Carerra Build

[stephenmarklay]

Saved his email in jpeg format ... hopefully it gives you all the information.

Super cool. I am still struggling to find time to finish some MLTL boxes for my Continuums. But this sounds like a good time

[stephenmarklay]

Finished the speakers yesterday. The cabinets turned out pretty well. I like the blow torch effect and will try it again. I really enjoyed working with the water based finishes, they layer on just as well as a lacquer. I was able to get 99.9% of a mirror finish with just spraying, im not going to polish these speakers further they are done!! so far from a finish perspective this is the best speakers I have done.

How do they sound?

They sound amazing for bookshelf speakers. I currently own Usher UA711 and Ascend Sierras and have previously owned Selah SSRS and Veritas. I prefer these speakers stand alone to all of them. As I write this I am listening to Min Soldat by Scott Hamilton the mids and highs are excellent and at normal listening levels the bass is outstanding, you almost forget these are bookshelf speakers. Of my builds I would only rate the Cantelinas higher.These speakers are going to replace the ascend sierras in my basement workshop for now..

As far as a MLTL vs Bass Cabinet build, I am leaning towards the bass cabinet for these in the near future. FIrst I need to measure the SPL in Rew and decide on a woofer.. but I have time I probably wont attempt till late this year. If anyone just happens to know the SPL of these, you would speed this process up!

Cool look.

I had a friend that had a very expensive home built and it had solid fir doors. He took them all down, beat them with hammers and burned them with a torch and when the smoke cleared they looked incredible.

[xsilverjag]

Paul, its birch plywood, I just used the original surface. Thanks

[Paul Carmody]

You did great! Thank you for sharing. What kind of veneer is it? It looks like mahogany on my phone, but I can't tell.

[xsilverjag]

Great!
They are definitely among the best speakers i've owned!

The bass bin is a great idea as well. Are you looking to do something like what Jeff Bagby had designed with CSS SDX10 for his continuums and kairos?

I was thinking something similar and using the SB23MFCL45-8, a 1.2 cu ft enclosure or larger would be easy to align with the Carerra box and only have a slightly overlap for the bass box.

[xsilverjag]

Finished the speakers yesterday. The cabinets turned out pretty well. I like the blow torch effect and will try it again. I really enjoyed working with the water based finishes, they layer on just as well as a lacquer. I was able to get 99.9% of a mirror finish with just spraying, im not going to polish these speakers further they are done!! so far from a finish perspective this is the best speakers I have done.

How do they sound?

They sound amazing for bookshelf speakers. I currently own Usher UA711 and Ascend Sierras and have previously owned Selah SSRS and Veritas. I prefer these speakers stand alone to all of them. As I write this I am listening to Min Soldat by Scott Hamilton the mids and highs are excellent and at normal listening levels the bass is outstanding, you almost forget these are bookshelf speakers. Of my builds I would only rate the Cantelinas higher.These speakers are going to replace the ascend sierras in my basement workshop for now..

As far as a MLTL vs Bass Cabinet build, I am leaning towards the bass cabinet for these in the near future. FIrst I need to measure the SPL in Rew and decide on a woofer.. but I have time I probably wont attempt till late this year. If anyone just happens to know the SPL of these, you would speed this process up!

[xsilverjag]

[xsilverjag]

Cool, thanks for posting and thanks Paul.

[craigk]

I wanted a floorstander as i was worried that my kid would topple the bookshelf. Paul K was gracious enough to design one for me. Let me check with him and see if he's ok with me sharing the design.

I would be curious to see them also.

[xsilverjag]

Nice going!
I'll be building a MLTL version of the carrera shortly (hopefully). I was supposed to do this over the holidays, but life got in the way.

Cool, do you have the cabinet plans for it?

[craigk]

Nice job

[xsilverjag]

Cut out the driver holes.. and whoops must have shook the cabinets too much during the cutting because I got some peel from the plywood veneer. Fixed with glue then grain filled with timbermate. I used general finishes dye stain cinnamon color. It's a great stain with a slight learning curve compared to oil. However not all the stain took to the grain filler... to fix I had a brilliant idea of taking a flame torch to the corners to burn the grain filler on the edges black and as a plus add a cool starburst affect.. it looked cool but the flame loosened the veneer where I just glued and burnt up some wood filler and raised the grain... WHOOPS ... since today is Easter and woodcraft is closed.. and I wanted to make some progress, I glued the veneer that peeled up and made some black/gray filler out of a Ebony oil based stain and shellacked it on. Some edges and corners are no longer perfect... but screw it im ready to finish soon so I sanded all the filler and re-stained.. next sanding sealer!.

PS there were a few edits.. I do these updates with my iphone.

[xsilverjag]

Ill have to measure when I finish. But 83-84 is what I expected, with that I would have to consider the Sb Acoustics 8's subs to keep the box size similar.

[dld]

should work fine with the css woofer module designed for the Continuum as they're about the same efficiency.

[craigk]

They are not efficient. I would guess 83 - 84.