speakerstuff

I know I owe you guys some sexy pics but this will have to do for now.  I’m just waiting for some parts that will be here on Friday, and I should be done this weekend, woohoo!

I finished up the center channel which will be hidden in the entertainment center behind grill cloth.  Here’s some snaps of the partial BSC crossovers for the RS150s and the 27TDFC.  They’re on MDF, 16 gauge wire between components mounted with hot glue.

The crossovers are mounted with velcro connected with 12 gauge speaker wire (monoprice).  The box has the dampening on the walls with a little bit of acoutica-stuff/polyfill/whatever it’s called in the enclosure.

I’m still waiting on the inductors for the RS150 crossovers for the mains, but I went ahead and put everything together.  Both the front and rear baffles are floated with screws through oversized holes and washers to allow for expansion.  Here’s a pic of the gasket before attaching the rear baffle.

The stands were finished separately: primer, black paint, polycrylic for the MDF and sealer with polycrylic for the BB ply.  After finishing, the pieces in the center of the stand were glued together with wood glue to make one piece.  It was then attached to the bottom and top pieces using screws.  I didn’t want to use any glue on that part in case I wish to make the stands taller later on.  The stands are attached to the speaker with 1/4″ socket cap screws threaded through the hurricane nuts already in the bottom of the speaker (see previous posts), with rubber grommets to create a small gap.  Rubber feet on the bottom of the stands for the wooden floors.

The front baffle is attached with wood screws that are screwed in from the rear by reaching my hand through the driver cutouts.

As for the rear baffle, I would have done the same as the front baffle if I could do this over.  Instead, I used socket cap screws visible from the back, but they weren’t very nice to the surrounding paint.  One of the bolts has a large standoff that I was planning to use to anchor the speakers to the wall or the entertainment center.  Now I’m not confident I’ll even use them, so that was a mistake.

Here they are in room.  They’ll be a little farther apart than this when all is done.

And here’s with the pull-down projector screen.  The center channel is behind all that grill cloth in the entertainment center.

I’m in the home stretch! The mains and stands have been sealed and have a single coat of polycrylic. The baffles are cut, primed, painted (black), and also have one coat of polycrylic. I’m looking to do at least two more coats all around.

I’m happy with how they’re turning out, but I have just one problem… the enclosures got taller by about 1/4″!! I’ve been keeping them inside to aclimate to the house and then took them outside for a couple coats of shellac. They were outside for about two weeks, which is when it started warming up a bit here and getting some humidity. So I dry fit the MDF baffles on the weekend and they fit, but they’re about 1/8″ short on the top and bottom. The MDF is stable so it didn’t expand like the mains, doh! I’ll be keeping the mains inside for a while to see if they shrink a bit, but I’m not too optimistic because the molding in my house has even expanded with the weather.

It’s too late now to do anything. I’m not going to recut the baffles out of MDF because the box will apparently shrink in the winter anyway and I’ll be right back where I started. If/when I redo the baffles, I’ll use a hardwood and position it so it will expand and contract vertically and hopefully the difference is bearable. But that’s a long time from now unless I’m really displeased with how this turns out.

I’m not really concerned about ruining the enclosures with the baffle (as happened with a previously mentioned build) since I’m floating the baffles by affixing them from the rear with a big hole and washer. If there’s any movement, it should slide.

Now on to the pics…

Baffles cut for mains and center.  For the mains, I’m using hurricane nuts in the rear to mount the drivers.

I know, grills suck, but there are lots of kids in the house and it’s not worth taking a chance.  When the kids grow up, I’ll take the grills off, but I don’t want to be stuck with grill guide holes.  So I used a drill press to drill holes in the back of the baffle so that it drills almost all the way through to the front.  Then I dropped in magnets and sealed the rear with silicon.  Now the front baffle will look nice and clean, but will still hold a grill.  I was going to built my own grills, but I ended up ordering a pair of PE grills when I noticed my box is around the same size as one of their enclosures.

This is a shot of the rear baffle taken from the bottom.  The two side by side holes are for the terminals, while the holes in the center will be used to affix the baffle with socket screws.

Primed all MDF with automotive high build primer.  I love this stuff!  Parts of the stands are in there but it’s kinda hard to describe what it’ll look like.

Here’s the dry fit front baffle.  There is a small gap on the top and bottom from the box growing a bit due to the humidity.  I can barely tell in person so I think I can live with it.  The translam now has 2 coats of Zinsser coat, dry sanded with 220 grit, then 1 coat of semi-gloss Polycrylic.  I’m planning on two more coats and then I’ll see if I want more.  The picture doesn’t really do it justice.  I’ll take some glam shots once everything is complete.

Rear shot