I will be covering my crossover up and the layout Plott used is perfectly acceptable, I just like doing something different for every build. I am more concerned at making the wiring for the speaker drivers clean. Since I plan to glue my wings on solid, I will be making the woofer assembly removable and will cut the center of the five boards laminated narrower so it will create a grove the route the wires then finish over them. Well that’s the plan for now, reality doesn’t always mirror my intentions and I end up improvising.
Bill
Bill
The 8 driver woofer array being slot loaded and force cancelling with distortion cancelling arrangement is what makes the bass and mid bass special. It is articulate and has great slam. The distortion at normal listening levels is circa -55dB. That’s better than most mid ranges or tweeters.
A great day today, my XSD baffles/cores arrived from xrk's cabinet maker. I can't stress enough how wonderful of a person he is to work with and how great his craftsmanship is. As I mentioned in the group-buy thread, I let him know that baffles and woofer cores were major barriers for me, and let him run with that knowledge.
I really wish I would have taken some pictures of the way they were boxed up, he really went above and beyond. I was too excited and ripped the box open like a kid on Christmas. Baffles and cores were glued together already, then one assembly laid face down on cardboard, and the other assembly laid on top of that face up with the woofer cores lined up next to each other. In between the woofer cores was a very thin strip of wood that was probably ~8" wide, with an MDF circle cutout from the woofer cores glued on the top and bottom on opposing sides. This was used with some strips of wood and very long bolts to lock the baffle/core assemblies in place. Follow that up with some plastic wrap all around the speakers, and two UPS store boxes cut and glued up to snugly fit everything. Unfortunately UPS did put a little dent in one of the baffles, but I am fine with that as I intend to paint the speakers semi-gloss black with a gloss clear coat on top of that. The nick was not deep, not large, maybe a 1cm square, and definitely nothing a tiny bit of wood filler can't take care of in a jiffy. At the bottom of each baffle there is a strip of wood glued on to take the hassle of a 5 degree angle out of the picture for me. I honestly did not even think of this, and something that will probably save my skin in the coming days. Thanks to that all I need to do is cut some wings and a platform for the speakers to sit on. Easy right?
I've got some questions for people in regards to building. What is everyone doing as far as feet? I was thinking about getting some decent speaker spikes such as these ones https://www.parts-express.com/Dayton-Audio-DSS6-BC-Black-Chrome-Spike-Set-4-Pcs.-240-690 the area I will have the speakers would benefit the most from something where I can individually adjust height on each foot, my house was built in 1959 and my main setup is in the finished basement, so the floor isn't perfectly level.
Another thing I am curious of is that the PRV 5MR450-NDY-4 mid-range has a white PRV logo on the dust-cap, while not the most important thing to me, it would be nice if that were something I could cover up. Is there any sort of paint or anything recommended to hide a logo on a dust cap without affecting audio?
And I think my final question for now, if I were to put a tiny bevel on the woofer slots, as well on the baffle for aesthetic purposes, would that have any affect on the sound? I'm thinking something very minor for the woofer cores, probably 1/2 to 1/4 of the angle used on the midrange, just enough to give it a softer appearance. However the last thing I want to do is disrupt the sound quality.
Don't worry, I didn't forget to take a picture
I really wish I would have taken some pictures of the way they were boxed up, he really went above and beyond. I was too excited and ripped the box open like a kid on Christmas. Baffles and cores were glued together already, then one assembly laid face down on cardboard, and the other assembly laid on top of that face up with the woofer cores lined up next to each other. In between the woofer cores was a very thin strip of wood that was probably ~8" wide, with an MDF circle cutout from the woofer cores glued on the top and bottom on opposing sides. This was used with some strips of wood and very long bolts to lock the baffle/core assemblies in place. Follow that up with some plastic wrap all around the speakers, and two UPS store boxes cut and glued up to snugly fit everything. Unfortunately UPS did put a little dent in one of the baffles, but I am fine with that as I intend to paint the speakers semi-gloss black with a gloss clear coat on top of that. The nick was not deep, not large, maybe a 1cm square, and definitely nothing a tiny bit of wood filler can't take care of in a jiffy. At the bottom of each baffle there is a strip of wood glued on to take the hassle of a 5 degree angle out of the picture for me. I honestly did not even think of this, and something that will probably save my skin in the coming days. Thanks to that all I need to do is cut some wings and a platform for the speakers to sit on. Easy right?
I've got some questions for people in regards to building. What is everyone doing as far as feet? I was thinking about getting some decent speaker spikes such as these ones https://www.parts-express.com/Dayton-Audio-DSS6-BC-Black-Chrome-Spike-Set-4-Pcs.-240-690 the area I will have the speakers would benefit the most from something where I can individually adjust height on each foot, my house was built in 1959 and my main setup is in the finished basement, so the floor isn't perfectly level.
Another thing I am curious of is that the PRV 5MR450-NDY-4 mid-range has a white PRV logo on the dust-cap, while not the most important thing to me, it would be nice if that were something I could cover up. Is there any sort of paint or anything recommended to hide a logo on a dust cap without affecting audio?
And I think my final question for now, if I were to put a tiny bevel on the woofer slots, as well on the baffle for aesthetic purposes, would that have any affect on the sound? I'm thinking something very minor for the woofer cores, probably 1/2 to 1/4 of the angle used on the midrange, just enough to give it a softer appearance. However the last thing I want to do is disrupt the sound quality.
Don't worry, I didn't forget to take a picture
The cabinets look fantastic! I used thick self adhesive felt feet that are used for furniture. That lets me slide the speaker around on my wood floor. The spikes you linked look great and would indeed allow height adjustment. Note that the PRV midrange should be the 8 ohm variety not 4 ohm. The one I have was labeled 4 ohm mistakenly at the factory. I had ordered 8 ohm and it measures as an 8 ohm. The 4 ohm would be very different with regards to the crossover. I used a black Sharpie marker to color over the PRV logo on the cone.
Hahaha I have been wondering how you covered that up. What is the plan for the production units? I don't imagine sharpie?
Looking forward to learning about your impressions!
Re feet: I noticed several OB have the bass panel raised from the floor, like Spatial Audios. In fact Steve Gutenberg recently reviewed the Magnepan LRS+ and noted an improvement with raised feet and compared to prior LRS version with aftermarket, higher feet. I haven't tried it but it's in my to-try list.
Has anybody experimented with this?
Re feet: I noticed several OB have the bass panel raised from the floor, like Spatial Audios. In fact Steve Gutenberg recently reviewed the Magnepan LRS+ and noted an improvement with raised feet and compared to prior LRS version with aftermarket, higher feet. I haven't tried it but it's in my to-try list.
Has anybody experimented with this?
I would think raising an open baffle speaker could hypothetically change the bass response, as you introduce a new axis for the sound from the front to wrap around to the back (and possibly increase cancellation?)
From what X says the slot load is less sensitive to floor boundary. I plan to place mine on feet with felt pads to make the floor and wife happy. I know you ran yours demos on the 8 ohm Alpa Nirvana short term but for long term use would you recommend it be changed to the 4 ohm version? I really like this amp of my half a dozen amps this is the one I listen to the most.
Bill
Bill
I have a pair of Pete Millite uni amps with kt88, a 500 watt class B amp, a pair of stereo F4 , a little mini Aleph, a pair of little wire amps, Sissy sit3 in build, and a class D amp to round out the heard. I also have number of amps I have given away to make room. I bought a pair of Wolverine boards not sure if I will get around to it.
Bill
Bill