Nick's Shticks (design by Lou)

[NickJ]

Hi everyone! As long promised I am posting my speaker build of LouC’s schticks. Before I go on with the pictures here is a quick breakdown of what went right and what went wrong.

I started the project with the idea of have some monitor speakers in my office. However, I also wanted bass impact. Acoustic summation is usually a problem with multi driver speakers up close (I have been told), but Lou suggested this design as a starting point because it was one of his most omni-directional. I will say that they are pretty good compared to a lot of towers, but I didn’t want to take any chances, so I used ¾ mdf, and changed the dimensions a little to get the tweeters up closer to ear level (I also put it on spikes because I hate floors), and I definitely can notice a difference in the vertical axis so I am glad that I did. The boxes and bracing were all dadoed, the back is removable, and I modified the space behind the sealed mid’s section to house the crossover for easy access. The box came together nicely (thanks to my wife and dog; pictured), and once glued up I did a ¾ inch round over of the top and bottom corners. Why not the sides where it would have made a difference acoustically? Aesthetics…sue me. Next came the paint job. I was going to use rustoleam spray cans (oil based), and so I started with a coat of oil based primer. This is where the disaster started. Long story short the spray cans ended up being non-viable for this project, and after hunting high and low for another oil based paint, I got one that was slate grey, despite being listed as black…ugh. Turns out I suck at painting and the mistakes on the first coat were never successfully sanded out. The second and final coat turned out even worse thanks to a thoughtlessly left on fan which blew a bunch of crap into the paint (which was of course still wet because oil paint takes ten days to dry even here in Arizona). To distract from the bad paint job I risked making it worse and a matching metallic paint that matched the Hivi’s and painted the pinstripes. They came out alright, and I said screw it and finished it off with five coats of wax (which didn’t do anything positive as far as I can tell). Finally, I mounted the crossovers, stuffed and used sealing foam on the intercabinet passages and fired them up.

It was disappointing. One of the speakers sounded like it was in a tin can and the other sounded like the tweeter was blown (which was a press to fit jobby and was never coming out again). All of these problems turned out to be fixable. First break in and adjusting the stuffing made a HUGE difference in sound. I found a broken connection for the tweeter and adjusted the tweeter section of the crossover to account for my very “live” office. They are sounding pretty sweet right now playing on my Parasound Zamp .v3. I am still playing with the stuffing, as I feel I am missing a little in the 400-750 range compared to when I put on my AKG q701 headphones, but by and large I am really happy with them and am starting to forget about the sanding nightmares and the urges to see how aerodynamic the boxes were when dropped from a tall place and am happily planning my next projects.

[djg]

Nice. I haven't seen anyone build these until this project.

[69FireBird]

i like the stripes on the front part are those woofers pretty good at bass?

[arlis_1957@yahoo.com]

yeah, nice looking speakers. very envious of you shop. cute helpers.

[fastbike1]

Still and all, pretty nicely done. Great concept on the pinstripes. I like your choice of roundover.

[LouC]

Look way cool Nick, glad stuff was fixable.

Is that right tweeter dome deformed, or is it an optical illusion?

[Wolf]

Look way cool Nick, glad stuff was fixable.

Is that right tweeter dome deformed, or is it an optical illusion?

It's one of those new 'dimple-dome' tweeters.... I think a piece of tube and a small light sucker would make that fine and dandy.

Later,
Wolf

[xavier]

Lookin' good, Nick. My favorite LouC design (that I've had the pleasure of hearing.) Enjoy!

[NickJ]

Haha, I didn't notice the tweeter until you guys did. It must have happened when I was messing with the crossover. Wolf, would you care to expand on your fix?

I also want to take this moment to say what a pleasure it was working with Lou. You are an awesome speaker mentor, dude.

[domwilson]

Nicely Executed!

[bungelow_ed]

I had to go back and look at the pictures again to see the tweeter.....must have been to busy admiring the paint/pin striping to notice the first time. Veeeery nice looking speakers. No doubt they sound as nice as they look.

[Ryan]

I noticed the pushed in tweeter as well , I also noticed only two screws per woofer holding them in , but he also mentioned that he was playing with the stuffing!
Those are very nice looking speakers , if you wouldn't have mentioned your painting problems , I would have never guessed you had any trouble , they look great!

[Wolf]

Haha, I didn't notice the tweeter until you guys did. It must have happened when I was messing with the crossover. Wolf, would you care to expand on your fix?

Use a tubular device, maybe a 'sealing gasket' on the end, and inhale via mouth from the tweeter exit using said device.
It should work,
Wolf

[B_Rich]

I love your setup! Nicely done on the towers, too.

[NickJ]

i like the stripes on the front part are those woofers pretty good at bass?

Yeah, they are pretty good. In that room I definitely don't need a sub, which is great. I can definitely feel a lot of impact on some songs. Honestly, I think I am more limited by my amplifier in this regard. The Zamp (something like 100 watts) is no slouch, but man these speakers are power hungry and inefficient. You won't be running these with a Lepai. That said, for most songs I can get up to pretty uncomfortable volumes at the three quarter mark.

@Ryan: You are correct. The screws were out for stuffing adjustment. I just wanted to take photos with our camera before my wife left on her road trip.

Wolf, thanks for the advice. I will see what I can find around the house. I may just try it with a straw, as I am pretty sure I don't have a gasket sealer.

[Wolf]

Wolf, thanks for the advice. I will see what I can find around the house. I may just try it with a straw, as I am pretty sure I don't have a gasket sealer.

I think you misunderstand me. Use a large enough tube that fits over the whole face, and maybe put something on the end/edge to seal for better results Like a cut up ballon or something.
Then just suck on the other end to pop the dome back out. Sometimes scotch or masking tape can pull it back out if not working well.

Later,
Wolf

[LouC]

...I also want to take this moment to say what a pleasure it was working with Lou. You are an awesome speaker mentor, dude.

<blush> Thanks Nick, I enjoyed having you over and working with you. Glad I had the parts on hand.

We've both suffered the humiliation and servitude of grad school at Ooh Ahh That makes us brothers!

[jsr]

Wow, those look great. If you want to feel better shout your paint job, just look st my speakers.

One thing I always wondered about the Schticks...with all the fuss about diffraction, how do the Schticks handle that with an inset face where there are multiple 90deg edges that the tweeter will see (this is referring to Lou's design on his page)?

[xavier]

"...with all the fuss about diffraction, how do the Schticks handle that with an inset face where there are multiple 90deg edges that the tweeter will see (this is referring to Lou's design on his page)?"

The baffle and inside grill edges of that pair were lined with acoustic foam (not pictured), so diffraction shouldn't be an issue.

[LouC]

The ND16 is also mildly horn loaded so it's less of an issue. Not really much different than putting grills on a speaker. I found grill effects, for the most part, to be negligible. My postulate: diffraction is more of an issue when your tweeter has a dome that protrudes past the faceplate.