E-Wave Mini: Beta-8A and XD120 in vintage cabinet

[gye]

After having the parts sitting in a closet for quite some time, I finally got around building my first project.

The woofer is an Eminence Beta-8A from Parts Express and the HF is the XD120 18 Sound waveguide/CD combo that was on clearance from QSC Parts.

The crossover was designed by the master himself (RIP) and can be seen in this post:

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/showpost.php?p=1691999&postcount=369

I got the cabinet from eBay for a couple more bucks than thrift store prices but I just couldn't find any around here. The cabinets got pretty banged up on the way here and I needed to use some epoxy wood to fix the nicks. I'm not happy with my re-finishing job and it would have been a lot faster to build the cabinets from scratch, but I learned a couple of lessons along the way.

Here’s the finished product….

[gye]

Re: E-Wave Mini: Beta-8A and XD120 in vintage cabinet

The baffle is made from 3/4" MDF and I decided to cut it a bit smaller than the cabinets so it shows part of the veneered edge from the cabinet. It also helped me to get closer to the baffle width that Zilch used.

I used a router to make the opening for the woofer, allowing for flush-mounting.



And for the HF cutout, I used a cheap jigsaw, which was not easy at all to use.



Here I was testing how the drivers fit in the unfinished baffle.



For the C-to-C distance, I used what Zilch had in the PCD file (7"). Although by looking at his picture, he might used 7.5" or 8" in his prototype.

[gye]

Re: E-Wave Mini: Beta-8A and XD120 in vintage cabinet

For finishing the baffle, I used a couple of coats of water/glue mix, sanding between coats



Followed by a couple of coats of primer




And finally a couple of coats of semi-gloss black paint



The lesson learned here was to spend some more time sanding before the sealer and probably use bondo to patch router mistakes.

[gye]

Re: E-Wave Mini: Beta-8A and XD120 in vintage cabinet

For the cabinets I used a gel stain from General Finishes. The intent was to cover up the epoxy a few scratches and stains in the cabinet. I think the gel stain is a good product for this purpose but my lack of experience shows the most in this step.



I followed with a top coat of MinWax fast-drying polyurethane that I had in the basement, a left-over from finishing a door.



For lining the cabinets, I used the fiberglass that came with the cabinets and I supplemented it with unfaced pink insulation (R6.7) from Home Depot.

[gye]

Re: E-Wave Mini: Beta-8A and XD120 in vintage cabinet

Here are a couple of pictures of the crossover, assembled in ZilchLab boards. The notch filter for the HF driver didn't fit in the board, so I had to mount those components next to it.

[howard]

Re: E-Wave Mini: Beta-8A and XD120 in vintage cabinet

Very attractive! How do they sound? Are you happy with the sound you are getting? That is what counts. Good work.
Howard

[gye]

Re: E-Wave Mini: Beta-8A and XD120 in vintage cabinet

Very attractive! How do they sound? Are you happy with the sound you are getting? That is what counts. Good work.
Howard

Thank you!

They sound amazing, dynamic and detailed, especially for movies. Maybe a bit too harsh for my taste in music but I think I still have ways to go in calibrating them correctly.

Before these, I was using Energy bookshelves (RC-10) and they just couldn’t keep up with my humble 10” Mirage subwoofers. These mini ewaves, on the other hand, can run circles around the Energy's in terms of dynamic range.

I can’t imagine how much better the more refined econowave versions must sound.

[howard]

Re: E-Wave Mini: Beta-8A and XD120 in vintage cabinet

I hate to be the one to say this but you may have to travel to hear them or just give in when the finances are right and build another pair farther up the food chain. Good luck! Keep us posted.
Try some Foreigner if you like them. It will show them off.

[isaeagle4031]

Re: E-Wave Mini: Beta-8A and XD120 in vintage cabinet

Very nice work. I am thinking about using that same woofer in a current project I have. Your finish looks pretty good to me on them.

[donprice]

Re: E-Wave Mini: Beta-8A and XD120 in vintage cabinet

Sweet! You'll run out of ears before you run out of headroom. :D

[LouC]

Re: E-Wave Mini: Beta-8A and XD120 in vintage cabinet

The Beta 8 is a dandy driver. Very clean and obviously quite sensitive. Tough to get much bass out of it. If it just wasn't so bfugly...

[dcibel]

Re: E-Wave Mini: Beta-8A and XD120 in vintage cabinet

That looks great. I've got the idea to do just the same with this driver for the high end:

http://www.diysoundgroup.com/featured-for-mg04a00409/dna-10.html

Just have to convince one of my friends they need this...

[gye]

Re: E-Wave Mini: Beta-8A and XD120 in vintage cabinet

I hate to be the one to say this but you may have to travel to hear them or just give in when the finances are right and build another pair farther up the food chain. Good luck! Keep us posted.
Try some Foreigner if you like them. It will show them off.

Thank you and nice tip on Foreigner. The only track that I have is "I Want To Know What Love Is" but I see the potential. It reminds me of "Wicked Game" by Chris Issak, which is one of my favorite tunes for demoing. I has all kinds of instruments from lows to highs and the vocals have a wide range.

And, yeah, I can see myself going for a more refined waveguide, but first I'd like to try out something different, like a design with a ribbon tweeter.

[gye]

Re: E-Wave Mini: Beta-8A and XD120 in vintage cabinet

Very nice work. I am thinking about using that same woofer in a current project I have. Your finish looks pretty good to me on them.

Thank you....and looking forward to seeing your project with the Beta.

[gye]

Re: E-Wave Mini: Beta-8A and XD120 in vintage cabinet

Sweet! You'll run out of ears before you run out of headroom. :D

It's already happening :D ..... have to use a sound level meter for sanity check.