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DIY audio: what are you building?


Paul Spencer

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This is a DIY in progress thread. What are you building right now? Or about to build this summer. Not so much a detailed thread, but one to bring out of the woodwork all those projects hiding away in secret.

Right now I'm building some oblate spheroid waveguides. Just a pair of small 6" guides to mate with a 6" mid. My first go at integrating my new compression drivers. So far (as always) it's taking much longer than expected!

Also planning:

  • large rectangular waveguides - 15" 40 x 90 degree and perhaps an 18" like the Unity
  • some big bass traps (ones that can live permanently in the room)
  • quadratic diffusors and some absorbers
  • under floor bass horns
  • AV rack

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27102[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]27103[/ATTACH]

It's a bit of a shock seeing my work bench clear enough to actually put all those bits on it.

There are all the bits. The tricky part is making sure they are all concentric when turning them up. I've found in the past that this is the thing I'm most likely to bugger up. So this time I'll line them all up, glue, cut out the holes then turn them up.

There is always a certain amount of denial of reality with these projects. Ahhh, it's just a quickie, 3 or 4 hours should do it. Hmmm ... starting to appreciate how much would go into a 15" version!

Over to you guys .... what are you building? Come out of the closet!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Paul: I lay silent on this site...sad really...as I only have failures to reflect upon...and not much wisdom!!

1. I'm cleaning up a pair of 'Bigger is Better" (Zillaspeak) boxes with a Fostex F167e and a 17H horn tweeter. They've been natural ply for a couple of years since I took saw to timber and made them...now they are stripped, undercoated and being sanded. Just got to decide on a nice colour.

2. I've stuck together a pair of MDF 160lt cabinets with a pair of Super 10 inch cast Audio Nirvana single drivers....again after sanding, what bloody colour do I paint these? These turned out OK because I got the Hardware to cut the timber...much straighter than my efforts for the above.

3. I've got ALL of the stuff for a pair of ZRT 2.5 way.....I've even got the timber, some of which is already coated....that'll save me the agony of deciding upon a colour to paint them! And, I'm going to call a favour to get these to look excellent.

4. Amp. I've got to get a better sound out of my Parasound. It's too clinical...not enough emotion. I tried to sell it, but no-one wanted it...so now I'm about to take the tweeking screw-driver to it! I sold my ME gear to get this and regretted it really! There's other Amp projects...but I'm too embarrassed to 'fess-up!!"

5. My Rega Planar turntable.......this is really frustrating as I've forgoten more than I ever knew about turntables! I was changing the stylus on one eventfull night, with my baggy sleeved jumper on....needles to say that, any stylus changing will now be done standing naked by the bench! Enough said!

6. I have one of Earle Weston's amps and about to tweek that. Well valves only... it is sweet! A; KT88 SET and it is superb. It is a credit to him.

7. a cabinet for some of this stuff ....but what colour do I paint it?

I'm also looking at a 3way Horn project....maybe the Cornscala from Crites????? The Parasound for the ZRT's and the 3way Cornscala's for the valve amp..........beauty. Then I'll need a new home as the partner is about to give up on me!!!!

I'll stop there as I think I need help........

Regards: Dave T

Edited by dthompson
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I have a few pcbs coming to build a pair of Aleph J-X class A mono blocks. The passive pre i have wont suffice so i will build the pumpkin pre, all with help from diyaudio.com.

I still want to build some horn speakers in the near future aswell

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Hi Paul: I lay silent on this site...sad really...as I only have failures to reflect upon...and not much wisdom!!

1. I'm cleaning up a pair of 'Bigger is Better" (Zillaspeak) boxes with a Fostex F167e and a 17H horn tweeter. They've been natural ply for a couple of years since I took saw to timber and made them...now they are stripped, undercoated and being sanded. Just got to decide on a nice colour.

2. I've stuck together a pair of MDF 160lt cabinets with a pair of Super 10 inch cast Audio Nirvana single drivers....again after sanding, what bloody colour do I paint these? These turned out OK because I got the Hardware to cut the timber...much straighter than my efforts for the above.

3. I've got ALL of the stuff for a pair of ZRT 2.5 way.....I've even got the timber, some of which is already coated....that'll save me the agony of deciding upon a colour to paint them! And, I'm going to call a favour to get these to look excellent.

4. Amp. I've got to get a better sound out of my Parasound. It's too clinical...not enough emotion. I tried to sell it, but no-one wanted it...so now I'm about to take the tweeking screw-driver to it! I sold my ME gear to get this and regretted it really! There's other Amp projects...but I'm too embarrassed to 'fess-up!!"

5. My Rega Planar turntable.......this is really frustrating as I've forgoten more than I ever knew about turntables! I was changing the stylus on one eventfull night, with my baggy sleeved jumper on....needles to say that, any stylus changing will now be done standing naked by the bench! Enough said!

6. I have one of Earle Weston's amps and about to tweek that. Well valves only... it is sweet! A; KT88 SET and it is superb. It is a credit to him.

7. a cabinet for some of this stuff ....but what colour do I paint it?

I'm also looking at a 3way Horn project....maybe the Cornscala from Crites????? The Parasound for the ZRT's and the 3way Cornscala's for the valve amp..........beauty. Then I'll need a new home as the partner is about to give up on me!!!!

I'll stop there as I think I need help........

Regards: Dave T

It's a lot of work mate when you set it out like that above!!:) Are you going to use this thread as some form of therapy? Good luck with your projects........just sing out if you want a hand.:nana:hiccup

Cheers,

Keith

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First Watt F5 clone (Peter Daniel PCBs) - class A sweetness. The first one is finished the second one to go in another week or two and straight to the "for sale section".

My first serious dealing with SE class A. A lot of people say that there is no going back now and they might be right (as long as my A/C is working fine).

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A couple of subs using Seas L26 ROY ( via HAS Audio ) , mini DSP for LT and crossover ( Thanks Paul and Gainphile for promoting Mini DSP ) . Crown Macro Ref as bass amplifier when it returns from the doctor.

Subs may or may not become bass section of John Kreskovsky's Na Note. I have the plans and have made a trial baffle but I'm wavering over building the whole system.

Cheers Mike

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I nearly decided to build the F5 with Peters boards, but got enough numbers for him to do a 3rd run on the Aleph J pcb's.

I may look at building F5's to go atcive if I ever build horns and use the Aleph for bass duties. How are you finding the F5?

First Watt F5 clone (Peter Daniel PCBs) - class A sweetness. The first one is finished the second one to go in another week or two and straight to the "for sale section".

My first serious dealing with SE class A. A lot of people say that there is no going back now and they might be right (as long as my A/C is working fine).

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I nearly decided to build the F5 with Peters boards, but got enough numbers for him to do a 3rd run on the Aleph J pcb's.

I may look at building F5's to go atcive if I ever build horns and use the Aleph for bass duties. How are you finding the F5?

Hot and sweet - literally. Heat sinks (380x150x30mm) are @56C (~30deg rise from ambient) but sound is to die for - clear, detailed and rich. Bass is a bit over-announced to my ears but everything else is just beautiful and this is only after less then 5 hours of quality listening after I built it. Technically, it is very quiet (DC offset is <1mV) but it is dependent on temperature (as one would expect). It takes good 30min to reach optimum temperature, after that is very stable. However it is not an amp for everyone - it has low gain so it is dying for a good pre-amp. I am running a passive due to my listening circumstances (room is 3x3 and I am sitting in front of the speakers) .

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[ATTACH]27524[/ATTACH][ATTACH]27525[/ATTACH]Stunning stuff Felixx, it's quite a treasure trove you have there. Interestingly I see you have a Pro-Ject Studie - I also have this turntable, a pretty rare beast by all accounts.

My Voigt Quarter Wave enclosures are at the paint stage at the moment, here's a pic of them in the raw.

Also I've slapped together a TT support out of leftover ply and four squash balls, with some meaty adjustable spikes tapped directly into the plywood.

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I've got a pair? of unused PD F5 boards sitting around collecting dust if anyone wants 'em

I have a pair as well :nana . Can you still get the output device's for these . With yours ,Decky's and mine someone could make a high efficency active 3 way :) .

Cheers

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I have a pair as well :nana . Can you still get the output device's for these . With yours ,Decky's and mine someone could make a high efficency active 3 way :) .

Cheers

You cannot get Fairchilds that I use but you can get IRF/Vishay mosfets or just simply get a pre-pack like I did http://www.tech-diy.com/Store/CloneKits.htm.

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I'm hoping you'll all forgive my ignorance/incompetence. I've lifted this photo from felixx's post links. I'm assuming it is a horn tweeter of some sort, but can someone confirm/explain for me?

IMG_1009.JPG

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