I've actually almost finished these, but figured I should put them on here as reference if some people are interested. They're based on a design here: https://sites.google.com/site/undefinition/overnightsensationmtm Needed something quite small as we have a small living room, and the wife quite likes the small tannoy sfx 5.1's we currently have. Anyhow on with the build stuff ... I've got a bit of time at home at the moment, so thought I do a little project. I've built a few subs in years gone by, but never done full range speakers, never finished with veneer or even had a router. So a bit of reading around here and I decided to do a 5.1 system using the Overnight Sensations MTM as the full ranges and the SP10 sub from the Swope build, all designed by Undefinition. I moved the UK at the beginning of last year, leaving all my tools in Australia, so had to spend a bit getting setup Ended up getting a Dewalt 621 router - after all you're going to have it for ever ... amazed how easy it is to use. Took a couple of goes to get my circle jig right but otherwise it's been a pleasure. So far I've done all the routing except the cutout for the sub port, will do that when I go buy the PVC. I initially wanted to do the Swope full set, but in my small living room with wall mounted speakers it wouldn't work for the WAF. I ended up slightly changing the aspect of the centre channel so it has a lower profile against the wall (tv is wall mounted above fireplace) not really ideal but again keeps the WAF in check. Anyhow some pictures of progress: Baffles, note the larger centre Back side of baffles Back of the LF / RF/ LR / RR with rear ports. Not technically correct with the port with in one diameter the wall, but anyhow. The centre has forward firing ports. Internal braces Sub cut out with skin I've ordered American white oak to finish the full ranges and will do the sub black. Going to do a light stain on the oak with Danish oil finish - can anyone recommend weather or not use grain filler? From what i've read grain filler seems to be more for a the lacquer / french polish finish.
Bit of an update, over the weekend glued the enclosures together: Bit of a difference in the sub porting to the Swope sub, for some strange reason 75mm poly pipe is quite expensive here and not common. So got some 68mm and did two ports, tuned to 27hz, 727mm length. Box volume 33L (accounting for volume ports take away). Port velocities come down nicely with the two ports should all be ok. Will add some hot glue between the ends to make sure there aren't any vibrations. Finished prepping the boxes and did the crossovers today. So tomorrow going to sort the rounding over, and start playing with the venner. Will also finish off the sub enclosure.
So on to painting the sub / veneering the satellites ... been a fairly busy couple of days. Satellites before veneering: Sub before painting: Veneer all glued up and drying .. And one satellite after veneering. Reasonably happy considering it's my first go at using veneer. Not sure if anyone noticed but I got the tweeter position slightly wrong on the corner channels, it's 10mm too far in towards centre. Ahh well. Sub is being painted at the moment, still needs some work to tidy up some blemishes particularly on the edges. Also managed to fill the house with black dust (kitchen adjoins the garage) .. whoops. Aiming to finish veneering tomorrow and trim, then that'll be it till Monday.
Bit more progress, on to oil now and sorting the sub painting. Veneer all trimmed: One coat of fresh oil. Drying arrangement after first coat...
The centre will be sitting on some brackets on the wall - so essentially wall mounted but not actually bolted to it. I'm modifying a BT15 centre channel mount to suit. External dimensions of the centre are 590mm wide x 165mm high x 140mm deep, 12mm MDF with two internal braces. Ports are 1" x 4" (PE 260-470) using these on all the speakers. Will achieve the same tuning as the 1.25" x 6" ports in the original design. Couple of pics - next ones will probably be the finished product. Sub primed for painting - found the hard way it's much better to use steel wool than sand paper to stop the galling up and making marks in the primer. Ahh well. After 5 coats of oil, I'll probably finish it at 6. Will see how they look.
Nice work. For people in .au, I think the drivers used in this kit are the 4" mid-bass units jaycar was clearing out last time I went in, so you may be able to build a pair yourself dirt cheap. I've used some cheap-ish 5" hivi drivers recently and was pleasantly surprised.
nice work mate. Ive always wanted to build my own speakers but never have and this is giving me motivation.
Cheers guys! Finished them off today, some pics: They sound lovely Amazed at how well they image despite being next to walls. The bass extension is also mighty impressive for such small drivers. The centre seems to have worked well, it sounds very crisp. You can see how much the location dictated the sizing. So overall very happy. Big thank you to undefinition at htguide.com for putting out the designs!
they look amazing. Now when people come over you can show them your setup and brag that you built it.
Great work! 1 How hard was the veneering? I'm thinking about building a set of full rangers myself in the near future though I'm thinking FH mk3 but I'll wait and see how happy people are with them fist as they are quite a fresh build. 2 When you did the veener on the front and 2 long sides how did you veener it.? 3 Is it 3 pieces or one piece wrapped over the curve of the front 2 sides? 4 Do you do the back then flush route then top and bottom flush route then front /2 long sides and flush route? 5 How tricky is getting the veneer round that curve? 6 ls it tough to bend? cheers rileyp
Holy Sh!t, they look fantastic! They would bring a smile to your face every time you look a them I bet, let alone listening to them.
Very happy with the sound, beautifully detailed. Sub stacks up well against the 154 litre Adire Shiva I built back in 2003. Rileyp: Vennering was a lot easier than I thought it would be, see here for a guide. http://www.webherrera.com/blog/2009/04/19/titebonds-franklin-internationals-iron-on-instructions/ I did the top / bottom first, flush routed, then the back, then the front and sides is one piece. It's a 1/2" round over, the veneer had no problems going around. It was paper backed american white oak veneer. I'm now thinking about doing the single woofer version for some computer speakers ...
Thanks... that's great to hear. It was another reason holding me back from having a go is the amount of time I'd spend on finishing. cheers rileyp
