Zaph Bargain Mini & Aura NT1 Protection

[BretH]

Thought this worthwhile not because of any special expertise with construction but for the method of protecting the Aura NT1 tweeter. I saw this idea buried in a thread a while back and want to report it works great. The cloth is pulled so tight when press-fitting the tweeter it will keep everything but a sharp object or a very determined kid out.

[ThomasW]

Nice job.... :T

Do you have any pics of the build process?

[BretH]

No photos, but really none needed. Everything is straightforward except the tweeter mounting. For that I didn't have a special-sized bit but instead used a hole saw that was maybe 1-2mm smaller than needed. I confess I screwed up on the depth of the router cut in the back of the baffle to get the tweeter to fit perfectly when flush. The tweeter is shallower then the baffle and has a mounting flange on the back that will screw into the wood if you measure things correctly. When all was said and done I really had only about 1/4 inch of ply to cut through for the circle. This made the next step easier, however.

Then I found a dowel just large enough to barely fit in the hole, wrapped sandpaper around it and carefully sanded as evenly as I could. It helped to let the sandpaper go a little slack while sanding so it so its diameter increased a little.

When the bare tweeter press fit nicely I sanded a bit more then cut small squares of grill cloth and held them over the tweeters while I forced them into the hole. This pulled the cloth super-tight over the face of the tweeter so it really bounces when you push on it like a mini-trampoline.

Then (purists cover your eyes) since I had very little wood holding the tweeter in place and I didn't feel like fitting a support to screw it in to and I figured the whole thing was pretty much replaceable as a unit I hot glued the tweeter in place with a ton of glue.

One additional advantage of the grill cloth is it fills in minor imperfections in the circle so the sanding trick has a better chance of looking good.

[Jonasz]

Clever idea, looks really good! :T

[JonP]

Excellent!!

You know, it's not just kids that seem overwhelmingly tempted to touch that dome. I have a pair at work that a grown woman couldn't keep her hands off of... (that didn't come out right) I yelled barely in time, so there's just a nearly imperceptible ripple and fingerprint... could have been worse. Having some protection is a good idea!

[djg]

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