Complete and utter newbie attempting a Tritrix MTM build

[tkassum]

Hi everyone

I am a complete newbie to the world of audio, speakers, and DIY. I have no technical background and am only minimally handy. I do, however, have a good ear since I was a pretty serious musician in high school and college.

I recently moved into a new apartment and needed to assemble and install an audio system from scratch. As I did the research on buying speakers I got more and more frustrated with what I call the "audiophile-industrial complex." I felt that speaker manufacturers were peddling marginally differentiated products at high prices using frankly imaginary selling points.

So I decided to rebel and bought the Tritrix MTM kit.

Between the videos, Curt's notes, and the voices on this message board, I think I can get this done. I did have a few questions for the group, though, which will betray my lack of experience. I hope that means they will be easy to answer!

1) Some people appear to have built the cabinets in their entirety and then installed the drivers, stuffing, and crossovers at the very end. Others seem to have left one side of the cabinet open, installed the innards, and then sealed it. Any recommendations? I plan on leaving mine unfinished, for what it's worth.

2) I'd like to test my crossovers before I install them to ensure that I built them correctly. Is there a recommendation for how to do this?

3) When installing the drivers, do you solder the outputs from the crossovers to the driver or is it better to use those little clamps (I have no idea what they're called)?

Thanks everyone for your help. To be clear, if I can get this done, anyone can do it.

TK

[Jay1]

Re: Complete and utter newbie attempting a Tritrix MTM build

I install everything I can in the areas of the cabinet that would be hard to access with all sides attached, but anything that's going near the driver cutouts can wait. If the cabinet is vented, you can run wires through the vent for each driver to test out the crossover. I use the crimp connectors to attach drivers. The 300 piece kit PE sells is a good investment if you plan on building more speakers in the future.

[johnastockman]

Re: Complete and utter newbie attempting a Tritrix MTM build

Hi everyone

I am a complete newbie to the world of audio, speakers, and DIY. I have no technical background and am only minimally handy. I do, however, have a good ear since I was a pretty serious musician in high school and college.

I recently moved into a new apartment and needed to assemble and install an audio system from scratch. As I did the research on buying speakers I got more and more frustrated with what I call the "audiophile-industrial complex." I felt that speaker manufacturers were peddling marginally differentiated products at high prices using frankly imaginary selling points.

So I decided to rebel and bought the Tritrix MTM kit.

Between the videos, Curt's notes, and the voices on this message board, I think I can get this done. I did have a few questions for the group, though, which will betray my lack of experience. I hope that means they will be easy to answer!

1) Some people appear to have built the cabinets in their entirety and then installed the drivers, stuffing, and crossovers at the very end. Others seem to have left one side of the cabinet open, installed the innards, and then sealed it. Any recommendations? I plan on leaving mine unfinished, for what it's worth.

2) I'd like to test my crossovers before I install them to ensure that I built them correctly. Is there a recommendation for how to do this?

3) When installing the drivers, do you solder the outputs from the crossovers to the driver or is it better to use those little clamps (I have no idea what they're called)?

Thanks everyone for your help. To be clear, if I can get this done, anyone can do it.

TK

I put the important part of your post in bold, as you could not be more right about this aspect of speakers and the various OEM's. I worked in an old-school brick/mortar "stereo" store for many years. From the beginning when there were no CD players available in the market, up through the advent of HT and surround sound. I have my own personal experiences with retail speakers, as it was the most hyperbole-abused part of the musical reproduction chain. We did our own measurements with the same equipment in an anechoic room and actually took speakers apart to see how well, or not, they were constructed. What they got away with was surprising, but typical, taking advantage of the consumers lack-of-understanding about how speakers work and should be constructed. Aesthetics and brand-name recognition was something I dealt with every day when auditioning speakers. Even in the face of less-than-adequate measurements and listening experience, the looks and the badge on the grill was what sold. I'm glad you realized this and decided to go the DIY route with your speakers.

I use those spade connectors for wire attachment to the drivers. Never had an intermittent or failure in over 30 years. Like this for my TriTrix TM's:




Tweeters have smaller female spades, just get the right size. You can solder directly to the driver terminals, but especially the tweeter ones being smaller (and usually mounted in a plastic "slot") can cause them to become loose or unattached with too much heat.

You can test without having the drivers in the box...just hook up the respective wires and play a little something. At low volume; you just want to see if it's passing the signal and doesn't sound wonky. Or set the drivers in the box on it's back and test that way. It's much easier to get the stuffing in before you button it up. I assemble/glue the whole box, except the front baffle. Then I put in the stuffing and attach the XO boards. Then the front goes on. Or you can do the side-piece-off method. Both work well. With the MTM cabinet pieces, the leave-the-side-piece-for-last could be a better way, since you have that angled piece in there. Good choice for your speakers. I've been literally blowing people away with DIY speakers vs their favorite retail brand since 1977 with the Speakerlab S2's I built. Continues to this day and I love opening people's ears and eyes about how good a speaker can reproduce sound compared to what they thought was good from the usual recognized brand names. Haven't lost yet, and in the DIY vs retail situations, I've ended up building a DIY design for them. Put up some pix if you want when you're done. I still have speakers around here that are in raw, unfinished form, so don't hink that they're somehow not up-to-par with some of the finished ones that are posted.



John A.

[tkassum]

Re: Complete and utter newbie attempting a Tritrix MTM build

Thanks everyone for the helpful comments.

John, I'm particularly happy that you reacted to my comments on the audio regime. I do believe in good sound, but I'm very skeptical of the mysticism around how one achieves it.

I'm looking forward to this project! Tomorrow is crossover building day. I will share results.

[johnastockman]

Re: Complete and utter newbie attempting a Tritrix MTM build

I have more info in my blogs about my behind-the-counter adventures at The Stereo Shoppe in Olympia and Tacoma, Wa. The owner was a DIY-guy, coming from working at a local Lafayette Electronics store. He started the business in Tacoma in the early 70's and eventually had 4 stores in the Puget Sound area. He was very conscientious about what we sold, wanting to have quality products for just about any budget. Even the 6-figure+ gear. In-house service in every store, work on everything except TV's. The Olympia store had the anechoic room and the big-boys measuring equipment. Anyway, my time there was a priceless education about consumer audio and its relevant companies.


John A.

[Soundslike]

Re: Complete and utter newbie attempting a Tritrix MTM build

John,
Love your insight into the world of commercial audio.

Tkassum,
You will love your Tri-trix. I've built eight sets -- if you're interested in my Tri-trix experience, click on the link below my signature.
Regarding the question as to how to do the internal things (wiring, stuffing, etc.) you'll probably find it much easier to work with one side off (or the baffle). The only benefit I can think of to be derived from working through the speaker cutouts is that it's easier to finish (paint) a box when you don't have to worry about getting paint on the inside or on the components. Since you don't plan to finish the speakers, that isn't a concern.

[tkassum]

Re: Complete and utter newbie attempting a Tritrix MTM build

Hi everyone

Thanks for the comments.

Today was crossover day. I made both of them and they appear to function based on me plugging them into my receiver. They actually sounded pretty okay! There was bass out of the driver and highs out of the tweeter.

The crossovers are, I'm sure, not very pretty compared to other builds you have seen. However, in my defense, I have never soldered before. So I think this is not too bad.

On to the cabinets. This was so absorbing I forgot to eat lunch.

[tkassum]

Re: Complete and utter newbie attempting a Tritrix MTM build

Hi everyone

I just noticed that the kit didn't seem to come with the screws used to attach the speaker drivers to the front of the cabinet. Does anyone know offhand the screw type that fits nicely with these "hurricane nuts"?

Thanks

[johnastockman]

Re: Complete and utter newbie attempting a Tritrix MTM build

Hi everyone

I just noticed that the kit didn't seem to come with the screws used to attach the speaker drivers to the front of the cabinet. Does anyone know offhand the screw type that fits nicely with these "hurricane nuts"?

Thanks

I've never seen the cabinet kits, do they come with threaded inserts already installed for driver mounting? Nice touch. I use H-nuts or actual threaded inserts for a lot of my speaker builds. If H-nuts or T-nuts, they have a machine-screw thread, as opposed to a coarse-thread wood screw. Just get the correct thread pitch for the inserts. Soundslike can probably tell you what thread size to get...or call PE's tech help line. Could be an 8-32, 10-32 or 1/4-20. Here's a shot of the back of a baffle I did, which has been the way I've done it for years. I install threaded inserts from the back so they don't pull out. You can get these MFD-specific inserts and I've never had any trouble with them. These are 8-32 size:




Closer look:




And last, my XO's for the TriTrix TM:




My first XO's didn't look as good as the ones in that pic. I layed them out physically just like the schematic and they were larger than they needed to be. I had a difficult time deciphering the schematic, so arranging the parts to represent the diagram was the only way I knew how to do it. As long as they work, that's the important part. If you decide to do more projects, you get better with experience. Nice first effort!


John A.

[Soundslike]

Re: Complete and utter newbie attempting a Tritrix MTM build

I don't think the enclosure kit includes the driver mounting hardware. 8-32 machine screw would be the appropriate size. I'd recommend, for appearance sake, that you use black screws -- allen head screws look nice but cost a bit more from the local hardware store.

[tkassum]

Re: Complete and utter newbie attempting a Tritrix MTM build

Hi everyone

It's been a while but there has been progress on this Tritrix. Once again, I'm posting in order to help other newbies.

First, it turns out that my Tritrix MTM kit DID come with the hex screws for driver mounting. However, they were buried in the bottom of the box and went unnoticed by me. Now, after an order from Parts Express, I have two sets. Oh well.

Next, I decided that in order to maximize my options with respect to cabinet finishing, I would complete and close the cabinets before installing the innards. The first cabinet went together like a nice Lego set. The second cabinet, for some reason, was much more difficult. Pro tip for newbies - make sure all the parts fit together nicely first and then disassemble, apply glue, and reassemble.

I used crimp connectors to attach speaker cables to my crossovers and to the drivers. I measured out the wire lengths with an open cabinet in order to make sure I had plenty of wire. I decided to mount my crossovers to the slanted part of the transmission line, so I bought some velcro.

I decided to test my crossovers again and they worked fine. However, at first I thought that I had an intractable problem because the level was so low. I couldn't figure out what was wrong for about an hour. Then I realized that the input I was using (iPod) was playing a song that had been recorded at too low a level. Pro tip - don't be a dummy like me.

A major learning (and another pro tip for newbies) came during sanding. I tried hand sanding at first and was not able to get the glue marks out of the porous MDF. My original goal of keeping them unfinished looked like it wasn't going to work out. I started reading on the internet about finishing and painting MDF and I experienced a small cardiac event as I contemplated priming, sanding, and spray-painting the cabinets in my rented apartment. Then, in a last-ditch effort, I went to Home Depot and bought a $40 "random" sander. I locked myself in the bathroom and attacked the cabinet with the sander. I was able to get all the glue marks out of the cabinets and now they have the rough, suede-like appearance I was looking for. I think they look great. The attached pic shows the difference between hand-sanded and machine-sanded (left and right, respectively).



So my recommendation is that newbies who want to leave their cabinets unfinished should do some random sanding like I did.

Tomorrow - crossover mounting, stuffing, driver mounting, and testing. Wish me luck
TK

[johnastockman]

Re: Complete and utter newbie attempting a Tritrix MTM build

Man, that's a big difference. Looks good now. Much luck to the rest of your efforts, looking forward to the finished pix. Also your impressions compared to the retail stuff you've listened to. I kinda know what those impressions will be...similar to what folks that come to my house with their speakers leave with, wanting to see/hear if the DIY ones I built are really "better" than the brand they have. I haven't had any Wilson or Thiel come through the door yet, but I haven't lost out to a store-bought so far. Any of the popular, recognized brands you can think of have been in my living room against many of the older and some newer DIY designs. I am anticipating very much the collaboration with bungalow_ed on my Statement Monitor build and the inevitable comparos that will ensue, hopefully with more high-end speakers. I'm pretty sure the end-result will be the same for any future side-by-sides with the 'Monitors...



John A.

[tkassum]

Re: Complete and utter newbie attempting a Tritrix MTM build

The speakers are done. The last steps were dead easy (mounting crossovers, stuffing, attaching drivers). As you can see from the attached pic, they turned out pretty nicely despite being unfinished.

How do they sound? I have to admit that they sound little bright to my ears but I think they have started to mellow out. Comments from other posters suggest that I wait a few weeks before really judging.

I am playing music with them on 2.1 with a cheap Polk subwoofer and for what I like to listen to (electronic music, mostly) they sound amazing. There's a clarity in the highs and mids that I have never really heard before at home. I can't really compare to systems I've heard in stores since I try to avoid such situations.



Thank you all for your help and support. Looking forward to the next project!

Regards,
TK