My Audax/HiVi project

[6thplanet]

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/album.php

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/picture.php?albumid=272&pictureid=2342

My ongoing project, some several years of fiddling around. They started out with Dayton RS 8's, but I soon got tired of trying to make them play nice in the midrange enough to blend with the HiVi's. So I scored some Audax aerogels that I always wanted to try but never seemed to have the cash to have. So far I've been much more pleased with them, very smooth sounding. These speakers have had all sorts of crossover iterations over the years and has helped my learning curve as to whats going on. Part of the fun and expence of DIY, ehh? Still by no means have a clue as to what the final will be, but as for now I'm satisfied with the current set-up. The final cabinets won't look like the finish thats in the pics as that was a quick dress up of the ugly MDF boxes that sit in the room. Finals will be vaneered maple sides, solid laminated curly maple, blood wood, and zebra wood baffles. The bases will be granite and the "feet" or spacers between the box and granite will be turned solid copper. Thats it for now....

[biff]

Nice - I have made some neat legs for furniture by using 3/4" dowels and sleeving with 3/4" copper pipe. Polished the pipe with steel wool and laquered and got a satin finish that looks more like billet.

[6thplanet]

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/picture.php?albumid=272&pictureid=3052

Yummy copper! Well I've finally got back to working on the project. My machinist (Thanks Doug!!) turned the copper feet out for me and I took them to another buddy (thanks Brian!!) who volunteered to polish them up for me. I have the enclosures ready for veneering, the baffles are ready to go on after said veneer is installed, and I made the jig to flush mount the woofers. Also made up the jig to do the copper inlay on the baffle board. Still have to get some granite bases made.
Other new pics are in the album.

[6thplanet]

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/picture.php?albumid=272&pictureid=3111
More work done on the cabs. We veneered them last weekend. I trimmed them up during the week and started trimming up the baffles to get ready for the glue up. This weekend I glued one of the baffles to an enclosure, then did the other one tonight. Added some more pics to the album of the procees.

[greywarden]

Wow, those are looking really nice

[6thplanet]

Thanks!! It's been long over due to build the cabs. these drivers need to be in. ;)

[6thplanet]

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/picture.php?albumid=272&pictureid=3211
Made a lot of router mess this weekend, starting to get that warm fuzzy goodness feeling...:D
http://techtalk.parts-express.com/picture.php?albumid=272&pictureid=3209
A couple more shots added to the album.

[johnnyrichards]

For me the "warm fuzzies" kick in when I get the first coat of primer on. I like how those are looking so far;)

[joeybutts]

Those sure are purtyyyyyyyy.....

[6thplanet]

Thanks !! I've been listening to them for so long in the ugly enclosures I can't imagine how they'll sound all prettied up. :rolleyes:

[johnnyrichards]

Thanks !! I've been listening to them for so long in the ugly enclosures I can't imagine how they'll sound all prettied up. :rolleyes:

I suspect some people can't help but listen with their eyes before their ears. I am not accusing you, just making a general observation.

[6thplanet]

No doubt, hence the "sarcastic" smilie. I'm really happy with the way they sound, it'll be nice to have them finally look as good as they sound.

[gc1]

Hot, hot, hot... very nice!!

[6thplanet]

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/picture.php?albumid=272&pictureid=3545
Finally a break in the weather, so back at it... I did the diamond shaped inlay on the enclosures. This is done with a router inlay kit. The inlay is a piece of thin polished copper sheet veneered to MDF. The inlay still has the protective film on it so it dosent oxidize until I finish the cabinets.
http://techtalk.parts-express.com/picture.php?albumid=272&pictureid=3543
Also started the crossover boards that will be mounted to the back of the enclosures. Keeping with the wood selection, they're zebra wood and maple. This time I used some birds-eye veneer I had on hand. Kinda hard to tell from the pic, but they are tapered on the outside from top to bottom at about a 5-6 degree angle. Added some maple splines to the corners for a bit of reinforcement and decoration.

[greywarden]

Very Nice! I was wondering about this the other day...

[6thplanet]

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/picture.php?albumid=272&pictureid=3722
We had some nice weather so I went out to the garage today to finish up the crossovers. I put a couple of coats of Minwax Gloss on them during the week, then my buddy came over and we knocked out the assembly part.
Theres a couple other shots of them in the album.

[Randall Kepley]

A lot of work is going into these, you should be very proud when your finished it looks great! R.K.

[DjDisturbed]

Those are going to turn out sweet when you are finally finished. If these are the ones I heard in Ky last year, they sounded great.
You did a great job of blending those drivers together. :D

[6thplanet]

Thanks guys, I dropped the enclosures off to have a gloss finish put on them. I'd like to have done it myself, but I don't have a dedicated place to spray a nice dust free finish on. So I bit the bullet and I'm having a professional furniture refinisher do the job.

[6thplanet]

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/picture.php?albumid=272&pictureid=3744
Copper feet complete! I coated them with a special protectant made for polished copper from a company called Everbright Coatings (www.everbrightcoatings.com) The stuff is pretty easy to work with and came out really nice.
Supposed to have the enclosures back Friday, Yeah !!:D

[Randall Kepley]

Brother those are Beautiful! Cant wait to see these finished. R.K.

[J.Lee]

I love it when Guys turn XO's into a piece of Art. Very, very nice.

[spasticteapot]

That Everbright stuff is like liquid jesus in a can. I know a guy who runs a steampunk convention - he's going to love it. Thanks for the tip!

[6thplanet]

I almost went with Zoopseal, but the price made me check around, also they really didn't recommend it for copper. I search around and found the Everbright stuff and the price was right so I tried it. Kinda glad I did, go product and nice company to deal with.

[6thplanet]

So for the next installment I flush mounted the cone into the granite bases. All the pics are in the album and the write up is on the tech page.
http://techtalk.parts-express.com/showthread.php?t=224857
http://techtalk.parts-express.com/picture.php?albumid=272&pictureid=3776

[6thplanet]

Final assembly has arrived!! Heres a couple shots from yesterday, the rest are in the folder as will todays finishing efforts.
http://techtalk.parts-express.com/picture.php?albumid=272&pictureid=3822
http://techtalk.parts-express.com/picture.php?albumid=272&pictureid=3824

[6thplanet]

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/picture.php?albumid=272&pictureid=3833

Project Complete!!

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/picture.php?albumid=272&pictureid=3835

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/picture.php?albumid=272&pictureid=3836

Long time waiting for this to finally happen. I'm so pleased with what I've learned and accomplished with this project. I'll post up a higher resolution pic soon...
Thanks to all the friends that have helped along the way!!

[6thplanet]

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/picture.php?albumid=272&pictureid=3887
O.K. so I splurged a bit:cool:...the driver mounting screws are now copper plated. I just coated them with the sealer stuff I used on the feet so they won't oxidize. This stuff takes a day to cure so I gotta wait till tomorrow to install them.

[greywarden]

oh damn, that's nice. just don't slip putting them in! :eek:

[DjDisturbed]

Those turned out really nice. Look more like a piece of art than a speaker.

[philiparcario]

Can you take a few shots of the granite base/cone/cooper feet.

Just at the floor level.


Do you downfire to the cone in order to spread the bass out?

[Stu]

Hi 6thplanet,

Could you share the crosover design. Would love to build a pair of these:)

[6thplanet]

Can you take a few shots of the granite base/cone/cooper feet.

Just at the floor level.


Do you downfire to the cone in order to spread the bass out?

Heres a pic from the proto enclosures, Yeah it floor loads the port (ala Polk Audio)
http://techtalk.parts-express.com/picture.php?albumid=272&pictureid=2343


As for the crossover, the woofer runs fullrange with a contour filter. The values are a 1.5mH coil, 12uF cap, and a 8 ohm resistor all in paralell with each other then placed in series with the woofer. The tweeter has a 12dB filter on it .60 mH coil, 2.2uF cap. Also the tweeter has a 3 ohm resistor in series with it before the crossover for attenuation.

[Stu]

Thank you for the reply! Where would you say the point of crossover is?

[6thplanet]

I was playing with parts till it sounded good, so plugging the specs into a resonate frequecy calculator, its around 4.4K. I know you said you'd like to build these, you do know the woofers are NLA? So unless ya come across a set or already have them.....

[Wolf]

I was playing with parts till it sounded good, so plugging the specs into a resonate frequecy calculator, its around 4.4K. I know you said you'd like to build these, you do know the woofers are NLA? So unless ya come across a set or already have them.....

Chances are ACC will likely start making them again though. They make the 8" CF, and they brought back the HM170Z18, so it should likely reason to me that it will also come back.

Cross your fingers....
Wolf