Thanks Big L. I'm inspired - hope the wife will be too

Good chance these might be your last speakers because if a better driver comes along it should still be an 8" so you should be able to swap drivers over as the hole required should be (fingers crossed) the same size.

Matt

I downloaded my plans and the cutsheet is off to my custom cabinet builder for a quote in natural oiled bamboo front baffle with figured walnut trim and black piano lacquer finish for the back.  Base will be bamboo, walnut, or black as I have yet to decide.

I'm going with the TB W8-1808s that are off to Planet 10 for enABL'ing and basket mods.  

I can't wait!  

My amps will be a balanced Cavalli Audio Liquid Gold or AudioSector F5 clone.  A future balanced P-P 6V6 is in the planning stage right now.  With strong inspiration from Steve's Mini Torri for grid regulation, an Aikido front end and SuperTriode outputs from Van Der Veen as the primary topology though the Plitron iron allows multiple connection configurations.  I hope to have it done in September.  

I'm happy that I just used plain MDF for my ZOB build.

I gave my DFR8s a serious burn in and even that I got way more bass and a more smooth midrange I still find the ZOB unbalanced.

The midrange is too pronounced IMO. With a wideband notch filter made with my software based equalizer I can balance the speaker to sound great. But the bass never turns out to be great regarding power and punch. The life size scale is missing in the bass area IME.
My reference is a clone of the Emerald Physics CS2.

I've the feeling that I just got a set of big earphones with the ZOBs...
I've finished the HDTs with alternative tuning and I find that speaker way more balanced than the ZOBs and they have more power in the bass. But still not anywhere near my reference.

I look forward to read about the experiences with the TangBand driver in the ZOB.

big L went BIG!  

I look forward to hearing your impressions with the SEAS, but for now, they're out of my acceptable price range as I have other audio gear I need to build and a set of Audez'e LCD-2 headphones to fund.  

I can't use MDF or even HDF.  It's too full of poisons and the off gassing triggers migraine headaches in my wife, but I was also told that good old Baltic Birch or the bamboo "plywood" would be a better material to use too.  

Would a constrained dampening layer like EAR products between the front bezel layers help or hurt?

I was seriously considering using the bamboo for the front, a EAR constrained dampening layer, and a hardwood (walnut in my case) plywood for the back layer. I'm planning to use brass inserts in the back so I can use bronze hex cap screws to mount the front bezel sealing it with a great felt I use for tuning orthodynamic headphones.  This felt has the best acoustic properties I've ever heard and is very effective and killing the resonances while not sucking the life out of the music like many other felts I've tried tend to do.

If the general opinion is that it will do more harm than good, I'll change the plan, otherwise, I'll carry on.  

The TB has a Xmas of 5mm vs. the Fostex's 1.5mm and the Qts is almost 2 times higher than the FE207 (and 3 times higher than the FE206, which is why the shielded FE207 is working better), so improvements should help load the horn more effectively, but I'm sure some tweaking will be involved.  The upper end of the TB driver is better on paper too.  The enABL'ing process will smooth it out some as well.  

DPC, I'll definitely post pics.  

Thanks for the info. Al.

I am potentially interested in those DFR drivers. Can you PM me a price?

Cheers,

Matt

Jeez, I'm having a doozy - Just realised its BoilermakerFan that's selling the drivers - sorry bigL.

Sorry EVO, not me, but perhaps Nelson Bass.  I'm using the TB W8-1808s.

A quick update.  My drivers will soon be at Plant 10 for mods and my buddy who makes the custom cabinets is on board to make my cabinets in trade for a good P-P 10W-15W tube amp, so I'm we're trading skills.  

He's going through his stock of old growth figured woods to find nice figured walnut, figured Douglas fir, or figured cherry boards for the front baffles that we'll back with Medex.  

I will fab up the stock ZOB cabinets in drywall and test with the modded TBs.  Then we'll decide if the slots or any other dimensions need to be tweaked.