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Re: Apple themed Overnight Sensation MTM
After a few months of waiting and a few weeks worth of making test pieces, sanding, joining etc the speakers are finally assembled and tested. I am very excited to report they sound amazing already, even without the final stuffing, sealing etc. The only thing left to do is disassemble and paint!
On to the pictures!
Here are the two speakers as delivered by my fiancees father. He used biscuit joints all around to join everything.
Inside we can see the crossover mounted to a removable back panel. T-nuts and bolts are used to hold everything in place. I may need to add sealing tape to this but the wood joint is fairly tight as is.
Here we can see the dual 1.25" x 6" ports. A small rear brace was made with a earlier scrap/prototype piece to prevent vibration etc from effecting the ports
You can see everything being wired up together and how the back panel is removed.
I used #6 and #8 SS hex screws to attach the speakers and black acrylic. Might try using black screws as well and see how they look. Its amazing how flush and perfect the porting is to the acrylic. Once the tubes are painted black they should look like one piece.
Rear of the speaker showing the terminals and back acrylic piece. Terminals need to be drilled out a bit bigger and hammered in but they work fine for testing now.
Profile of the speaker. Its really neat how the front is flush and the speakers are protected by the acrylic. Looks very clean. You can also see some of the joining work. Should be completely undetectable once painted.
Inside of speaker showing the rear of the front baffles with T nuts and chamfering.
After assembly, did a quick test on my desk with my 15" mac for comparison. Again, speakers were designed to be the exact height of the 27" iMac or Apple Display that has yet to be purchased.
I tried the speakers with both the T-amp mentioned above as well as a HT receiver. The receiver really was able to bring out some good sound and I could tweak the audio a little going into it. On my desktop the T-amp worked well and produced accurate sound. Due to the height of the speakers, the sound stage is higher so sitting up strait is a great listening position.
These speakers would also look great next to a 40+" LCD. Their is already 1-2 full sets of cut MDF ready to make another pair of speakers if needed. I may make a matching set for HT or to give/sell depending on the final result of this design.
So far the speaker design (sonically) has exceeded my expectations, thanks to Paul's design and help modifying his original Overnight Sensation MTM design. Once sealed and stuffed they should really be amazing. I am very pleased with the craftsmanship of the speakers themselves. The fit and finish in the wood working and alignment has to really be seen. Its really cool designing something and then seeing the finished results exactly as you had intended it.
Next step is priming, painting, resembling, stuffing, sealing, testing, and enjoying.
Once completed I will have very nice high resolution pictures up showing off some of the finer details of the design and craftsmanship.
Still figuring out the painting process with the prototype shown earlier... basic idea is to prime with an oil based primer to seal the MDF, sand, bondo, spot fill/prime with spray primer as needed. Then, use Dupli-Color PaintShop primer, color, and clear coat shot through a spray gun. Need to test this all first to make sure the paint holds up and doesn't react with primer bondo etc. I'm hoping to get a jump on all of that this week and have everything sanded and painted in another week or two.
After a few months of waiting and a few weeks worth of making test pieces, sanding, joining etc the speakers are finally assembled and tested. I am very excited to report they sound amazing already, even without the final stuffing, sealing etc. The only thing left to do is disassemble and paint!
On to the pictures!
Here are the two speakers as delivered by my fiancees father. He used biscuit joints all around to join everything.
Inside we can see the crossover mounted to a removable back panel. T-nuts and bolts are used to hold everything in place. I may need to add sealing tape to this but the wood joint is fairly tight as is.
Here we can see the dual 1.25" x 6" ports. A small rear brace was made with a earlier scrap/prototype piece to prevent vibration etc from effecting the ports
You can see everything being wired up together and how the back panel is removed.
I used #6 and #8 SS hex screws to attach the speakers and black acrylic. Might try using black screws as well and see how they look. Its amazing how flush and perfect the porting is to the acrylic. Once the tubes are painted black they should look like one piece.
Rear of the speaker showing the terminals and back acrylic piece. Terminals need to be drilled out a bit bigger and hammered in but they work fine for testing now.
Profile of the speaker. Its really neat how the front is flush and the speakers are protected by the acrylic. Looks very clean. You can also see some of the joining work. Should be completely undetectable once painted.
Inside of speaker showing the rear of the front baffles with T nuts and chamfering.
After assembly, did a quick test on my desk with my 15" mac for comparison. Again, speakers were designed to be the exact height of the 27" iMac or Apple Display that has yet to be purchased.
I tried the speakers with both the T-amp mentioned above as well as a HT receiver. The receiver really was able to bring out some good sound and I could tweak the audio a little going into it. On my desktop the T-amp worked well and produced accurate sound. Due to the height of the speakers, the sound stage is higher so sitting up strait is a great listening position.
These speakers would also look great next to a 40+" LCD. Their is already 1-2 full sets of cut MDF ready to make another pair of speakers if needed. I may make a matching set for HT or to give/sell depending on the final result of this design.
So far the speaker design (sonically) has exceeded my expectations, thanks to Paul's design and help modifying his original Overnight Sensation MTM design. Once sealed and stuffed they should really be amazing. I am very pleased with the craftsmanship of the speakers themselves. The fit and finish in the wood working and alignment has to really be seen. Its really cool designing something and then seeing the finished results exactly as you had intended it.
Next step is priming, painting, resembling, stuffing, sealing, testing, and enjoying.
Once completed I will have very nice high resolution pictures up showing off some of the finer details of the design and craftsmanship.
Still figuring out the painting process with the prototype shown earlier... basic idea is to prime with an oil based primer to seal the MDF, sand, bondo, spot fill/prime with spray primer as needed. Then, use Dupli-Color PaintShop primer, color, and clear coat shot through a spray gun. Need to test this all first to make sure the paint holds up and doesn't react with primer bondo etc. I'm hoping to get a jump on all of that this week and have everything sanded and painted in another week or two.
Thanks , 
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