In a fairy tale, this would be the end of the thread. It still might be, but these won’t be leaving the house any time soon. The positive first. These cabinets are very dead and I’m happy with how they’ve turned out. They have a future going into usage somewhere, somehow.
The finish on the baffles turned out to be a huge disappointment. The Varathane Ultimate water-based polyurethane was a dream to apply. It just does not run, dries quickly and the clean-up is a breeze. It also has the durability of Chap-Stick. I’ll have to tear down and go back to the drawing board. It is not good.
The sound was likely always going to be a work-in-progress. The bottom end is not bad and the vocals are pretty close, but the top end isn’t there. It’s like the opposite of sibilant. My starting point was conservative so I’ll lower the resistance ahead of the tweeter and see how that compares. Also, the drivers only have a couple hours of playing in them, so…
Here’s how they looked in the listening room.
