"Knuckle Head" Speak Build

[Mayhem13]

Re: "Knuckle Head" Speak Build

Do a paint job that shows hints of rust!

That would be so cool.

Considering the motor is Aluminum sans fasteners, rust wouldn't be an accurate depiction.

Looking good though......very creative use of MDF. If you need REAL head pipes in chrome, i've got PLENTY of brand new takeoffs i can ship you. Let me know.

[davepellegrene]

Re: "Knuckle Head" Speak Build

Got one up and running. Ran through some test tones and some music. So far sounds good. I'll need to measure and get the other one together to see if I need to make any changes.

It's kind of strange looking at them you would swear the sound is coming from the exhaust pipes. Man If I made some grills so you didn't see the speakers.

Check it out Here :D

Dave

[greywarden]

Re: "Knuckle Head" Speak Build

Holy Crap that's freaking sweet! Good song choice! :p

[bmaupin]

Re: "Knuckle Head" Speak Build

I was waiting for you to rev it up! They look great. I wasn't sure early in the build, but you pulled it off way better than I expected. Cheers!

[Pete Schumacher]

Re: "Knuckle Head" Speak Build

Got one up and running. Ran through some test tones and some music. So far sounds good. I'll need to measure and get the other one together to see if I need to make any changes.

It's kind of strange looking at them you would swear the sound is coming from the exhaust pipes. Man If I made some grills so you didn't see the speakers.

Check it out Here :D

Dave

Would have been nice for the end of the video to drift off into music, or blend into "Hot For Teacher."

[killa]

Re: "Knuckle Head" Speak Build

Would have been nice for the end of the video to drift off into music, or blend into "Hot For Teacher."

lol i was thinking the same thing

[ckmoore]

Re: "Knuckle Head" Speak Build

I gotta say Dave, there is just something about this design that hits all the right chords. These are something special. The whole is greater than the sum of all the parts. You may want to keep these. (get him a Harley leather jacket instead...)

[[email protected]]

Re: "Knuckle Head" Speak Build

Got one up and running. Ran through some test tones and some music. So far sounds good. I'll need to measure and get the other one together to see if I need to make any changes.

It's kind of strange looking at them you would swear the sound is coming from the exhaust pipes. Man If I made some grills so you didn't see the speakers.

Check it out Here :D

Dave

now your just showin' off.
thats so cool.

[killersoundz]

Re: "Knuckle Head" Speak Build

They look great, the video is funny too. The only way to make it better would have been to fire up a fog machine and shoot some in the speaker and it would come out the ports.

[dantheman]

Re: "Knuckle Head" Speak Build

Excellent build Dave! Can't wait to see where this finishes. Knock knock Wolf, you've got competition.

Dan

[Mark65]

Re: "Knuckle Head" Speak Build

Dude.

Awesome.

Unbelievable.

Incredible.

Stellar.

Unprecedented.

Unimaginable.

Take your pick, any or all of the above.


I am:

Unworthy.

Incompetent.

Unimaginative.

Ham-fisted.

in comparison.

My hat is off to you, Sir. You are a design genius. No exaggeration.


Well Done!

Mark

[ckmoore]

Re: "Knuckle Head" Speak Build

BUT...

to keep you humble...

I think your exhaust pipes are on the wrong sides....

[davepellegrene]

Re: "Knuckle Head" Speak Build

Now you guys are just making fun of me. Seriously thanks for all the kind words. Know my head won't fit through the door.

Pete, It took me an hour to figure out how to make the video and get it up on you tube. First attempt was an avi file that was going to take an hour to up load. I had to bring in my daughter to help me figure out how to switch it.

I got to say it is just weird to listen to the engine sound coming out of it. It's king of an optical illusion. It seems like the sound is coming out of the ports. Even playing music.

This has been a really fun build and it really wasn't that difficult to do. It's all 45 and 22.5 degree angles. I can't wait to get the other one up and running. I had to laugh my daughter was surprised I built two of them. I just looked at her and said "well they are speakers". She says " Oh that's right duh"

Dave

[davepellegrene]

Re: "Knuckle Head" Speak Build

More progress. Much slower. I'm all thumbs with the electronic side of it.


I used the screen door screen clip method for securing the woofer. I have a layer of torch down roofing between the layers of baffle with the driver mounted on top of the roofing, so I guess it's decoupled somewhat.



Mounted in the box with 1" rigid fiberglass lining the sides. Picked up the fiberglass used at the local hardware. 20 cents a piece for a 2'x4' panel. They have a whole pallet in the back of there warehouse.



Back panel with 2" of fiberglass.



Crossovers hooked up to the boards. I paid special attention to elevating the resistors. No smoke on this build.



Tweeter crossover. I did zip tie all the parts but must have taken pics before I did.



Mid crossover



Here is were they slide down into the sealed chamber. Very tight fit. Not to well thought out but it worked.



Looking through the space for the mid at the tweeter crossover in place.




Looking through the space for the tweeter crossover at the mid crossover in place.




Obviously there wasn't room for the woofer crossover so I put it in the woofer box. I decided to put a dowel in to help stiffen the box. Rather then attaching through the finish paint I attached a furniture bolt at the right end, look behind the insulation that is pulled out, with a nut set into the end of the dowel. I turned the dowel until it was tight. I attached the crossover to the dowel then turned it 1/4 turn more, as you see it here.The crossover was facing me when I mounted it. I then soldered up the connections then turned it when I was finished.



Basically done. I have to glue in the ports yet but I want to mess with the tuning a little. I'll take finished picks after I clean up the grubby finger prints and paint the fins silver.

My Listening Impressions next!

Dave

[davepellegrene]

Re: "Knuckle Head" Speak Build

My listening impressions;
This was a huge learning experience. A lot of things clicked on this one. After listening a while it seemed the vocals just didn't sound right. Best way to explain it is that they sounded like they were coming from a small speaker. So I moved the xover point of the woofer/ mid up from 450 to 600. Thought this may make the difference. Sure enough it made quite a difference. I tweaked the tweeter a little around 7KHz only because there was a peak from measuring. I couldn't really hear it.
These speakers seem to excel with imaging and sound field. I think I have learned what a few phrases I’ve heard mean. “Vocals being pin point” these seem to do this very well. “Spacious sound stage” I can hear a separation in instruments like if never heard before. Almost like a 3D effect ,at times, like there is depth to the sound stage. The sound stage also seems to come from behind the speakers slightly.
The AC25TG is really a nice tweeter. I am really surprised what a nice job it does especially when my reference tweeters are the RS28F and Fountek Neo CD3.
I used the Peerless TC08SD69 3.5 dome for a mid. It seems to do a pretty good job. Occasionally it has a small speaker sound to it mostly noticeable in certain vocals. At high volumes I notice a harshness occasionally in some vocals. May not be the speakers fault possibly the xover guy. Possibly a peak around 2K. I’ll have to measure and check that out. If I had time to tweak some more it would definitely be the mid.
The woofer is the DC160. It is very impressive. The woofer always seems to be the first driver to give out on my builds. Maybe too much baffle step? As of yet I haven’t driven the DC160 hard enough to hear any distortion and I have driven it pretty hard. Remember I’m the guy that almost caught my Mini Statements on fire. They do seem to lack a little in the lower end but this could be tuning, drivers not broke in or just that my listening room sucks the bass out of speakers because of the open staircase right beside the one speaker. I’ll have to move to a different room to come to any real conclusion. I have about a 1.5 dB hump built in from about 60 to 100Hz and I can say I like it. It drops of pretty quick below that but I think this helps quite a bit at high volume. Adding a sub would be a good choice to pick up the bottom end.

Conclusion;
These are the best sounding speakers I have built so far of my own design at this point. I have yet to do AB testing against my Continuums or my Mini’s but what’s my hurry. Why ruin my happy moment.
One thing I would really like to figure out is why the sound stage and imaging are so good with these speakers. Is it because I acoustically aligned the drivers on the baffle instead of in the Xover? Is it the Membrane I sandwiched between the front and rear baffles and lined the walls with? Could it be the shape of the cabinet that makes it less able to resonate? Possibly the damping material? Maybe I nailed the Xover design. Yeah I didn’t think so either but had to throw that in there. I’m swaying towards the box damping and design but for sure I can hear a difference. I should also add that my building/ listening room has 12 2x4 panels 3” thick of rigid fiberglass set around the room and I really am hoping when I move them out of the room this quality doesn’t disappear.
So that's it for now.
Thanks for reading my ramblings.
Dave