Adires Kit 281 Transmissions, Simply Amazing

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  • Huskerduck
    Moderator Emeritus
    • Oct 2000
    • 129

    Adires Kit 281 Transmissions, Simply Amazing

    Well Jon I took your advice ( I think ) and posted this over at HTT......I would have mentioned your name but instead used the word mastermind because I wasnt sure If you liked you name thrown around, Im still interested in modifying the vent but dont know if I need to, I would also be curious as to your thoughts on their being 3 lbs of poly fiber stuffed into these puppys ( It was all I could do to get it in there with the side not glued on



    Well around 2:00 pm yesterday I figured I would start my 281s but had no idea I would be auditioning them at 11 pm, granted I dont have the "skin " on them yet but I like to procrastinate and this should take about another 2 hours tops.
    After disscusing some possible changes to the design with a DIY mastermind to increase Midrange and have better Bass tuning I decided to make them into Downfiring vents instead of front firing, I did this by adding 1 inch to overall height of MDF and later Roto-Zipping out some fancy schmancy little legs and then adding some 1-1/2" spikes giving me 2-1/2" of height adjustment.

    Whether or not this is better or worse, we may never know but I will say these speakers are completely awe inspiring, Ive read alot of people mention their Brightness but these speakers are far from Bright, Better words could be Flat Perfect to my ears.

    If these sound better with break in then Im in for a real treat, I unplugged my Subwoofer and could hardly tell other than my Bass sounded alot cleaner, All around sound now surrounds me instead of coming at me.

    I turned on DirecTvs music stations and soon found out I love all kinds of music now ( I stayed up till 2:00am listening to their entire lineup except Country and Rap which I soon discovered sounded great but I just cant handle it very long) The Jazz stations and World beat type stuff was so crisp and smooth it sounded as if I was part of the Band or orchestras.

    For Home Theater I popped it off direct and turned on the DTS and popped in T2 Ultimate and was completely Blown away, I actually heard things Ive never, ever heard and this is one of my favorite Demos.

    I admire Adire for putting out a simplistic, quick building masterpiece that can be built for $400 in 8-10 hours ( 4 hours of letting Gorilla glue dry time)......what a bargain

    Thanks again Jon Im sure your Idea probably improved these speakers tremendously because most think they sound Bright and maybe you fixed this which is weird , you would think they would be even Brighter




    Mark


    Ducks Meager Theater
    Mark


    Ducks Meager Theater
  • AndrewM
    Senior Member
    • Oct 2000
    • 446

    #2
    Congrats on your new setup, I quite enjoy mine. As to them being bright, a lot of people have mentioned that but I just don't hear it, they sound pretty balanced to me, maybe a little on the soft side. As to the bass, I was very impressed with them when I finally got them hooked up, it was quite bad when my mains had almost as much bass as my cheapy (well, not that cheap) Velodyne sub.

    Andrew

    Comment

    • JonMarsh
      Mad Max Moderator
      • Aug 2000
      • 15261

      #3
      Congratulations Mark!

      When you move, you MOVE!

      I'm glad to hear you're as pleased with the 281's as you'd hoped, if not even more so! One thing about a good upgrade to your system, it does really increase your involvement and pleasure with the music. It sounds like that is happening for you with the 281's.

      Regarding brigtness or lack of it, I don't know that the venting/TL mode would affect it- it could keep the mids a tad cleaner, avoiding direct radiation from the vent to the front.

      It may seem like a lot of poly stuffing, but poly is not as damping as fiber glass or long fiber wool; it takes more. ThomasW and I built some TL's in the 70's, and experiementing with the line stuffing was often required to optimize the response, along with room positioning.

      Give your Adire's some time to bed in (a few weeks, probably) before you consider adjusting or tweaking. It often takes that long for speaker suspensions to loosen up, cap dielectrics to fully form, and so forth. That's a tricky thing about developing a speaker, because you want the final sound to be reflective of what it will be like after break in.

      BTW, many folks find that a speaker which is voiced nearly flat is "bright" compared with a lot of commerical speakers. Also, with some electronics, they will sound bright because of the glare or grit from the source system. A typical example was folks saying they don't like Focal Tioxid tweeters because they "sound bright, hashy, sibilant, etc". Well, if they're just passing on what the electronics do, then they're doing the job as intended. Sometimes it just takes a better CD player, or a little bit cleaner amp to turn things around. In your case, you may have a reasonably synergistic system match already. Listening long term will tell.

      Happy listening this weekend!

      Regards,

      Jon




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      Comment

      • Huskerduck
        Moderator Emeritus
        • Oct 2000
        • 129

        #4
        Im really not to sure how Tight the drivers should be........being allen heads I could tighten them all day but are they tight enough when the stiffen and then like 1 more turn?

        Jon,
        Do you think with my vent being 3"x 7.5" if I trimmed it up the front another 1" it would improve even more?..........Now would be a good time before I laminate, I was thinking maybe an arch thats routed round

        Also about several hours of listeng at 100db I decide to add to this post..............Jon, you are a God of DIY and I want to personally thank you for your input.........these speakers are coming to life so much I unhooked My 12" powered Subwoofer

        Over on another forum some are wondering about the time to build and I posted this



        .............First off the fact that they are TL probably saved me several hours for the fact I had several less cuts and 12 holes I didnt have to Roto-zip ( Make that 13 including the Vent)
        1 Hour to table saw the 18 peices of wood , seeing how MDF is 49"s long this made it perfect for my modification to the line termination

        10 minutes to cut the 8 peices to length on a 12" Sliding Chop

        I marked out the sides in about 15 minutes and had the wife start pre drilling for 1-1/2" Finish ring shanks and while she did this I Roto zipped the Baffles and drilled/mounted holes for Driver retainers( probably about 30 minutes and boom ....ready to build 1 as a learning curve.

        Layed down a side and started to Gorilla glue ( amazing stuff )starting with front baffle, last TL and smaller peice and Top leaving the Long TL and back which in around 20 minutes then I mounted my Crossovers to the TL as to get to them by removing the Bottom Driver and cut a small "wire hole" just enough to get wires to back and as low as possible then filled them with a squirt of window caulk and finished nailing/glueing every thing but the final side and bottom

        Now came the dissapointment....earlier I had asked my wife to pick up 6lbs of Poly Fiber and she replied her usual " I forgot" when I said I was ready, so she went grocery shopping for 2 hours and picked up the Filling......In the mean time I watched HD baseball and twiddled my thumbs after about 30 minutes of mounting Drivers, tweeters and all connections so as to be ready for the last 15 minutes of stuffing and Glue/nailing last side........

        The second one was all ready to go and after she returned they were both on my kithen table drying....this is when I marked and cut my lil " legs around the base and mounted my spikes

        So If you minus the wifes snafu and glue drying ( which wasnt a must when using ring shanks which also results in no clamping which I did as a precaution in waiting around but I dont think this is necessary whatsoever these speakers can be built in 6 hours easilly.

        My next set I will probably Rabbet all cuts for a little bit more solid performence since Ive already been notified by several people that they need a set now, but make no mistake these are Rock Solid and then some between Nails/ Gorilla glue

        Stupidly I forgot to take pictures but when I "skin" them with walnut I will be sure to post some pictures.........Im also going to build a center speaker when Adire gets done with the design because I had 1/2 a sheet of MDF left over and their 281s are the most amazing sounding speaker Ive ever heard PERIOD and Ive auditioned many $2K-5K , definately in the under $1500 range speakers that dont hold a candle for a dual purpose HT/audio loudspeaker.

        I even unhooked my 12" powered front firing Subwoofer because these have alot cleaner bass response , again thanks to Jon Marsh for his DIY tips on the Line termination, If I was Adire I would seriously consider making this modification and adding to their "prints" page




        Mark


        Ducks Meager Theater
        Mark


        Ducks Meager Theater

        Comment

        • Bing Fung
          Ultra Senior Member
          • Aug 2000
          • 6521

          #5
          That didn't take long at all...

          Congrat's Mark




          Bing
          Bing

          Comment

          • Lex
            Moderator Emeritus
            • Apr 2001
            • 27461

            #6
            Wow, now that's some serious DIY! Congrats!

            The 281 is a nice kit, and a bargain, IMO.

            Lex
            Doug
            "I'm out there Jerry, and I'm loving every minute of it!" - Kramer

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