Varathane... wait... sand...  Varathane... wait... sand... Varathane...

Man, if I knew it was this much hassle I would have put the drivers in last week and listened with my eyes closed.  :-[
The suspense is getting to me.  AHH HA HA HA HA HA!

J

Jason,

Could be worse, could be:

HDT's: $2220 Canadian
Shipping: I forget exactly but several hundred
Taxes: $233

I guess our dollar is doing much better know, I bought mine near record lows.

Take care,

Corey  :)

Took me 2 weeks veneer and all cost about $1000 (don´t count tools I use anyway ) The veneer (mahogany 2 foot wide) only cost 50$ while the acoustic foam cost me 150$ for 9 square feet! Go figure

Would have cost about 6000$ !!!!! to import so it was a no brainier. Yoda get veneering! the HDT´s deserve to look good

Building something really gives you a realistec point of view, yes?
IMHO building it yourself may or may not save you a few bucks but ultimately self-build is a labor of love and of wanting to say "I built it myself". Now designing a speaker, implementing the discovery, and then tweaking and testing to a high level of satisfaction (others as well as your own) now that must be a super "feeling".  ;D

[quote author=Chris K  link=1138077160/0#6 date=1138157076]Building something really gives you a realistec point of view, yes?
IMHO building it yourself may or may not save you a few bucks but ultimately self-build is a labor of love and of wanting to say "I built it myself". Now designing a speaker, implementing the discovery, and then tweaking and testing to a high level of satisfaction (others as well as your own) now that must be a super "feeling".  ;D [/quote]

Definately a good feeling.
I'm more into the automotive/metal side of things so the woodworking is a nice change.

I thought for a first speaker project, it would be good to go with a 'trusted' design.  You can learn a lot by working through someone elses design process.  I watched a friend of mine go through building a set of nice looking speakers that sounded really marginal.

J

Don´t forget to give the HDT´s a listen

If you have a new Fostex in them don´t worry they will. Mine had me graiting my teeth and pulling hairs for the first week  :'( Now it just gets better and better  ??? were will it end

"Mo´betta makes it more better "200 hour´s is minimum IMHO I´d think 4-800 with them still getting everso slightly better even after 2000 hour´s But this is with the old fostex cone type

I left mine on everyday while at work for weeks, months.  They definitely got better in phases.  There was the first week, then the first two months.  They stayed that way for a year and a half.  Then they changed yet again.  fuller sound each time. Everything since the first month was great and got better since then.   Don't overlook the felt on the 'phase plug' tweak...and tweaking your room...and the right tube recipe...

Cheers!

Matt

[quote author=Jason_S  link=1138077160/15#17 date=1139451070]I put the EX transformers back in the select tonight.  Absolutely, unquestionably a must do for a HDT/CS combo.  

For those of you following the EX hum thread, I can't say I noticed any more hum.  There is a bit of P/S noise at idle, but nothing you can hear once you get your head out of the speaker cone.

J [/quote]

I could be wrong (I often am) but I find a similar benefit from having the cs strapped, I think the speakers see the op/transformer as being twice the resistance than in normal mode and hence better suited to 8 ohm´s ???

[quote author=Jason_S  link=1138077160/15#19 date=1139499951]

It makes sense.  You can't double power output without halfing a resistance/impedance somewhere.

J [/quote]

Ah yes I ment to say halfing impedace (see I told you I might be wrong ) slip of the finger. Thanks Jason

I thought that for a "true" MTM you´d have the impedance going the other way ??? like in the MG944. I think it would prove difficult to match a tweeter to the 16 ohm load with out using a XO ??? The slp would drop by 6 db in going from 4 ohm to 16 ohm for dual mid-woofers. Not a bad thing really as the benefits of reduction in current drive and distortion, and enhanced damping factor might more than out weigh the loss in spl. You should be able to drive the zen harder with less distortion and thus make up for some of the spl loss ??? This is an interesting project Jason There would be some increase in bass handling but I think there might be some midrange loss Maybe DD or Chris could shed some light on this approach ???

[quote author=Rap  link=1138077160/15#22 date=1139566043]I thought that for a "true" MTM you´d have the impedance going the other way ??? like in the MG944. I think it would prove difficult to match a tweeter to the 16 ohm load with out using a XO ??? The slp would drop by 6 db in going from 4 ohm to 16 ohm for dual mid-woofers. Not a bad thing really as the benefits of reduction in current drive and distortion, and enhanced damping factor might more than out weigh the loss in spl. You should be able to drive the zen harder with less distortion and thus make up for some of the spl loss ??? This is an interesting project Jason There would be some increase in bass handling but I think there might be some midrange loss Maybe DD or Chris could shed some light on this approach ??? [/quote]
The biggest problem with using a series connection in an MTM is the phase shift that occurs when you connect 2 drivers in series. One of the plus factors with the design is that the closely spaced mid/bass drivers on each side of the tweet help to control it's dispersion, forcing more of the hi freq energy into a wider pattern, 90 degrees from the "column" regardless of the tweet's unsupported pattern. The phase shift between the low drivers will cause a certain degree of smear to the hi freqs. Unfortunately, any lack of focus in the hi freqs is very noticeable.

I can't speak about Zen amps, but I would do whatever it takes to put all MTM drivers in parallel. If your amp can drive the impedance, you are much better off with that arrangement.

Actually, what I was really thinking of, was some of the old 16 ohm drivers.  An Zen EX is obviously an excellent choice, but strapped Zen Ex's might work well too.

J