Need help finishing Statement Monitor build which started about 6 years ago...

[Fdas]

Greetings all.

Started building a pair of Statement Monitors a long time ago [I honestly don't even remember how long, 6-7 years ago probably though?] and about half way through realized that I bit off more than I can chew. The main issue is with the electronics and wiring of the whole thing.

I have the cabinets mostly built, I own the drivers and all the crossover components, but the last step of completing the crossover, and wiring it to the speakers and making sure that I did it 'right' is just too daunting.

Finishing the cabinets out won't be a problem, my father in law is a finish carpenter and so once I have confidence in the electronics I am sure I can finish the boxes out to looks good enough to put in a living room, but that last step is just overwhelming.

My hope is that there is someone in the Los Angeles area with some experience in this that would be willing to help me finish the project. I value your time and would want to compensate you for your time. I hope we could arrive at something reasonably affordable for me, which would result in getting working speakers. Please let me know if you're out there and willing/able to help! Thank you.

[---k---]

Wiring up the crossovers isn't nearly as hard as it looks. I believe that everyone is capable of doing it. They don't have to be as nearly neat and pretty or fancy as some people make them. In fact, I think the people who do the wiring on the underside of the board are crazy and making things harder to check and mount. ... but that is just me. My Ochocinco crossovers are not pretty, but they work, and work just as well as the pretty crossovers.

Curt has written a good article to help people lay them out. http://speakerdesignworks.com/nodal_analysis.html That should help you understand them.

I learned by staring at a lot of photos of crossovers and trying to trace them compared to the diagrams. Once you figure out how the negative ground works, things start to come together.

Tips to building them, there aren't a lot. I just hot glue (or silicone) the parts down to a scrap of 1/8" hard board or whatever. A dab of adheasive is usually all you need, except for the largest inductor. I use left over 14 ga speaker wire or 14 ga house wire from Home Depot for connecting the pieces (18 ga wire would probably be more than sufficient). The most important thing is to twist the wires together tight. When you do this, the crossovers should be usable without any soldering (funny fact, my Khanspires were demoed at DIY Iowa without the crossovers soldered.) They should only be soldered after you've listened and are confident that everything is good. For soldering, you need solder. Kessler 44 is my go to. It is high quality solder and is easy to work with for a new person. You don't need a fancy soldering station. Those are nice, but really needed for computer chips, not big wire. In fact, I much prefer my big Weller Soldering Gun for crossover work, because I'm typically mixing in the the big 14 ga wire and you want to be able to dump a lot of heat fast. The big gun works much better then my cheap soldering iron on big wire. Just a tap does it on the caps and resistors. There are lots of youtub videos on howto solder. Its way easier than it looks.

Seriously, not hard. If you can do the wood working and post to a forum, you're more than capable. :T I know it looks scary, but it isn't. I did mine without any previous experience. There are plenty of resources out there. Once you get them glued down and twisted together, post a picture and we typically can easily check them.

If you're still not up to it, I don't know of anyone in the LA area off the top of my head. But, since they let the mandatory post your location rule slide years ago and other forums no longer show it; what do I know. But, if you're willing to ship them I'd be willing to assemble them for you. I couldn't test them, but don't expect a problem. There are lots of Statement owners, so maybe we can find one of them to do it for you.

[scottvalentin]

Agree with --k-- you can do this!! Plus, if you hit some road blocks, there are a lot of people here who can help you along the way! Plus, there are dozens of youtube videos showing some good soldering technique and helpful pointers.

To get started, the best way is to grab the crossover parts and a sheet of paper. Stick the crossover parts on the paper and start tracing the outlines of the parts in the order they will go. Pick just one driver, say tweeter, and start at the inputs and put the parts down until you get to the driver. This will help you get familiar with where the connections go and how much wire you need between them, etc. Snap a few photos and then fire some questions out here!

Good luck!

[Fdas]

What I did a long time ago was make a breadboard out of single sided FR4. I made the copper [solder coated] side of the board one giant ground plane which all grounds terminate to, and on the top side I just soldered the component leads to each other. All these crossovers are already 'done'.

Now the issue is, how far off was this from optimal?

[Fdas]

This is what the crossovers currently look like. I measure the resistance across the nets to make sure my solderjoints aren't adding a bunch of resistance.

On the one labeled "DONE" I checked all the connections and everything seems OK. All that would be needed would be to wire to the driver, install in the box, and make sure sound comes out properly? I don't have any sound measurement instrumentation though, so I was hoping I could measure all the nets with a multimeter instead and have some sort of expected measurement within a tolerance that would tell me that the crossover is correct.

[scottvalentin]

The photo isn't working for me.

I'm not sure if it's possible to use a multi-meter to check other than that the signal path is good. Usually I just wire them up to a single driver at a time and vaguely judge if the highs are out of the woof and the lows are out of the tweeter (at very low volumes). This was out of the cabinet but would work better in the cabinet for the mid and the woofer.

Others may have better methods - I'm only just getting my feet wet in the hobby.

[Steve Manning]

I'll use a DVM and check point to point to make sure things are correct with the schematic. You won't be able to do get a measurement across any of your caps, but most everything else you can get a good feel if you have put the wires in the right place before you fire things up, figuratively of course.

[Fdas]

Sorry, for some reason the image works on my screen... I even previewed it before I hit post.

Hopefully this works?

[Fdas]

This is the far wall crossover.

For the 3rd Net what should I measure as a resistance from source to ground? Or, if that isn't a good way to measure the net, what is a good way to measure?

edit: Also because I am a complete noob, which net goes to which speaker?

[Fdas]

I'll use a DVM and check point to point to make sure things are correct with the schematic. You won't be able to do get a measurement across any of your caps, but most everything else you can get a good feel if you have put the wires in the right place before you fire things up, figuratively of course.

Can you elaborate on how you use your meter to measure? Are you saying you measure for continuity? Or is it possible to model the expected output of a net, given a known input? For example input a specific wave and measure the output at each net on an oscilloscope? I may be over thinking this.

At the moment I'm measuring my solder joints to make sure that the solder joints aren't adding a significant amount of resistance. I figure that if all the joints are 'ok', and the parts are correct, and all the parts have been put together in the right order, then I am OK?

[Steve Manning]

Can you elaborate on how you use your meter to measure? Are you saying you measure for continuity? Or is it possible to model the expected output of a net, given a known input? For example input a specific wave and measure the output at each net on an oscilloscope? I may be over thinking this.

At the moment I'm measuring my solder joints to make sure that the solder joints aren't adding a significant amount of resistance. I figure that if all the joints are 'ok', and the parts are correct, and all the parts have been put together in the right order, then I am OK?

Yep, your just performing a continuity check. Unless the solder joint is really bad you won't really see any difference in your resistance readings. Your right with what you have said, if it all checks out you should be good to go.

As a suggestion since your new to soldering, if you have not already, get some flux remover (typically in a spray can) and spray all the joints to remove any residual flux from the soldering process, it's not good to leave it in place over the long haul.

[Fdas]

man, this is just really depressing and hard.

I feel like i can't finish this project.

[Alaric]

Looks like you're almost there. Heck, I can see the finish line and I never built a crossover in my life. Honestly, if these guys believe you can do it, I'd have faith in you. If they thought you were going to screw up a nice sounding speaker like a Statement they would tell you. Quickly.

[doubleTrouble]

Fdas
Maybe this can help. Just make sure the resistors marked on the scheme are indeed 3 and 6 ohms, to avoid any misunderstandings. Good luck

May others please take a quick look to spot any stupid mistakes with my wirings

[chrisn]

I think that looks ok. You can measure the resistance of the XO with the drivers connected, for comparative purposes, and to make sure there's not a short or really low impedance.

[Jim Holtz]

I'll add a thought. Make sure the crossover board isn't any wider than 5 3/4" so it'll slip in through the woofer cutout. You may need to take it out someday and it pays to plan ahead. I think the crossover looks good from what I can see. I think you're a lot closer than you think to having them play music.

Jim