Eduardo asked me to post some pictures of the Adire DIY kits that I built and also my opinion of them.
We will start with Construction.. The basic construction of them is very easy.. As always the finish you use can make the project more difficult. If you want to see a how-to of how there constructed, There are many many good construction websites in adires gallery. The xovers are easy to construction if you’re familiar with soldering and such.
I had some problems with the hardware, and one problem with an AV8..
1st is the T nuts in a couple of locations. Because the AV8’s fill most of the front the T’s nuts are partially covered by the side panels. Installing the T nuts before hand and counter sinking them (in a couple spots) into the front is required. I’m glad that I caught this before hand.
2nd the size of the t-nuts. In the manual it says that large T’nuts are used for the 8”s and smaller ones for the tweet/port. I received small ones for everything except 4 which I think are for the 5” in the center. The head on the small ones are barely big enough to not fall through the holes in the 8”s.. Because I like to do things right I purchased replacement T’nuts from one of my works hardware suppliers (needed about 60) . I also needed to purchase longer ones sense I increased the front baffle to 1-1/4” instead of ¾”. Adire should be shipping longer ones.
3rd the crimp connectors for the mid’s.. Wrong size.. There cheap so I bought new ones.
4th no construction manuals provided.. I had to print ones off from there website. They should of come with.
5th after installing my LCC center in its location I discovered some magnetic interference with my TV. After spending some time lifting the tv to see how far away it needed to be I realized that the problem was only happening on one corner which made me think it was a poorly shielded 8". While replacing the 8” with one of the ones from the side surround (81’s) speaker I noted that the magnet was a lot stronger on it.. Once replaced the magnetic interference was gone. I guess one was not shielded very well?.
I consider these problems to be minor though.
How do the 281’s sound.. Well I have never really been a big believer in a break in period but with these it sure makes a difference. Right away I noticed the low end. Words like muddy, loose, boomy come to mind. The high end was also lacking, and imaging and staging was blurred and lacked focus. I let it play for a little while and noticed the low end was improving greatly, same with the high end. Today after having about 8 hours of play on it there sounding even better.. The low end & midbass is much tighter and more balanced with the high end, and the imaging is becoming very accurate. So don’t form your impression of these around the first hour of listening . I wonder how much more they will improve with more play time.
Maybe Andrew will have a opinion once he has listened to them .
I still need to listen to them more but so far im very happy with how they sound. I believe there far better then anything you can buy in its price range and also can be compared to speakers at least double there price. I feel that most people buying these will be using them for home theater.. It’s my opinion that you don’t need a super expensive speaker for this.. So the Adires fit the bill perfectly. If your looking at the adire centers to go with it, I highly recommend the LCC over the 281 center because of the additional midrange.
Now for some pictures. The Kit281’s and 81’s are finished in Red Oak Veneer with a Red oak stain and polyurethane. The LCC center was built into an existing TV stand and the Oak veneer was dyed black to match it. Some of the pictures didn’t turn out the greatest (Poor lighting) and the stain is more even then some of the pictures show.
Picture of the Kit281:
Picture of the Kit281 with a partially finished grill:
Picture of the Kit81:
Picture of the KitLCC:
We will start with Construction.. The basic construction of them is very easy.. As always the finish you use can make the project more difficult. If you want to see a how-to of how there constructed, There are many many good construction websites in adires gallery. The xovers are easy to construction if you’re familiar with soldering and such.
I had some problems with the hardware, and one problem with an AV8..
1st is the T nuts in a couple of locations. Because the AV8’s fill most of the front the T’s nuts are partially covered by the side panels. Installing the T nuts before hand and counter sinking them (in a couple spots) into the front is required. I’m glad that I caught this before hand.
2nd the size of the t-nuts. In the manual it says that large T’nuts are used for the 8”s and smaller ones for the tweet/port. I received small ones for everything except 4 which I think are for the 5” in the center. The head on the small ones are barely big enough to not fall through the holes in the 8”s.. Because I like to do things right I purchased replacement T’nuts from one of my works hardware suppliers (needed about 60) . I also needed to purchase longer ones sense I increased the front baffle to 1-1/4” instead of ¾”. Adire should be shipping longer ones.
3rd the crimp connectors for the mid’s.. Wrong size.. There cheap so I bought new ones.
4th no construction manuals provided.. I had to print ones off from there website. They should of come with.
5th after installing my LCC center in its location I discovered some magnetic interference with my TV. After spending some time lifting the tv to see how far away it needed to be I realized that the problem was only happening on one corner which made me think it was a poorly shielded 8". While replacing the 8” with one of the ones from the side surround (81’s) speaker I noted that the magnet was a lot stronger on it.. Once replaced the magnetic interference was gone. I guess one was not shielded very well?.
I consider these problems to be minor though.
How do the 281’s sound.. Well I have never really been a big believer in a break in period but with these it sure makes a difference. Right away I noticed the low end. Words like muddy, loose, boomy come to mind. The high end was also lacking, and imaging and staging was blurred and lacked focus. I let it play for a little while and noticed the low end was improving greatly, same with the high end. Today after having about 8 hours of play on it there sounding even better.. The low end & midbass is much tighter and more balanced with the high end, and the imaging is becoming very accurate. So don’t form your impression of these around the first hour of listening . I wonder how much more they will improve with more play time.
Maybe Andrew will have a opinion once he has listened to them .
I still need to listen to them more but so far im very happy with how they sound. I believe there far better then anything you can buy in its price range and also can be compared to speakers at least double there price. I feel that most people buying these will be using them for home theater.. It’s my opinion that you don’t need a super expensive speaker for this.. So the Adires fit the bill perfectly. If your looking at the adire centers to go with it, I highly recommend the LCC over the 281 center because of the additional midrange.
Now for some pictures. The Kit281’s and 81’s are finished in Red Oak Veneer with a Red oak stain and polyurethane. The LCC center was built into an existing TV stand and the Oak veneer was dyed black to match it. Some of the pictures didn’t turn out the greatest (Poor lighting) and the stain is more even then some of the pictures show.
Picture of the Kit281:
Picture of the Kit281 with a partially finished grill:
Picture of the Kit81:
Picture of the KitLCC:
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