This is an offshoot of the thread that i had started earlier during the construction of my speakers. Now that its completed, and is playing at my place, i thought a new thread was warranted.
I had a satellite/sub 5.1 combo earlier, and there were wires all over the place. My living room is such that i cannot hide the wires. My wife wasn't too happy with this arrangement, and so i decided to get a good tower speaker that can image very well and put out enough bass. I wanted to get rid of my sat/sub combo and go with just this 2ch setup.
After lengthy reading of the forums here, i decided that Rick would be an ideal person to build a customized solution for me. Initially i was very keen on a pair of line arrays < 1k, but soon gave up the idea as the choice of drivers were limited. At that time SSR was gathering a lot of rave reviews, and after reading DSK's threads, i decided that SSR with a sub built in would suit me fine. Rick suggested that i go with dual RS180 as it fit my budget (~$1k), and sent me the kit in about 3 weeks.
I tried building the cabinet on my own but soon realized that it was not possible staying at my apartment. I started looking out for someone who can at least do a flat pack. After lengthy searching, i found a guy at my work who owned a wood working business on the side. He offered to do the entire speaker at such a price that i could not say no. I had no blueprint for the speakers, and most of the instructions were just drawn on a piece of paper...and that created a few issues along the way. But they were quite easily resolved, and as you can see the cabinets have come out beautifully. Ever since i saw ronin speakers in bamboo, i wanted to finish my speakers with bamboo as well. I tried to buy bamboo ply, but could not find any dealers in dallas. So i decided to just buy veneer instead. The speakers were finished in caramelized bamboo with real walnut trims. Catalyzed lacquer was sprayed on the speakers as the only finish. This made the veneer a lot darker than what i had in mind. But still the contrast stands out, and looks quite nice, i think.
I lined the cabinets with OC703 1" fiberglass. Its a little messier than probably using acoustic mats from PE/Danny/whispermat, but i guess its just as good. The folks at HTGuide seem to be pretty happy with this fiberglass. I had some dayton chrome spikes was attached to the bottom of SSR section, and it sits on the bass module. But it seems a little fragile. I will be drilling the floor discs into the bass module, so that the SSR section can withstand accidental nudges.
As for the sound, its still burning in, and i haven't sat down for any serious listening. Since the SSR is tuned to 50Hz, i don't hear as much bass coming from RS180 as much as feeling them. I had turned them up initially, just so that i can "hear" bass, and almost ended up overdriving the woofers. I still need to position them correctly, but the way my living room is built, there is very little room for maneuvering.
They sound very very good for music. But for movies, without the center channel, I still don't get that center imaging. I guess, i'll have to move the speakers around a little, and toe them in. The bass though is prodigious. I'm constantly looking out for my downstairs neighbors to come knocking in to complain.
I'll update the thread as soon as i take some time off to listen to the speakers critically. But so far, they are very very good.
Thanks once again to Rick! He was a pleasure to deal with, who answered all my questions very quickly.
Thanks to DSK too for writing in detail about his SSR and their construction plans.
