Design Team Build: The Boomsticks - 2.5 way tower with 4 x RS100-8 and ND25F

[Navy Guy]

They turned out really nice Kerry. The pics in the project gallery look much better than the pics you posted earlier in the thread, different phone or camera?? At first, I wasn't sure what to think of the color you picked but after seeing them completed, love it. From the looks of the FR, they should be pretty sweet sounding as well. Looking forward to checking these out at MWAF. How bout your wife, is she happy with how they turned out?

I was using my iPhone before, and my camera on it was also suffering from dirt on the light sensor, so i kept having issues with it. I pulled out the DSLR for the shots in the gallery. I have more at home that I will post within the next couple days.

Color-wise, there is still uneven shading in the finish. The one on the left imparticular, has a more orange color and is lighter on the sides. It was hard to see it outside when I sprayed but a day later inside you could definitely tell. I need to go back and put another coat of the red on over the top to even it out a bit, but I probably won't get to that until after InDIYana. My wife is pretty happy with them though. She doesn't really like the finish on the Standards, but does on these. They are also much slimmer in person than they look in the pictures. It is really hard to tell how small they are from pictures, even with other cabinets next to them. I took them over to Dan P's house for a quick listen and he was really surprised in person with the size.

Sound-wise, I think these turned out really nice. I listened to them next to the Standards and while the bass extension is not a good, I think they sound better overall, especially in the midrange. I think I'm going to go back and make some adjustments to the crossover on those now. I hooked them up in my HT last night and moved the B&W speakers out. After level adjusting and removing the EQ I had in place on the B&W speakers, I played some video games. Panning from left to right is much more seemless now with my center channel. There was always a difference in tonality before. It wasn't always easy to hear on movies but definitely there on games where you can manually pan the sound as your character looks around the screen. Now it's much, much closer now even though their not identical speakers.

[Kevin K.]

They turned out really nice Kerry. The pics in the project gallery look much better than the pics you posted earlier in the thread, different phone or camera?? At first, I wasn't sure what to think of the color you picked but after seeing them completed, love it. From the looks of the FR, they should be pretty sweet sounding as well. Looking forward to checking these out at MWAF. How bout your wife, is she happy with how they turned out?

[Navy Guy]

Write-up is in the project gallery now: http://projectgallery.parts-express....he-boomsticks/

[Navy Guy]

I submitted all the info to the project showcase today and will post the writeup in the project gallery on the forum soon so it is easy to find all the info in one spot, but to wrap this up, here is the crossover and box diagram for these. The crossover was much simpler than I expected. I used a 0.1 uF and 0.22 uF capacitor in series to get the value I needed for the bottomless notch. A 0.1 uF was just a bit too large to hit the actual spot of the breakup. The notch probably wasn't necessary, but for $2, I'd prefer to just go ahead and use it. However, you can't remove it now because it does change the rolloff of the woofer if taken out. The crossover does dip to about 3.5 Ohms due to the small coil on the tweeter, but it is high in frequency and the phase angle isn't bad, so I don't think it will be a problem on any amp given the overall impedance everywhere else. I certainly didn't notice any issues on any of my amps I tested on.

[Navy Guy]

In the end did you feel that the unevenness in the basecoat shows? I couldn't see it in the photos. I wonder if a sealer like shellac on the MDF would help that?

I used BIN 1-2-3 on the cabs, the filler primer. It's something to do with the way the paint sprays. The color coats weren't much better though, even though they have the better fan spray nozzle. It did turn out blotchy in the end. It's hard to see in some light, especially from a distance, but easy in others. I'll post some pictures later showing what I mean. Also, will probably have the crossover schematic and can dimensions up soon.

[skatz]

In the end did you feel that the unevenness in the basecoat shows? I couldn't see it in the photos. I wonder if a sealer like shellac on the MDF would help that?

[Navy Guy]

So I've got the final crossover settled on and took some final measurements today to confirm. Measurements taken at 30 inches with 1/48th octave smoothing and are SPL accurate. After listening to these for a few weeks now and making a few minor adjustments, I'm pretty happy with how they sound. These will be coming with me to InDIYana for anyone who is interested in hearing them.

[Navy Guy]

So here is the intial modeled response with my measurements to compare to measured response


And this is the final modeled response with the crossover adjustments. I will be verifying with measurements soon.

[Navy Guy]

Exciting stuff here. Wish you were closer!!! What's ideal location in regards to wall placement? Thinking of maybe putting these in wall for my dad 😏😏😏

I built these as a free standing design with full BSC. I could probably play around with the values to provide less BSC but I don't know how they would sound in-wall unless tested.

[joeybutts]

Exciting stuff here. Wish you were closer!!! What's ideal location in regards to wall placement? Thinking of maybe putting these in wall for my dad 😏😏😏

[Navy Guy]

So I've been testing these for the last week and a half or so. I started with the initial repsonse I posted and have made a few changed. A slightly larger inductor on the 0.5 woofer to bring the midrange down just a bit and some adjustments on the tweeter to slope the response downward a bit instead of the rising response you see in the measured graph. I think I have them about where I want them now and should be posting some more updates soon. Below is the modeled response using factory provided curves with the same crossover as what I had connected when I took the measurement. I'll provide updated sims with the new crossover later tongiht or tomorow and hopefully will have measurements within the next week or two.

. Tonight or tomorrow sometime I'll post the m

[Navy Guy]

Nice weather this weekend so I got the other cabinet sprayed outside on Sunday without having to make a mess in my basement again. I also ordered all the crossover parts. Only had enough to test one cabinet so I haven't heard the pair together yet. One by itself has pretty deep bass but we'll see what it sounds like in stereo once the parts get in this week.

[Navy Guy]

I had some time today to get things measured and play around with a crossover. I had all the parts on hand to build it so threw it together pretty quickly. Overall, a very simple crossover. Second order electrical with a bottomless notch on the woofer section (plus another inductor for second pair of woofers) and second order electrical on the tweeter. Here is the response at about 3 feet, 1/48 octave smoothing. Ignore the SPL level. It is not accurate.

[Navy Guy]

Looking good Kerry! How long do you have to wait to wet sand and polish or have you done that already, can't tell by that picture (pic looks grainy)?

Thanks, Kevin. They haven't been wet sanded or polished yet. I planned on waiting at least a week after the final coat of clear. I sprayed a whole can on this one but still don't think the clear is thick enough. Rather than spraying a ton of cans which will stink up my house forever, I just decided to by a can of clear enamel and roll it on and then try to polish it out after a few coats of that.

My phone camera has been really crappy lately. I don't know if it's going out or what, but it seems like it keeps getting worse. I didn't realize how grainy it was until I saw it on my computer. I need to get out the good camera to take a few shots.

[Kevin K.]

Looking good Kerry! How long do you have to wait to wet sand and polish or have you done that already, can't tell by that picture (pic looks grainy)?