Hang on. Norah and I are having a moment.....

Okay. Sitting here enjoying maybe my 8th hour or so listening to my new diy Caintuck Betsy’s. If you’re not interested in my lengthy review below, no worries. Here’s the good stuff: if you have never listened to OB speakers or a solid full range driver with nothing between it and the amp sans some wire, get with Randy and acquire a pair. Wow. That’s it, you’re welcome.

For anyone else looking for more meat, let’s go. If it’s not obvious, I built these out of sheer curiosity to experience something new from a build and listening perspective. I’m fairly handy and maybe a bit dangerous around my humble shop, so I decided to build myself a ‘test’ (read: cheap!) pair. Shout out to Doug at Wild Burro for getting me the drivers so quickly. I’ve also had some correspondence with Randy from Caintuck, and he’s fantastic if you haven’t had the pleasure. He was incredibly gracious with answering questions I had in order to make these as close to the beauties he creates. The only real differences in mine are big box plywood and they are an inch and a half taller overall simply because it was less cuts because I’m lazy/impatient. Also, they are angled back approx. 10°. Finally, I added an 18”x18” peel and stick vinyl tile to the back of the plywood to help deaden resonances. If you’re interested in how this affected the panel, email me and I’ll send you the 20 sec. video I took comparing one with and one without. Finished them up last night around 6pm, and I have been transfixed on listening to these since. Devouring as much of my reference material as possible and here are my impressions:
The recording must best good or great. Anything not will absolutely SUCK if you are actually listening for listening sake. Some of my reference material - a few Mapleshade CDs (Euphoria is my fave), Gabriella y Rodrigo, Norah Jones, The Steel Wheels, some movie soundtracks (Last of the Mohicans, Braveheart), Jack Johnson, John Mayor, Tracey Chapman, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Bruce Hornsby, and some live Eagles. It’s been amazing hearing things in these that I can honestly say I’ve never heard. And things I haven’t either. They are so fast, I get the spaces in between the music, notes, breaths.... Here are some of the notes I took while listening, but I’m afraid they will be cliche at this point. Articulate, delicate, speed, floating/deep soundstage, vocals!, guitars!, clarity. Everything sounds RIGHT. Particularly vocals. Hence my initial comment above about the moment with Norah. Holy shit. Are these perfect? Of course not. And for all the obvious reasons, but they are so ridiculously amazing with appropriate material. At this point, I’m running these off my SS amp, bit am anxiously saving my pennies for an SE84UFO hopefully soon. I’m certain that will seriously elevate the experience. Well, there ya go. Hope that’s helpful to anyone on the fence around dipping their toe into what is certainly the deep end of the pool. Thanks for listening. I’ll drop in some pics shortly.

Mr. Randy,

With all of the quality drivers you now offer, folks have lots of great options. There seems to be something for everyone. And the fact that you offer only solid hardwood baffles, refines each of those options.

I know that with all the choices, you've got to be as busy as you want to be. As the one who is responsible for the open baffle craze, you are deserving of highest praise!

Very best,

Geno

Updated with finishes completed.
" alt="" title="" border="0" />

Nice job man! They look great!

Picked up a gently used Dayton Audio 8” sub to go along with the Betsy’s. Fits perfectly in one of the Kallax cubbies. Fills in the bottom octave nicely.

Hi Eldergod,

I am hoping to build my own Betsy baffles influenced by the Caintuck design. I know I'm a bit late to the party, but I was hoping you could share a little more about your build process. I'm a newbie to DIY audio, so anything you have to share (materials, dimensions, things you would do differently in hindsight) would be greatly appreciated!

Some specific questions I have:
-Where did you get your binding posts and how are they mounted to the speaker base?
-When looking at the picture of your baffle before you applied the vinyl tile, it seems like you attached a very thin wood panel with a concave opening for rear of the Betsy driver. What is this and what is the reasoning for it?
-Did you apply a veneer to the front of your baffles or did you simply treat and finish the plywood?
-Can you share the video of your baffles with and without the vinyl tile?

Your DIY Caintuck Betsy's turned out beautiful! If you are willing to share your insights, I hope mine can turn out half as nice

Thanks,
FrogMan

Thanks Eldergod! I see now that what I thought was a "very thin wood panel" WAS in fact the vinyl tile, and what I thought was the vinyl tile was actually a Dura-Tex coating. Can I ask why you used Dura-Tex? Dura-Tex seems expensive and I was curious if it provides any advantages over simple paint?

I'll go ahead and send you a PM.

I plan to build the same very soon. the drivers are shipped and should arrive very soon.

I’m wondering about the driver cut. Should it be centered  or slightly off center toward the top?

regards

Michael