Encores

[gabel87]

I've had these built for a while. Thought I'd post the finished pics and my impressions of them so far. I managed to find a pair of RS28AS tweeters for these from a board member, so they are built exactly as designed with sheilded woofers and tweeters. Frankly I didn't notice much difference in the sound between using the sheilded aluminum tweeters vs. the RS28F's that I put in there originally. The tweeters seem a little hot to me as is, I'm going to try bumping up the tweeter resistor value a bit.

These speakers are very detailed and revealing sound wise. Classical and jazz/contemporary sound good. Some rock sounds good while other recordings are somewhat fatiguing. Bass output is about what you would expect from a small sealed loudspeaker. A little better than I might have expected but definately benefits from the sub. The soundstage good. Overall, I'm pretty happy with them. I think once I get the tweeters dialed in they will be better. I'm going to make some grills for them too.

[kmibb]

Changing the inductor spacing could probably yield good results. They are pretty close together.

[gabel87]

Yeah, I didn't realize it mattered until after I built them, I've definately considered that and might do it.

[ericJ]

Gorgeous veneer!

Nice work.

[DjDisturbed]

I like your veneer too. And did you ad any Poly-fil or Acousta stuff ?

[woodtradesman_audio]

Thats a great looking veneer job. Your flush mount routing is pretty good looking too.

By the way is that an aura NS8-385-4A in the back ground?

[50 watt head]

Beautiful work on those cabs! That veneer looks so three-dimensional. Also, aside from the orientation of the inductors, your crossover boards are very neat and clean.

Great work all around!

[J.Lee]

Ditto WTA.

Looks perfect to me. Nice build.

Is that a 1/2" roundover?

Also curious about overall dimensions.

[Paul Carmody]

So please, spill the beans as to how you got that amazing guitar finish.

[XtremeRevolution]

I like your veneer too. And did you ad any Poly-fil or Acousta stuff ?

I've had terrible experiences with poly-fill in sealed speakers. The low midrange resonance was fatiguing to listen to. Using a lot of it would fix the resonance issue but severely reduce bass output. I'd recommend either acoustic foam or fiberglass fill.

X2 on the inductor spacing. Way way way too close for comfort. those are what, 2cm away from each other? I'd re-align them per this photo below.

[gabel87]

Thanks for the tips and complements everyone. It's has been alot of fun making these. I've got a lot to learn. I learn something new everytime I read this board.

I like your veneer too. And did you ad any Poly-fil or Acousta stuff ?

Yeah I put some polyfil I got from the local fabric supply in them. Side note much better stuff than what I've gotten at the big box store. There is also 1.5" convoluted foam on the rear wall inside

Your flush mount routing is pretty good looking too.

By the way is that an aura NS8-385-4A in the back ground?

Actually, err, I f'd up the holes for the tweeters and cut them 1/16 too small and had to enlarge them by hand with a rounded rasp. They aren't quite perfectly rounded if you see them irl. But wtf right they turned out ok.

And yes that is an aura 8" from the Madisound sale in a test enclosure I actually like those, they seem to go fairly deep, not sub like but maybe good for a small budget 3-way. The frames are kind of chintzy and w/ the neo magnets they are super light weight. They were pretty stiff when I got them but they have loosened up quite a bit already. They have more excursion than they seem like they're going to at first. They are in about .6 cu ft tuned to around 45hz. low passed @ 130hz. 2" port is too small, it gushes pretty loudly at higher power. I was originally thinking about using them in the bottom of a pair of ZA5.3 tmm's I'm working on but then my right mind kicked in and I realized in my inept state of speaker knowledge this was a foolhearty idea. I'm trying to find a good mid that's cheap and has a similar inverted dust cap to mate with them.

Ditto WTA.
Is that a 1/2" roundover?

Also curious about overall dimensions.

It's a 3/4" roundover actually. I was concerned that the tamo veneer might crack if I went with 1/2", which, btw, was my first thought when I got started on them. The overall outside dimensions are 8"W x 12 3/8"T x 8 3/4"D, 3/4" MDF. Which is a slight deviation from the spec's at 1/2" wider baffle, 3/8" taller, 1 1/4" shallower which is .296 vs. .309 w/ the recommended net volume of .25. My volume is around .25 cu ft after driver and crossover displacement. Driver spacing is the same from top down. Thing was I needed to narrow the depth of the cabinet to get 2 pieces of veneer, 1 ea, for them out of an 18" wide sheet of veneer.

I've had terrible experiences with poly-fill in sealed speakers. The low midrange resonance was fatiguing to listen to. Using a lot of it would fix the resonance issue but severely reduce bass output. I'd recommend either acoustic foam or fiberglass fill.

X2 on the inductor spacing. Way way way too close for comfort. those are what, 2cm away from each other? I'd re-align them per this photo below.

I don't remember how much poly fill is in them now, I know it isn't stuffed in there too tight, probably medium, whatever that means. There is 1 1/2" convoluted foam on the rear wall. That's something I haven't tried tweeking with yet. Thanks for the graph on the inductor layout, I'll definately look into fixing that while I'm at it. Just now I'm looking at Darrens K's Encore design page and he does recommend 1 1/2" convoluted foam (or it's in the parts list) vs. polyfill. I may have enough of this lying around to line the other walls, I'll give that a shot.


Paul, they actually look better in person :P The flash kind of diminishes the sheen in the pics. For all these speakers I made with the tamo ash veneer I did pretty much as follows,

Sand with knocked down 220 or fresh 320, clean with compressed air and clean towel
Coated with Minwax Tung Oil Finish, which is a tung oil based varnish not straight tung oil(contrary, imo, to net nay sayers that claim there is no tung oil in it there is, they sight the msds but upon close inspection of said msds it's clearly in there)

After a few minutes take an old clean sock and rub the ever loving **** out of it until it's nice and smooth(this part sucks, timing is key but it still sucks. I can't imagine doing a large peice like this) btw, I like to do the whole peice at once when I finishing and use painters points or screws in a board to set it on, the bottom of course.

After 24 hr's sand with knocked down 320 or better by hand lightly to knock off the wiskers don't worry about getting it perfectly silky just do it real light. Clean, then put on another coat, wait a few minutes and rub it out again.

24 hrs later, sand again with knocked down 320 or better this time sand it to silky smoothness, you can even use your ros if you're feeling lucky Or zen like. Then clean.

At this point, I found when doing my son's ZA5.2's, if you switch to wipe on poly it will go on and set like glass in a couple more coats with super light sanding inbetween. Just putting this in there, it's not what I did with these.

Then recoat and rub some more.

24 hr's later this time hit them with the finest 0000 steel, or better yet, brass wool lightly. The cabinets should pretty much be silky smooth already except for maybe any end grain. Then recoat one more time and rub it out yet again getting it all evenly rubbed out. Don't miss anything.

24 hrs later, you can either be done and just give them a good rubbing with a clean cloth or go at it again, you're choice lol

[woodtradesman_audio]

And yes that is an aura 8" from the Madisound sale in a test enclosure I actually like those, they seem to go fairly deep, not sub like but maybe good for a small budget 3-way. The frames are kind of chintzy and w/ the neo magnets they are super light weight. They were pretty stiff when I got them but they have loosened up quite a bit already. They have more excursion than they seem to at first. They are in about .6 cu ft tuned to around 45hz. low passed @ 130hz. 2" port is too small, it gushes pretty loudly at higher power. I was originally thinking about using them in the bottom of a pair of ZA5.3 tmm's I'm working on but then my right mind kicked in and I realized in my inept state of speaker knowledge this was a foolhearty idea. I'm trying to find a good mid that's cheap and has a similar inverted dust cap to mate with them.

I'm in the same boat. I got 2 pairs thinking I could make a generic 3 way that utilizes 2 woofers. I soon realized that was a bad idea as I don't have enough knowledge and equipment to make a proper design.

You might wanna try a much larger test box as that seems to make them bassier.

For the time being they are just sitting a test enclosure thats about 11-1/4"wx46hx13d.

[gabel87]

Yeah I am going to definately go with a bigger test enclosure for them next w/ a 3" port. I went with .6 b/c that's about what madisound recommended and that was the space I had to work with in the bottom of the za5's. I'm going to run it through winisd then unibox and see what I come up with. I thought about trying that peerless 4.5" buyout mid with them b/c it cosmetically matches and has similar sensitivity, but there's no measurements for it and I don't have any way to measure it, on top of that it's 4 ohms Seems like the mid is going to have to be at least 8 ohms. I was thinking 500-3500 xo points on a 3-way. I was looking at the 4" and 5" tymphany buyouts but again, no measurements... I'd considered buying 2 more for the same reason you have 4 like a tmww to bring up the impedence, but then I had second thoughts about spending another $40 not knowing for sure what I was going to do with them, although I'm still considering it lol. I'm not sure the gain from an extra woofer will be worth it in the end. Have you read Paul Carmody's Simulated measurements guide here? It's not like being able to actually measure speakers on hand, but it definately has helped me out tremendously in getting a foot down the road of understanding this stuff. Still have miles and miles to go though for sure. But you could definately try your hand at designing a tmww with that guide once you have a mid and tweeter picked out with measurements from somebody or at least a traced measurement. I've heard a lot of speakers over the years and it's hard to beat a good 3-way for music imo. I'm wanting to build the aura 8 into a 3-way for a good buddy of mine who's a broke music lover who's been down on his luck lately.

[woodtradesman_audio]

Gabel

At this point I don't think I'd trust the frequency response curb that has been published be Aura. I put together a generic xover with spare parts and crossed it at about 2300 - 2500Hz and the mids didn't sound horrendous as the response curb graph would suggest, But they lack mids for sure.

Why not the ns6 as mid? we already know it has good mids so it might be a keeper (provided that a good xover and cabinet design comes about).

Maybe Aura measured this guys still stiff.

Anyhow, all in all it would be a task for the veterans to tackle.

[gabel87]

Yeah, I certainly wish I knew someone nearby that could measure drivers. Hard to trust published measurements. It's surprising that it sounded ok that high. Like you said, according to them it breaks up pretty bad at 800-1000. Still a lower xo relieves it from upper mid duties giving us cleaner bass and mids. The beauty of the 3 way. But yeah a seasoned pro would be handy lol

[woodtradesman_audio]

...Still a lower xo relieves it from upper mid duties giving us cleaner bass and mids. The beauty of the 3 way. But yeah a seasoned pro would be handy lol

Thats what I was thinking but I hate to spend a mini fortune on 3-way xover parts and make it sound even worst.

We could put something together and have one or two sent to someone.

[Randall Kepley]

Man Im realey digging on that Veneer! Ive been along time Veneer man myself and I truly understand your statement about the pix not doing them justice, a flash has a way of just washing the depth out. One thing that will boost your pix is this http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber/light_box_light_tent
It can be built to any size and w/ just a decent digital camera it will take your pix to the next level! Look forward to your next build. R.K.

[Ryan]

I see someone else stocked up on those round little binding posts! I am still using from my stash , If I remember correctly those were only 72 cent each!

[johnnyrichards]

wow those are pretty! My wife keeps asking me when I am going to do a wood finished speaker, and I have to remind her that my woodworking "skills" depend on bondo and paint to make me look good

Well done, sir.

[pypes]

I think you really missed an opportunity to use an exotic veneer to set these apart from all the other small, sealed 2-ways. That same old plain-jane stuff just isn't doing it for me.