the mix.
In the works - A custom tower speaker set based on the Audio Nirvana full-range 8” drivers.

Thanks!

[mresseguie]

Welcome to AC!

That's quite a history, and you're continuing with it, too. I see you built a pair of customized CSS speakers. What changes did you make, and how do you like the result?

Have you ever looked at the speaker kits offered by Troels Gravesen? I'm considering trying his 3WC-15 speakers, but I'll need help building the cabinets (too many thumbs).

Michael

[Phil A]

Welcome!

[WazoooGuru]

I have seen the Gravesen kits and might tackle one in the future.

I built the CSS Audio Torii kit. I had been eyeballing the Criton 1TD-X for a long time but just couldn’t take the big swing for the totally upgraded kit but I wanted a DIY kit from a respected company. When this popped up for under $300, I jumped on it. I know my way around a wood shop and also wanted to design my own enclosures, so I skipped the flat-pack.  My customizations were wholly cosmetic. I used ¾” MDF for the body and solid walnut for the baffle with my own design twist.  I didn’t want a typical box.  I really like the way they turned out.

How’s the sound? Well, I am coming from a pair of Canton Karat 30s with 8” woofers and fairly detailed sound assisted by a Definitive Audio subwoofer. They were 4 Ohm speakers with 89 or 90dB sensitivity. The Torii’s are 8 ohms at 86 dB so the first thing I noticed is how much further I had to turn up the dial on the preamp. For comfortable listening on the Cantons, it would be set around 30-35.  For the Torii, I’m running 40-50. I am juicing these with a DIY IcePowerASC 200 WPC amplifier.

I am still in the first week of having them in the system, so they might need some more time to break in. These speakers seem to roll off A LOT in the 4000-10000 Hz range. The sound is considerably dampened if the EQ is set perfectly flat. To get any energy in the upper range, I have to boost the EQ quite a bit - 3.5-4 dB.

After a few weeks of listening, I might one them up to reinspect the crossovers to see if I wired something incorrectly.  None of the reviews I read said anything about this issue.

[FullRangeMan]

Welcome to AC 

[ArthurDent]

Greetings & Welcome to AC     Nice build. 

[mresseguie]

[Erased because of typo; see next post]

[mresseguie]

I have seen the Gravesen kits and might tackle one in the future.

I built the CSS Audio Torii kit. I had been eyeballing the Criton 1TD-X for a long time but just couldn’t take the big swing for the totally upgraded kit but I wanted a DIY kit from a respected company. When this popped up for under $300, I jumped on it. I know my way around a wood shop and also wanted to design my own enclosures, so I skipped the flat-pack.  My customizations were wholly cosmetic. I used ¾” MDF for the body and solid walnut for the baffle with my own design twist.  I didn’t want a typical box.  I really like the way they turned out.

How’s the sound? Well, I am coming from a pair of Canton Karat 30s with 8” woofers and fairly detailed sound assisted by a Definitive Audio subwoofer. They were 4 Ohm speakers with 89 or 90dB sensitivity. The Torii’s are 8 ohms at 86 dB so the first thing I noticed is how much further I had to turn up the dial on the preamp. For comfortable listening on the Cantons, it would be set around 30-35.  For the Torii, I’m running 40-50. I am juicing these with a DIY IcePowerASC 200 WPC amplifier.

I am still in the first week of having them in the system, so they might need some more time to break in. These speakers seem to roll off A LOT in the 4000-10000 Hz range. The sound is considerably dampened if the EQ is set perfectly flat. To get any energy in the upper range, I have to boost the EQ quite a bit - 3.5-4 dB.

After a few weeks of listening, I might one them up to reinspect the crossovers to see if I wired something incorrectly.  None of the reviews I read said anything about this issue.

Nice!

I haven't heard the Torii speakers, but I have heard 2 different pairs of the 1TDX 2-way monitors. [I built one pair for a friend of mine. He's got even more thumbs than me, so he didn't mind my building them.  ]

Last December I ordered a pair of the Criton 2TD-X Tower Kit speakers for myself, but they were delivered while I was out of the country. [My neighbor pulled them into my garage for me.] With luck, I'll have some spare time to begin building them in July. I haven't decided how to finish them.

I became interested in the Gravesen 3WC-15 speakers after I heard a refurbished pair of JBL4345 speakers last December. [They were wonderful sounding!] The 3WC-15 speakers aren't exact clones of the JBL speakers, but they should get me close enough to their sound without my having to shell out $15k to $20k for rebuilt/refurbished originals from Japan.

Michael