Another Pico Neo build

[Kornbread]

Boy needs something a little less substantial in his closet of a dorm room (think Harry Potters under stairs lair) than the current Wharfedale bookshelves. So the simplicity (wow, no crossover), size, and reputed sound of the PIco Neo piqued my interest. Here's the build so far. I planed to finish them this weekend so he could return to college with them (Spring break), but somehow, I pooched the order and only ordered one NS3. Duh ... not paying $7 in s/h for a $17 woofer. It will have to wait.

The wood is Pine glued on edge. Not sure how to finish them. Kevin K. did a build with Poplar and rubbed in some kind of tongue (can't find the post) oil? How would that look on PIne? Ideas?

[Wolf]

You could:
-Scorch it.
-Antique it.
-Distress it.
-Paint it.
-Stain it.
-Poly it.
-Oil it.
-Fugeddaboudit.

Heehee,
Wolf

[kenrhodes]

I do a distressed finish that would look cool on those here is my recipe:
Distress the wood in high trafic areas (corners, large serfices, the top)
Spray the whole thing in red primer or early american red which ever color you prefer.
Spray the whole thing in satin black.
Sand through the black in the high traffic areas, and even down to the wood in the really high traffic areas.
Finish the whole thing in a dark minwax woodsheen.

[kenrhodes]

BTW the photo is not mine you can thank google for that. The results are the same. This is one of my favorite ways to finish projects. Also my best selling finish.

[Kornbread]

I do a distressed finish that would look cool on those here is my recipe:
Distress the wood in high trafic areas (corners, large serfices, the top)
Spray the whole thing in red primer or early american red which ever color you prefer.
Spray the whole thing in satin black.
Sand through the black in the high traffic areas, and even down to the wood in the really high traffic areas.
Finish the whole thing in a dark minwax woodsheen.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1326486[/ATTACH]

Have you ever finished a large floor stander like that? I've primed my large Dayton rs tower and getting them ready for some MoltenRed lacquer, but wondered what some distressed chalk paint might look like. I think they might look quite good if done like that table.

Ah ... found the thread, it was JavadS in "the Stance speaker build thread", and he used 3 coats of Danish oil and wax.

[kenrhodes]

I used to build furniture and sell it before i realized how hard it is to make money doing it. Unfortunately I have never done any speakers with this finish. I might have a build coming up soon that this finish would work well.

[kenmcculloch]

Good looking project! AHHH the ole college dorm speakers!! There will be memories saved and stories told about these!

One easy way is to use Minwax wipe on poly (gloss or satin - I use satin) and apply with a Harbor Freight stain pad ($2.58 for a pack of 8). sand with 500 grit between coats. I do about 6-7 coats and then wet sand down with 600 grits using water with a little dishwashing soap till the sheen is gone (don't sand too hard) then dry and use 0000 steel wool with past wax (Minwax finishing wax from HD). Smoother than a baby's butt. poly is hard and will resist the beverage container residue that will occur.

[Kornbread]

Thanks for the ideas guys, but I've been wanting to try Danish Oil since reading JavidS build. Plans are to let them set for about a week, then recoat/oil wet sand with 600, and repeat the process three or four times. Finally wax with Carnuba?, and see how that turns out.

Wish I'd have went with the natural instead of medium Walnut. So far, it went on, and looks like any other stain.

[Millstonemike]

good looking project! Ahhh the ole college dorm speakers!! There will be memories saved and stories told about these!

Poly is hard and will resist the beverage container residue that will occur.

lmas.

[Kornbread]

Lost count of all the coats put on those things. Guess the soft pine kept eating it up. Wipe on, let it set a bit, wipe off, then let it set for a day or two. Never did a heavy coat. Wet sanded about every third/fourth coat. Not a 'cleared' kind of look, it has some depth to it, but mainly looks wet.

So far, they have two coats of Meguiars carnuba wax on them. Not sure this was the correct wax, but when checking the labels of waxes in the woodworking section, several of them contained carnuba wax. Got plenty of that around the house.

Can't see it in the pics, but the feel of them before waxing was nice, and kind of hard to describe, a super smooth, somewhat tactile feeling ... baby's butt. Waxing made them sooo slick (like a wet bar of soap) but IMO, the way the depth of the wood comes out is totally different than a stain/clear combo.

I'd like to try this method again, but only if using a good wood. Although they look ok, I don't think it was worth all the trouble.

One major screwup, there was a small piece of something hard under the cotton rag they were on while I was wet sanding for the last time. It made ugly squiggly marks in the wood. Oh well. They're probably going to see worse times ahead.

Quickly hooked them (actually only one of them as I forgot to order a pair of the NS3's ... duh) to the little Lepai that constantly plays in the shed. Wow, it's hard to believe all that bass is coming from that tiny woofer. Kind of disturbing watching that tiny thing dancing around so much with the bass.

[tomzarbo]

They look beautiful! I like the amount of sheen. I hesitate to use Pine for difficulty of finishing like you said, but those look pretty dang spiffy. Nice job.
TomZ

[donradick]

Korn -

I think they look great!
After messing up a number of different finishes, I have settled on Tung oil type finishes.
Pretty hard to screw up, pretty easy to fix, and when done the wood has a great tactile feel.

[Kornbread]

Thanks for the kind words guys The wife really likes the feel of these.

Note to self. It seems carnuba wax can turn bad if left around long enough. It still shines fine, just smells like a fat dude on a hot summer day mixed with wet dirty dog. And the smell's still there after 2 weeks.

Took some measurements today. This one has been playing continuously for about 2 weeks so it should be broke-in. Was hoping for a little better, but hey, what should one expect from such a tiny little do-all driver. There's some noise from the port, glad it's facing the back. Now I just need to order the other driver and give them a listen.

All measurements smoothed 1/24. [email protected]", taken outside on back patio.



[email protected], tuning 54hz. Large peaks at 950hz and 6k.


Outside patio [email protected] purple, inside beside computer and 5" from wall [email protected]" green.



Inside 2" from wall purp, and 5" from wall green. [email protected]".



Inside from wall 2" purp vs 8" from wall black. [email protected]".

[Kornbread]

Looked but couldn't seem to find the port tuning frequency. What was it and how far off was I?

The wife says, "I suppose these are for boy too?" Maybe another set in the works. Looks like the Nd 65, 90 and 91 are on sale starting next week. .

[Kornbread]

Got the other woofer in today, was a day late, but hey, this part of the country is underwater. I'm just glad it made it here, and dry. Slapped it in the box, used a Sure 4x100 t-amp, Aune preamp/dac, and now have the pair flanking the computer screen about 8" from the back wall, 18" apart and 23" away.

Initial thoughts listening mostly to Spotify standard quality, and a couple flac files.

Just getting this out of the way first. Even thought the measurements say the highs are there, they don't have that airy feel to them, might have a little of that cha cha sound coming from ~5-6k. Other than that, the high end is fine. The Sound of Silence, from Disturbed, has slightly less chestiness to the vocal, as does Hurt, by Johnny Cash. Not sure if this is due to a solid box with quite a bit of denim insulation in it or something amiss in the frequency response. Maybe a touch hot around 2k, haven't noticed anything odd at this early point.

Now on to the good stuff.

WOW! I can't believe all this sound comes from these tiny little woofers. For their size, these things are awesome! Bass ... you'll think there's a small sub hidden somewhere. Pop has plenty of kick to move it along. Songs with a lot of clean bass like Closer, by The Chainsmokers, sound great. No, they won't do full justice to Basstronic's, Bass I Love You, but there's enough there to get the picture. ACDC's, Cover You in Oil, kicks butt. There's enough definition that songs like Blue Monday, by Orgy, (my torture track for pulling music out of a yucky mess of sounds) isn't destroyed. They can even place the sounds in Roger Water's, Amused to Death, outside the speakers. No problem filling a small room with music.


I'll start rolling flac files and cd's later and see if my initial thoughts change.

I'm impressed with these little buggers.