The Minions

[DallasNovelty]

Those are very cool I may have to look at building some of those

[Leroy R]

Ok, here are a couple with wood veneer. Sorry about the crappy phone camera pics. The lighter ones are Hickory and the dark ones are Rosewood. They both look better than the pics. The rosewood pair aren't finished. After two days the gloss urethane hadn't cured so I sanded it off just before I took the pics. Not sure if I'll try the semigloss or satin urethanes I have or buy another can of gloss, but hopefully the current urethane that is absorbed into the wood won't cause a problem. Not sure why it didn't cure, it worked fine when I finished the tritrix's with it.

[ROTECH]

Leroy,

Thank you for letting me go back to basics on this, I ordered 4 pairs of the drivers and did the cute little boxes last night. They are going in my buddies outdoor hottub shed/gazebo/ugly shack thing, powered off an old cambridge soundworks mini avr, mated with a panasonic kelton subwoofer (6.5'' with 10'' passive) Was totally a fun, stress free build.

[bungelow_ed]

Ok, here are a couple with wood veneer. Sorry about the crappy phone camera pics. The lighter ones are Hickory and the dark ones are Rosewood. They both look better than the pics. The rosewood pair aren't finished. After two days the gloss urethane hadn't cured so I sanded it off just before I took the pics.

They look very nice, low res pic's not withstanding. Seeing your latest gives me a push to get out to the shop this weekend. Hope mine look as nice as yours.

[Leroy R]

Thanks guys.

Rotech, I am very much interested in your listening impressions after you get them set up. I haven't tried them in an outdoor setting.

Ed, You can do it...Go man Go... The only reason I've been able to post so many is because when I was cutting, I cut enough to make five pairs and then glued them all up at once. The Hickory pair were the last pair I had ready made. Since there seems to be some interest in a two driver version, I'm going to try to find time this weekend to cut some more wood.

I don't know about the rest of you that have ordered them, but the factory didn't seem to get the cones on these dyed very consistantly. I tried coloring in the cones on the Hickory pair last night with a medium sized Sharpie and it did a pretty good job. They look pretty good now, consistant black surface. Kind of like painting, several light passes until the whole surface is filled in. You don't want to spend too much time in one spot and get the paper cone too wet with ink. If anyone has a better way to do this I'd like to hear it.

[bungelow_ed]

Ed, You can do it...Go man Go...

I don't know about the rest of you that have ordered them, but the factory didn't seem to get the cones on these dyed very consistently.

Well your words of encouragement were just what the doctor ordered. Sound is really quite nice, better than I anticipated. Thanks for sharing this little gem.

[Leroy R]

Ed, I like the mix of veneer and paint. Is that walnut? Glad you like them.

I built an enclosure that holds four of these today. Tried using it as a center with my big 4 cuft. enclosures as mains and the mains drowned it out. I'll try it with a pair of the minions tomorrow to see if it performs better in that configuration. In it's current configuration it has a left sealed chamber with two drivers wired in parallel and a right sealed chamber with two drivers wired in parallel. Those then have leads that go to a 3" center chamber where I can run each pair separately as 4 Ohm loads or wire the two pair in series for an 8 Ohm load. It is 3.5" tall x 3.5" deep x 16" wide.

[bungelow_ed]

Ed, I like the mix of veneer and paint. Is that walnut? Glad you like them.

I built an enclosure that holds four of these today. Tried using it as a center with my big 4 cuft. enclosures as mains and the mains drowned it out. I'll try it with a pair of the minions tomorrow to see if it performs better in that configuration. In it's current configuration it has a left sealed chamber with two drivers wired in parallel and a right sealed chamber with two drivers wired in parallel. Those then have leads that go to a 3" center chamber where I can run each pair separately as 4 Ohm loads or wire the two pair in series for an 8 Ohm load. It is 3.5" tall x 3.5" deep x 16" wide.

The veneer is actually Rosewood I have for a turntable plinth. I have a habit of picking up wood when I see interesting grain and/or a good price.

Sounds like you are on your way to building some line arrays. Just another 20-30 more and some serious series/parallel wiring.

Based on my limited listening so far, I think the Minions will work best in an all Minion setup. They are simply out gunned by conventional 2 and 3 way systems. Up to their limits they are very nice. Perfect for PC monitors and mini desk-top stereo systems.

My Lepai's are due to arrive this week. Can't wait to see Aaron's face when he realizes he has his first stereo.

[Soundslike]

Just in case anyone is interested, I've found a good 1/4" material for the Minions. Great name, by the way. I had a little difficulty coming up with a material suitable for the little boxes, until I found the MDF "bender board" at Home Depot. My grandson and I knocked out a set of Minion enclosures the other day, using the bender board.

Regarding your earlier comment about the uneven coloration of the little drivers -- I found the same with my four. They look like they've been setting in a Bakery kitchen for a few years. Adds to their character. Rather than color them, I think I'll concoct some cover story about how they're coated with a special dust at the factory that makes them remarkable.

[Leroy R]

LOL, I was so underwhelmed by the 4 driver center, because the wire had come loose and it wasn't even playing. However, I am currently listening to it with a couple single driver minions as mains. It of course does not compare with my tritrix center, but for a budget surround system, this center, 4 minions and a sub would not be a bad little setup for a small apartment or a bedroom. Running it with just two of the drivers wasn't bad, but with all four drivers going is better.









Ed I thought that looked like rosewood, I don't know why I second guessed myself and said walnut. Let us know how Aaron likes them.

Soundslike, where are the pictures of the ones you built? I've used the 2 ft. by 4 ft. 1/4" mdf panels Home Depot has to make mine.

[Soundslike]

Not much to see, just yet. I'm waiting for a bit of body filler I smeared on them to cure. It would appear that I didn't add enough catalyst.

[Leroy R]

I'm clearly going to have to get better with body filler. I tried to use it for the first time today on a pair of the Overnight Sensations I am building and not sure I gained anything from it. The first batch I made was too much and most of it hardened before I could use it. I sized the second batch better. Most of it sanded back off and I'm not sure what I gained from it. It didn't seal the end grain of the mdf or hide the seams. Had to sand the first coat of primer off, because there were scratches showing in the body filler. A lot of hassle for little return.

[Soundslike]

I'm not trying to promote any particular process, but for me, the resin/body filler process is worth doing. On the other hand, if a builder has a process that produces results they're happy with, and it's easier for them than using resin and body filler, then it probably doesn't make sense to go through the trouble of working with the resins, fillers, and catalysts. It can introduce new complications, such as the ones you described, or the problem I'm coping with (too little catalyst and slow cure). The process I'm using does produce benefits -- whether they are worth the effort is an individual decision. I coat the entire box with fiberglass resin, diluted about 40% with acetone. That hardens and seals the MDF very well -- it completely solves the exposed ends problem. But it also leaves a surface that will need sanding to eliminate brush strokes, or at least get them down to a level that can be filled with primer. Once that's done, you have a much harder surface that can be finished to the same level of quality as you see on cars.

You've probably read the strings where various builders have described their preferred finishing methods. There are lots of different options and many of these builders have been very successful.

I should mention that I don't consider myself yet to have achieved proficiency with the resin/body filler process. Like all finishing materials, experience is needed before I'll be at the point where I can confidently predict I won't encounter any problems. But in my opinion, and I believe in the opinion of the guys that build the custom car installations for a living, fiberglass, resin, and body filler will produce a superior result, if done correctly. I recently posted a question about dealing with sandpaper clogging (when sanding resin) on a fiberglass forum. It surprised me to learn that no one had a ready answer to the problem. From that, I've concluded that clogging is something you can expect to encounter to some degree, any time you use resin. The suggested way to deal with the problem I got back from a very knowledgeable poster on the forum, was to spray the resin on, using something called a "dump gun" (They're $119 at one Internet site) That's followed by a more easily sanded material -- a poly primer, if I recall correctly. The idea is to avoid the need to sand the resin altogether. I'll probably try this method, but I can readily see that this "solution" is probably much more bother than the average builder is willing to take on, just to avoid sandpaper clogging.

Veneering is probably an easier way to get a good looking result.

[Leroy R]

I'll have to try the resin next. I was a bit frustrated yesterday. On top of what I described above, I dropped one of the boxes on the garage floor right after applying the first coat of paint. This caused a few minor dents and messed up the paint. I tried to feather out the edges of the paint where it was messed up, but now that they are finished, you can still see the damaged areas. It's going to have to do as I am not going to sand them all the way down and start over.

[Mikers]

I coat the entire box with fiberglass resin, diluted about 40% with acetone.

40% acetone? Could be your curing problem, I thought 30% was pushing it.

If you live where it is hot and sunny (25C +) I suggest leaving the box in the sun for an afternoon, covered in black if you can. Give it a good bakeout. This will shrink it. Do it between resin and filler.

[bungelow_ed]

Are you all talking about resin or epoxy? I haven't worked with resin in 20yrs, but have much more recent experience with epoxies used in boat building.

Epoxy tends to develop an "amine blush", a waxy surface build -up that can clog sandpaper. One of the way to deal with amine is to use a cabinet scrapper.

The scrapper takes off the amine and levels small imperfections, read brush strokes, fish eyes, and dust/insects. Sanding, if needed goes a lot better after scrapping.

I am especially fond of System Three because it mixes in a 2:1 ratio, is readily available and well supported. As I recall System Three used to sell an inexpensive small kit for first time users. They also sell a body filler and cross-linked high build primer that is tough as nails when cured. BTW, I have no connection with System Three, yadda, yadda, yadda.....

[Mikers]

its fiberglass resin

forgot, another thing you can try is to back scrape with a razor blade before sanding. Scrape it enough that you get the shine off, then it will sand better. (by back scraping I'm referring to going over the surface with the razor angled backwards so it doesn't dig in)

[Leroy R]

Well I couldn't leave it. The baffle took most of the paint damage when it fell so I sanded it down and repainted the baffle. Not perfect, but looks a lot better.

[Crayborn]

Ordered the parts today to make a set of Minions with dual drivers. Will let you know how it goes.

[michiganpat]

since the -3db of the ported enclosure is a little north of 100hz, would it be a good idea to toss a big NPE in series to attenuate the low frequency stuff out? using the impedance plot provided by PE and an online calculator, a 100uF NPE in series would provide a butterworth 1st order high-pass of around 80-100hz, wouldn't it? since you're on the upside of the impedance spike, not sure what the shape of that high pass would actually give you, though, since impedance goes from ~11ohm at ~50hz, to 20ohm at ~95hz, spiking to it looks like over 40hz at ~150hz, down to ~8ohm by about 500hz....

http://www.parts-express.com/pdf/299-249s.pdf

thinking about trying these drivers in my car, as I don't have very good options for speaker placement since I don't want to cut any panels (1976 duster with a fold down rear seat)