Not my idea of perfection in a tortilla!

My favorite breakfast is not available here, one of the things I missed most about my final years in Austin was walking five minutes to this store and buying a few of these amazing breakfast tacos and grabbing a few containers of their dona sauce!

https://www.tacodeli.com/menu/

The Otto, the Jess Special and the Vaquero are just fabulous treats for the senses.

They sound great!

Chris B, no don’t waste your time.i happen to have the SMSL18 powering my kitchen set-up so just out of curiosity (and Since you asked)  i tried it w/ the TR’s and nope...You are not going to get the magic that they are capable of. My own preference for the TR’s and yes my musical genre choices make a difference, is tube amplifiers.

In particular the midrange lost it’s voicing immediately  w/ The SMSL, did not like it one bit. The sound was off, and i am sure it had to to with the DAC and the class D operation of that particular amp. It’s perfect for my TV powering a pair of JBL B15 closed backs and throwing sound into a noisy kitchen, The clean set-up of my desk With the TR’s was NOT pleasing.

Don’t fret though, the TR’s are so difficult to actually stumble across, you have many months to save for a nice tube amp and maybe an R2R dac to mate them with..Happy listening...

TINY RADIAL UPDATE:  



Now that I have the machined steel plinths in stock,  Tiny Radials continue to get better.



It's a clean look compared to before, and no more worries about the plinths falling off.  The mass is so high on the plinth that even in shipping they would try to unglue themselves.  Now they are screwed on.



So far 25 pairs of High Performance Resin models have shipped.  I have 3 more pair on the site for sale as of tonight including the pair shown above.

Steve  

My current setup.  Thoroughly enjoying my tiny radials while working from home.  I believe they rival my Heresy IIIs.  

Keep an eye on the page this weekend...

Yes, that is the wire I used, but keep in mind that because it is a brighter sounding wire, a sub should be used.

Steve

UPDATE JUNE 6 2021

Today I had a blissful day off where I got to spend a whole day in the wood shop with the doors open listening to my grand children playing on the swings I made ; ).  I haven't got to have what I call a Tiny Radial day out in the wood shop all to myself like this in such a long time due to the overwhelming amplifier orders... so the mood was ripe and some amazing things have happened!

I have reached my modified goal of making a Tiny Radial from a solid block of hardwood. This was my original vision with these until I actually tried it.  We all adapt our projects to the tools and skills we have, so my solution was to use four mitered panels and so on, is well documented.

And over the past year I've gotten making those down to a science. But it is still nonetheless a tremendous amount of work. The original Tiny Radial enclosure design was made up from 4 panels and 4 cleats totaling 8 pieces of wood.  Watch the construction videos and you can see the multitude of steps to making a pair. Each panel had to be cut to shape, the edged had to be mitered, the inside top of each panel had to be milled to a radius, cleats had to be installed, all 8 pieces had to be taped and glued together and then clamped in custom made jigs to keep it square while it cured. Then the sanding, and finishing.  

Never completely happy with the enormous amount of work and the thinner panels I have tried to machine or drill a 2-5/8 hole on a lite-duty drill press into a solid block of hardwood (end grain) and failed for a multitude of reasons until -get this- I saw someone else do it. This is always the case... mental blocks you create for yourself as part of the process that stop you dead in your tracks. Then you see someone else do it, and suddenly you know it actually IS possible. Then even without the same advantages, you still do it.

As a back story to this, one of the recurring reasons I failed so many times is because the nut on my drill press that was holding the drive pulley on the spindle wouldn't stay tight and the the large bit just made the spindle spin inside the pulley. Again, after finding out it was possible, and disturbingly done on the exact same drill press I owned, I had to of course try some more. Same shit, but this time after some cast iron profanity (a handy tool for any mechanic) I decided to remove the pulley and see what was really going on. That's when I learned it was a jamb nut with a reverse thread. So after completing the prototype shown here my instincts were right, a better drill press would be desirable so I celebrated by ordering a new drill press with real bearings and a few other perks that will be able to precision drill the hole.

Anyway, after seeing the Tiny Radials that my local German woodworker came up using 3/4 panels that I showed you earlier, I realized they are almost the same amount work as before because you have four precision shaped panels that have to be glued and clamped together...

Back to my opening statement "modified goal?" It finally was revealed to me... apparently I could no longer amuse the Audio Gods with my dedicated ignorance so they gave me a vision. And I have to say this one is killer. Instead of a solid block, it's two pieces of wood. Ying and Yang. There are no miters and the corners are solid. The square chimney is rotated 45 degrees.  And this one is actually heavier than the standard resin models by a good margin as you will sense from the pictures.

What drew me to this project in the first place was the love of holding a solid block of oiled hardwood in my hand and knowing it was going to be a trick sounding little speaker.  

So it has finally happened.  I am so pleased with the simplified process that there will never be another Tiny Radial made in my shop with 4 panels of any thickness.  Kind of sad considering I have three routers dedicated to making the panels that I will no longer be needed...  It's just so exciting to eliminate the routers, which was an intensive part of the previous design. It also makes me really happy that I made such a wise choice in mitre saws for the shop as that is actually going be the key to making these little bad boys.  Anything less would have let me down.

Very happy, as my wood shop slowly turns into a Keebler Elf kinda thing for Tiny Radials. I might even rename this model the Zen Tiny Radial since it only has two pieces of wood.




The fact that there are no miters is taking it to another level.

Steve

Yup.

I hope this blew your mind as bad as it has mine!  I am embarrassed to not have just figured out a way to make this happen per my original vision from the onset...  But something good has come from it because of the D.I.Y.plans. Lots of people have built the original Tiny Radials from those plans without having to buy special tools and they sound killer.

Happy Listening!

Steve

That is African Padauk.  It's one of my favorites both to look at and to work with.

Steve

Yes, the chimney size and shape has already been tested.  It will stay as shown.

<<  the chimney size and shape has already been tested.  It will stay as shown.>>
At the risk of being a pest, did you find that the lesser cubic area (and what I think might be a higher air impedance) loaded the passive radiator better? I bought the TR plans for a future diy but I’d surely try to incorporate this into that build.

Here is a couple pics of the latest hydro-dipped pair to sell. They are a work in progress, all with defects in the clear coat, but still very cool.





Eventually when I find a hydro dipper who actually wants to work, and has skills, these will be a common thing.  Right now they're super rare.

Steve

Very nice, that’s a great look and some really nice wood. I'll bet they’re a pleasure to touch and hold with that extra mass.

Hi Nick,

Now that there is real mass, I hear no resonance and the speakers don't walk around.  The steel plinth makes very little difference on the two piece design and is no longer required to keep them from walking...

Steve

Some of the woods, and we have gone through a wide variety so far, have shrunk after being made. I got a pair back in the Bocote that had shrunk over 1/8 inch which did four things... A) it reduced the distance between the screws holding the driver in, causing the driver flange to bow.  B) The bowed driver flange popped the lens off. C) since the thickness of the panels shrank the binding posts loosened. D) Since the enclosure shrunk but the plinth did not, the plinth also popped off.

We have always glued on both the lens and the plinth so that it would be easy to remove either one by prying/popping it off so it's an easy enough fix to glue back together. We recommend poly-acrylic adhesive such as "WeldBond" found in your local hardware store.

I've had my share of nightmares with the panel design on certain woods warping or wanting to move or twist slightly after assembly... which is partly what makes this new design so appealing. It has no panels. It has no miters. It's basically two solid blocks of wood with complimentary grain glued together into a single solid block of wood.

After drilling the prototype holes in the new design on my petite floor standing drill press, I knew that wasn't going to fly because it should be a lot easier and take a lot less time. The drill press wasn't meaty enough, being a bottom of the line light duty Shopfox. It has too much run-out for my taste even with wood when using a 2-9/16" bit. Underpowered, bearing slop, flex, - kind of amazing I got it to drill the few holes I did.

The first replacement drill press I found that got me excited would have been overkill as it turns out the thing weighed in at 780lbs. Then the Audio Gods (pleased that I didn't do anything that stupid) tripped me during my search and I landed face first looking at the most bizarre drill press I'd ever seen...  480VDC variable speed direct drive motor, no belts, no transmission, no sound...  and really big balls. This one only weighs slightly over 300 lbs so it was manageable dragging it through the yard on a two-wheeler to the shop.

So problem solved.





The drill press makes the bit look small. The bit diameter is 2-9/16"... ! It's cuts like butter now... and I have to say what a thrill it has been to experience another real tool! This is a bad ass machine. The fact that it is silent and you can just turn a knob to go from 50 rpm to 5600 rpm on the fly is mind blowing and that the torque never changes, or the speed when you're drilling... it's just too much!







And these were done before I found the right drill bit shown in the picture of the drill press... and even then it went very well. You can see the mitre saw in the background that makes tapering the sides possible and easy. So far I have been able to do all the tapering by hand on that saw with no clamps or jigs and without issues.  

So as you can see I am committed to making Tiny Radials a serious and permanent thing and having way too much fun doing it. Tonight I gave my 3 year old grand daughter a nice sanded block of wood from tiny radial stock - something you could never get away with when they're older - and she just glowed with excitement! One of her toys just fits in the hole and she couldn't be happier.

-Steve

I remember asking if Steve considered boring through a solid block of wood to make these.  So, I'm gonna take credit for this.  

I take it you drill part way thorough and then add an extension and drill the rest of the way?  I love your table vise.  That really must make it easy.  Me?  I'd hold it with my hand until the bit bound and the piece spun out of control.    

Steve,

You might want to ax the vice and make a jig that mounts to the drill press table with a square peg the size of the v formed mortise with outside perimeter guide clamp for consistency and speed. All in time...geez

John

Hello Nick324, I acted on some of your advice. While waiting for availability of the TRs, I bought a Denafrips Ares II R2R DAC and SMSL DA-9 class-D amp. The improvement in sound quality over the SMSL AD-18 to hard to describe, so I'll just say I'm thrilled. I'm looking forward to trying this setup with the TRs -- if they are ever available (and maybe also swap the DA-9 for the Zen).

UPDATE: JULY 2021

I have created a new web site for Tiny Radials.  www.decwaretinyradials.com

If it doesn't work right, let me know. It's my first hi-tech site that I've actually completed -- one that should scale itself for virtually any viewport on any device.  (yea... right)  But I have made it from scratch, there was no template - those always start out so good and turn into problems as soon as you try to make 'non-recommended' changes ; ). You know me, if it's non-recommended it's because I've already done it.



As of this second, no one knows about this new site and I have added 6 new pair of Tiny Radials waiting to be purchased. This is one of them.

Have fun with that : )

Steve

We will have more in the works.

The full-size speaker is the HR-1.

UPDATE July 25 / 2021

As I mentioned earlier my hydro dipper guy didn't work out, and I couldn't get anyone else interested in jumping right on it, so I got a hydro-dipping tank to do it myself.

The reason I wanted to hydro dip Tiny Radials is because A) it would look cool and B) casting resin with perfect wood grain is a lot harder than it should be. Only got one in 7 molds perfect enough to make the grain look completely real and I have worn that mold out already. But, it's only a few minutes to sand them smooth at which point they are the perfect thing to hydro dip since resin is water proof. And I've collected a large number of flawed castings that can be smoothed out and dipped.

So I have been teaching myself to hydro dip for the past month. Failed at it 8 times in a row, and then started to realize all films are different and the activators are also all different and spraying on the activator has to be done with such precision that they actually make robots to do it for you. But, they still sell the spray cans for idiots like myself who buy a tank but are too cheap to buy a spray gun for the activator...

So since getting the activator mist perfect is not an option, I had to buy a good HVLP paint gun and learn how to use it which only took about an hour. Amazing how this single thing -- changed everything. I have had 3 perfect dips in a row now.

Well hell, now that I like using a real spray gun and went to the trouble to put an 1200 CFM exhaust booth in the shop just to use it without suffocating I may as well get another gun for the clear coat and learn how paint right?

Right.

I was delighted to discover that all the things that can go wrong - dirt, orange peel, nips were easily removed with 3000 disk and water with my sander. And from there just a good compound with the buffer and I'm having my first holy shit moments with a paint job! Something I have always wanted to do since being a teenager and when it's not the size of a car, it's a lot less intimidating.

Plus there is nothing like a real catalyzed clear coat that cures into something as hard as rock!

My plan here has been to learn to dip and paint on simple flat plates first before attempting a 4 sided Tiny Radial which is an almost impossible item to dip in a single dip. See I just so happen to have a stash of flat plates painted white from back when our amps were that color... so I have been practicing on those.  

Fast forward to now... I am no longer practicing, as I have figured out the base coat colors, film, activator, gun settings, water temperature to do the plates perfect and having quite a bit of fun because the results are so over the top.

I had the idea to do custom paint jobs on these old chassis years ago, but never dreamed it would be me doing it.

I posted these images with 'UPLOAD IMAGES HERE' link at the bottom of the forum so that if you click on them you can see the full size images.





I will build these up into completed units and auction them off with full warranty this winter.  

Now to figure out how to dip the tiny radials, something with 4 sides and 12/16 corners to sand through and nearly impossible to do in a single dip... probably won't hear from me on this one for quite awhile... I want it to look like the flat plates I did so I hope that wasn't setting to bar too high

-Steve

You and Donnie!  lol