[azryan]

I have the woofer recess and holes cut and hopefully I'll have the face sections glued together by the end of the week (I only have two good clamps for that job so I can only glue 2 sections together a day which adds up to 5 days for the whole face).

Then I can trace the bottom and top edge to cut out the top/bottom MDF sheets and the middle divider. Cut the small end pieces and glue it all up.
Most of the hard part I think it done.

If anyone wants pictures they can look at jonwb's CG pic here to get a good idea.
Mine just has all 6 sections on the front and will be much shallower for hit the small volume Danny posted optimal for the woofers.

Danny,

How should I take into consideration black hole 5 damping? It takes up volume but I also thought damping stuff makes the cabient 'look' bigger to the woofers so I don't know which way to factor for that stuff.

Also do you think it's ok to seal off the whole neo section w/ a large divider piece and fill up the whole neo cavity w/ damping or do I need to make the neo cavity as shallow as in the Alphas?

[Danny Richie]

How should I take into consideration black hole 5 damping? It takes up volume but I also thought damping stuff makes the cabient 'look' bigger to the woofers so I don't know which way to factor for that stuff.

You don't have to make any adjustments for the BH-5. I would also recommend adding insolation or poly fill.

Also do you think it's ok to seal off the whole neo section w/ a large divider piece and fill up the whole neo cavity w/ damping or do I need to make the neo cavity as shallow as in the Alphas?

The air space behind the Neo's is large enough to equal them being in free air. Adding any more air space behind them will have no more effect on them.

You could section part of it off and allow the woofers to see some of that air space behind them and it still wouldn't hurt the woofers any.

[BrunoB]

The air space behind the Neo's is large enough to equal them being in free air. Adding any more air space behind them will have no more effect on them.

You could section part of it off and allow the woofers to see some of that air space behind them and it still wouldn't hurt the woofers any.

Just out of curiosity, do you guys put some stuffing in the air space behind the neo panels? If yes, how does the stuffing affect the sound?


Thanks,

Bruno

[jonwb]

Ryan,

I thought I saw where you mentioned it in a previous post, but I can't find it... how wide did you end up making each of your face panels?  I know its a little wider on the front side, that's the dimension that I'm curious about.  

I guess technically they could be 7.875 wide at the face (the length of the NEO8).  Then you could just cut a recessed slot across each panel and not really have to worry about the corners.  It would also make the cabinet more narrow, which is a concern of mine.

Jon

[Danny Richie]

Just out of curiosity, do you guys put some stuffing in the air space behind the neo panels? If yes, how does the stuffing affect the sound?

Yes, you have to load it with dampening to absorb the back wave. Otherwise the back wave reflects off the back wall and comes bouncing right back through.

[azryan]

Thanks Danny.

I think I'm looking to just make a solid divider from neos and woofers. That's simpler than opening it up to give more volume to the woofers which looks like it'll already have plenty of volume without it -unless you tell me why it might be better to make it an open air flow divider?

How tight is too tight for BH5 to be behind the end woofers? They'll be close to the back as I've designed it now but angled inward so it looks 'tight but ok' to me.

jon,

"-how wide did you end up making each of your face panels?-"

Well... I'm kinda' wingin' it here. hehe

I made them 8" wide and then when I cut the 10 degree angle cuts right up to the edge of the panels (damn tough one-handed w/ a circular saw. i'm fairly stoopid. hehe) I ended up w/ them all being 7 7/8" which is exactly the Neo length.

Unline your design I routered the whole neo line all the way across before I cut the sections apart too. This should then give me the tiny bit of play I might need to shift the neo panels to mount them next to eachother 'cuz technically being just slightly inset they might be a hair too long for each section (I'll start from the center sections and work out to the ends).

If they don't fit perfectly they'll be off by a 32nd" to a 16th" max though. Really fine tiny bit if there's even any problem.

I roughly tipped up the sections together and measured about 42" wide.

My end pieces will come straight back and bevel cut into the end of the face pieces (if any of that made sense?) so it should mostly remain about this wide in the end.

I don't think it looks that big really. Maybe I've just used to large speakers though. hehe
W/ matte black finish I think it'll be invisible really and plenty narrower than my 65" RPTV's screen that it'll sit under.

I think I'll make the inner side wall length 3"deep instead of 2.5" just to be sure the end woofers aren't too close to the back wall as long as Danny's saying the volume isn't super critical being sealed.

Actually Danny....

I don't have spare neos or woofers to drill holes for them nor the BH5 etc...
As long as I'm sending you the finished cabinet to measure for the x-over would you send me back the x-over parts, woofers, and neos or would you just send me a finished speaker? (w/ measurements? and your judgement of how it worked out and sounded?).

If you're thinkin' you'd just send me the parts then it seems like I should buy the woofers, neos and BH5 first and make sure it's all drilled and fits right before I send you the cabinet.

Sure would be nice if you just finished it for me though. hehe

I'm wondering if they'll be a prob of floor caused bass peak 'cuz the woofers are all the same height? Any thoughts on that Danny?

A lot of money to take a 'guess' at this working perfectly. Part of why it'd nice to have you finish it to be sure it actually measures 'right'.

You could make an actual normal kit w/ plans and same x-over for everyone if it turns out.
Nice to know for people thinking about a 5 chan. Alpha room.

[azryan]

Got much of the face glued together now. I'm able to say that it's 42" wide.

Even w/ the 1.5" side walls I'm making it'll still be 42" wide as they 'notch' into the angled face ends not stick outside of them.

The top, bottom and inner divider looks like they'll be very easy to cut, but very tough and/or annoying to draw out.

I'd like to just place the MDF on top and bottom of the actual face and trace the line I want to cut. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do that. I hope so or I gotta figure out something else.

That face was the hard part for building though and only took a couple days plus days where glued/clamped pieces dried (I don't count that as 'work').

Still deciding if I should paint it black to be 'invisible' below my screen, or if I should veneer it to match my mains.

I'll have to take some scrap veneer, tape it to a box and test it under my screen to see how noticable it is when the lights are out during a movie.

Veneered it'll make a KILLER centerpiece to the whole HT room. I don't want to keep looking down at it when I'm watching a flick though. Hmmm...

My mother-in-law took some pics so eventually I'll have some to post. Hopefully my bro-in-law will take some more this weekend and I can post those digital ones right away.

No one seems to care unless you've got pics! heheh

[azryan]

Early pics...

http://home.earthlink.net/~azstrehlow/alphacenter1.html

The face is done now and I was able to easily trace the shape for the base and top plates.

I decided I'm going to make it all black and not veneer it.

[Marbles]

Ryan,

I really like the design for a center channel.  Let us know how it works out for you.

[wshuff]

I have an LRC (Large Ribbon Center) and I thought it was pretty big at about 32 inches wide.  And heavy enough that I don't enjoy hefting it up to the top of the TV.  But that thing...Wow!  

And you say that the pic only shows 5 of the 6 panels.   Looks to me like if you stood it on end it would be coming up past your waist even with the curve.  So what's it called?

The HRC (Humongous Ribbon Center)?  
GRC (No, not GR Research Center--Gargantuan Ribbon Center).

How about:

BARC--Big Ass Ribbon Center
CRC--Colossal Ribbon Center
MRC--Monstrous Ribbon Center, Mammoth Ribbon Center
HSWTHIT-C--Holy Sh#t, What the H#ll is THAT!-Center

Keep posting pics, I want to keep tabs on this thing.

[warnerwh]

This center channel looks as though it could be made with a standard cabinet and used for stereo. That would be closer to what I am wanting too.  The Alpha's are too tall for me.  Being as Danny is going to be working on the crossover I'd like to find out if this could be available as a stereo design.  Obviously they'd need subs but that'd be fine.  I believe this would work as the Mini Alpha design myself and others were interested in.

Danny: Please let us know how low they will play solidly. Thanks

[scooter]

Early pics...

http://home.earthlink.net/~azstrehlow/alphacenter1.html

The face is done now and I was able to easily trace the shape for the base and top plates.

I decided I'm going to make it all black and not veneer it.

Wow that looks really cool, can't wait to hear your views on how it sounds.

Off topic: By the way I read the HDMI specification a few days ago and was very dissappointed that it did not contain any volume information which was the only thing required to allow full digital control. There is a way to easily add it though, lets hope they set a standard for it and then we will have nirvana. It only uses half the available bandwith so there is plenty of room for expansion to higher grade audio formats. If it had volume information it could be used as a standard input output interface for audio and we could then take a digital feed direct from a high grade pre-amp and feed it digitally to a digital amp with close to zero losses. It would also mean that other devices such as room correction, upsampling etc could be interposed with no losses as well. We are nearly there.

[azryan]

Thanks everybody.

More pics soon (it's not done, but it 'looks' almost done as of now), but do you guys want to name it? Alpha Center is fairly plain.
wshuff had a lot of good ideas, but possibly too based on VMPS's center's name.
Thoughts?

[scooter]

Thanks everybody.

More pics soon (it's not done, but it 'looks' almost done as of now), but do you guys want to name it? Alpha Center is fairly plain.
wshuff had a lot of good ideas, but possibly too based on VMPS's center's name.
Thoughts?

Here are some poor attampts for you:

Axis - Alpha Line Source Center
Epic - Alpha Line Source Center
Alpha Inspirational Line Source Center
Alpha Inspired Line Source Center

[scooter]

Would it make a better overall center if the driver complement was doubled i.e. 10 Woofers and 10 Neos.

A curved array of 6 and 6 is as large as I would make it with all 6 being in the front of the curved array.

That is actually plenty big, and gives a 100 degree coverage area if each is turned 20 degrees.

What is your other one?

Danny,

I missed this reply. What I meant was have five segments but each segment of the panel has 2 woofers and 2 Neos, same concept just doubling the number of drivers per segment.

[wshuff]

OK, agreed that the names I posted above are, er...derivative at best, outright ripoffs at worst.  How 'bout this...

Alpha Centurion.  

Don't really know what that is, but I like the sound of it.

[azryan]

"Alpha Centurion" -from wshuff.

I like that name! Probably everyone will just call it the Alpha center, but maybe Danny can be convinced to give it the official name seal of approval??

[Danny Richie]

"Alpha Centurion"

Sounds good to me.

[jonwb]

... or we could "borrow" some more commercially familiar names and see how long it takes for Danny's phone to ring:

Alpha Centrino


Alpha Centrum


Actually I think "Centurion" sounds a little Gladiator-ish.  Leave it to a bunch of guys to come up with a name like "Alpha Centurion"  

How about the letter/number game:

Alpha Curved Center Channel   ---->    Alpha 3C

The Federal Government might like this (I do):

Alpha Faceted Center Channel  ----->    Alpha FCC

Kinda like something that speaks to the fact that the face is curved/faceted.[/img]

[Danny Richie]

Alpha Faceted Center Channel -----> Alpha FCC

 

I like that too.