Finally took pics of speakers me and a friend built

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yakko

Lifer
Apr 18, 2000
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<< Besides, I really dun wanna add anymore wood, these frickers are heavy! >>

Those 803a were heavy as hell.:)
 

Viperoni

Lifer
Jan 4, 2000
11,084
1
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<< Those 803a were heavy as hell. >>



These speakers are pushing around 70lb's, each, plus they're hard to grab (only the port to use to grab)
 

Fiddy

Senior member
Oct 10, 1999
586
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Instead of trying to paint the boxes, try high gloss black plastic laminate.
It's alot easier than painting, believe me I know. Used to build speakers, PA systems and guitar cabinets for a living. With painting you have to build it up with a lot of lacquer undercoat first to get a decent finish. Lots of sanding by hand, very nasty stuff.:frown: Not that contact cement is much better, but at least you're not spraying it the air. Figure black lami at around a dollar a square foot, ten to fifteen bucks for a gallon of some commercial grade gorrila snot and a roller and you're set.
 

Viperoni

Lifer
Jan 4, 2000
11,084
1
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A dollar a square foot is pretty expensive.....
I was looking in the PE catalog, and I noticed this vinyl cabinet covering.
I think it'd look pretty decent, any comments about that?

And I agree, the painting would be very long....dont have enough patience for it now that I think about it :)

 

beer

Lifer
Jun 27, 2000
11,169
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sigh
I unfortunately am stuck on the commercial market. I can't even solder anything much less construct a crossover.

My PSBs sound fine for me now. I will keep them until I have to upgrade, which hopefully won't be for a couple of years, when I will have the knowledge to build my own speakers.
 

Viperoni

Lifer
Jan 4, 2000
11,084
1
71


<< I can't even solder anything much less construct a crossover >>



That's why PartsExpress sells completely premade crossovers of pretty good quality.
Even cabinets that are precut (all you have to do is glue, screw amd clamp together :))
It's not that hard really ;)
 

kami

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
17,627
5
81
nice. wish i had the know-how to build my own. i'm pretty happy with my paradigm setup though :)
 

glen

Lifer
Apr 28, 2000
15,995
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81


<< does a $5000 a pair tower speaker really sound that much better than $500 pair speakers (assuming they were driven by the same decent amp)? >>



If you pair a home built $1,000 sub woofer system with the $500 speakers, they will sound better.
 

glen

Lifer
Apr 28, 2000
15,995
1
81


<< My PSBs sound fine for me now >>


PSB makes one of the best sounding speakers available at any price.
 

Squisher

Lifer
Aug 17, 2000
21,204
66
91
Viperoni
You obviously spent a great deal of time on these. I have been getting snipits about these for awhile in your posts and have been curious as to how they were going to sound when you were done. Like I always start out my speaches about stereo systems by saying that no one component will affect the sound of your system more than the speakers you buy(make). I've read some speaker builder magazines and those people spend a great deal of time and effort refining their creations before they get them to sound right. How would you say they do in reproducing sound acurately like a store bought speaker can?

PS: they kinda look like Polks
 

Viperoni

Lifer
Jan 4, 2000
11,084
1
71
Well, that's a tough question.
Overall, I'd say they're a bright speaker, but not harsh.
However, they are sensitive to badly recorded material....which all good speakers are ;)
The mids are pretty clear, however due to the right speaker being close to the wall, I'm getting reflections off it :(
Overall, I'm very happy with them.

But for my next pair, I'm going for a pair of mini-monitors, utilizing a Hi-Vi F6 or Morel MW-142 or Vifa PL18, and a Dayton silk dome tweet.
The tweet's only $15.50 and sounds so awesome, you wouldn't think twice to buy a pair :)

I'll buy stands for those monitors, but, when I come into some cash, I'm building Bass'es...err base's that'll contain a 15inch Dayton DVC each :)
So the speakers will sit on top of the subs...muhahahahah :D
 

ZeroEffect

Senior member
Apr 25, 2000
916
1
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I built a great kit from Bottlehead.com
They are designed for low powered tube electronics,
but it was fun and educational, and they're a great
match for my single endted triode (SET) amp. (7watts)
They're called Straight 8's - eight drivers plus tweeter.
They look cool and better yet sound great.
 

Viperoni

Lifer
Jan 4, 2000
11,084
1
71
Line array's are awesome if you can afford them :D
SET amps are awesome for SQ; unfortunately I want loud bass - 100watts is a minimum ;)
 

Squisher

Lifer
Aug 17, 2000
21,204
66
91
They'll probably warm up alittle when you fill them with stuff'n if you haven't already. With CDs being about the only thing people play on there systems any more you need a very warm speaker to offset the brashness of a CD. If I were going to put together a system today I probably wouldn't go with the speakers I have because of their brashness. When I bought them all I had was a turntable. But, I've got $4500 into them and it would be hard for me to get the degree of spouse acceptance factor up to where I would need to get them changed.
 

glen

Lifer
Apr 28, 2000
15,995
1
81


<< The mids are pretty clear, however due to the right speaker being close to the wall, I'm getting reflections off it >>


Get a sheet of mineralfiber/rockwool.

Pictures of RockWool
 

flood

Diamond Member
Oct 17, 1999
4,213
0
76
hows the 'slam' of the two speakers?
if you dont know what 'slam' is, listen to some good klipsch horns and you'll know.
 

Viperoni

Lifer
Jan 4, 2000
11,084
1
71
flood5, the hit is there, and it's hard enough for the kinds of speakers they are.
Hey, from an $8 woofer, they're doing wonders.
Although after half an hour of bass mekanik the dustcaps seemed a little warm ;) ;)

glen, hehehe, if I lived alone, maybe ;)

squisher,
The Lyra's
 

Squisher

Lifer
Aug 17, 2000
21,204
66
91
I've got 5 Klipsh speakers(2 Cornwalls, 2 Heresys, and a KG4) and an MK sub, yeah they slam.
 

KennyH

Diamond Member
Sep 16, 2000
5,904
0
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Dang man those are some sweet speaker boxes :D Yeah, I agree Bass Mekanik is tough on them ;)
 

zimu

Diamond Member
Jun 15, 2001
6,209
0
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not bad not bad...
i'm a big speaker fan, but the only thing i built was a 10&quot; subwoofer wedge, doens't pump out as much as i'd like cause my speaker itself is a bit weak... but hopefully upgrading that soon :)
atleast i've got the juice pumping out my ssytem, i got a kick ass technics 800 watts amplifier which really really kicks ass.
 

Capn

Platinum Member
Jun 27, 2000
2,716
0
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70lbs each? Hehe sounds fun. I remember when I had to carry my sub when packing the car moving home for school in may. Darn thing nearly broke me. I lived on the third floor, I needed to stop and rest on the second floor, then did a near sprint to the car and dropped the thing on the grass just when I got there. It's not so much the weight (though that's a big part) but the fact that it's a 19&quot; cube sitting on another 6&quot; oak platform and it's all semigloss so no holding on to the sides very well. Any speaker I build that's even close to that size anymore is going to have handles on it.