Donnie

Let us know how the 15" deathbox turns out.  What speaker are you going to use?  If it turns out good, the Dayton 18" classic sub might be interesting as another step up.

Dan

Just a couple of photo updates of my Barn Destroyer project.

The sub is huge and it shakes stuff off of my workbenches.



And the speakers sound way better than they should. Very happy with them.



I'm now listening to them for a day to "let the glue dry", more like to catch my breath.

In a day or two they will come apart to be slicked up and finished.
We are finishing them in shellac over raw MDF, for kind of an agricultural look.

Thanks Lon, I appreciate that.
My workmanship is just OK in my opinion.
I really need to take the time to figure out joinery a bit more. All of these butt joints look amateurish, it is time to step up my game a bit.

I've been lucky in finding good combinations of drivers and tweeters. Truthfully. I just take other peoples ideas and expand upon them.
The math is always fun and the work keeps my mind occupied in a good way.

If I didn't have this hobby I would probably be in a shack way out in the middle of nowhere writing my Manifesto and building letter bombs!

Well the Barn Destroyers are being set up in their new home right now. Hopefully the building is robustly constructed.

The co-worker who I built them for took the day off so that he could play with them.

The one piece of the build that I haven't talked about is the tiny little Dayton 3 channel amp that powers it. A $90ish amp supposedly with 50 watts a channel and 100 watts to the sub. I figure more like 20 a side and maybe on a good day, 50 to the sub.

But with all of the drivers used in this project being 90 to 91 db efficient the volume is way more than enough. I saw over 103 db in my garage with the doors closed, more than adequate for it's usage. It is hard to describe the hit that the sub puts out, kinda like someone hitting you in chest with a tennis racquet.

A picture of the finished project as it was waiting to be picked up.

You might try some different finish techniques on the oak.  I have a cherry project coming up and I'm planning on a lye wash that turns it red.  I used to feel the same way about oak as you do but I like working with it.

The green poplar will eventually go brown and tan.  It's just such a plain grained wood.  I think I've used Special and Dark walnut Minwax stains on oak with nice results.  I'm a big fan of linseed oil.  I don't know if it will work with oak but lye can do interesting things to wood.  If you've ever poured concrete and stepped on a redwood deck you'll know what I mean.  

Just a quick update on my Continuum II build with the kit from Meniscus Audio.

The crossovers are done, the boxes are in final finishing, and next is assembly.

I'm hoping that they end up sounding good behind Dan the Redheaded Amp!

Here is what the "boxes" look like right now, let's see how I can mess them up!

Wow!

Dan the Amp will be proud to drive those guys!

Donnie, That looks absolutely fantastic.  Definitely Jealous of how nice your cabinets look.  I know I have been been listening to my Continuum II regularly since they have been built.  I must admit I've been so inspired by them that I've purchased Bagby's Kairos kit as well.  The cabinet construction is well beyond my abilities, so I have no idea when the project will happen.  But to say I am in anticipation is an understatement.  It is really a luxury to be able to hear crossoverless speaker systems driven with Decware tube amplification on one day, then on another day hear these mini monitors driven with fine solid state and compare and contrast.  At the end of the day I know my heart lies with my SE84UFO25, Torii MKIV, HDT, and Hegeman Model 2 gear!  But undeniable, incredible things are to be heard with the Continuum II setup.  At any rate, I am glad you took a chance on a Bagby speaker and look very forward to your opinion of how it sounds.  All the best!!!    

Also! I'm sure I forgot to give props for Dan the Amp.  I had the privilege to have several sessions with that amplifier at Dank's garage and it delivered every single time!  Dank ran it through the paces, behind at least a half dozen speakers, over a wide spectrum of music and it never broke a sweat!!!!!  It was always a pleasure to listen to.

So 4krow you are saying that speakers with crossovers are like vampires?

Holy cow, if I'de only known beforehand.
litefootdan has led me down the garden path to my destruction!

I finished up my take on the Continuum II's today and have been playing them a bit.

They are hooked up to my Torii and don't sound too shabby. I'll run them for a while before I give any kind of opinion, but so far they are fairly impressive.

The crossover seem to work in both of them, so my soldering skills must have been adequate.

The instructions from Meniscus Audio were pretty good once I looked at them, but being "old school" I didn't really look at them until I couldn't figure something out.

I didn't build them like the LS3/5a that they are modeled after, so time will tell if my boxes are worth anything.

Anyway they were a fun build, and working with "real wood" was pretty neat. The poplar and oak look pretty good together.
I might need to do something like this again.

Pictures of the finished product.

Donnie,

I just finished up yet another set of speakers.
Thank goodness that it is starting to get cold outside so I can stop this madness!

These are another pair of my "Rockers" done up in white.

A old friend has another pair like these and wanted a pair for his 20 year old son.
Maybe this can be the start of a new audiophile?!

These were constructed differently than I have been doing them, this time I used a biscuit joiner. I really like how they seem so much more solid feeling.

The bass seems enhanced with these, maybe the stiffer construction...?
But truthfully they only have  around an hour on them , who knows what they will sound like with some break in miles on them.

Now to wind down for the winter and take some time to listen to some of my builds.

There is a new build on the horizon that will really test my skills, but it will take some planning to figure it out.

Picture of this last build.

So I have been looking for some sort of  interesting speaker stand for my Continuum speakers, lo and behold they were right in front of my nose all along.

Around the turn of the century while I was still getting dirty for a living, I had the pleasure of working as a metal pattern maker. One of the most high end jobs in machining. Imagine taking a solid hunk of tool steel and finding the part that was hidden inside of it, 3D machining at it's highest form.

Anyway, the old master pattern maker that had started the business had retired and hung around the shop and made things from wood. You know simple things like clocks with wooden gears, violins, harps, nothing fancy, lol. Truly a talented artist of woodworking.

He had taken a shining to me because I could make just about anything he needed that were too time consuming to hand make, things like his wooden gears and metal parts for his harps.

So anyway, back to the speaker stands.
I needed stands for some NHT speakers that I had at the time and asked him to build some.
The only thing that I told him was that they needed to be 24" tall, (that they are, holding + or - .005" depending upon the humidity in the room at the time!) and to make them an interesting shape.

Well to say that they are an interesting shape is a complete disservice to his skills. They are made of solid Mahogany and curve in all 3 axis, so hard to describe beyond saying that they are stunning. It is even harder to photograph, but I shall try to convey how they look with some photos.

Anyway back to today and needing speaker stands. The stands that Lowell had made for me have been holding up the giant, thick piece of maple that my amplifiers sit upon. I needed them out front and center to be used for what they were intended to be, not be hidden under amplifiers!

So this morning I woke up thinking about the next pair of speakers that I am going to build, they have me racking my brain on how to build them, there are some tricky angles and some fancy joinery to them.

So I just thought that I would build something simple just to give me more time to ponder my next moves.

I figured that I could free up my speaker stands from their grunt work of holding my amplifiers up and build a proper table to set the maple slab and amplifiers on.

So I made a new table, using bits and pieces from different speaker baffles that I had became dissatisfied with for whatever reason, now repurposed into a useable amplifier stand.

The table just before it was installed under my amps.



And now my speakers have stands under them! I also cleaned up my mess and much to my wife's amazement, vacuumed!



It is difficult to show how cool that these stands really are.







The table with my Torii and Dan the Amp on it.



And yes, I drank 3 or 4 Diet Dr. Peppers today!

Just read this thread again. I missed out on some stuff since last time. Yes cameras don't often get the full effect of finishes. The stands got to make things a lot more versatile. I am curious, how much does each stand weigh? I might have missed that. And you know, I still find that each speaker design prefers a certain volume level to sound it's best. Larger cabinets can get away with lower volume, at least that is my experience.
 My shop is also telling me to go away for the season, but I might squeeze in one more project.

My new woodworking tools are starting to trickle in to me.
I got a bunch of clamps yesterday, because you can never have too many clamps.

I have a biscuit joiner coming and a real fancy miter gage for my table saw. I watched Steves videos on his Tiny Radials and noticed what he was using for his angle cuts, so I ordered the same one. There are also some accessories for my router that are in transit from England of all places. Amazon seems to get stuff from all over the place.

Hopefully these tools will help me step my build level up even more.

I've volunteered myself to build a fellow forum member speakers for him and I want to really do them up right. Right now I'm in my planning stages, hopefully sometime during my Christmas break from work chips will start to fly around here. Weather permitting.

I have too many ideas rattling around in my head. Hopefully I can pull this one off.

Donnie,
Screw clamps are a great addition in any wood shop. Very handy tool for a quick support that can conform to almost any shape. I just acquired a half of dozen or so of various sizes. Indispensable now!

John

Well Jim the main reason I haven't posted anything new is because it has been too friggin' cold out in my shop. It was -10 F a week or two ago on my drive to work.

But as I type this it is 51 F and I'm starting to get itchy again. The long range forecast looks good too, so maybe next weekend I can start into my next build.

The first project is going to be a pair of Jeff Bagby Kairos for a forum member.
I promised that I would build them late last fall and I have been just sitting on my ass for the last 3 or 4 months. It is time to get going on them.

No red or white this time, walnut and black is the color of choice. I am thinking about some of that black that is so black that it looks like nothing is there.

Just kidding Dan, a normal black is what I'm planning on.

Beyond that, I have a 12" sub driver laying here and my boss is building a cabin in his woods that will need some sort of audio reinforcement.

I'm sure that this year will have some good projects. Let's see what I can come up with.

Donnie!  I can't imagine how cold it was up there.  I know here in KS we had a couple days with a high of 0 and -1.  That's cold enough for me!!!!  Hope you're in good sorts and in good spirits

Donnie, for "a real hard project", the Horst Möller Saxophon has long interested me.
http://www.hm-moreart.de/23.htm

Brian

I wish I were a real man who actually makes things! I would like to hear those.
I emailed with Hörst when I first found those speakers ten or fifteen years ago. He was sure enthusiastic for them.
I like the comments on his feedback page.  http://www.hm-moreart.de/82.htm

For some reason I get that page translated to English if I open it in the Edge browser, but it stays in German in the Internet Explorer.

A new twist. Good idea.  

How very Aegyptian!
The box looks like one we used to see by Dynaudio in the Zalytron catalog.  It got good reviews.
As I am not to wish you luck, I will pray that you have success and have fun too.

Brian

Not done yet! I'm taking my time and actually trying to do things right and not spend a bunch of time fixing what I messed up.

These will be painted black on the front, back and bottom and if they look good I'll go ahead and do some walnut veneer on the sides and tops.

Since the world has been opened a crack, The War Department has been tasking me to do things with her, cutting back on my shop time. Three or four hours a week is all I can budget right now, so I'm slowly but steadily progressing now.  

1 degree X 16" =.2792", a little more than a 1/4" .
Don't ask me how I came upon this little tidbit.

I do believe that they call it parallax error.

Well I needed to go to Menard's anyway for some 1/2 MDF, I'll pick up some 3/4" too.