Peerless 830657 for <$6a piece!

[donradick]

WOW! Very impressive build. Although my Peerless 830657 drivers have never sounded distressed, the extra xmax of the Peerless SDS160 is bound to come in handy. So glad that someone else can experience wonderful sound of this build.

[Pepper]

Pepper, could you comment on how you created the light lines between the wood veneer? I'm about to try something almost exactly like what you did.

​​​​These are veneer strips, cut and sanded to be exactly the same size. Since these are strips, the veneer doesnt have to be as large, as the whole speaker, so it was easy to come by. First I cut them to +-90mm height, then put all the strips between two 3mm thick steel sheet strips, whitch was both 85mm and sanded the veneer using belt sander. The light lines is balsa strips, whitch I found very easy to work with. Cutting them was much easier, because the material is very soft. I glued them one by one. First I thought that I would use a PVA glue an an iron, but the veneer stretched in size a little in temperature. I was a little devastated by the result, but then I did a small online research and decided to use hide glue. A $5 milk bottle warmer was very helpful. I glued the trips one by one, adding a lilttle weight on them. The mentioned steel sheet strips and 8kg workout weights were helpful Excess glue was easily cleaned with water. The glue also filled minor gaps. After sanding the surface was almost perfect, and after laying an epoxy resin layer it's perfectly flat.

[DIYNut42]

Finally getting around to getting these pics uploaded. I finished these late last summer, and my girlfriend and I enjoy them every day. Don wasn't kidding when he said I was "In for a treat."

They are everything I could want in a large format tower. Nice crisp highs, warm and powerful mids, and GOOD LORD do they have tons of clean... tight... effortless bass! The first time we played something bass heavy, my girlfriend and I both looked at each other in shock. She put them through the paces with Daft Punk's Alive 2007 live album, and they handled every bit of the entire album at very high volume without one sign of fatigue or distortion. I think we had about a 5 hour total listening session playing songs from almost every genre. They are a big tower, but they disappear easily. On a side note, I struck gold in the WAF department.

All in all, I knew they'd be a great design, but I was blown away by all their characteristics. Thank you Don for sharing this design with us, and helping us along the way with our builds.

As far as the design, I didn't stray from Don's original. The top, bottom, back and sides are 3/4" Oak veneer ply, and 1" thick MDF baffle. Only 3/4" of the baffle is showing, while the other 1/4" is tucked inside the cabinet. I extended the side depth by 1/4" and used them as a lip. For the finish, I gave the cabs a light coat of a bright cherry red rattle can paint, then hurried up and wiped off what excess I could before it dried. I did have to do a little sanding to get the rest. I just wanted to stain the grain a little for some extra red "pop". Then I stained them with Minwax Red Mahogany, and finished up with a few coats of semi-gloss.

While I'm here, I'd also like to ask if anyone could point me in the direction of a CC design that would compliment these somewhat? I'm not too worried about the drivers matching. I'd just like something close in performance. I thought about the Tarkus CC, but it's a little on the tall side for my entertainment center set-up. What ever design I go with, my TV will be sitting on top of it, so I'm looking for low profile. It's a 70" screen, so width isn't an issue, but I'd rather not increase the height of the screen by 8-9". I'm going to do some searching on my own of course, but some of you guys know of designs that I've never even heard of. I'd love to design a CC for them, but I've been out of the game for a long time, and all of my design hardware/software is long gone.

[donradick]

Oh wow, man, those are so great!
Very glad that you (and your SO) love them. It's rewarding to bring some smiles to peeps.

One of the mysteries of this design is that it has a relatively high F3, but a very long "tail" of EBP alignment.
But the bass is really outstanding, clean and balanced throughout the range. I figure the multiple woofers excite
different room modes that even it all out.
If you want a CC, why not build the top MTM part separately? Use 1/3 (or a bit more) volume and a PVC port. If you want,
I'll run the box model for that. It will be a perfect sonic match.
I heard some Rage Against the Machine today - what a kicking bass torture track if you want to check that out.

[fdieck]

“On a side note, I struck gold in the WAF department.”

I’ll say, not many wives let their husbands have girlfriends...

[DIYNut42]

If you want a CC, why not build the top MTM part separately?

Thanks for the compliments, Don! I thought about doing exactly what you mentioned for a CC, but I noticed that these exact drivers are sold out on Amazon. I thought they were a little different than the original 830657 when it came to TS parameters, but maybe I was overthinking it. I could just get a pair from PE, and I already have the MTM XO design from you. If you come up with a nice box volume/tuning let me know and I'll build one!

“On a side note, I struck gold in the WAF department.”

I’ll say, not many wives let their husbands have girlfriends...

Haha... nice. I guess GAF is more appropriate until I pop the question.

[Pepper]

Me and my friend recently pushed mine loudspeakers really hard. It was a two hours ride with max xmax. He told me later that it was like having a 9mm gun firing next to his ears for that time. The great thing is that even with such high volume levels, the sound seemed to have a very little distortion.
Someone on this forum mentioned that they like it loud. They do. The bass is really outstanding.
I'm really grateful to you guys for this projest and I'm glad that there are more people that enjoy it as much as I do, even that we're almost half world away.

[donradick]

Me and my friend recently pushed mine loudspeakers really hard. It was a two hours ride with max xmax. He told me later that it was like having a 9mm gun firing next to his ears for that time. The great thing is that even with such high volume levels, the sound seemed to have a very little distortion.
Someone on this forum mentioned that they like it loud. They do. The bass is really outstanding.
I'm really grateful to you guys for this projest and I'm glad that there are more people that enjoy it as much as I do, even that we're almost half world away.

My thoughts exactly. So glad that you are enjoying your build!