Refinished SST-8 speakers after Poly clear coat ruined the finish..

[kingdaddykeith]

Here are the finished pictures of my newly refinished main monitors that I mistakenly used a minwax Polyurethane clear coat to protect the "Bleached Stone" and oak inlay surface.

Warning to all never use Polyurethane on any painted surface, unless you like Yellow.

Bad, evil, ugly Ploycoat.

[Sealed]

Those are cool, and quite unique. I can see that they would work well acoustically from an enclosure and baffle perspective.

Are they ported at the rear or sealed?

Did you created/mould the enclosures or are they from something else?

And what drivers are employed?

Thanks...

[kingdaddykeith]

Sealed:

Yes they are ported in the rear (34Hz) the enclosures are 14L with Scan-Speak 8530-K00 mid/woofers and the Tweeter is of course the Vifa XT25. Both Mid cabinets are tiltable and the Tweeter pod can be moved in/out to aid in time alignment. These were constructed with two layers of 3/4 MDF and a Tar mixture in-between, no screws in the enclosure all glue and the front baffles were bolted on with 1/4-20 fasteners. Below is a link to a pic of the jig used to build the shells, the baffle was considerably more complex as they had to be layered and glued then carved, sanded routed, basically I used every tool I could get my hands on to bowl out the backside of the baffle.

[Sealed]

:eek:
Sealed:

Yes they are ported in the rear (34Hz) the enclosures are 14L with Scan-Speak 8530-K00 mid/woofers and the Tweeter is of course the Vifa XT25. Both Mid cabinets are tiltable and the Tweeter pod can be moved in/out to aid in time alignment. These were constructed with two layers of 3/4 MDF and a Tar mixture in-between, no screws in the enclosure all glue and the front baffles were bolted on with 1/4-20 fasteners. Below is a link to a pic of the jig used to build the shells, the baffle was considerably more complex as they had to be layered and glued then carved, sanded routed, basically I used every tool I could get my hands on to bowl out the backside of the baffle.

That takes enough work and skill, it separates the true DIY men from the boys.

All I did was build a sub kit and modify pre-existing gear.

I barely earned my 1st DIY merit badge. I am not worthy...(yet)

You on the other hand are the DIY Jedi-master... :eek:

(This may sound silly, but I mean it sincerely, you did a great job!)

[kingdaddykeith]

Although I'm still just a apprentice compared to some, but as they say perseverance will make up for inexperience. BTW have you done any SPL measurements of you new Titanic sub? Have you considered a Behringer Feedback destroyer, that made a world of difference in my setup.

[mtrycraft]

Here are the finished pictures of my newly refinished main monitors that I mistakenly used a minwax Polyurethane clear coat to protect the "Bleached Stone" and oak inlay surface.

Warning to all never use Polyurethane on any painted surface, unless you like Yellow.

Bad, evil, ugly Ploycoat.

Again, an outstanding job on these and the picture of the combo witht he sub is impressive.
How does it sound?

[kingdaddykeith]

Thanks again mtrycraft, you guys are going to give me a big head. It's hard to describe the sound since everything is relative to my own experiences, but I'll try.

The thing that I like the most about the sound is the imaging and the dynamic range and more low end than I can handle, I'm finally at a place with this system where I can enjoy well recorded music at a loud enough level to make me believe that I'm at a concert front row, especially with DVD music. Last week I purchased a DTS DVD disk of Alan Parsons "On Air" and for the first time I didn't even think about the system or the setup, I jus enjoyed the entire disk at a very loud volume level without any fatigue, how wonderful music can be sometimes; this reminded me of what I was trying for all along. Of course there is always areas for improvement and some drawbacks to any hi rez system like recording quality, I now find myself listening to music more for the quality of the recording than the content, although occasionally I'll cue up an old recording that I have enjoyed in my youth and marvel at how good it still sounds, but some recordings are just terrible and fatiguing.

The Vifa XT tweeter is a wonderful tweeter and the midrange is so clear and resolute that I can here background noises I never knew were there. I don’t believe this would be near as good if I had gone with Passive networks, but with an all active system everything is more balanced and tighter than any of my past systems, I actually fell I'm up there with the big buck systems now, especially with a good recording.

Thanks for the interest and kind comments, next will be an upgraded matching center channel, think I’ll turn a couple of egg shaped enclosures and see how they turn out.

[mtrycraft]

I don’t believe this would be near as good if I had gone with Passive networks, but with an all active system everything is more balanced and tighter than any of my past systems, I actually fell I'm up there with the big buck systems now, especially with a good recording.

You deserve everything you get :)
Interesting way of assembling the 8 sided box.
Active crossovers? WOW. Each driver has its own amp too? No wonder it is so good.

[Sealed]

Although I'm still just a apprentice compared to some, but as they say perseverance will make up for inexperience. BTW have you done any SPL measurements of you new Titanic sub? Have you considered a Behringer Feedback destroyer, that made a world of difference in my setup.

I am going to run some SPL checks this weekend. I want to run some pink noise and tones to tweak the sub better.

I was going to comment on the principals of your DIY project that appeal, I am more of a sealed baffle bass guy but no biggie there...

The King Daddy DIY speaker system armchair analysis:

The woofer pods have no parallel sides. This has to be the next bext physical design to a sphere. It's like a quasi-tapered B&W nautilis cone. The port is far back and to the rear, hopefully in such a manner (like flaring) that reduces noise. I feel if one must employ porting, it's safer to rear port to help ensure less port noise or midrange coming through the port. Since you have added two massive subs (with SEALED :D ) setting for music, maybe the mid/bass pods would benefit if sealed. Of course that could throw the Q off of the drivers...

The woofer pods are isolated from the tweeters. This is great to cut out newtonian motion, or any cabinet resonances. This is a vandersteen principal that works well. This is why I prefer satellite/sub combo to a floorstanding threeway with a big woofer in the same box as the mid & tweet.

The pod have minimal/no baffle. Again, a "Vandersteen" principal, this is the best way to achieve imaging. No wide baffle to interact with.

Isolated tweeters: no vibration or cabinet interaction

Physical time alignment: meets the criteria of aligning the acoustic center of the mid/tweeter drivers.

Given the principals and quality you employed here, this must be a very transperent sounding system. It seems like you did a lot of planning here, not just for construction, but for functionality.

[weez82]

Why can't I see the "Attached Images?"

[kingdaddykeith]

Weez, turn on your Java in the internet options dialog.

Sealed:
Sounds like you have done your homework too.

Interesting that you mentioned a Sphere, actually I started off on that road for the reasons you mentioned, but I couldn’t figure out a way to get the tweeter close enough to the mid woofers for the crossover point I planed to use (2.8K) so I experimented with many shapes and did side by side comparisons, which led me to the tapered octagon. IMO the Tapered Octagon sounded just as smooth as the sphere and I could embedded the tweeter a bit to get the driver spacing where it needed to be, that’s where I came up with the name SST-8, Scan-Speak tapered octagon. Also I was trying to dissipate the back-wave as much as possible so I liked the deep tapered approach, no parallel surfaces and very little edge diffraction, less need for Baffle Step Comp and the least possible box coloration. BTW I did try these in a sealed version first but the ported version just sounded better in the low midrange, and less cone excursion, and at 14L there was very little group delay.

Also about your room measurments:
Go over to the FRD Consortium and download “Parametric EQ” program It’s a excel spreadsheet that will plot a room curve when you get the SPL readings finished, also it will aid you in setting up a BFD EQ if you decide to get one.

http://www.pvconsultants.com/audio/frdgroup.htm

Marty:
To expound further on what you mentioned about separate amplifiers for each speaker, I have a total of 14 channels a Marchand XM-44-4 and a XM-9-3KK crossovers with a total of 3200Watts in a 14X14.5 room, multiple dedicated 115V outputs and a Bryston 3B running 4 bass shakers in the couch. The wiring and adjustments are so complex that I can hardly figure out how to operate my own system. if it wasn’t for my Pronto Remote. And speaking of the Pronto Remote, I have figured out a way to use Super Nude List (freeware) to make my Sony ES Mega disc changer operate just like a real Jukebox. Every song and disc title is displayed on the remote, so I just touch the song title I want to hear and it will store it on a list (up to 32 Tracks) for playback, and you can add songs while playing, this made the biggest difference in my listening pleasure to date.

[omikey]

And speaking of the Pronto Remote, I have figured out a way to use Super Nude List (freeware) to make my Sony ES Mega disc changer operate just like a real Jukebox. Every song and disc title is displayed on the remote, so I just touch the song title I want to hear and it will store it on a list (up to 32 Tracks) for playback, and you can add songs while playing, this made the biggest difference in my listening pleasure to date.
So let me ask this question. I am considering getting a Pronto. The sales person wants to sell me $400 to come out and program it for all of my equipment. ($889 for the pkg installed and programed)

He says everyone that trys to do this on their own always comes back.

Is this something that I can accomplish myself ? I am very capable of learning complex matters but don't know if all of the remote controls codes are avaliable to me.

Is there a URL where all of the codes are listed. I want to have the full function of each and every remote control that I have (what about 6 or 7 of them).

What do you think is the best way to approach this ?

Thanks,
Mike

[kingdaddykeith]

The only source you need for all codes can be found hear at the Files area.
Good Luck.

http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/mboard/rc-pronto/list.cgi