My Swope Tower HT Build

[jdusterjansen]

So this build stems from a need for a better home theater in my summer vacation home. We use the home year round and during the winter months or rainy summer days it would be nice to have a place to gather and watch movies with good audio of course. After all the sound is a big part of the movie watching experience in my opinion.
The home is very small and originally set up with a family room and kitchen all in the same area. The current TV location was kind of off to one side tucked into the corner with built in speakers into the walls. It worked but was extremely poorly set up sonically. The first picture taken when I just finished redoing the fire place a few years ago shows how it was all tucked into the corner as well as where the speakers were placed in the wall. The kitchen is directly behind you in the picture.

Initially the plan was to try and utilize this space the best we could. I posted a few questions on the forums here to try and figure out a way to utilize the space. I ended up coming up with using an Overnight sensation HT set up utilizing the center channel and the MTM’s. The MTM’s were going to be built into towers with the bottom section being sealed off as subs utilizing dual Tang Band W5-1138’s. The TM’s would then just be mounted on the wall with brackets. The design just didn’t grow on me or my wife because all the speakers would be so close together. I would also have speakers hanging on the wall in bad locations. Both my wife and I were not happy with it.

Back to the drawing board and the decision was made to fill in the area above the kitchen effectively extending the loft over the living room and kitchen. This had 2 advantages. #1 the entire main floor area could then be used as a large kitchen with a separate dining area next to the fire place. This provided much more room for when we had guests over. #2 the living room would be moved upstairs over this area making a much larger area and a clean slate for a speaker project. Both my wife and I were sold on the idea and started drawing up the plans. She used Home designer to draw it all up and give us an idea of how things would fit in this new space.

[jdusterjansen]

Re: My Swope Tower HT Build

The plan was given the approval by both of us and we started the project.

So today I am just waiting to get back out there and hardwood the upper level, get the final trim work done and painting.
Now that we got to this point it was time to start the building/designing of the speakers. The decision was to go with Paul Carmody’s Swope design. We both liked the look of the HIVI drivers and thought they would go well with the plan. I built these speedsters a year ago and we both just love the look of them so the plan was to keep with the same flavour for the Swopes.

[jdusterjansen]

Re: My Swope Tower HT Build

I wanted a 7.1 setup when finished so I decided on the Swope Towers for the left and right, obviously the center for the center channel and TM’s for the R/L Surround and R/L rear channels. With this look there is obviously some problems with simply using Paul’s original designs. For instance the drivers on the towers had to be moved down ¾” in order to make it work. The Center channel had a similar problem. I simply changed the box dimensions to work yet provide the same internal volume. Nothing major just some trial and error to come up with the same volume. I then determined how I would brace these boxes. For the towers I used a window pane type brace and made internal volume corrections accordingly. This is what I ended up with in my rendering.



I will follow this up with the build already well in progress.

[MattB101]

Re: My Swope Tower HT Build

Looks great. Subscribed as I am planning new speakers for the new (to us) house too.

[tashspop]

Re: My Swope Tower HT Build

can't wait to watch your build. I currently have the exact setup as my 7.x system.

[jdusterjansen]

Re: My Swope Tower HT Build

Crossovers:

To start with I contacted Paul with regards to some crossover confusion I had and he cleared it up for me. There were a few different versions floating around. The original Center channel crossover that was designed for the MTM L/R configuration, The newer wtmw/tmww crossover and the crossover for the SB tweeter version. He recommended going with the wtmw/tmww crossover for all three of the front speakers. L/R and Center.
Once the crossover questions were all cleared up and my designs were all done I put in the order for all the parts.

Towers/Center Crossovers:
So I started out by laying out all the components for the crossover the best I could. In the end I found that in order to keep the inductor spacing correct I had to build the crossover in two separate boards. One for the TM section and one for the WW section. This was good as it made it much easier to mount everything in the enclosure easily.



The crossover is built on 1/4" hardboard that I had laying around. I simply drilled holes for the components to go through as well as the leads to the drivers. Each component is simply hot glued in place or zap tied where required. All the connections are made on the underside of the board. This was a fun part of the project as my daughter helped glue all the components onto the board.



TM's:
These were constructed in the exact same way as the towers however I was able to fit all the components on one board.



For all the boards I used small poplar wood plugs I had laying around to suspend the board off the box wall. 3 screws per board were more than enough to secure the board within the boxes.

[jdusterjansen]

Re: My Swope Tower HT Build

Towers:

So onto the construction of the towers. The boxes are constructed of 3/4" MDF with a red Oak baffle. The cabinets themselves are pretty straight forward. I simply cut all the pieces to size according to my rendering and then put a 45Degree chamfer on all the appropriate sides. For bracing...I saw someone else use the bottom of the TM section of the box as a brace. I liked this so I utilized it in my box construction. I built 2 other braces for further down the box. You will notice a small frame around the inside edge of the box. This is so that the baffle has something to secure to for final assembly.



In the next photo you can see where I mounted the crossover sections into the box. You can also see how I lined the inside of the box with some Walmart Mattress topper.

[jdusterjansen]

Re: My Swope Tower HT Build

Towers:

As for the baffle construction it is simply red oak cut to fit. I used a square port on the box. I simply used a port of the same cross sectional area of Pauls design with the same length. I glued this to the back of the baffle in the location I wanted. To cut the hole in the actual baffle I simply drilled a hole through the baffle into the port. I then used a flush cut router bit to "feel" the inside of the port. I then hit it with a 1/2" roundover bit to flare it a bit. I also flared the inside of the port inside the box.



The rest of the baffle construction was pretty straight forward. I measured the OD and depth of each driver flange with a caliper then set up my jasper jig on my router. Remember to take into account how you are finishing the baffle as paint will make the hole smaller and a gasket will make the recess too deep once to torque down the driver screws. As usual I found that no single pin hole in the jasper jig provided a hole size that I liked. It was always to big or too small. What I did was simply loosened the mounting screws of the jasper jig to my router and slid it around to fine tune the size. Once I thought I was right with the size by doing lots of test cuts I went ahead and cut all the recess parts for the driver mounting flange first then followed that up with the through holes.



I did run into a slight problem. On one of the M6A recesses the center pin on the Jasper jig jumped out and I ended up with a scar on my baffle.



I am anal when it comes to this sort of thing. I will always notice it and it will always drive me crazy. I posted this problem on this forum and I was given the advice to cut a small plug to fill it in. So I sat with a scrap piece of oak and widdled away with a file until I had a plug that fit.



It worked out great and I am happy with it. You can barely see it.

[jdusterjansen]

Re: My Swope Tower HT Build

Towers:

I still want to router the back of the baffle where the driver goes through. Can't remember the term off hand???



Other than that the first tower is ready for staining of the baffle and the box is ready to be painted satin black. Still have to finish final sanding on the second one, install the crossover and box lining. I decided to build the boxes complete then paint them. It seams every time I build speakers I end up wrecking the finish during final assembly. I will simply mask off the inside of the box utilizing the baffle flange. I will be using an early american stain on the baffle. Or at least that is the plan. It may be a little dark.



When the baffle is installed into the box the front edge meets with the 45Degree chamfer on the edges so in other words it is recessed into the box by about 1/8" .

[jdusterjansen]

Re: My Swope Tower HT Build

can't wait to watch your build. I currently have the exact setup as my 7.x system.

Sweet
So what is your opinion of the system. You happy with it?

[tashspop]

Re: My Swope Tower HT Build

Extremely happy. I don't have matching crossover in my center though. I used the original design and figured I might change it down the road if needed. I just upgraded my reciever from an old pioneer vsx1014 to a marantz av7702 and the speakers are down right amazing sounding. With the pioneer I had they were missing alot but I blame that to its processing and room correction. I get a larger frequency range through the tm surrounds with the marantz dsu processing. I'm running an audiocontrol savoy 7 channel amp rated 150 watts at 8 ohms to the speakers.

[Dewmiester]

Re: My Swope Tower HT Build

Nice job, those are some great looking speakers.


On the crossovers, the screws in the center of the inductors could change their value some.
Don't know if it would be enough to make a noticeable difference.
You could replace them with a ss or aluminum screw.

[jdusterjansen]

Re: My Swope Tower HT Build

Nice job, those are some great looking speakers.


On the crossovers, the screws in the center of the inductors could change their value some.
Don't know if it would be enough to make a noticeable difference.
You could replace them with a ss or aluminum screw.

Good point. Never thought of that..... Funny though now that you mention it I do remember reading something about it.
By simply changing to Aluminum or SS would it eliminate this issue?
If so easy change.

[Wolf]

Re: My Swope Tower HT Build

Good point. Never thought of that..... Funny though now that you mention it I do remember reading something about it.
By simply changing to Aluminum or SS would it eliminate this issue?
If so easy change.

Nylon bolts would be better than both the others.
Later,
Wolf

[jdusterjansen]

Re: My Swope Tower HT Build

Towers:

So I managed to get both the tower speakers fully assembled for a quick listen. Just wanted to make sure that they had no obvious problems with the crossovers. I got to say they sounded great and this was without any stuffing in the upper box and a tonne of air leaks as the baffle was not glued in yet. They really sounded nice.

I removed the screw in the center of the inductors and moved it to another location on the crossover board. That took care of the potential change in inductor value. I also glued all the edges of the boxes with 50/50 wood glue and water then sanded smooth once it dried. Once all the sanding was done I sealed the inside corners of the boxes with silicone. I then masked off the insides of the boxes and made them ready for primer.

Center:

The center channel is in the same state as the towers at this point. Fully assembled, glued seams, sealed and masked ready for primer. As I type this I am waiting for a coat of primer to dry then I will go and hit all the boxes again. Before I masked the center channel I put it all together to test it out as well and everything seamed good. Sounded almost exactly like the towers aside from the bass.



So the plan is too shoot a few coats of grey primer on these boxes then sand smooth. Depending on the results I may or may not do a second coat of primer. The wood glue seams to work pretty good at stopping the edges from sucking up all the paint. I am priming the boxes with Tremclad (yes Tremclad) shot through a conventional gravity feed gun. I hope it sands alright. I would have loved to use some PPG DP epoxy primer followed by a good high build primer but I have a feeling the wife and neighbors would not have been happy with odors coming from my attached garage. I really need a shop. I hope this primer sands alright. It definitely doesn't cover like a good high build automotive primer. I will also paint the boxes with the Tremclad flat black. I have used it on a few occasions to paint fins and hood scoops on old muscle cars and it looks more like a satin black rather than a full on flat black.

Anyway while I fiddle with sanding and spraying these I will be working on 4 TM's and subwoofer at the same time. I will update as I go.