I might have been tempted by the walnut, but it's really expensive. Mahogany is not much more than red oak. and I like the way it looks. The pic is after 3 coats of rub-on polyurethane. The wood really drinks this stuff up, so I'll probably need another 3 to be satisfied. Happy so far..
It's looking great so far. Keep it up. Did you build them to the 38x16x10.25 dimension we previously talked about? I am thinking of building mine to be 44x14x10.25. Little taller to put the tweeters at ear level and a little less depth, while maintainin the same volume.
Thucker, I built mine 38 X 16 X 10.25, and if you build yours as planned, you will get more volume than mine. Not a big deal, but check your numbers and recalculate port length. Mine are coming along slowly - now 5 coats of poly. That is enough.
Thanks Luis Still plonking along - have to finish mounting the drivers, test everything, finish the grills, lug the beasts into my house, drink a beer and play some music. After I use the speakers for a while, I'm looking forward to posting my final thoughts. It's been quite a learning experience...
They're looking great..... keep it up. Forget the grills, get them assembled and in the house for a jam session.
They look awesome! Have any build pics from when you made the grills? How do they stay in place... magnets? If I was local, I would be more than happy to help you bring them into your room.
Thanks Luis, I don't have many pics of the grills, other than this. However, I could write up a step-by-step for you pretty easily if you are interested. It was a lot of work, because I had to do a lot of 'trim and adjust'. I know just how to do it now that it's finished....Yes, those are magnet pairs holding the grills on. Work great.
I used 1/2" BB plywood because MDF would probably be pretty flimsy with those narrow sides. Blank out the pieces to fit baffle dimensions Mark cut outs. magnets and grooves. Put grooves 1/2" from edges, 1/4" deep. Make side rails 1" wide Bevel edges Put magnets inside grooves, accurately transfer layout to baffles (important) Sand, fill, fuss, fit, paint, blah, blah You will develop a method for stretching the fabric and anchoring it with the screen door cord. The cord that holds the fabric in the groove goes in easily when stretched. I used a piece of hardwood to press the cord into the groove as I pulled on it.
Oh yeah, use a grill fabric that is thin enough to fit into the groove. And be sure to cut the bevels before you jig saw out the middle. Keeps the router flat.
I got them fired up yesterday and I'm still getting the AVR settings optimized. For some reason, YPAO insists on setting crossovers at 110 Hz on these towers tuned for 38Hz. So I'm still playing with all the manual options. I'm getting pretty good results crossing the sealed 893 center and Volt 6 surrounds at 80Hz, and the towers at 60Hz. Not having test equipment, I'll just say that bass extension seems really good. I'm listening to music with 2.1 channels. Subs are optional for music. I need to play with them for a while and watch some movies before I can say much more. They seem to improve with each hour of play time. Break in? Here's a question: My favorite music format is Pandora, and I play some CDs, but I'm wondering what other options are worth considering? I'll leave my final thoughts when I've had more time with them.
Having spent some hours playing with different AVR settings, these things are sounding better and better. I'm beginning to hear details in the recordings that I never noticed. And that bass.... "Break in", is debated among speaker builders. Some say it doesn't happen; others say does. I just know that something changed. Cone material, my ears, - whatever.. Bottom line, they sound great, both for music and HT. The deeper bass I get with these ported cabinets is really good, especially with music. I end up turning the subs down. I go back and forth between 2.2 and 5.2 channels with music - both are good. So what have I learned? First, it was a fun project from initial planning to final details. It was a lot of work, but that's what I wanted. If I were to do it again, I might build the cabs a bit smaller, tune a little higher, but that's about it. The HeatLock veneer was a nice way to attach veneer - I'll never go back to contact cement. PCBs are the way to go for crossovers. T nuts are a nice touch for the woofers, but probably not worth it for the mids and waveguide. Last, but not least, I want to thank LuisV, Thucker, ja00, Tux, et all for their interest and support. Scary
Glad to read that you're happy with the 893s and that it was a fun project for you. Any in room pictures? Did I miss your Volt build thread, or did you not make one?
I think I did a Volt 6 thread titled something like "stealth volt 6. Here is my living room setup, not showing one of the subs and the surrounds.
That turned out great! Congrats on the build. Do you hear a difference between Pandora and you CDs? For background listening I prefer Pandora because of it's convenience. CD quality is definitely better. I ripped all my CDs to mp3s and use an old Iphone to stream music through bluetooth to my receiver. Even that I find is better than Pandora. More convenient than CDs. I believe Ryan mentioned that because these are using pro drivers, some break in is beneficial. On the sealed version, if memory serves, he recommended playing a low frequency sine wave (35Hz I think) where the impedance peak is for 30 minutes or so with enough level to have the woofers moving. Since the frequency is low enough the SPL will be low. Alternatively, you can play some loud bass heavy music to break them in. Or just keep listening to them. In any case enjoy your new speakers! They look great!!!
Thanks for the compliments Jomar! I'm pretty pleased with them, myself. My experience with Pandora is different to yours, possibly because I get the signal straight from my router to the AVR. For some reason, when I Bluetooth Pandora or Mp3s from my phone, quality suffers. Anyway, comparing wireless Pandora with CD, I can appreciate a small advantage with the disks, but not as much as you might think. It seems like the biggest factor is how well the music was recorded originally. Maybe my ears are not that discriminating, but due to the convenience of Pandora, I usually just use it. I like the idea of a 35Hz sine wave for break-in, but don't know where to find such a signal. And "loud, bass heavy music" makes me think of hip-hop, but I'm not gonna do it. You can't make me!!! Option #3 seems to be where I'm going. No complaints there.... I'm still interested in what other formats are out there, but since my 'Geek' aptitude is limited, I just might keep playing disks and Pandora and call it a day. OK dude, now it's your turn to step up to the plate and start your own ported tower build. I'm looking forward to it.
Great job on the build. I am glad to hear your positive feedback and that you're happy with them. I will be drawing up my cutsheet this week and will likely start cutting wood next week.
Mine will be a little bit shallower than yours. They'll likely end up being 44x10.25x14. Using a 3.75" port at full length. It's essentially the same design as yours, but I'm bumping the height up to 44" to compensate for removing 2" from the depth. The internal volume will be about 1.3% more than yours, so it shouldn't have any noticeable impact on the tuning. Baffle will be TMMWW.
Sounds great. Looking forward to it. I checked your tuning with http://www.mobileinformationlabs.com/HowTo-1Woofer-Box-CAL Port lenth 1.htm It looks like just under 34 Hz. Mine came out to 38 Hz, and I doubt we could tell the difference.
