My Ochocinco MTM build...

[cjd]

Eh? How do they SOUND?

[Hank]

CADman ks, I'm sorry you had the trouble. Any brand or type of masking tape would have had the problem - you would have to take a fine blade and shove the tape down hard inside every crack/void in the open grain of the wood to prevent bleed-through (actually bleed-under) to avoid some of the problem, but even then, capillary action on the open grain would have had some effect. Thicker material, such as wall paint, doesn't have that capillary effect. Your efforts will result in unique, rewarding speakers.
Buffing pain = part of the ultimate reward :T

[CADman_ks]

Eh? How do they SOUND?

ONE THING AT A TIME!!! LOL!

I still have to rework my crossovers to the updated design. (I know. I have had plenty of time to get this done, and I haven't shame on me. )

That's my goal tonite, is to get the XO's reworked, and get them installed.

I just realized that I forgot to buy polyfill when I was at the fabric store the other day, so now I'm missing that. :M

[CADman_ks]

CADman ks, I'm sorry you had the trouble. Any brand or type of masking tape would have had the problem - you would have to take a fine blade and shove the tape down hard inside every crack/void in the open grain of the wood to prevent bleed-through (actually bleed-under) to avoid some of the problem, but even then, capillary action on the open grain would have had some effect. Thicker material, such as wall paint, doesn't have that capillary effect. Your efforts will result in unique, rewarding speakers.
...

I did kind of run something (don't remember what at the moment) around the bottom edge of the tape after putting it on, trying to get it as tight as I could. But, I didn't spend a lot of time making sure that it was totally secured down.

I really didn't expect that texture paint to be that runny, and that was another part of my thought process, that it would be thicker like latex type paint, and not run as easily. That stuff sprayed out of the can like spray paint for lack of a better term. There was no body to it all. So, then, capillary action did just suck it under my voids. I did have places where the tape held well, and then others where it didn't. The other thing in play was that I was trying to seal against the grain of the oak. The paint tended to run / escape where there was grain.

...
Buffing pain = part of the ultimate reward :T

LOL! While I was tired and sore afterwards, it didn't actually take as long as I thought that it would. It's actually not that lengthy of a process. Now, with that being said, if I wanted a SUPER consistent, shiny surface, like a hand rubbed surface, that would have taken some time and a lot more work!

[---k---]

CADman ks, I'm sorry you had the trouble. Any brand or type of masking tape would have had the problem -

Says the 3M Employee!!!


Just kidding. I agree with you completely.

Glad it got fixed and looking good. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the sound, especially compared to some of your other projects.

[CADman_ks]

Almost!!!

Spent some time tonite getting them into "rollers".

I have all (4) of them buttoned up to the point that I could "listen", but they are still not complete, as I need to finish the grills. I have all the parts, I just need to get them completed.

Here's a shot of them head on, and this picture doesn't really do them justice because the flash went off, and it makes the speakers appear to be a different color than the texturing that I put on there, and there are slightly, very slightly. But under "normal" lighting, these things look AWESOME from the front. The texture on the accent pieces, and the drivers just blend together, and from 10' back, it's hard to tell where one starts and the other ends! It's almost a shame that I have to put grills on. (I know, we've hashed that out already...)



Here's a picture of the back of one of them (the nicer set), with the cup and fuse intstalled:



Overall, I'm very happy with how they came out at this point...

PS: I could show you some more book match pictures, but you've seen enough of those already. However, one thing that I didn't mention was that I also matched the grain as it went around the corners, so it looks like the tops and the sides of each speaker are cut from one continuous board. I tried taking a picture of that, and it didn't come out well...

[CADman_ks]

First listening impressions...

I hooked them up, and put on one of my favorite CD's of all times, Rush, Moving Pictures, Track 1: "Tom Sawyer". (It was also the ONLY CD that I had at the stereo at that time) Maybe that was a mistake, because my first impressions were not that great. There was bass there, and that was good, but the vocals were just not right. I really think that comes from the fact that I have listened to this song so much in so many different situations, that I kind of almost "expect" it to sound a certain way, and that "certain" way is probably based on what I've heard in the past, and NOT what it should really be.

As I listened to it longer, I started to realize that Geddy Lee's voice is just really kind of overpowering in that song. So, I decided to put on some other stuff, but I didn't have any CD's with me at the moment, so I went to Dish, and went to the Siruis channels. Found some channels on there, and just about anything that I played, sounded even WORSE. Now, I'm concerned, and trying to figure out what the deal is.

After poking around for a while on some different channels, I finally realized that my smarter-than-me Yamaha receiver had AUTOMATICALLY changed it to 7 channel surround stereo, and my center channel speaker is a joke, a huge joke, and I hardly ever use it. In fact, I should probably just punt the thing all together. After putting myself into 2 channel stereo the sound improved IMMENSELY!!

Then, I started looking for some different kinds of music: bluegrass, rock, pop, jazz, but I didn't listen to any classical tonite. All of these sounded really good to me, but take that under advisement, since I'm not an audiophile expert!

One thing that I did notice is that the sound stage (to me) appears to better on acoustical music, than it is on say something like rock. And, while I was listening to some bluegrass, I closed my eyes, and it "felt" like the different instruments were coming from different places. I think that this is probably even better than my Klipsch's do in this respect, so that's good.

I was also very very pleasantly surprised how low these speakers go. While I had Tom Sawyer on, I cranked it up, and the speakers were actually rattling the floor, so there is some power there, and the bass was very crisp, and really had some punch to it.

Take this with a grain of salt, because again, I'm no expert, but one thing that I did notice is that vocals seem to have an overly bright aura to them. I don't notice that brightness with things like cymbals and the like, just more with vocals. For the record, I did make the recommended changes to my XO's, because I had rev 1 tweeters. I think that some of this for me, comes from the fact that I have spent a lot of time listening to Klipschs', and they probably are muddying up that vocal area more so than other speakers are.

SPL: Good. I got it up fairly loud, loud enough that the dog wouldn't stay in the room. . With that being said, I don't think that these will go as loud as my Stentorians, but I didn't push it that hard tonite, since this was my first test run, but that would NOT be a fair comparison anyway. Using these speakers n a dorm room size room, though, will provide an order of magnitude more sound than could ever be required.

Sound thru the volume range: To me, they sound great at just about any level that I listened to them at. But to my comment above about the vocals being "bright", it feels like the vocals get "better" or less bright the higher that you go in volume. Nothing scientific there, just my ears. My untrained ears.

As I listened longer and longer, I realized that these speakers would be a GREAT 5 or 7 channel system if you wanted to build the whole system. I think that the sound power, and overall sound quality is there, especially for what you would have in them. You could build these with some cheaper boxes, or painted boxes, and they would be a really nice setup, I think.

I think that I could recommend these speakers to anyone on a budget. I don't think that you'll be too disappointed in the overall sound as a package.

One final thing. My wife never really pays attention to stuff like this. She came from class, and I was listening to them. She asked our daughter what she thought of the sound, and our daughter said that she thought they sounded good, but my wife followed that up with, "I think that they sound better than what we have right now" (Klipsch KG-2's). That really floored me. I didn't really expect to hear her say that. At least she-who-must-be-obeyed approves, and that's a win-win anytime that happens!!! :T

[BeerParty]

With that being said, I don't think that these will go as loud as my Stentorians, but I didn't push it that hard tonite, since this was my first test run, but that would NOT be a fair comparison anyway.

Hmm, 2 5.25" drivers in the Ochocincos against 6 6" drives in the Stentorians? Why would you consider that unfair? :W

[CADman_ks]

Hmm, 2 5.25" drivers in the Ochocincos against 6 6" drives in the Stentorians? Why would you consider that unfair? :W

LOL!

I have my Stents in my shop which is a pretty big space. I have turned it up in there loud enough that I HAVE to turn it down, and I still have pedal left. Man they get LOUD!!

You know, though, I would have to say that the Ocho's can hold their own though, when it comes to bass "punch". I have listened to both sets of speakers in the same room, and while it's been a while since I listened to my Stents in this room, I do remember that I wished that they had more bass in the same room.

With that being said, I probably "wish" that the Ocho's had a little more bass as well, but for the size that they are, they do have a fair amount of bass punch...

It's still not a fair fight to compare one to the other, however...

[Hank]

CADman, be proud and enjoy - You did a fine job :T
---k--- wrote: Says the 3M Employee!!!
Yikes, my cover is blown! :smackbutt:

[CADman_ks]

CADman, be proud and enjoy - You did a fine job :T

Thank you very much! I appreciate that!

[CADman_ks]

Finally DONE!!!

First things first, and the most important thing, I have to give a HUGE thanks to --k-- and cjd for the work on the initial design. It's a great piece! I also have to prop up everyone who has helped me along the way and given me advice about whether my spin on this would work or not, and what I should expect. And last but not least, all of the praises that this community hands out to members. Those are the kinds of things that really keep a guy going, and keep him motivated to work on things, even when things are not going the greatest, or some kind of unforeseen mistake or screw up happens.

THANK YOU ALL!!!

Took the day off from work today, and put the final touch on the speakers, grills.

All in all, I'm very happy with how these have turned out and sound.

Here's a picture of them in their finished state:



Here's a picture more or less straight on, so that you get a feel for how big teh accent piece is compared to the box:



And, here's kind of a view from the front top corner showing the relationship of the grill and the accent piece, and what the transition / corner looks like:



I have listened to both pairs now, and they sound pretty much equal to me, so I think that my work is finally done...

[---k---]

Looks great. I'm glad you're happy with them.


As for sounding slightly bright, a few things to keep in mind: as the woofer surrounds break in, you might get a slight increase in base that will even out the brightness. Also, room positioning. If they sound a little bright, play with the distance from the way and the toe in. Moving them closer to the wall will increase the bass and may even out the brightness. Also, toeing them in so that they are pointed strait at you will increase the treble, making them brighter. Pointing them straight ahead will roll off the treble at your seat, and maybe reduce the brightness. Finally, you can try playing with the stuffing.

Oh, you may have screwed your crossover up. Triple check your polarity! What you described does sound like a tweeter with wrong tweeter polarity. With such a narrow, but deep reverse null it doesn't show up a lot, but there is that little bit of something off. Pop the tweeters out and flip the wires and see if it improves.

[CADman_ks]

...

As for sounding slightly bright, a few things to keep in mind: as the woofer surrounds break in, you might get a slight increase in base that will even out the brightness. Also, room positioning. If they sound a little bright, play with the distance from the way and the toe in. Moving them closer to the wall will increase the bass and may even out the brightness. Also, toeing them in so that they are pointed strait at you will increase the treble, making them brighter. Pointing them straight ahead will roll off the treble at your seat, and maybe reduce the brightness. Finally, you can try playing with the stuffing.

...

I actually DID have them slightly toed in towards each other. I also am pretty sure that most of that what I was hearing was coming from that crappy center channel speaker that I have, that I need to 86. I think that they will get better as well when the surrounds wear in.

...

Oh, you may have screwed your crossover up. Triple check your polarity! What you described does sound like a tweeter with wrong tweeter polarity. With such a narrow, but deep reverse null it doesn't show up a lot, but there is that little bit of something off. Pop the tweeters out and flip the wires and see if it improves.

I am 100% sure that the XO's are correct. I double, and tripled checked while I was building them, and then I checked them ALL again before I installed them, and I had all of the wires labeled positive and minus, so I'm sure that's correct. It was really easy to hook up the tweeters correctly, since the red ones were labeled on the tweet.

With all that of being said, while they are "bright", they are not overly bright I don't think. I really think that's somewhat the nature of the beast, since they are so small. They don't "bother" me, so I think that they are good. They really do sound good though, and the sound clarity that comes out of them is really great!

Thanks again for all of your help!!!