[Huskerbryce]

The sanding process and bondo filling has begun.  This thing is ridiculous.  Its the largest center speaker ive seen so far on any reasonable forum.  I mean Ive seen fake or questionable quality builds that are bigger.  This one is on a new level of ridiculous.  My wife thinks I have lost my mind.  She might be correct.  Lol  🤣😂.  The good news is, she is a loving wife who appreciates my enthusiasm and is OK with my audio quest to new highs of complete insanity.  👍🏻  It helps that her and my 4 kids like to watch movies in the HT room.  My kids enjoy it for sure.  My teenagers are laughing at either myself for this new level of insane (size) or maybe just the sheer prospect of what movies will be like now ….or maybe both.🤦🏼‍♂️

[Early B.]

This is awesome! 

For decades, I've been touting the benefits of a large center channel speaker -- it should be huge because it carries 80% of the sound for movies. Prior to dismantling my HT system, I had a DIY 4-footer. That thing was insane!!

[Huskerbryce]

I made sure that the crossover fit.  Uh, its a good thing that I didnt make it a millimeter bigger…..

[YEEEEGZ]

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

[Huskerbryce]

I got the speaker sanded, primed and painted.  Used automotive high build primer.  Sanded smooth.  Then painted with iridium metallic auto paint and sprayer.  Clear coated.  Not 100% perfect but close enough.  I think speaker finishing is the least enjoyable part.  I love everything about building speakers until I have to figure out how to do a finish.  Especially on MDF.  Anyway…..thats over.  Next up is wiring in the crossover to the drivers.  That will take a day but I leave town for work so might take a week to get to it. 

[YEEEEGZ]

Looks great, painting is always such a pain in the butt, it can be hard to be patient and also not get lost in the micro-details or get extremely frustrated when something goes wrong, but it looks like it went really well. What a monster!

[nlitworld]

Looking good, and very nice application of the matte clear. I'm excited to see finished photos of it all dressed up. 

[Huskerbryce]

I am really happy how there are no seam lines visible and the clear coat finish turned out great

[Huskerbryce]

I got the drivers put in.  Waiting on getting a thin rubber pad to put between the stand and speaker so I dont scratch the paint.  For now I am starting to wire the drivers up.  Cutting some of the No-Rez foam right now to get that installed. Not sure what I dislike worse.  Painting or cutting the No-Rez. 

[jmimac351]

It is real hard to go wrong with black for speaker color - and is probably the smart money choice.  Looks great! 

Unusual speaker colors can sound like a great idea at the time for a new speaker you're excited about and "will never sell"... until the point when you want something better and realize that using all pearl variants from the entire House of Kolors catalog may have been a big too enthusiastic. I built a Factory Five Roadster a long time ago and almost painted it a few "interesting" colors.  Ended up painting it black and glad I did... it sold easily.

[Huskerbryce]

Today I got all the drivers wired up.  Had to get the HT room ready for this monster.  I knew when I set out to build it, it would barely fit and be obnoxiously huge.  Its a game of inches to make it work.

[Huskerbryce]

These pictures were taken tonight when I carried the beast downstairs.  It literally takes up a significant portion of the floor space in the room.  My room is not giant but its a decent size space.  Lol😂.  I could not wait to get it hooked up.  Crossover install and final wiring and basic testing before letting it rip.

[Huskerbryce]

Got the crossover installed and wired up.  Speaker placed.  Not a millimeter to spare.  The drivers are currently 29” from the back wall.  Id like to squeeze every inch I can.  I just dont want the mains too far apart.  Tomorrow I will tweak a little bit.  Literally every inch matters right now with placement.  There is no room for any wiggle at the moment. 

[jmimac351]

How far apart are the speakers now and how wide is your room? Room maybe ~11'?

[Huskerbryce]

These home built monsters is what I have replaced this speaker building adventure.  They were all great sounding until I heard the Otica series and then they were not all that amazing anymore.  The one disclaimer (it matters), is that the crossover in the old ones are about $900 total for all 3 speakers.  The new Otica series is multiples of many dollars more.  I dont know how much more I am getting out of the Oticas with the extremely high end parts but I know that even with basic parts they would sound better than my old stuff.  I have hours of measuring and adjusting ahead but my initial very early impression of the NX center is that it far exceeds my old one in tone, sound stage and detail.  Sounds exactly like an NX otica for a center.  Crazy good so far.

[Huskerbryce]

How far apart are the speakers now and how wide is your room? Room maybe ~11'?

My room is 12’ 2” wide and a bit over 21’ deep.  Two rows of couches to seat my family of 6. 

[Huskerbryce]

My room is 12’ 2” wide and a bit over 21’ deep.  Two rows of couches to seat my family of 6.

Had to grab a tape measure to answer the speaker distance question.  The mains are basically 7’ apart and  I sit about 11-12’ back from them at the front center position and 17-18’ at the back center spot.  Normally I listen at the front spot but have dabbled with the rear spot.  Only problem with back spot is that its elevated 8” higher than the front.  I feel the prime spot is in the front.  It sounds fantastic and I could lament for years about details of perfection.  Perhaps the next project will be full demo of the house and build from a 4 bedroom to a new 2 bedroom house with a massive kick ass home theater.  Lol.  I bet my wofe would be on board!  😂🤦🏼‍♂️ 

[jmimac351]

You know, it might look pretty slick if you laid the subs on their side and modded stand to sit the center right on it.  That would open up space and I think you could pull center forward a bit. 

Have you played with a little less toe-in on them?  I tend to like ~10 degrees on speakers, and the speakers are pulled further apart. 

[Huskerbryce]

You know, it might look pretty slick if you laid the subs on their side and modded stand to sit the center right on it.  That would open up space and I think you could pull center forward a bit. 

Have you played with a little less toe-in on them?  I tend to like ~10 degrees on speakers, and the speakers are pulled further apart.

I actually used to lay them (subs) on their sides exactly how you describe and have considered it.  Sadly, I spent some cash on custom granite fabrication for the bottom and top of the subs.  Its the only thing keeping me from trying it.  Pride.  It sucks.  I think ill pull the granite, and tuen them as you suggest and see what it looks like and how I can fabricate a new angled brace ontop for the center.   It gives me a new project.  Thanks for taking a fledgling idea to a new level of pssibility.  Lets see what happens!

[jmimac351]

When you do it and maybe just mock up the Center sitting on the subs, have a look at either "end cap" for the center.  I think it's closed on both sides, right?  You could make / buy / think of idea for "brackets / mounts / legs" that attach to the left and right end cap of the center.  You can install threaded nutserts and make it so it's not permanent, in case you needed to use stand again, etc.  If you get really slick, you can make the bracket so that it's adjustable, you can tweak the up / down angle, if needed.

In other words, "What can I attach to either end so I can sit the center on a flat surface and at proper angle... without the big stand?"  There could be some cheap little brackets on Amazon, or go brainstorm at Home Depot... it bet there is some little thing to discover to make that super easy.