Just a tease

dcibel

It'll be a few weeks unfortunately before I can get back to this, as I'll be in Chicago next week for work.

tajanes

ok, I'll bite
2 way, 5.25 in woofer, rear slot ported

dcibel

Yup, waveguide tweeter, and really It's a 6" woofer. It's happening, the rest of the details this far in the Di-Noc thread.

First time I've constructed a cabinet with mitre joints, a few more cuts the way I did it but assembly was super easy, just tape, glue and fold, then make sure it's square before you leave it to dry. Front baffle won't be glued if I can help it, trying just a foam gasket and hanger bolts. Slot ported out the back, running up the back side of the baffle. Really the cabinet is upside down in my photo, oops

rjj45

I've done similar. Works out nice. What will you use for gasket material?

dcibel

I generally use craft foam, peel and stick stuff in fun colours. You can find it next to the glitter at the craft stores It doesn't come in big sheets but I haven't had issues butting a few peices together.

dcibel

Sigh, got out the tools yesterday to cut some boards and the power goes out for a few hours. Perfect. Didn't get to cutting up the baffles for these speakers, but did build a pretty snazzy monitor shelf for my office out of an acacai board. Acacai stair treads from Rona make real good small project boards. I've made several shelves using these, they're just great as long as you can find one that is straight without significant damage or splits.

Good news is that I did find a great deal on a pair of Vifa XT25TG30-04, so when this project is said and done I'll make some comparison of my fancy Motus unobtanium tweeters against an old classic in the same Visaton WG148 waveguide.

rjj45

pretty wood!

dcibel

Getting closer...Turned out pretty well, you can't even tell that I screwed up one of the holes and had to make an entire new baffle

jhollander

Chamfer plus roundover looks cool. 

dcibel

White isn't a bad look either.

BIN primed/sealed, inside and out, sponge brush first coat, then spray can second coat. 220 grit sanding in between. Getting closer...if the weather wasn't so nice I'd probably still be working on paint and finish, but going to go paddle boarding instead

dcibel

rjj45

sweet!

4thtry

Nice.  Excellent color contrast. 

dcibel

Thanks, I do like how the colour combo worked out. There's definitely some flaws in my finishing application here in the corners, but when you back up a little bit you can't tell, so as long as the adhesive doesn't give away after a year I'm happy with the way this turned out. If I was doing this again I'd make the baffle slightly larger to overhang the cabinet by 1/32 - 1/16 inch to cover up the edge. The worst part right now is the gloss on the Di-Noc is easily scuffed, and I already did make some marks on the top of one of them ugh!

The Rustoleum textured spray paint is really nice stuff, easy to get a nice even coat, but the cans don't go very far, you get a lot less coverage from a can than your usual spray paint, and the resulting finish I think may be difficult to keep clean, like trying to clean 80 grit sandpaper.

rjj45

Agreed on the stone finish rattle can. Did that last year. Looks great, but a dust magnet. I suggest spraying on some satin gloss clear Krylon. Seats up the stone, but doesn't change the look.

dcibel

I had though about something like that. When I bought the paint, I picked up a can of clear coat, but when I tested it, it was full of glitter. Somewhere hidden at the bottom of the label was "frosted pearl" or something like that, not regular clear coat. Glad I tested it first! I have some spray lacquer on the shelf, but I don't think the gloss of it will give the look I'm going for, so I'll need to find some flat or satin clear spray.

Wolf

Most stone finishes require the following binding layer via clear-coat. This helps prevent flaking off or crumbling of the stone material. I used a gloss polyurethane spray atop of the Design Master stone finish on the Attitudes.

PWRRYD

I used a satin clear (spray can) over the Rustoeum stone finish I did.  I liked how that turned out.


Edited post:  I used Rustoleum satin clear coat (not polyurethane).

PWRRYD

But if I remember correctly the stone texture paint and clear coat from Rustoleum are just like their other spray paints.  You MUST recoat within 1 hour or wait at least a week.  Otherwise there is some weird reaction that totally screws up the finish.

dcibel

Yeah, I've had issues with other paints, this texture stuff was not like regular spray paint. After 24 hours it was totally dry and without odour, which I can't say the same for regular spray paint which could stay slightly tacky for days to weeks. I guess I'll wait until the weekend to spray the top coat just to be safe. Found some satin clear Tremclad, the only Rustoleum at the store was the 2x Ultra which I'm not the biggest fan of, especially for a top coat I think lighter spray is better for an even coat.

rjj45

I'll use Rustoleum when I have to, but for me, Krylon is SO much better.

PWRRYD

I totally agree rjj45.

Wolf

Yes, Krylon or Duplicolor (same company) take the cake for me as well.

dcibel

Krylon is much harder to find around my location, I might find it in the specialty paint stores if I looked around though. Rustoleum, Varathane, Tremclad, etc are all very commonly available. I've had no issue with Rustoleum products apart from the 2x ultra which is intended for "fast application", not "best results".

If all goes well I should be able to most assembly at least one of these this weekend so I can start taking measurements and listening.

rjj45

Speaking of "rattle can", I'm a big fan of "dries in 10 minutes, recoat anytime". Not so much for product that says "recoat within 1 hour or after 48 hours" <arrgh!>

dcibel

With minidsp you can have a perfectly listenable system in the time it takes to just take initial measurements to design a proper passive crossover.

1. Pick a crossover frequency, I went with 1700Hz.

2. Apply shelf to woofer response for baffle step correction.

3. Apply wide notch to tweeter response to flatten the hump provided by the waveguide.

4. Adjust tweeter delay to get as deep a null as possible at the crossover frequency.

5. Invert the tweeter.

6. Adjust tweeter level.

All that took about 5-10 minutes, and it sounds great (tweeter may still be a bit hot for my taste). It took just as long to take near and far measurements and splice them together with BSC to create a half decent looking full frequency response graph to show.

Now comes real crossover work, but so far these drivers are playing very well with each other

dcibel

Might have a 3 component crossover with this one...

dcibel

This is the last teaser before make a complete post putting all this mess together in a completed project type of thing. I'm just waiting for some resistors to come in the mail so I can finish the crossover and button everything up.

Low end response doesn't include the port, and it took more than 3 components. It would work with 3 parts, but ultimately be too bright and not good enough for what these high end components deserve.