Ever since I learned about the magical simplicity of the Decware genial products, I started thinking about trying to build those back-loaded stands for the DM945, as soon as I get a chance to get my hands on a pair.

Normally, one would just simply purchase the DM947 and have them shipped over the span of several days, at most weeks. But somehow that seemed a wee bit too easy, boring almost... no sacrifice, no pain, just ensure enough "dough" to cover all expenses and taxes, then install and enjoy.

Once home, after some 3-4 weeks of going through my entire musical collection and re-auditioning over and over my favourites through the DM945 pair (driven by a PrimaLuna Prologue One), I decided it's probably the time to re-enact the experiment of the back-loaded horn stands, which had intrigued me for so long. It had to be done, and Steve was from the get go very encouraging, confirming that the precision of measurements might not be in very tight tolerances, and I'd still be ripping some surprising benefits.

First, the overall dimensions had to be inferred from the DM945 & DM947 specs, which turned out to be rather trivial, especially since Steve so graciously shared those pictures of his initial prototype, then a draft sketch seemed like a good idea to ensure a good usage of a 4 x 8 ft medium-density fiberboard from Home Depot. Getting the MDF cut to the dimensions only required a table saw & mitre-saw of medium performance:








Initially, I thought I might get away with a simplified version of the corner rounding, while replacing the MDF rounding walls of the prototype horn with some cardboard + 1/8' foam board + low expansion polyurethane foam. Nope. No go. The low expansion still had enough force to push through the cardboard while curing, deforming the initial almost perfect corner rounding:





Obviously, some more rigid cardboard might have been able to put up with the foam expansion pressure, but my very initial tests were far from convincing about the very idea of using low frequency sound absorbent materials, in an area meant to reflect the sound column farther down the transmission line.

What turned out to be the most painful stretch in this project, though, was the finishing stage of the project, while learning to spray paint in a decent manner, and finding the right spray-can paint for the amateurish approach I had... and most importantly not being able to listen to my new system for almost 3 weeks. Self-inflicted torture. It needed to be done. It needed to be properly finished to honour the high quality finish of the DM945. I owed it to them





It slowly and painfully turned out rather well to my eyes, after some desperate re-sanding and re-painting:










It's been a couple of months now since I've been indulging in some of the most satisfying auditions of my old and well known music collection, and some newly discovered gems (using the JRiver MediaCenter Cloudplay). The days have been much longer, while nights getting shorter, and my family is all too often finding me smiling, eyes closed, in front of them. I think it's time I should get out more...

Haven't had a ride on my beloved motorcycle in months, but I'm good

That's on hold...

Great job on this.  I attempted this a few years ago and got some cabs that worked, but look terrible in comparison.  Really nice work.

I was going to build a pair of DM's this weekend. Hmmmmmmmmmm

Thanks gentlemen for your nice words.
It's been quite an adventure ever since I bumped into those beautiful aliens, Steve and more recently Randy, who suddenly made me reassess my priorities  

As for the isolation stands, I'm glad you found them looking "sweet", 'cause they're also quite cheep and easy to come by:
1. Pine-made kitchen cutting board (my wife discarded it several years ago, dissatisfied about some mold build-up on it). Just cut in half, sand it thoroughly, then oiled (optionally it can be stained, too)
2. 8 Set "Golden-Plated Speaker Spikes" from Amazon, pretty cheep too and also easy to stick to the bottom. I quite doubt their impact on the sound (some say it's preferred to not even think to isolate from floor in certain circumstances), but it works pretty well on my old and way-too-floaty hardwood floor (it's an extension room at the back of our bungalow, and the floor is pretty much suspended over a few of joists)

My initial goal was just some way to easily slide the speakers without having to keep adjusting the spikes (for uniform pressure), then I realized I can also give some use to that cutting board I could not just throw away  

Cheers,
Al