Well following on from my previous bookshelf speakers post, here come pt2.
As I mentioned I wasn't happy with the veneer job I did on the previous set, and the temperature extremes they endured in storage just made it a lot worse. With these issues being non repairable, I set about remaking them with a few little improvements along the way.
Firstly, I made the box 2l smaller. This sacrificed the depth the bass will play to but has made them a lot more responsive as well. A subwoofer is on the cards later so losing bass from these doesn't really matter in the long run. I also added extra magnets to the woofers, this has improved their response further and made a cheaper driver a lot more accurate in it's sound reproduction. The boxes are 18mm mdf with an internal brace so quite rigid and 'dead' when tapped.
The crossovers were also re-done too. I used higher quality capacitors this time and tidied the board up to make it smaller than the original. I utilised spade connectors on the tweeter to allow for phase reversal experiments without having to endure getting a screw driver onto the terminal blocks inside the boxes as that was a right pita job on the previous version as it turned out!
Finally, and probably most notably, the finish on the boxes is about as far away from the originals as you can get. Every speaker I've ever built has been wood veneered so this time I wanted something a bit different. One of my customers has the national contract for all Miele kitchen appliance shop fit outs and they use a lot of two pack red in their builds. They told me if I was happy with that colour next time they are spraying something they'll do my boxes at no charge due to the help I've given them. I quite liked the colour they used so dropped the boxes off to them and here is the result.
Overall I'm quite pleased with the final result. They sound even better than before, so much so that my wife will even listen to blues and rock now![attachimg=1][attachimg=2][attachimg=3]
As I mentioned I wasn't happy with the veneer job I did on the previous set, and the temperature extremes they endured in storage just made it a lot worse. With these issues being non repairable, I set about remaking them with a few little improvements along the way.
Firstly, I made the box 2l smaller. This sacrificed the depth the bass will play to but has made them a lot more responsive as well. A subwoofer is on the cards later so losing bass from these doesn't really matter in the long run. I also added extra magnets to the woofers, this has improved their response further and made a cheaper driver a lot more accurate in it's sound reproduction. The boxes are 18mm mdf with an internal brace so quite rigid and 'dead' when tapped.
The crossovers were also re-done too. I used higher quality capacitors this time and tidied the board up to make it smaller than the original. I utilised spade connectors on the tweeter to allow for phase reversal experiments without having to endure getting a screw driver onto the terminal blocks inside the boxes as that was a right pita job on the previous version as it turned out!
Finally, and probably most notably, the finish on the boxes is about as far away from the originals as you can get. Every speaker I've ever built has been wood veneered so this time I wanted something a bit different. One of my customers has the national contract for all Miele kitchen appliance shop fit outs and they use a lot of two pack red in their builds. They told me if I was happy with that colour next time they are spraying something they'll do my boxes at no charge due to the help I've given them. I quite liked the colour they used so dropped the boxes off to them and here is the result.
Overall I'm quite pleased with the final result. They sound even better than before, so much so that my wife will even listen to blues and rock now![attachimg=1][attachimg=2][attachimg=3]
