Hello to all my audio friends, Some time has passed since I built a speaker system from scratch...gulp!!....20 years. I have tried to stay current and the hobby still is a quite rewarding one. I'm an old HEAD from the 70's and started by tweaking an old pair of UTAH speakers and have grown with the scene since. Is the overnight Sensation kit a lot of hype ?? or are the accolades deserved ? Well I became curious about these, especially, because of the included milled birch cabinets. Anyone who has built their own cabinets know this is probably the most demanding aspect of speaker building. And a deterrent for me. So I ordered the pair and began picking things apart like a happy squirrel. At the outset I decided to upgrade the caps in the tweeter path. I used Clarity Caps with an .01 Vishay bypass cap in the tweeter circuit. Values of the caps remained the same. I say upgrade, however this doesn't mean that the included caps are inferior, I just like Clarity Caps. Then added a layer of roofing felt, (couldn't justify bare walls) glued to the inside cabinet walls except for the front baffle for damping. I added about 3/4 oz. of wool directly behind the woofer, also. These are the only tweaks and they were cheap and effective. These speakers once finished need some break-in time in order to let the sound bloom. At least 48 hours of pink noise or playing music. Ah ... but then .... the magic of these little titans began to unfold and transport. I didn't think that I would necessarily be on board with all the other fans of this kit....hype ??? No, not at all. This is a kit for any level of enthusiast.The sound stage they produce is fantastic and the timbre is liquidly seductive. They brought back to life my music collection. NIRVANA. Thanks to erich for his community support. P.S. After some further damping tweaking, I would recommend adding an additional 1/4 oz. of wool to the boxes. That would bring the total to about 1 oz. per speaker. This additional wool made an unbelievable difference in smoothing out the midrange, and focusing the imaging capabilities to a pinpoint . WOW!! Scary Good. Worked so well, I'm thinking of adding some wool stuffing to my girlfriend in hopes it will make her sweeter and more seductive too !
Very persuasive. Thanks for sharing that with us. I'd sure like to hear a pair sometime to see what the fuss is all about. I know they're popular. People love 'em.
I wondered the same thing, so I bought a pair when Parts-Express ran a special on the kit. All I can say is that it is NOT hype. They are fantastic little speakers. Paul Carmody has a well deserved reputation, and these support that reputation. If you know anyone looking for a set of DIY speakers, they can't go wrong with these unless they need something very specific that these don't address. Many people ask about them, so I think I'll take my pair to DIY Iowa in October. Mike
These are very intriguing to me also. Great job Paul! Erich, if I order a pair, will the tweeter on both baffles be mirrored or identical? Also, if I only wanted the components, but no cabinets, is that an option?
IT Hertz, I agree with you! These speakers are fantastic! The sound stage and liquid sound defy logic. This is pretty much what I have always wanted in speaker. Thank you for sharing your experience, Paul Carmody for his design and Erich for the kit. dw