Zaph SR71's, a big thank you!

[Cataclysm]

Wicked speakers!

They're small but mighty, with an almost ethereal and crystalline tone in contrast to the Klipsch RF-82's which they're temporarily perched upon.

I am driving them with a 100 watt per channel amp and have them crossed over to a 15" Rythmik servo sub for bass duties... pure bliss. :T

[stangbat]

Nice looking build. Did you build the enclosures? (I know the baffles aren't from the Madisound kit.)

[Cataclysm]

The enclosures were made from scratch, but I did order the full parts kit from Madisound.

Even though I have very little listening time invested in these (just got them together last evening), they definitely put a smile on my face. Very articulate mid-range, crisp highs, and they are a real surprise when run full range on their own -- they dig down pretty low for being little suckers!

Just a completely non-fatiguing speaker with great definition, small footprint, and seriously decent SPL capabilities; impressive considering I just disconnected a 98db per watt tower speaker and hooked these up in lieu.

[eddo]

Sweet job on the enclosures. I can't tell from the pictures, but is the entire enclosure tapered a bit, or is the chamfer tapered? If its just a tapered chamfer, how did you go about that?

[stangbat]

I was wondering about the chamfer too. I wasn't 100% sure if it was a reflection or if it was tapered, but it does appear to be tapered.

Top notch job on the cabinets and the finish. The recessed terminal cup is a nice touch.

[Cataclysm]

Sweet job on the enclosures. I can't tell from the pictures, but is the entire enclosure tapered a bit, or is the chamfer tapered? If its just a tapered chamfer, how did you go about that?

Yes, all the horizontal edges that run from the baffle to the back have a progressive taper added to them.

It's a minute detail that I find adds some interest to an otherwise square enclosure, and has the bonus of making them look slimmer. To create it, I simply used a 45 degree chamferring bit in my router, which was moved along a guide that tapered from "no cut" to a pre-determined depth. The only real trick is to figure out how much material you are going to remove because you can potentially thin out the corner of the box too much. To resolve that issue, I just utilized rabbited corners on the box to assure enough thickness after the material was removed.

You can see most of my build photos here:

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/563556089FoarNo

[matt12v]

I just love posts like this comparing old to new. keep up the good work buddy! DIY really opens up a whole new world of musical enjoyment!! so many ppl are blinded by what their money could buy them. It really pays off with a great design like zaphs, thank god for ppl like him!

[orlofstg]

Nice finish on those speakers :T

Totally agree - Zaph kick ass and so do these speakers. Don't think twice about building these if you are considering them.

Build these from scratch too. Used for about 4 weeks. I love them more each time I watch a movie.

PS I did actually build a center speaker stand - these are the pics right after I finished the speakers.

[peter_m]

Great looking build! Post back some more listening impressions when you get a chance.

Has anyone compared Zaph's SR-71 to Jay's Usher 2-way?

[Nichol1997]

Cataclysm,
Very sharp looking!!

Did you mount the baffles after you did all the piano black finish work?

[Cataclysm]

I certainly did.

The baffles were completed ages before I ever got the enclosures painted and polished to their final finish.

I had a serious issues when clear coating the speakers the first time because my paint supplier gave me an incompatible reducer for my base coat. So after ages of priming, sanding, spraying on the base coat, and then applying 5 coats of clear on-top, the paint refused to fully harden. The clear coat was literally floating on the non-hardened base coat, which became readily apparent the first time I set the box down on a microfiber towel and could see the imprints it left behind in the paint finish.

To get to the viewed state of finish, I used 3 coats of a high-build primer/sealer directly on the MDF, then 3 coats of an acrylic enamel single-stage black, then 3 coats of a premium "diamond" clear coat on-top of the cured single-stage.

Lots of sanding, countless hours of work, and a few hard lessons learned, but it was worth it. :

[Nichol1997]

So, how did you clamp it together after all of the finish work (piano black finish) was done and not damage the finish?

It seems to me that the surface would get marred or cracked.

[Cataclysm]

If you look at the front baffle, you will see 4 socket head fasteners out towards the corners... Inside the box I add little blocks of walnut in the corners, and drilled and tapped them to the corresponding thread pitch of the bolts.

Because the baffle is fully removable and uses foam gasket tape for a seal, it doesn't need to be a press fit, or be held down with a prodigious amount of force, so I just set the baffles into the recess while the boxes were flat on their back, started the allen bolts into their holes, and tightened them until they were snug and full seated. No fuss, no muss, no cracked paint.

[Nichol1997]

Oh, I thought those were your clips for a grill. I gotcha now. That makes it a lot easier to finish and not worry about messing one or the other up.

[Canadian_Dude]

So what sounds better the SR71's or the RF-82s? I am wondering because I own the 82's as well but want to try making speakers, but I am worried that it will cost a lot to match the 82's for sound quality.

[Cataclysm]

So what sounds better the SR71's or the RF-82s? I am wondering because I own the 82's as well but want to try making speakers, but I am worried that it will cost a lot to match the 82's for sound quality.

In terms of raw fidelity, the SR-71's are much cleaner, but this is a seriously subjective apples-to-oranges comparison.

The RF-82's can belch out a serious amount of sound, and as you know, they really have some punch to them in the mid-bass and lower octaves. The Klipsch speakers are great for entertainment purposes, or just general music listening when you really want to unleash some obscene amounts of volume. They're rowdy sounding, the horns are soft on the top end, and they aren't necessarily the cleanest in the mid-bass region, but they do what I want them to very well.

The SR-71's are a much sharper speaker. They image worlds better in my room, voices come across with eerie clarity, the mid-bass is super clean, and the highs are crisp, sharp and forward, yet they are not shrill or edgy. They cannot rival the RF-82's in the least bit when it comes to low-end bass response, and they certainly can't play nearly as loud, but that's a trade-off of the design; we're comparing a full-standing tower with twin 8" drivers and a horn-loaded tweeter to a 7" mid-range/1" textile dome system of like... 1/4 the volume, maybe even less.

Would I build a set of SR-71's to replace something like the RF-82's? No, because in my best estimation, that's like using a scalpel to do the job of a hammer. If I were to build something to render the RF-82's utterly useless, it would be one of the numerous floor standing designs documented here, or on the Zaph|Audio site; that way you sacrifice nothing, but still reap all of the benefits when stepping-up to something more.

[peter_m]

If looking for a floor standing loud speaker, see what these people had to say: http://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php4?t=30933

Peter

[MikePM]

Where did you get the layout for an off center tweeter? Zaph's web page only seems to have the centered tweeter, and Madisound's baffle does so also. How much variability in tweeter placement do you think the crossover design can tolerate?

I built the Zaph L18 and was thinking of trying the SR-71 as my next project.

Thanks

[Cataclysm]

Super simple actually, you just offset the tweeter 1" on either side so they mirror each other. The height stays exactly the same.

On his website, under options on the SR71 page, there's an in-room response chart that shows the difference created by the 1" offset.

[lunchmoney]

I'm in the middle of building these myself, and I can't decide whether to offset the tweeters or just leave them centered.

Why did you decide on offset?