Introducing the PMS speakers

[KiwiListener]

Re: Introducing the Poor Mans Strad ... speakers

Absolutely beautiful! When will you give us some listening impressions?

Thank-you, I'm currently sorting through some media for a listening impression test.
I had a short listen last night, I was going to leave them to harden off in the workshop but couldn't resist a listen so they are curing in the lounge.
Stills smells a little like fresh paint.

I cranked up Metallica's - Nothing Else Matters off the Black Album.
At half power it sounded like I was at the concert, the soundstage is amazingly life like. My AriaII's are a lot more directional, and while they sound very good and they share the same bass driver, it was a case of Holy *hite Batman , as different as night and day.
I think the description would be - expansive sound stage - Its very different from listening to a more standard 3 way.
I understand Troel's comment " That he might as well stop making speakers" after these, I don't know what I would design at this stage that would beat these. Except maybe the bigger version of these......:D

[kenrhodes]

Re: Introducing the Poor Mans Strad ... speakers

Amazing! You are a fine craftsmen, please post some more pics.

[KiwiListener]

Re: Introducing the Poor Mans Strad ... speakers

Amazing! You are a fine craftsmen, please post some more pics.

Thank you very much.
More piccies as per your request


Obligatory magazine style shot



Excuse the laundry on the line :eek:



Plenty of space from the wall although not so necessary with down firing port.



Dwarfing the AriaII's (note same woofer in both speaker )



I love the finish, really pleased with this as its the first time I've used wipe on poly.

[Tin_Ears]

Re: Introducing the Poor Mans Strad ... speakers

Is that big metal white thingy at the right of the fourth photo a giant AMT? :D

[badman]

Re: Introducing the Poor Mans Strad ... speakers

That'd be sweet- space heater.

[Tin_Ears]

Re: Introducing the Poor Mans Strad ... speakers

That'd be sweet- space heater.

Yeah... I have a couple exactly like his. It's till too warm here to use them though... still need the A/C most of the time. Hey OP... run those speakers HARD so they'll make all the heat you need!! :D

[KiwiListener]

Re: Introducing the Poor Mans Strad ... speakers

Yeah... I have a couple exactly like his. It's till too warm here to use them though... still need the A/C most of the time. Hey OP... run those speakers HARD so they'll make all the heat you need!! :D

When the wife's next out in the garden or in town they are going to run with some real juice thrown at them.

The mobile radiator heaters are really handy.We live at altitude on the lower slopes of Mount Pirongia and its mid spring here and temps are still low. The down side is they chew through the power somewhat but are still the best way to heat this old house.

Done a preliminary listening test and the upper midrange & lower HF need a little tweaking. Vocals are good but need to be a little more forward. Sound-stage is very broad but still has nice imaging. I've spaced these quite a bit wider than the previous speakers as the sweet spot is actually quite wide, and having them too close together stuffs up the imaging a bit. Probably will end up spacing them even a little wider, I wont know for sure until I adjust the crossover.

[Tin_Ears]

Re: Introducing the Poor Mans Strad ... speakers

These oil-filled electric heaters are something like 98 percent efficient at turning electricity into heat... can't get much better than that.

Looking (hearing) forward to more of your listening evaluation.

[KiwiListener]

Re: Introducing the Poor Mans Strad ... speakers

Finished!!

They are done apart from minor tweaks to the crossover once they have had a bit more run in time.

The past weekend saw the Grills done and the final changes to the crossover for now.

Listening thoughts.

The level of detail and the width of the soundstage take some getting used to. They are both direct and expansive at the same time, if that makes sense.

We have played a variety of music through them so far and one thing is painfully obvious - Most, I'm thinking about 90% of my digital media on the Media Center PC is rubbish. That's about 11 gigs worth.
Most are older 128 and 192 Kb recordings and just aren't good enough, so I'm now hunting out remasters of a lot of the collection.

The problem is compounded by the fact that a lot of my vinyl isn't going to cut it. The separate turntable preamp just isn't up to the quality needed. These speakers punish bad or average recordings.

On the bright side though my Flac recordings are fine as are my CD collection. Both the CD & Blu-Ray player playback is excellent.

Movies on the Media Centre are excellent as well. I've used the built in spatial setting for the speakers, so that's one for the Onkyo.
Unfortunately I don't think the Onkyo is quite cutting it either ... so that suxs too.
On the bright side - it gives me a good reason to get a separate audio amp

Its a holiday weekend this week, yay, 3 days off :D.
A few of the lads from the Audioenz forum are coming over for a listen and a critique session so I will have a better or worse report on these after Saturday. Well will test using my Onkyo then set up a Plinius 8150 and a small tube amp to see how things sound.
I'm looking forward to having a really interesting day. The 8150 may getting a little long in the tooth but it is still an outstanding amp, so I hope the speakers are up to the task.

Picy of the Strads with their clothes on.

[greywarden]

Re: Introducing the Poor Mans Strad ... speakers

11 gigs? No big loss, I have a couple TB worth...

Those a great looking, too!

[KiwiListener]

Re: Introducing the Poor Mans Strad ... speakers

Thanks greywarden

Yeah between my son and I we probably have about a TB of music, sadly the 11 gigs worth are my all time favorites mostly, my less favored artists all have better recordings.
Never mind the internet will provide, there's some really good remastered stuff around and these days it doesn't cost too much, so over time all will be well methinks.

[evilskillit]

Re: Introducing the Poor Mans Strad ... speakers

Man those look lovely. I've liked them ever since I saw them on Troel's site.
If it's not already covered how much does it cost to build those guys these days? Then again I guess it doesn't matter because being on the other side of the pond my prices might not even remotely resemble yours.

Lastly, what a great song to test the speakers with. I love seeing some Metallica as the inaugural test track instead of some smooth jazz or classical. Not that there's anything wrong with either but metal and rock don't get enough love.

Thank-you, I'm currently sorting through some media for a listening impression test.
I had a short listen last night, I was going to leave them to harden off in the workshop but couldn't resist a listen so they are curing in the lounge.
Stills smells a little like fresh paint.

I cranked up Metallica's - Nothing Else Matters off the Black Album.
At half power it sounded like I was at the concert, the soundstage is amazingly life like. My AriaII's are a lot more directional, and while they sound very good and they share the same bass driver, it was a case of Holy *hite Batman , as different as night and day.
I think the description would be - expansive sound stage - Its very different from listening to a more standard 3 way.
I understand Troel's comment " That he might as well stop making speakers" after these, I don't know what I would design at this stage that would beat these. Except maybe the bigger version of these......:D

[KiwiListener]

Re: Introducing the Poor Mans Strad ... speakers

Thanks skillit

As soon as I saw them on Troels site , it was a case of I gotta build a pair :D

Its about a year since I first saw them on Troels site and it taken about 4 months just doing a few hours during the week and the odd full day on weekends.
Total build cost plus or minus a dollar was $510 NZD or about $430.00 USD and worth every cent of it too.
I will spend another $100.00 over time on better caps for the crossover and inductors as I will change the mid upper frequency crossover point. But that's for later and really is just fine tuning, or nit picking as my wife calls it :eek:

Conservatively I feel that the $510.00 has returned me a set of speaker that I would happily pay $10 - $20,000 for if I were to buy them retail.
Some of our Audioenz ( local NZ hi-fi forum) members are coming over this Saturday for some serious listening and critique so my valuation may go up or down, depending upon the outcome. To date I haven't had a failure with DIY speakers and I don't think the Strads will disappoint. Here's hoping anyway, some of our local forum members are pretty particular about what they like to listen too.

I will report back later.

[6thplanet]

Re: Introducing the Poor Mans Strad ... speakers

Super nice, man! Those are definatly worth being proud of and if they sound as good as they look, you'll be happy for a long time...or until the itch returns... ;)

[KiwiListener]

Re: Introducing the Poor Mans Strad ... speakers

Thanks 6th
They sound very nice and I can't help but keep playing music when I should be doing other things

Oh and about the itch thing .... I've been scratching again ... a new build is starting to formulate :D