I got my replacement tweeters a while back and finally picked up some MDF from Menards today.
Looking for input from JR on my plan for the cabinet. I’m thinking 11” wide, 33” tall, and 9.5” deep. That gives me ~1.38 cubic feet. Add a few more window braces and I should be at the same volume as JR’s stand mount. I’ll make the back removable so I can stuff the bottom with Rockwool as needed to kill the standing wave. I’ll also build some kind of base with spikes for stability and that will add at least 2 inches to the total height. With my room I listen in what might be considered mid-field - about 6 feet away, so tweeter height may be more critical than those with larger spaces.
I did a ~2cf tower version of his 3-way with that woofer. Maybe gave up .5db of the “punch” hump for a tad bit of extension. Since it is sealed it is super flexible on internal volume.
You can also build a solid shelf in the bottom to hold XO and add some height but not volume. BTW Paul Carmody’s Amiga are also similar height as you are proposing… should be fine.
Maybe sink in your couch a bit and be more comfortable???
JR and I have talked about making these designs in a tower format and he affirmed that they would rock in a tower format. Sealed does lend a bit of flexibility. A bigger cabinet smoothing the bass bump might help with room placement, I do notice these like to be in the room a little bit.
Both the Cabrini final and the Insomniacs are amazing budget speakers. I think I like the Insomniacs a hair more but this could all be in my head. Also looking at budget and complexity the Insomniacs are considerably more. When playing with a budget this tight $20 can make a big difference.
I have told myself more than once to rebuild one of them into a tower but keep thinking it would be better to do a bass bin with a pair of subwoofers. They sit on a pair of subwoofers now that are run with a beringer Inuke with DSP, hard to justify maiking another pair of bass bins to replace subwoofers…
I think at one point JR was using the GRS 12 inch woofers as bass bins for one of these 2 designs.
I think the dimensions on my project ended up ~36" Tall x 10"Wide x 12.75"Deep. Used the Menards shelf boards, just narrowed the baffle to ~10" instead of the 11.25" width of the boards.
I went looking at the 2 different tweeters mentioned as replacements and looks like JR is correct that they would be a simple implimentation but ai would plan on changing the resistors as the replacements are 3-4db less efficient.
If anyone wants to build the original before it is too late, it looks like the there are about 5 DSN25’s on Amazon and 10 on eBay. About $25 a piece, which I’m sure is more than PE had them for, but not outrageous.
My preference would be for the ND25TA-4, with padding resistor change to reflect the 4db difference in sensitivity. Probably switch out the 10 ohm for a 4 ohm or so.
All panels are cut, but I may end up trying something different with the baffles. I haven’t made any errors cutting things yet, so I’m not sure if I want to push my luck.
Slow going today, but I’m taking my time with this build. After hearing a larger box smooths out the low end bump with these woofers, I made these taller. I ended up at 38” which gives me ~ 1.6Cu Ft. I started laying out the sides and realized I hadn’t trimmed them to the finished length. I had to add an extension to my crosscut sled and that made things fairy foolproof - something I always appreciate.
I decided to pick up some of the cheap 48” Harbor Freight bar clamps since I didn’t have any over 36”. I could have linked a few shorter ones together, but that increases my odds of something slipping while the glue dries and I know better than to press my luck. The reviews said these clamps are pretty sketchy. I agree! They flex and twist easily and I’m amazed they didn’t just break when I tightened them down. I bought 4 but may take the unopened pair back.
While I’m waiting on parts for the preamp project, I’m back in the shop working on the cabinets. I cut some oak strips from a stair tread I picked up at some point to make the frames the backs screw into. Nothing like waiting for glue to dry because you only have enough clamps for one cabinet at a time.
Nice. I have a total of 22 clamps and I keep running out of clamps too. Most of the time, I need to work on just one channel at a time. I think you need to get up to at least 50+ clamps to work on a stereo pair without slowdowns.
