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Finally Done Finalist Build
I purchased all the parts to build these a long time ago (original tweeter build) and finally got around to putting them together. They're a gift for my Dad so I wanted to spare no expense on this project; I went a little overboard on using high dollar materials.
The crossovers are as follows:
Resistors: Mundorf M-Resist 20w
Inductors: DC Resistance of the original specified components was taken into account...
0.3mH --> Jantzen Wax Coil 16ga (000-8550) (DCR: 0.19)
0.5mH --> Jantzen Wax Coil 16ga (000-8585 made to 0.50mH) (DCR: 0.24)
6.8mH --> Mundorf Feron-Core I-Core Copper Foil (CFS14) (DCR: 0.33)
Capacitors: Mundorf M-Cap Supreme's bypassed with Teflon
Mundorf M-Cap EVO Aluminum Oil's bypassed with Teflon for the 100uF caps
12ga mil-spec Silver-Plated PTFE wire for the woofers
16ga mil-spec Silver-Plated PTFE wire for the tweeters
The cabinets:
Baltic Birch Ply
The outer front baffles are African Mahogany (woofer backs are chamfered so the woofers can breath, and the inner baffle holes are larger so they line up with the chamfers, entrance to the mid-tunnel is rounded-over)
Schedule 80 PVC (some seriously heavy stuff!) for the mid-tunnel
Only problem I ran into was that I accidentally routed out the woofer cutouts on one of the baffles before I routed the recess! This basically rendered my Jasper jig useless and I thought I wasted a beautiful piece of mahogany. I added some pictures of how I worked around this to aid anyone in the same situation. Route your recesses 1st! I made a little frame out of 2x4s that i could screw the baffle to. Then I took the discs I had accidentally cut out, used some shims to center them exactly, and screwed them to the frame. This gave me a secure center point for the jig to rotate on.
I built these a little backwards (laminated the front inner and outer baffles last) but it all worked out.
Finish is gloss black from rattle cans and a lot of clear. The mahogany just has clear gloss lacquer on it.
The sound:
Brilliant! The mid range is superb, ultra clear and precise but still sounding very natural. It's a very nicely blended 3-way. While the mid is the star of the party, feed them some watts and they pound the bass. Vocals sound amazing (as they were designed to) but my favorite thing so far is the drums... it's hard to describe but they're so accurate and immediate, I close my eyes and it's like I can feel the impact of the drumstick or mallet with my ears, like it's right in front of me. They do like their power, my Dad's Rogue Audio Sphinx puts out 100wpc @ 8ohms, these probably come in under that so they're maybe getting 120-150wpc, I'd say that's the bare minimun for these, they really sing when that amp is maxed. I have a few amps with roughly double that power that I'm going to try them with and report back. Those old D3's sound like muddy garbage in comparison.
I didn't take many pictures as I was building them, and the ones I did are crappy cell phone pics, but have a look.
Many thanks to Curt and Jim... these things f'n rock. :T
The crossovers are as follows:
Resistors: Mundorf M-Resist 20w
Inductors: DC Resistance of the original specified components was taken into account...
0.3mH --> Jantzen Wax Coil 16ga (000-8550) (DCR: 0.19)
0.5mH --> Jantzen Wax Coil 16ga (000-8585 made to 0.50mH) (DCR: 0.24)
6.8mH --> Mundorf Feron-Core I-Core Copper Foil (CFS14) (DCR: 0.33)
Capacitors: Mundorf M-Cap Supreme's bypassed with Teflon
Mundorf M-Cap EVO Aluminum Oil's bypassed with Teflon for the 100uF caps
12ga mil-spec Silver-Plated PTFE wire for the woofers
16ga mil-spec Silver-Plated PTFE wire for the tweeters
The cabinets:
Baltic Birch Ply
The outer front baffles are African Mahogany (woofer backs are chamfered so the woofers can breath, and the inner baffle holes are larger so they line up with the chamfers, entrance to the mid-tunnel is rounded-over)
Schedule 80 PVC (some seriously heavy stuff!) for the mid-tunnel
Only problem I ran into was that I accidentally routed out the woofer cutouts on one of the baffles before I routed the recess! This basically rendered my Jasper jig useless and I thought I wasted a beautiful piece of mahogany. I added some pictures of how I worked around this to aid anyone in the same situation. Route your recesses 1st! I made a little frame out of 2x4s that i could screw the baffle to. Then I took the discs I had accidentally cut out, used some shims to center them exactly, and screwed them to the frame. This gave me a secure center point for the jig to rotate on.
I built these a little backwards (laminated the front inner and outer baffles last) but it all worked out.
Finish is gloss black from rattle cans and a lot of clear. The mahogany just has clear gloss lacquer on it.
The sound:
Brilliant! The mid range is superb, ultra clear and precise but still sounding very natural. It's a very nicely blended 3-way. While the mid is the star of the party, feed them some watts and they pound the bass. Vocals sound amazing (as they were designed to) but my favorite thing so far is the drums... it's hard to describe but they're so accurate and immediate, I close my eyes and it's like I can feel the impact of the drumstick or mallet with my ears, like it's right in front of me. They do like their power, my Dad's Rogue Audio Sphinx puts out 100wpc @ 8ohms, these probably come in under that so they're maybe getting 120-150wpc, I'd say that's the bare minimun for these, they really sing when that amp is maxed. I have a few amps with roughly double that power that I'm going to try them with and report back. Those old D3's sound like muddy garbage in comparison.
I didn't take many pictures as I was building them, and the ones I did are crappy cell phone pics, but have a look.
Many thanks to Curt and Jim... these things f'n rock. :T
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