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Continuum's with split personality. My first DIY build.
Howdy from Texas, y'all. I figured I'd make my first post a big one. I've been lurking around these forums and the DIY community for nearly a year now, but mostly been watching with great intrigue and curiosity. However, I recently caught the bug to build, so I began a search for a great near-field vocal music monitor.
After much reading, studying, and agonizing - I decided against building my own brand new design that's never been proven before. Instead - I decided to go with the Continuums (and I'm glad I did). However, since I wouldn't be challenging myself and growing my knowledge trememdously on the aspects of baffle step compensation, driver selection, crossover design, and the likes - I decided to challenge myself on the woodworking front.
The original design of the Continuum's is phenominal, gorgeous, classic, and many other surpurlative adjectives. However, I'm not the biggest fan of maple. I've been renovating my 1930's home from the studs out for nearly 3 years now, so I've done quite a trememdous amount of woodworking and have significant tools at my disposal. So, I decided to build my Continuum's out of walnut (with a maple stripe down the center to honor the originals). I'd never worked with walnut before, so this was going to be an adventure and challenge of epic proportions on my woodworking skills.
Well, I went to buy the walnut and nearly fainted at the price. So, my Continuum's all of the sudden developed a split personality (Walnut and Oak separated by Maple).
The front and rear baffles are removable (I thought this was how it was suppoed to be done, not that the front was only removable). This was eventually discovered to be a boo-boo, but I actually like it. It provides some front-to-rear symmetry.
All wood was glued (Gorilla wood glue) and biscuited, and clamped hard for a minimum of 30 minutes before handling. The exception here are the front baffles. For these, I had to use dowels to avoid the biscuits from showing up in the woofer cutout. There's three dowels in each joint (one above, below, and in between the drivers).
All of the panels were sanded with a belt sander to 80 grit and then 120 grit. I finish sanded the raw wood with 220 grit random-orbit. The outer finish is Watco Danish Oil and that's it. I put on one coat straight, then used the danish oil to wet-sand in two coats with 400 grit, then a final straight finish coat (4 coats total). The end result is spectacular. I won't profess to be a professional woodworker, and my cabinets certainly have boo-boos and errors where drill bits, sanders, and saws got away from me. However, you'll have to look hard to find them, and I'm super happy. One of my boo-boos was covered up by the (spray painted black) washers I inserted behind the binding posts. I actually like how this looks, regardless of the fact that it's covering up a spot where the drill bit took out a bit too much surface wood on me.
Because I was working with walnut and oak (instad of solid maple), I was slightly worried about additional cabinet resonances (above and beyond the original design). At work, I happened to have some unused Accumat Hyperflex (similar to Dynamat), so I lined the sides, top, and, and back with this prior to installing the foam. The crossovers were laid out on a 4x6 RatShack PCB and mounted to the bottom of the cabinets. The cabinets are resting on 4 felt feet to provide some isolation from the desk.
I've only been listening to them on my NAD for about 2 hours now, and I'm floored. Mr. Bagby - Kudos! These are phenominal speakers. I can only say that they are well worth the $1200+ price tag from Salk Sound. I mearly hope that my interpretation of your design meets with your approval.
Anyways, I do have more picutres on another camera that show more of the build process, but without further adeu...
The front baffle prepped for driver cutout:
The tweeter post holes drilled out first:
The tweeter flange cutout:
The full tweeter cutout from the back:
The woofer offset cutout from the back. You can see some of the joining dowels in this pic.
The full woofer cutout from the front, prior to adding a 1/4" roundover.
Test fit of the drivers on raw baffle:
Test fit from the back side:
All the wood laid out and ready for the first coat of Watco:
After the first coat:
Waiting on the final (4th) coat of Watco to set up:
Showing the crossover mounted and the Accumat installed, prior to foam being glued in:
Foam installed and ready for the baffles:
Done! Here, you can see how the wood started by looking at the woofer cutout disc on top of the left speaker.
And finally, the money shots:
After much reading, studying, and agonizing - I decided against building my own brand new design that's never been proven before. Instead - I decided to go with the Continuums (and I'm glad I did). However, since I wouldn't be challenging myself and growing my knowledge trememdously on the aspects of baffle step compensation, driver selection, crossover design, and the likes - I decided to challenge myself on the woodworking front.
The original design of the Continuum's is phenominal, gorgeous, classic, and many other surpurlative adjectives. However, I'm not the biggest fan of maple. I've been renovating my 1930's home from the studs out for nearly 3 years now, so I've done quite a trememdous amount of woodworking and have significant tools at my disposal. So, I decided to build my Continuum's out of walnut (with a maple stripe down the center to honor the originals). I'd never worked with walnut before, so this was going to be an adventure and challenge of epic proportions on my woodworking skills.
Well, I went to buy the walnut and nearly fainted at the price. So, my Continuum's all of the sudden developed a split personality (Walnut and Oak separated by Maple).
The front and rear baffles are removable (I thought this was how it was suppoed to be done, not that the front was only removable). This was eventually discovered to be a boo-boo, but I actually like it. It provides some front-to-rear symmetry.
All wood was glued (Gorilla wood glue) and biscuited, and clamped hard for a minimum of 30 minutes before handling. The exception here are the front baffles. For these, I had to use dowels to avoid the biscuits from showing up in the woofer cutout. There's three dowels in each joint (one above, below, and in between the drivers).
All of the panels were sanded with a belt sander to 80 grit and then 120 grit. I finish sanded the raw wood with 220 grit random-orbit. The outer finish is Watco Danish Oil and that's it. I put on one coat straight, then used the danish oil to wet-sand in two coats with 400 grit, then a final straight finish coat (4 coats total). The end result is spectacular. I won't profess to be a professional woodworker, and my cabinets certainly have boo-boos and errors where drill bits, sanders, and saws got away from me. However, you'll have to look hard to find them, and I'm super happy. One of my boo-boos was covered up by the (spray painted black) washers I inserted behind the binding posts. I actually like how this looks, regardless of the fact that it's covering up a spot where the drill bit took out a bit too much surface wood on me.
Because I was working with walnut and oak (instad of solid maple), I was slightly worried about additional cabinet resonances (above and beyond the original design). At work, I happened to have some unused Accumat Hyperflex (similar to Dynamat), so I lined the sides, top, and, and back with this prior to installing the foam. The crossovers were laid out on a 4x6 RatShack PCB and mounted to the bottom of the cabinets. The cabinets are resting on 4 felt feet to provide some isolation from the desk.
I've only been listening to them on my NAD for about 2 hours now, and I'm floored. Mr. Bagby - Kudos! These are phenominal speakers. I can only say that they are well worth the $1200+ price tag from Salk Sound. I mearly hope that my interpretation of your design meets with your approval.
Anyways, I do have more picutres on another camera that show more of the build process, but without further adeu...
The front baffle prepped for driver cutout:
The tweeter post holes drilled out first:
The tweeter flange cutout:
The full tweeter cutout from the back:
The woofer offset cutout from the back. You can see some of the joining dowels in this pic.
The full woofer cutout from the front, prior to adding a 1/4" roundover.
Test fit of the drivers on raw baffle:
Test fit from the back side:
All the wood laid out and ready for the first coat of Watco:
After the first coat:
Waiting on the final (4th) coat of Watco to set up:
Showing the crossover mounted and the Accumat installed, prior to foam being glued in:
Foam installed and ready for the baffles:
Done! Here, you can see how the wood started by looking at the woofer cutout disc on top of the left speaker.
And finally, the money shots:
Thanks ,
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