My version of the Ansonica

[gleite311]

At long last I have begun my speaker project over the past few weekends based on the Ansonica design by CJD. This is certainly the most ambitious speaker project I’ve attempted, in that it has much more intricate cabinetry than I’ve built before and I’ll be assembling my own crossover for the first time. Fortunately, my Dad lives only a few miles down the road and has collected an impressive array of cabinet making tools over the years (table saw, band saw, jointer, thickness planer, plunge router, drill press, etc. etc.).

Chris’s original design called for 34” tall cabinets, but my listening position was slightly higher than that, so I’m building 36” tall cabinets which will be closer to 37” with the rubber feet installed. I also wanted to build a cabinet that had slightly larger internal dimensions to be sure to accommodate the proper port length for a 3” flared port, thus I have a trapezoidal rather than parallelogram shape to the side profile of the cabinet. The baffle will remain at 9” wide though and retain the proper center-to-center spacing that Chris specified.

The majority of the parts were sourced from Parts-Express, though the tweeters came from Madisound and most of the inductors were ordered directly from Erse. The cabinet will be constructed of ¾” Baltic Birch plywood and the baffle will be a mix of solid Padauk and Black Walnut jointed together. I'm really looking forward to hearing these, as they've received high praise and I'm hoping to have speakers that look as beautiful as they sound.

Enough of my blathering and on to some photos!

[gleite311]

Re: My version of the Ansonica

Here are a few more photos.

[gleite311]

Re: My version of the Ansonica

Reserved.

[Chris Roemer]

Re: My version of the Ansonica

One of my favs in Chicago, 2011.

[Uncle Bob]

Re: My version of the Ansonica

Looking forward to following your build as I also have 4 of the Anarchy mids and are debating between the Ansonica and the Anarchist by Face.

[WilZirkle]

Re: My version of the Ansonica

love those baffles

[knowledgebass]

Re: My version of the Ansonica

I agree, very nice baffles. Reminds me of some of the laminated bass guitar necks I've seen builders use.

Some questions about the build.

1. How thick is your baffle? Are you supporting the natural wood with MDF or plywood? (just reviewed your photos again and looks like you are planning to glue the wood to 3/4" ply box)
2. Which of the two cross over layouts are you planning on using? Series or parallel?
3. If you haven't started, you may want to figure out where/how you're going to get the cross over into the box. First I realized that CJD built his with a removable rear panel which I then had to work into my assembly construction. Then I ran out of space in the bottom level of the build as the port quickly used up all the space and resulted in separating different parts of the cross over onto different boards - which isn't a problem, I just hadn't anticipated it and realized it was an issue once I had my boxes glued up. I was OK as I still don't have the cross overs done.

Nice to see another Ansonica build. If your workspace is heated you'll likely finish before I can complete my build. I look forward to following your build!

[gleite311]

Re: My version of the Ansonica

I agree, very nice baffles. Reminds me of some of the laminated bass guitar necks I've seen builders use.

Some questions about the build.

1. How thick is your baffle? Are you supporting the natural wood with MDF or plywood? (just reviewed your photos again and looks like you are planning to glue the wood to 3/4" ply box)
2. Which of the two cross over layouts are you planning on using? Series or parallel?
3. If you haven't started, you may want to figure out where/how you're going to get the cross over into the box. First I realized that CJD built his with a removable rear panel which I then had to work into my assembly construction. Then I ran out of space in the bottom level of the build as the port quickly used up all the space and resulted in separating different parts of the cross over onto different boards - which isn't a problem, I just hadn't anticipated it and realized it was an issue once I had my boxes glued up. I was OK as I still don't have the cross overs done.

Nice to see another Ansonica build. If your workspace is heated you'll likely finish before I can complete my build. I look forward to following your build!

I've actually been following your build over on the HT guide website. Regarding your crossover question, I plan to use a similar solution to yours where part of the back is removable and I have a 'skeletonized' piece behind it for support. I also am going to build the parallel crossover rather than the series crossover. The baffle will have a piece of the 3/4" Baltic Birch glued to the back of it, but it will sit between the sides so that the hardwood baffle covers the front completely. I've attached a photo that shows it from the inside of the box here.

My workspace isn't heated, but since I live in Southern California, it generally doesn't get cold enough to prevent working on this kind of project ;-)
I'm hoping to have it finished before the end of the month, since I usually don't have time to work on it outside of the weekends.

[knowledgebass]

Re: My version of the Ansonica

Great! Sounds like you've thought it through and my questions were directed to help you avoid some of the little setbacks I have encountered. That wood panel looks great.

My expected deadline seems to over-optimistically be the end of whatever month it currently is so I'll be done by the end of January as well Ask me again in February. Realistically, best I think I can hope to finish by sometime in March. I only have weekends as well and not every weekend at that. I'm going to be sanding for my next few available weekends...

I'm now subscribed to your thread and I think I've posted most of my build related issues I encountered in the design thread but please post any info you think will be helpful to me or others, or ask if you have any questions. I'm usually a little further along than my posts indicate and at least mentally a couple steps ahead. I'll probably be ahead of you for one or two more weekends CJD's been most helpful with responding on the technical questions as well.

[nyt]

Re: My version of the Ansonica

Great looking build so far!

[gleite311]

Re: My version of the Ansonica

Well, I made a little progress this weekend. Routers aren't my friend though - twice I was working with it and it bored too deep or the template shifted and fouled up my work. Hopefully I'll be able to patch/fill the parts where it gouged the wood. I could have sworn I took more photos today, apparently I fail at photo-documentation.

[Mike47]

Re: My version of the Ansonica

I absolutely love that baffle. Makes me want to redo mine!

[gleite311]

Re: My version of the Ansonica

Making progress, albeit slower than I was hoping. Funny how you'll have some ideas for a given build and then you'll change your mind mid-course or have some mistakes you'll have to correct which throw a wrench into things.

I forgot to take a photo of the insert before I re-routed it, but here's an idea of how I was able to correct the flaw when the router walked on the front baffle.
Traced the edge of the recess hole and then transferred that outline to a piece of scrap walnut from the initial rips. Then, used a tabletop disc sander to match the edge as closely as possible. Glued in place, then used some walnut filler for the remaining gaps. I'm hoping that once I've finished sanding it, it will hide the original mistake pretty well.


Here's the same piece post-routing:



Some shots of the removable rear panel so I can access the crossovers (if needed). The port and terminals will mount on a fixed panel below the removable one.

[gleite311]

Re: My version of the Ansonica

I was also able to get the RLC circuit finished. Hopefully I'll get the crossovers done tomorrow so that I can finalize where they'll mount in the cabinets and get started with the sonic barrier and begin wrapping up the cabinet assemblies.

Man, that 47uF capacitor is big.


Testing out my port-tube anchoring solution.

[gleite311]

Re: My version of the Ansonica

I finished the crossovers today. It took forever since I'm so green at reading the electrical schematics, I went slow to make sure that I didn't wire anything up out of place.