Finalist speakers, Tower version. Advice needed concerning TL vs Ported

[Paperweight]

Hopefully I didn't go too far overboard on the stuffing. Removing the bits under the crossover would probably be about the 2 ounces I possibly overstuffed this by using a whole 1 pound bag. Honestly, 14 ounces doesn't feel like a lot once you place it on all 4 walls.

I do like the oak dowel bracing better than the hashtag braces I tried earlier. It's quite a bit faster to create and install. When I get this to a point of sealing up, I will place some more braces from side to side.

I have all the parts ready to go together so I'll try to get the top part assembled sooner rather than later.

[Paul K.]

You ain't wrong about the source of the Dacron batting.
Paul

[djg]

Cheapster here. WalMart quilt batting worked for me in my Econowaves.

[Paperweight]

This is stiffer than quilt batting and holds its shape like no other since it is made for padding furniture. It's $1.29 per foot and I ended up getting 20 feet. They compressed and shipped it in a relatively small box. Once it was out, it expanded to twice the space it occupied inside the box.

[Paperweight]

Time to drill a hole in the tube, some glue on the rear tunnel brace and some non-corrosive silicone sealant, quick tack solder of the crossover and I may be able to test this today. That and restuffing the woofer cabinet of course.

[Paperweight]

Not bad for a quick go at the mid crossover board. I should have used a slightly larger board to get the 22uF and 15 ohm resistor next to each other. Nothing an insulated jumper under the board can't fix. I should have balanced the resistors and inductor in the center a little better. I'll fix it for the other speaker. I don't know why something that will be hidden inside the cabinet would bug me so much. I should have took my time and laid it out on graph paper.

I do like the red, black and silver theme going. I bought the black G10 board for a vacuum tube radio project but coil winding and RF is a pita. The 1/8" thick G10 board has been my go to DIY turret circuit board material for vacuum tube guitar and hi fi projects for decades. Eyelets come in much larger diameters than turrets so they can hold 3 or 4 large guage wire leads per eyelet.

I do a quick layout, use an auto punch to mark the drill locations then drill the holes with a bench top drill press. After the holes are all drilled, I place the eyelets one at a time in the board. I have a threaded rod with the end ground to a 90 degree point. I place that in the drill press chuck and use that to flare the eyelets on the bottom side of the board. As long as the holes are drilled neatly and the eyelet is pressed against a solid surface, it turns out quite well. I rest the upside down board on a scrap square of aluminum so the eyelet doesn't get pushed out while flaring with the drill press.

I need to find longer zip ties for these big caps. 3M double sided foam mounting tape still seems to work under the caps to hold them in place.

[djg]

I use epoxy (Bob Smith Industries) to attach XO components to board. I've had hot glue fail a shipping test. Foam sticky tape I've found the foam itself deteriorates over time. JME.

T&B makes good quality long Ty-Raps. I think they invented them.

[Paperweight]

Working on the crossover layouts. Going to try a different layout for the mid crossover. I always figure out a better scheme after I look at one I did for a while. Sometimes it pops in my head while doing mind numbing stuff at work.

I used some split top large turrets under the 10 watt resistors to give them some air flow on the tweeter crossover board. I'm wondering if I should also include some holes in the board under them. I plan on installing the mid and tweeter boards in the smaller top half above the mid tunnel so I oriented the round inductor 90 degress from the mid crossover inductor. With some space between the boards, it should be fine.

The woofer crossover board is quite simple so no need to over think it.

Speaking of which, I ordered some of the bonded Dacron polyester batting for the woofer cabinet. I got extra in case I get some weird notition to build more speakers. Apparently, this stuff is used in upholstery.

[djg]

Are those brass screws mounting the big coil?

[Paperweight]

No, steel. It may contribute a small bump up in the inductance value. Brass would actually cause the inductance value to drop slightly. I should possibly consider an insulator on the screw body so it won't rub the inductor laminates and increase the core loss with shorts.

[Paperweight]

Okay, I found some discrepancies in the crossover diagrams and documentation that came with the kit from Meniscus. The stickers they provided for building the crossover boards show the mid and tweeter both connected out of phase with the woofer. Then another simplified diagram that uses simple resistor, coil and capacitor symbols agrees with the stickers. Then the very next page shows another wiring diagram and mentions the midrange is out of phase but the tweeter is shown wired in phase on that diagram.

Might need Jim to give some clarity on this.

[Jim Holtz]

Okay, I found some discrepancies in the crossover diagrams and documentation that came with the kit from Meniscus. The stickers they provided for building the crossover boards show the mid and tweeter both connected out of phase with the woofer. Then another simplified diagram that uses simple resistor, coil and capacitor symbols agrees with the stickers. Then the very next page shows another wiring diagram and mentions the midrange is out of phase but the tweeter is shown wired in phase on that diagram.

Might need Jim to give some clarity on this.

Sorry, I thought you were doing the Finalist but this is actually the Travelers. Unless there's a difference in a TL version, the mid and tweeter are both wired out of phase with the woofer wired in phase. I haven't seen the boards so I really can't comment but they were designed with out of phase mids and tweeters.

If you're not comfortable with what Mark sent you, give him a call. He's a good guy and I'm sure he'll answer your questions.

Hope that helps!

Jim

[Paperweight]

Yeah, I guess it was where they reused the Finalist documentation to make the paperwork for the Travelers. They missed changing one.

From what I can figure out, the Finalists only had the mids out of phase while the Travelers have both the mid and tweeter wired out of phase.

Anyhow, I got a skeleton version of one Traveler speaker up and running. I do like the way I split the cabinet in half with a smaller tweeter and mid cabinet and the larger woofer ML-TL cabinet. I moved it from one room to another and I can imagine how unweildy they would be as an all in one unit.

I don't have them broken in but so far I like the way they sound or I like the way that what you hear is the music without the speakers adding anything to it. They are really smooth from what I can tell. That tweeter is unobtrusive and doesn't draw attention to itself.

This cabinet was experimental and I will use it as a guide for building the real deal cabinets with better hole cutouts with my Jasper jig. Trying to fix someone else's bad cutouts makes for a sloppy fit.

The Cold in You speaker demo - YouTube

So the ML-TL cabinet works and I got the split, 2 piece cabinet idea to work. I think I am done here. I may document the version 2s with some ideas I though of after the fact I goofed it on this version. Enough building a Traveler in a thread about the NLA Finalist.