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2nd coat on and it looks darker indoors. I guess I'll just have to settle for the heavily distressed oak look.
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I'm certainly not good at this. Just stubborn enough to keep going. -
They look just fine from here, man!
I'd like to see your individual horn/cd sweeps when you get around to it.
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Thanks guys. I guess they do have a look I can work with, just not the look I was going for. I'm finding this style of water based stain isn't for paper backed veneer, unless you really are going for a distressed look. It raised many spots that sanded through easily. I also am finding this plywood I used had undulations that didn't sand out fully. They partially translated through the veneer and also add to the distressed rough sawn wood effect. So it all culminates to a happy accident I suppose. They get wife approval too!
Sanded the previous two coats of poly yesterday and put on another two coats. I could sand again and add more coats but I'm thinking no need to shoot for an extra flat surface due to the rustic nature of the finish. Each coat sucks up roughly a full spray can and that stuff is really creeping up in price!
My phone camera refuses to capture the true contrast of the colors.
Today I really only contemplated next steps on the build... Got more done on the house and went to a local pumpkin festival. Scored some fun new vinyl there. LOL
I'm certainly not good at this. Just stubborn enough to keep going.Comment
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One thing I do with oak and water based stains is to let the stain dry between coats and run a sharp scraper or even a razor blade to remove the raised fibers in the wood. You can skip the sander and are much less likely to tear up the veneer.Originally posted by DrewsBrews View Post
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A little natural light goes a long way I guess for the camera to get the color right.
Got started on the bases. Sometimes smaller clamps would be nice..
Picked up a can o super 77 adhesive this evening so I can get to installing some foam.I'm certainly not good at this. Just stubborn enough to keep going.Comment
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I meant to say it sanded through the stain.. kind of sounded like I might have been saying sanded through the veneer when I reread my post.Originally posted by davidroberts View Post
It actually sanded through the stain worse after the first 2 coats of poly. Just using a foam backed hand sanding block with very light pressure. Oah well, it kind of worked out anyway. Thanks for the tip though!I'm certainly not good at this. Just stubborn enough to keep going.Comment
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Taking care of the boring stuff
3 coats of oil based poly on the bases to seal them. Sanded flat then a couple coats of satin black sprayed on. Installed some feet to protect the bottoms. Then put some neoprene tape on top to fill any gap between them and the enclosures. The clear feet are made out of the same stuff as super bouncy balls... I did drop one and the odd shape made it go all sorts of directions and clear color made it difficult to track down LOL.
Installed the foam. Cut out for the mid (squawker) CD due to it coming less than 1/4" from the back.
Then getting on to drilling all the screw holes, installing gasket on the woofers and horns, and gluing in the ports with silicone.I'm certainly not good at this. Just stubborn enough to keep going.Comment
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And now for the obnoxious part, for me at least. Where I live there is lots of ambient noise and wind. So testing outside is a no go. My living room is rather small too but I make do with what I have. I had to reteach myself the right settings for a gated measurement, realizing I was probably doing it kind of wrong previously and crossing fingers that my measurements are somewhat accurate.
Measured with mic at roughly ear height tilted slightly down pointing between the tweeter and mid horn. Felt right to me at least.
Then busted out the LIMP box..
Woofer impedance
Mid impedance
Tweeter impedance
Looks more normal this time. I tested the other and it was pretty much the same. Not sure what happened previous time I tested them to get the different result
I'm certainly not good at this. Just stubborn enough to keep going.Comment
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First time using the comparison method to figure out acoustic center (mis)alignment. Pretty neat stuff!
PCD for some reason won't display the correct response info above ~13khz this time around. WinPCD displays it fine, but I'm more used to original PCD so I continued with that.
Here is where I'm at after a few hours dorking around. 3rd order on Woofer and tweet. 2nd order on each end of the mid. Got the mid and woofer to stop fighting so much, but it seems the time alignment and center-center spacing causes some unavoidable cancelation for the mid-tweeter handoff. Playing with normal/reverse wiring I get the choice between two shallow troughs on either side of one deep suckout at xo point, or two deep ones straddling the xo point.
I'll keep playing around and do more research. Usually this step takes me weeks. Then I decide on something and when putting components together the result is quite different from the simulation.. and end up spending weeks having fits slowly testing out more combinations. I'm certainly not good at this, just stubborn enough to keep going.
This is why I do my builds backwards now. After weeks/months of crossover anguish I lose interest in finishing the cabinet and just want to listen to the final result
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Have a question though. regarding resistors in parallel to the driver. It seems many builds I see only using a series resistor, either before or after the xo. Is there an audible reason to not use a parallel resistor? Or is there some other reason?
Currently modeling a 4ohm in parallel, as well as series resistors, to rein in the mid.I'm certainly not good at this. Just stubborn enough to keep going.Comment
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Do you have your 2nd and 3rd order assignments crossed up or am I just not seeing this correctly?
Your woofer and tweeter slopes are 1/2 as shallow as the midrange slopes from my view.Comment
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Excellent reply ^ and very insightful concerning the maddening nature of passive cross-overs.
I'll stick with active stuff as I don't think I will live long enough to master passive XO's.
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Nope - continuity is now lost - but I understand - thanks.
:D
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No (good) reason not to use a parallel resistor (to attenuate). One (side-)benefit with resistance in parallel w/a driver is that it helps flatten out its impedance curve (making filters act more the way they're intended to).
Would you mind posting your .frd files (w/phase) you're using in your sims?Comment
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Attached. Thanks for checking it out Chris
Thinking the tweeter (aftermarket Ti diaphragm) isn't working out so well. Too much slope to contend with making it difficult to get a high enough order resulting slope to minimize cancelation. On top of the "meh" response. The diaphragms these came with originally measured a bit better IMO, but unfortunately one is damaged. I could just buy more tweeters (which may come to that), but at the moment I was trying to get by with what I have on hand...
I could try to take another swing at repairing the factory diaphragms. Or, I have some of the THX buyout horn drivers I could harvest their diaphragms (4ohm) to try.
Ill hold off for the moment in case Chris finds something in the phase data.Last edited by DrewsBrews; 10-18-2022, 11:27 AM.I'm certainly not good at this. Just stubborn enough to keep going.Comment
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The tweet & mid phase look pretty "average".
The woofer phase looks pretty rough (esp. between about 3.5 and 7kHz).
You could try to regenerate phase for the woofer and see if it helps ... ?Comment
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