So I finally decided to go with the Proac Response 2.5 clone speakers. The original speaker costs $4400, but a very good copy or the original is possible to build for around $1000. It uses high quality Scan Speak speaker elements, and I bought them today. My friend Micke is also building a pair at the same time. So now I have four speakers standing in my livingroom. Everything is covered in MDF dust. Thankfully I have a very understanding wife.
So far we have put together the side and top walls. Today we glued the Bituben dampening material to all the walls (except the front baffle) I still feel faint and feel a stinging sensation in my fingers. Next time, gas masks. Anyway, we are moving along in a good pace. Hopefully we will have a pair of working speakers finished this weekend. The plan is to first finish the speakers, but not glue the back end so we can make adjustments to the stuffing and filtering. I also want to try different lengths of the bass reflex tube. Coming along nicely. But I’m still worried about doing the veneering.
Here’s a quick picture of my finished Cyburg Needles speakers. First time I do any wood crafting, and they sound great! Next up, a pair of Jordan Transmission Line speakers.
In my quest to make a nice sounding bedroom stereo for a small budget, I bought a Sonic Impact T-Amp. To really make the most of it, you need to modify it to get more bass. Naturally I had a bit of a misshap when I slipped with my soldering iron and destroyed one of the surface mounted condensors on the board. Trying to find a component that small was impossible.
Instead I ordered a kit from 41hz.com called Amp5. I spent like three nights soldering it together. Because I managed to destroy the T-Amp, I was very cautious, measuring every component. I also checked off all the mounted components in the component list. When I did the initial test, I had a bit of a problem that turned out to be a cold solder. There is two torroids of copper that needed a lot of heat, but I got that sorted. I did a quick mockup to test the system, and got two minutes of great sound out of it before leaving for work. But when I put it into a chassie, one of the speaker terminals got short circuited so there was a big flash and bang. after that, one of the channels was dead silent. So I sulked all weekend, and Ylva came up with a lot of jokes of me not getting close to anything with a soldering iron.
Today I decided to at least finish the chassie and solder new speaker connectors that isn’t as easily shorted. And to my big suprise, the amplifier worked! Amazing! And the sound quality is great. I must say I like the sound of T-class amplifiers. Puts my old (very expensive) preamp and amplifier to shame.
So the Amp5 kit can take quite the abuse. I now have a great sounding stereo in my bedroom. Success…
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