Odds & ends from PE?

[madclown99]

I'm starting my 1st project! I'll be building speakers for a HT setup. I'm going with 4 of Jon's MTMs and his WTMW center. Besides the XO parts, what other misc. items should I order from PE at the same time? Here's what I've come up with so far:

1. Binding posts - cup or just posts? Does it matter?

2. Stuffing? Foam sheets or polyfill? How much?

3. Spades - does it matter if I solder these to the speakers or should I just plug them in?

4. T-nuts

5. Gasket foam for speakers

6. What else...?

It'd be nice if I could just get everything I need in 1 order from PE/Madisound. Thanks everyone!

[cjd]

I prefer binding posts because it just requires a drilled hole and I don't ever worry about just having that thin plastic layer in there. . .

Wire. Though if you want to be fancy about things, you could get some of the well priced teflon coated silver plated copper wire on the cheap from apexjr.com

Some nice silver content solder if you don't have any.

I hate T-nuts, would never sucker anyone into using them. But they do have some nice screws for holding drivers in that are hard to find at your local hardware store. Through-bolting (i.e. t-nuts or better, threaded inserts) may not be an issue unless you're building a sub.

Stuffing, I use normal polyfill or fiberglass. However, their 3-layer sonic barrier stuff is quite nice and does the job very well. How much depends on the project. Figure out surface area, get enough.

They have some nice buyout terminal blocks I used on my last project - installed them on the crossover boards. Really quite helpful. I get the kind that are white, not the barrier strips.

If you don't have some nice fat wire for amp>speaker runs, their sound king 12ga is great stuff.

Gasket foam is probably a good call.

Spades, I didn't use my last project but they're a great way to go. Get a good crimper if you don't have one.

C

[wildfire99]

I also prefer the binding posts but I don't like them sticking out. In my new speaker boxes I did something a little different. I cut out a 2 1/4" diameter hole in the back, and glued on a piece of MDF inside the box to cover the hole. It gives me a kind of "DIY" terminal cup that maintains the thick rear panel and nice binding posts, but recesses them 3/4" so they don't stick out so much. I like it so far.

Don't forget the Dayton banana plugs, because I think spades are evil.

[ThomasW]

The new alu anodized plates from PE look pretty cool to me ...:wink:

[cjd]

ooh, that does look slick Thomas!

Might look into those for a project I'm cookin up.

C