A New Adventure

[Steve Manning]

That looks great! I like that look and think the Ardent D’s with a baffle like that would look irresistible for me. Would this also make assembling easier?

Thanks Sven .... mounting of the baffle would be similar, though there should be no hole drilling like you had in the Calliope's. Since this style baffle would also sit on the front of the ribs rather than in a pocket as it were, it should also be easier to line up. Your also looking at reducing diffraction issues as well .... not sure if that will be audible or not?

[Evil Twin]

Just to let folks know, early tests on an actually 3D sculpted baffle looks rather promising. This has been on my list of things to figure out and was prompted by on going work into center channel designs by Jon.

Here are some pictures from the test run. This is essentially the same size baffle as what's on the Calliope MT.

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Ah, yes, I see that Steve had raised the quality of his photo realistic renders by a quantum order, no doubt now using AR to superposition them within his own domicile...

I similarly previewed an Apple XDR display in my personal computing environment using the same technique before making that commitment...

Either that, or he actually has overcome some vexing programming and fixturing issue to actually fabricate the baffle displayed in this point...

[Norm]

Oh so very fine.

Steve is further advancing his already considerable skills in 3D modeling, G code creation, bits selection, and fixtures.

[Steve Manning]

Next Step .....

Continuing with curved baffle tests. Parameters had to be adjusted some from the earlier mdf test ..... bamboo is a tad harder. :W



By the way, the baffle has not been sanded yet .... not 320 grit smooth, but very nice none the less.



Next to the mdf version.

[theSven]

They look really good and I like the way the grains look too. Would look really great with a few coats of the emtech clear!

[Evil Twin]

There is much effort that goes into the ability to fabricate this relatively simple looking artifact....

[ergo]

Bamboo version looks superb. I would keep that with some transparent finish for sure and would like the look of it for sure.

Steve,out of curiosity - how long did it take for one of such bamboo panels on the CNC. You get such a good finish out of machine, so it should mean very small step size and thus quite a long machining time ?

[Steve Manning]

Bamboo version looks superb. I would keep that with some transparent finish for sure and would like the look of it for sure.

Steve,out of curiosity - how long did it take for one of such bamboo panels on the CNC. You get such a good finish out of machine, so it should mean very small step size and thus quite a long machining time ?

Thanks Ergo ..... I was hoping to be able to use this as an actual part, but timing did not work out and I needed to determine how well the process would work with bamboo. I'll probably sand it and throw some finish it to show customers.

Time wise for this is ~75 minutes actual machine run time. I have a few tweaks I need to do that might shave a few minutes off. Of course you have time involved in tool changes and all that as well. The biggest chunk of that time goes to creating the curve which is an even split between the roughing and finishing passes at ~30 minutes each. Step over on the finishing pass is 0.040".

Now this is for a 20" tall baffle ..... an Ardent size, which is on the way, will be considerably longer.

Steve

[JonMarsh]

As Dr. Jeno Tihanji, the inventor of Siemens SIPMOS would say (and did say about many things), slow work takes time...

But, imagine trying to get the same result manually...


There are many reasons that YG Acoustics and Magico speakers are as pricey as they are; this is one of them.

[Steve Manning]

Ardent D prep work

While getting some parts ready for an Ardent D build, it gave me the opportunity to fit up the recently cut curved test baffle. No spacers and rough edges, but you get the idea of where the design is going.

[theSven]

The profile looks awesome! It all flows nicely and the bamboo is stunning.

[Bear]

That would be fun to play with some tints on the center racing stripe. Take it a bit darker than it is already to pop the contrast. Great work, as always.

[Steve Manning]

Thanks guys. Yeah that bamboo gives a ton of options for staining or not. Would be an interesting trick to get just the center strip without bleed over into the surrounding area though.

[JonMarsh]

as Willy the Shake said in one of his plays, "There's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip"

And wow, does November 2019 ever seem like a long time ago...

But I like the way this is evolving.