# Strakele's new living room system ft. Towers of Power



## strakele

We recently bought a house and decided it was time for an upgrade to the living room system. In our old apartment, we had the Jamo S606 5 channel setup powered by a Denon AVR-1712 along with an Energy S10.3 subwoofer. It was a very nice setup for how little it cost.


Of course after years on this site, Ally and I enjoy doing projects like this ourselves and now that we have a dedicated workshop, it made perfect sense to build our own home speakers. These will be using kits from DIYSG with my Tower of Power (or Trump Tower ) design for left and right that make them different from a more 'off the shelf' build. 

The initial system will be 4.2 with just front and rear left and right speakers and some subs. Once this is done, we'll decide if we need/want a center channel. Since the room doesn't lend itself to a projector/acoustically transparent screen setup, the center channel would have to go below the TV. With our current Jamo setup, I find that the height difference between the mids/tweeter in the towers down to the center channel makes voices sound like they're coming from below the screen. Played in basic stereo using a phantom center, everything sounds like it's coming right out of the screen. The new Denon AVR-X4200W will support just about anything we want to add later - extra surrounds, Atmos speakers, etc.

Anyway, I started with the smaller surround speakers to 'warm up' and establish some processes before starting on the towers since it's been a while since I've done much wood work.

These are built using the concentric Volt 6-LX kit comprised of a 3/4" MDF ported enclosure with a downward angled front baffle, 6" midrange speaker, and 1 inch compression driver mounted inside the voice coil and firing into a small waveguide behind an acoustically transparent dust cap on the midrange providing a wide dispersion point source setup.

Here are the individual drivers:










Compression driver screwed into midrange:










Crossover components and circuit board:










Crossover assembled, glued, and soldered:



















Holes routed for flush mount terminal cups:










T-nuts for mounting the driver:










Crossover mounted and 4 sides glued on and sealed:










Baffle attached:










Sanded smooth:



















Acoustic foam added:










Prime and sand:










Both ready to go:










Painted to match the very light grey of the living room walls:


















(upside down for these pics to protect the bottom since it'll be visible when mounted on the walls)

Haven't figured out what we're gonna do about grills yet, but they will have some type of grills to help them blend in and protect the driver.

They both work and sound good and are currently awaiting mounting hardware. Not much testing has been done yet though. They've been done for a week or two and construction has now begun on these:


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## Victor_inox

more about those drivers please.


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## sqnut

That last pic is just wow!! How big is the room that will house them? I'm just thinking what my wife would say if I put those in the living room.........what she would say would not be pretty .


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## strakele

Victor, what would you like to know? It's a custom driver made to DIYSG specs by Eminence with a Denovo DNA-150 compression driver that threads into it. With the crossover, they're about 93dB sensitivity and will play down to 65-70Hz in the ported enclosure.

SQnut, the room is just under 15x21 with ceilings vaulted from just under 9' to just under 12'. I'm lucky that my wife is just as into this as I am 

This is the room layout:










The towers will be 54" tall, 14" wide at the base, and 10.5" wide at the top. Probably weigh as much as me lol.


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## Victor_inox

Nice drivers, where can I get a few?
You are lucky indeed, my wife will relocate me to garage with speakers like that.


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## Beckerson1

Victor_inox said:


> more about those drivers please.


Volt-6 LX DIY Sound Group


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## strakele

You can find the mids here: 6.5" coaxial

And the compression driver here: Denovo DNA-150 CD


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## sqnut

strakele said:


> SQnut, the room is just under 15x21 with ceilings vaulted from just under 9' to just under 12'. I'm lucky that my wife is just as into this as I am
> 
> This is the room layout:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The towers will be 54" tall, 14" wide at the base, and 10.5" wide at the top. Probably weigh as much as me lol.


That's a pretty decent sized room. I just find that big speakers with multiple large drivers pressurize a room like no bookshelf w/sub or even floor standers can. Very tactile sound.


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## strakele

I agree and that's exactly why we're going with big, high efficiency speakers with lots of cone area. DIYSG has a lot of different kits, and the one I'm using for the top portion of the towers is actually one of the smallest ones. They have designs up to dual 18's!


Speaking of the top portion of the towers....

This is comprised of the Cohesive 893 kit. As the name implies, it uses 8" woofers and has a 93dB sensitivity (perfectly matching the surrounds, and exceeding our old Jamo speakers by 6dB). There are 2 custom 8" Eminence woofers on top and bottom, 2 Celestion sealed back 4" midranges, and a Denovo DNA-205 compression driver on an 8" SEOS waveguide all packed inside a sealed enclosure with a fairly monstrous crossover.

8" woofer with foam gasket I trimmed down to achieve flush-mount look in the CNC baffle without having to add baffle thickness:










CD on waveguide with gasket applied:



















Midrange 



















3-way crossover fully assembled. That's probably the biggest PCB mount capacitor I've seen...










Started the same way as the Volts by routing out the hole for the terminal cup:










Then glue up the sides of the first one:










However, there was an issue here. I wanted the terminal cup to be at the bottom of the enclosure, but I found after prepping to put the baffle on that the brace would be blocking the waveguide unless the baffle was reversed so that the terminal was at the top. Stupid move - always measure and double check before cutting. Ugh.

I used the plug cut out by the hole saw, as well as a new routed piece to fill the old terminal hole and cut the new one. You can see all the caulk around it on the right here. Lame...










T-nuts for all drivers:










Crossover mounted (to the real bottom this time...)










Baffle attached and brought inside for testing:










And drivers installed, along with almost a full Walmart polyfill pillow worth of stuffing, sitting next to the Jamo S606 towers:










I just played it for a couple minutes to function test. Additional efficiency was immediately noticeable, as well as the corresponding increase in dynamic abilities. These are gonna be good!

So this is where we're currently at. Now time to finish the other one, and then the midbass monster woofers for the base...


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## claydo

Noice speakers grayson.......and hold on, wife?! Holy ****.......congrats to the both of ya!!!


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## bertholomey

claydo said:


> Noice speakers grayson.......and hold on, wife?! Holy ****.......congrats to the both of ya!!!


Wow Clay.....you are so behind 


Those look incredible.....I am certainly envious - I'll need to get down there to hear 'Trust' on them when you get everything done. Very impressive that you guys are going the route of raw drivers, crossovers, and building the enclosures.


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## Beckerson1

I'm actually wanting to grab a couple of the Fusion-15 Sentinel kits for a portable DJ kit/room system.

Fusion-15 Sentinel DIY Sound Group


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## BigAl205

Wow, those look badass!


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## strakele

Haha dang Clay, I thought you already knew!

Thanks Jason, we'd love to give you a demo when they're done.

Beckerson, I was originally thinking Fusion 15's for a dedicated 2 channel setup in another room, but I think we'll end up going with the Maximus 12. The Sentinels should be perfect for a mobile DJ setup though.

Thanks Al!


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## Blazemore

Where did you get the 893 circuit broads from? I have a set to be built myself.


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## ErinH

cool! congrats on the progress!


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## fish

Lookin' good Grayson! Is that gonna be a 15" or 18" MB down there? Regarding a center... you shouldn't need one. I use a pair of PSA MTM-210s for L/R with phantom center. I sit left of center almost directly in front of the left speaker & dialogue has never drifted from center of screen. I'm pretty sure those SEOS waveguides image much better.

Oh, congrats to you & Ally!


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## Beckerson1

strakele said:


> Haha dang Clay, I thought you already knew!
> 
> Thanks Jason, we'd love to give you a demo when they're done.
> 
> Beckerson, I was originally thinking Fusion 15's for a dedicated 2 channel setup in another room, but I think we'll end up going with the Maximus 12. The Sentinels should be perfect for a mobile DJ setup though.
> 
> Thanks Al!


Ya definately. The Sentinel would be way overkill for most typical rooms


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## strakele

Blazemore said:


> Where did you get the 893 circuit broads from? I have a set to be built myself.


User mtg90 on AVS makes and sells them. $15 each. Totally worth it.



ErinH said:


> cool! congrats on the progress!


Thanks Erin. I would have liked to do an AT screen setup, but I think this will do  The small TV pictured below is soon to be replaced with a 70" Sharp or 75" Vizio.



fish said:


> Lookin' good Grayson! Is that gonna be a 15" or 18" MB down there? Regarding a center... you shouldn't need one. I use a pair of PSA MTM-210s for L/R with phantom center. I sit left of center almost directly in front of the left speaker & dialogue has never drifted from center of screen. I'm pretty sure those SEOS waveguides image much better.
> 
> Oh, congrats to you & Ally!


Thanks man! It's a 12" midbass. Another custom Eminence woofer that from all accounts is an absolute monster in the midbass. Like, made guys who run 8x 18" subs want them. And yeah, I'm perfectly happy with the old towers running in stereo, so I think I'll be alright with these. Saves a bit of money, plus it'd be pretty tough finding a TV stand that can fit a center channel that big lol. 



Beckerson1 said:


> Ya definately. The Sentinel would be way overkill for most typical rooms


Yeah, you don't really get an impression how big they are looking at pictures online. Always amazes me when you look at guys' setups on AVS and judging by the size of speakers relative to TV, you figure it's like a 50" screen. Then they post that it's a 75" and you realize how massive everything is lol.



Anyway, onto build updates - both make sound now!

Let the baffle glue dry overnight clamped down so when I got home today I ran the flush trim bit and sander over everything then brought it inside. I also trimmed a 1/4" MDF piece to the same size as the baffles which I'll eventually rout out to be a grill frame.

Stuffed with polyfill:










Drivers installed and set up for some stereo testing:











I'm currently sitting on the floor listening to them. No EQ, crossover at 60Hz. I'm liking them very much. The increase in dynamic impact over the old speakers is my favorite part so far. Definitely adds a feeling of realism. Listened to a track with an orchestra component and I can just see the bows sliding over the strings of the instruments. Snare drum punch is vastly improved. All drums are very tight. Not as punchy below 80Hz as my old towers, but that was expected and will be more than made up for by the Magnum 12 below them once I get them in. This room is also pretty lively with nothing on the walls yet, so some treatment and a bit of room EQ will only help.

So far I'm very happy with everything. Once I'm done listening to a bunch of stuff I'll take some measurements.


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## Black Rain

Well Congrats to You and Ally and the new home. It is always great to have support from your wife when you enjoy doing stuff like this. 

Those speakers look exceptional and I'm sure that they will be well complimented when you get the 12s in under them. Are you just running a Denon receiver in stereo? What type of EQ are planning on using?


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## strakele

For testing last night, yeah it was just the receiver in stereo. Once everything is done we'll do an Audyssey XT32 run and hopefully get a corrected response we like. If not there's a bit of manual EQ available as well. The receiver has preouts for all channels so we could use an external DSP, but I'm really hoping to not need/want to go that route.


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## strakele

Made some frames for grills. This was a pain. 1/4 MDF is annoying to work with, especially when it's cut into narrow strips like this.

Anyway, flush trimmed some sheets to the front baffles then rough cut out the center:










Flush trimmed the inside edges to a 1/2" template I made










Slight bevel on the outside edge and slight roundover on the inside edge. I know the MDF on MDF contrast in these pictures is awesome..










And a thin metal rod in the middle to keep the frame from bowing in when grill cloth is stretched over it. Otherwise, 100% open area in front of all drivers. These are more for cosmetics than physical protection at this point, but it would be easy to add a few more metal rods for some actual protection qualities as well. 










Some black paint and a bit of grill cloth, as well as some grill guide pegs from PE and they'll be done.

They will have to be modified by adding the tapering angle down toward the wider base once that's built, but that shouldn't be hard. I probably won't actually wrap them in cloth till that's done.


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## ErinH

Grayson, regarding the aiming of your SEOS WG speakers, you may want to give this a read if you haven't already:
http://libinst.com/PublicArticles/Setup of WG Speakers.pdf

Bill Waslo, the author of said paper, is the inventor of Liberty Instruments' Praxis, which lead to the OmniMic. He has designed and shared numerous DIY designs. IOW, the dude knows his stuff.


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## strakele

Bill is definitely one of the guys that sticks out as knowing what he's talking about. And I've read a few places to toe in the waveguide speakers, and that most people don't toe them in enough. That article gives a much clearer depiction of how much and _* why.*_ Thanks!

We haven't done a whole lot of critical listening yet since they currently sit much too low until I get the midbass enclosures built. We will definitely be experimenting with aiming and placement.


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## strakele

PE and DIYSG orders both arrived yesterday. Christmas in April!










Wasted no time getting to work. No glue mock up of the pieces. Decided to build it in stages since I only have a few clamps big enough to be useful on this one.










All braces glued in:










Baffles glued and screwed together. I don't think I'm gonna use screws on the other one. My thought was they'd add clamping force and strength to the bond, but they can actually push the 2 boards apart slightly.










For the second one I drilled the mounting holes and added T nuts first, so when I glue those together, they won't be able to float around on the glue and should stay perfectly in place.

That's where I'm at as of last night.


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## Focused4door

I quit using screws long ago and use a brad nailer. It clamps tight and no need to predrill holes. Usually don't bother with actual clamps since the brad nailer essentially clamps it plenty good.

Those are certainly coming along nicely.


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## ruizal

These look awesome! I have a strong desire to do something like this but I feel like the knowledge curve is just so darn steep. I'm subscribed and look forward to seeing all your progress! 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk


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## strakele

Yeah a brad nailer probably would have been the better option. But I don't have one and I had a bunch of screws. I'll probably get one before doing the sub enclosures...

The second baffle went together much better just using the driver mounting screws in the T-nuts plus clamps. 5 sides of the first enclosure will be done today, and maybe I'll get the baffle on too.


Ruizal, this is a fairly complex design that I'm doing, but DIYSG has a lot of much simpler options too.


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## strakele

Weekend updates..

More midbass enclosure progress:



















This one is done and ready for the baffle as soon as Lowe's is back in stock of 6-32 T-nuts. Brackets added for some extra support since they'll have 50+ pounds sitting on top at all times.











Here's the big bad 12" midbass going into these:




















And here's the subs we currently have since I haven't really said much about them yet. Energy S10.3:



















I popped one of the drivers one day so replaced it with an Alpine Type S 10.











These two will eventually get replaced by a trio of 15's or maybe 18's.

New TV stand is here and new TV will be here this coming week. Yay.


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## ruizal

Regarding the t nuts. I found Lowes to be stupid expensive for those things. A local hardware store had them for less than 20% of what Lowes wanted to charge. 

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## strakele

They are absolutely stupid expensive. I got bigger ones for subs and midbass in my last Parts Express order, but they don't have the smaller ones. There's no Ace Hardware around here unfortunately. I'll have to find somewhere else.

Last night I had to see what it looked like with the 2 enclosures stacked in tower form. Pretty awesome I think...


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## bertholomey

That certainly looks formidable!


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## ruizal

strakele said:


> They are absolutely stupid expensive. I got bigger ones for subs and midbass in my last Parts Express order, but they don't have the smaller ones. There's no Ace Hardware around here unfortunately. I'll have to find somewhere else.
> 
> Last night I had to see what it looked like with the 2 enclosures stacked in tower form. Pretty awesome I think...


Life goals lol


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## strakele

With the included port tube and using the Precision Port site calculator, I cut 3 lengths tuned to the frequencies written on them so I can experiment a bit.










Baffle going on:










Bit of denim insulation - not sure if this is enough...










And here they are with my new 65" TV. It just looks small compare to the speakers... 










Haven't run Audyssey yet. Started with manual EQ using the Denon's GEQ for the 893's and the PEQ in the iNuke for the MBMs.

893's crossed at 200Hz. Still the dip at 400 but I got them pretty smoothed out.










MBM's










And whole system with the subs (no EQ on the subs since Audyssey was off):










There's some room to better integrate the subs, but I didn't touch anything on them other than lowering the crossover.


Wife and I went through a bunch of cool songs with the volume cranked grinning ear to ear - laughing even. This system is AWESOME. By far the most fun home system we've heard. The 893's provide the dynamics and detail with great snap. The MBMs produce the great punch and growling midbass we were after with the added benefit of making the subwoofers sound a lot better as well. We still plan on DIYing some new subs, but even now with the little 250W 10's, it's very impressive.

So yeah. Very happy.

So on to finishing. Need to cut the angle pieces for the sides and back. I have a bunch of grill guides now and need to make the frame for the bottom section grill. Also got a 45 chamfer router bit today that I'm going to run over the front edges. Baffle will be black, rest of the towers will hopefully match the new TV stand. Looking at veneer and laminate and stuff for that. Also got some mounts for the Volts. Progress is probably gonna get a bit slower since I'm about to get a lot busier. I was trying really hard to have everything make sound by this weekend, so at least that was accomplished.


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## strakele

Few more charts for those interested.

First up, here's the raw un-EQ'd response of both MBMs together with a 200Hz LPF. I've been running them bridged off one sub out from the receiver so I haven't bothered taking independent left/right measurements yet. All graphs are 1/24 octave resolution, no smoothing, 50 averages around the MLP.










And here's about as flat as I can get them using the iNuke DSP (couple tweaks from previous post):










Here's both full towers with subs. Manual graphic EQ on the 893's, iNuke DSP on the MBMs, no EQ on the subs (with a little bit of tweaking of the sub phase knobs which helped the dip at 70Hz a little):










After that I decided to see what Audyssey XT32 would do with it instead of switching up the orientation of the MBMs. It did a pretty nice job. After doing a couple tweaks in the iNuke software post calibration, here's the MBM + sub response:










And the whole system:










Not bad

Sounds good too. It boosted the top end quite a bit compared to my manual tune. It's now pretty flat to 17KHz whereas before there was a somewhat gradual roll off starting around 6KHz. Low end is obviously much smoother.

Some gee whiz facts. Audyssey would generally set the levels of my old Jamo S606 towers to +2.5 dB. It set the 893's to -7.5 dB. The Jamos were rated at 89db/2.83V at 6 ohms, so I was expecting about 5dB difference in levels. 10dB certainly surprised me. So that's pretty cool. Also, it chose a 120Hz crossover for the 893s. Obviously not an issue since I'm crossing them at 200Hz to the MBMs, but would have been annoying if I was trying to cross them to a sub at 60-80Hz.


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## bbfoto

Freakin' Spectacular! Nice work, Grayson.


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## KrautNotRice

strakele said:


> Some gee whiz facts. Audyssey would generally set the levels of my old Jamo S606 towers to +2.5 dB. It set the 893's to -7.5 dB. The Jamos were rated at 89db/2.83V at 6 ohms, so I was expecting about 5dB difference in levels. 10dB certainly surprised me.


First off -- I'm loving your thread! I hope you don't mind us living vicariously through you haha.
That '2.83V' sensitivity rating is an 8 Ohm rating, it's good for when the manufacturer wants to fluff up their (less than 8 Ohm) speakers' sensitivity numbers.
For example: If a speaker is 4 Ohm and the specs read 89db / 2.83V it really means 86db @ 1W/1m (-3 db to get the real 4 Ohm number).
In other words your Jamos are actually less efficient than 89db, if they were 4 Ohm they'd be 86db @ 1W/1m, I don't know what it means for 6 Ohm maybe in the middle? 87.5 db?
I've been out of the hobby for a while until recently and never saw that 2.83V rating before so I looked it up and concluded it sucks 
HTH
That would help bridge the gap between your Jamos and the new speakers' sensitivity a bit.


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## strakele

Yup.. The 893's are rated 93dB/2.83v/8ohm, so 93dB 1W/1m. With the Jamos at 89dB/2.83v/6ohm, that's like 87-88ish dB 1W/1m. That's why I was expecting 5-6dB level difference between the two and was surprised by the 10dB difference in levels that Audyssey set.

Yesterday I flipped the bottom sections over to see if there was any change in response with the woofer closer to the floor.










Blue is woofer on bottom, yellow is woofer on top. Basically identical other than the little extra spike at 265Hz.











And here is with the same EQ applied to both. Blue is woofer on bottom, green is woofer on top.



















New Vizio P65 too 

Now that I've tested and found it makes basically no difference, I'll add terminals to the back, probably with woofer on bottom orientation. I didn't want to do that until doing this test.

So I'll do that, put a bit of a bevel on the front, then I'm thinking black for the baffle and a dark wood grain finish to match the TV stand for the sides and back.


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## strakele

Finally got motivated to pull all the drivers out and get back to work on the cabinets. After testing both orientations and determining it made very minimal difference, I routed out the terminals for 12's - went with woofer on bottom. If anything that'll make them a bit more stable with the weight lower.

Put 45 bevels on the front side edges of all the cabinets:










Put a 45 bevel on the grill frames too and added some more metal supports since they're so thin now:











And I have some samples on order of different finishes. 

Had the day off today so I spent most of it cutting the side angle pieces and figuring out all the angles to make it fit together seamlessly. It was quite a bit of work with just a handheld circular saw and router. The side pieces were all 45's so that wasn't too bad, but the back was not so I routed the 45 bevel then cut the steeper angle by hand.

I started the taper a bit below the top edge of the MBM enclosure so it all flowed together which probably resulted in more work than necessary to get the side angle pieces to line up perfectly but oh well.

First side piece cut. There are 2 of those metal L brackets on each side.










And here's the completed enclosure, ready for finishing:




























Close up on some of the angles:



















Very minimal filler was needed which was nice.

Now on to the next one...


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## BigAl205

Wow, those are sexay!


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## claydo

Hell yeah grayson, those look awesome!


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## Babs

Wow!! Mad skills man! Looks awesome!


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## 2010hummerguy

That is a beautiful build, nothing like a new HT to go with a new house, nice! Those towers are beautiful and I am super jealous of your wood shop.

It is amazing what DIYSG offers these days. Custom drivers?! So cool.

Regarding the 400hz dip, what are your crossover points and what is your measuring distance?


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## strakele

Thanks! 

It seems like Eminence is pretty easy to work with as far as getting custom speakers made. Very cool, especially since they're in the U.S.

The passive crossover points are ~200 and ~2,000Hz IIRC.


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## 2010hummerguy

Aha, I am willing to bet you're seeing cancellation from horizontal placement of the mids. I get the same thing with my center with similarly placed mids but it becomes a non-issue if the listening distance reaches 5-6ft.


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## strakele

It's possible. But at that low of a frequency with how close they are together, I'd think it'd act more like a point source when on axis, especially at my measurement distance of 11 feet. Once they're back together I'll take some off axis measurements as well and see.


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## 2010hummerguy

I agree with you, especially at 11ft., there shouldn't be any cancellation by that point.


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## strakele

Finally some updates!

Over the long weekend I finally had time to finish construction of the other tower.

Some small brackets to hold everything in place:










Side pieces cut and attached:



















And shot with some black acrylic to seal the wood. Came out a bit more textured than I would have liked, but should be fine to apply the finish over after sanding.


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## Notloudenuf

Those look awesome. Good work.


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## Inferno333

Those are a beautiful monstrosity!


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## strakele

Thanks guys!

Here's proof they're both actually completely constructed. Partway through sanding them. I got the spray pattern on the second one smoother so the sanding is going much quicker.


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## Babs

Nice!


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## Victor_inox

Badass!

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## crackinhedz

Looks great!


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## Se7en

Just seeing this for the first time. I've been on hiatus. Those look fantastic!


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## 2010hummerguy

Very cool!


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## strakele

Thanks guys. 

Finally got all the sanding done today, so they're ready for finishing. I'm not 100% decided on exactly how I want to do it though.

At a minimum, the sides and back will be a wood grain finish that very closely matches my TV stand. I could do that all they way around and it would look good, but I was also thinking about maybe having the front baffle be a gloss black and/or making the beveled edge a silver aluminum accent like the bezel on the TV. Thoughts?


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## strakele

Finally!! They're done!














































Pretty pleased with how they came out. Not 100% flawless, but really dang good. And a very close match to the TV stand.

Now to decide on subwoofers...


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## claydo

Those look pretty fookin rediculous grayson, fine job! Now you need a matching center........snicker, snicker.......


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## bertholomey

Absolutely amazing job....actually have to go back to the beginning of the thread to remind myself how these started! I bet they play the fine details......but I can only imagine what they do with Megadeth's 'Trust' Live or Metallica's 'Orion' Live


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## strakele

They kill it 

But now I need to vibration damp my TV stand, window, fireplace, and microwave


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## claydo

Dynamat home kit?




Sounds pricey, lmao....


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## strakele

Yeah man. Shouldn't take much, but it's definitely necessary lol. Can't wait to get some real subs in here too.


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## Babs

Off
The
Chain!


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## strakele

Thanks guys! I'm also going to be getting some CNC trim rings for the 8's in the top half to replace the foam gasket which will add a further touch of class I think.


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## KrautNotRice

Wow, turned out great! Hats off.


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## strakele

Appreciate the nice comments everyone. I'll post some updated FR graphs soon.


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## Inferno333

Freaking terrific work!


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## 2010hummerguy

Those are beautiful! And also look like they have the capability to melt your face off  We move into our new house on Friday and I definitely want something like these in the game room.

So the big question is, how do they sound???


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## strakele

We're really happy with how they sound. They're very dynamic and punchy. We've had a lot of fun so far going through our music library and just cranking it way up and grinning ear to ear. And it'll get even better once we get some real subs in here too. Detail is nice, but they aren't quite as pinpoint focused as the best reference system I've heard (although at this point it's a lively room with no treatments). The sweet spot is still pretty small just like non-waveguide speakers, but the 'good spot' around the sweet spot is bigger which is nice. Also I think I probably should have gone with the iNuke 3000 instead of the 1000 for the 12's - it's pretty easy to get the limiter to light up when I'm really jamming on them. But that can be fixed later.

I still need to get the surrounds wired and hung, and planning on a trio of Rythmik servo subs to be complete.


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## strakele

Got the CNC trim rings for the 8's in today. Nice touch that adds an extra bit of class!



















Just need one for the 12's now..


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## strakele

Tweaked just a hair so they're nice and flush


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## Babs

Man those turned out stellar!
Your router and woodworking skills level = Hero!


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## strakele

Finally posting some measurements now that they're done.

Left, right, and both towers together, no EQ:










Using the manual graphic EQ in the Denon AVR on the 893 sections. Too bad it doesn't have a band at 6.3KHz:










And after using the parametric EQ in the iNuke on the MBM sections:










And here's after Audyssey at -30, -20, and -10MV with DEQ. Not bad 

Little curious about the bump around 6.3KHz. Wonder why it's leaving that.










Been listening to these for a while and am still very pleased with them. I moved the subs around and tweaked the phase knobs a bit when I was painting the ceiling which is what prompted me to get back into tuning. Been real busy - still haven't gotten new subs or ran the wires for the surrounds. Soon...


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## strakele

And now, finally with an update on the surrounds. Last weekend I ran the wires, installed the mounts, and at long last got them installed!




























I'm thinking we're going to repaint them wall color though to blend in a little more.

But anyway, they're great. Finally got to watch a movie with the full surround effect and it was awesome! Now for the center...


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## KrautNotRice

Very nice stuff!
Are you set on running a center? Some receivers are really good at simulating a 'ghost' center or whatever they call it. 
I love how your towers turned out, the trim ring over the 8s is perfect.
I don't know what your room constraints / preferences are, but I'd adjust the towers' placement a little and see if it doesn't sound even better with them pulled out and away from the equipment a little (into the room). I've always gotten my speakers to sound their best that way. 
But again, just personal preference, it's gotta sound good to you!
Hats off again for doing such amazing work and sharing it with us!


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## strakele

Thanks!

I did not plan to run a center originally and I suppose I'm not 100% set on doing so, but at least so far with A/B swaps back and forth between stereo with the phantom center and multichannel with the center running, voices with the center are smaller and more precise sounding (though not as powerful and dynamic due to the low sensitivity of my old center). I have tried adjusting the toe in of the towers a bit which doesn't make a whole ton of difference. That, and I'd like a decent center focus even when you're sitting on the side couch.

The placement of the towers is somewhat of a compromise. The wider or further into the room I place them, the closer the left one gets to the side couch which is less than ideal. I can make a couple inches of tweaks here and there but it'd take more than that to make any real difference. And since they're pretty big, the drivers are a good 24 inches away from the wall. The top half is a sealed enclosure, and the bottom half is front ported, so I wasn't overly concerned with their placement relative to the wall. The biggest issue has been getting good bass response at the main listening position. Due to dimensions, it's quite a bit weaker right where the couch needs to go, compared to the front and back of the room.


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## strakele

Not a stereo update per se, but a significant upgrade to the room. Finally got my edge lit crown molding installed!

With regular ceiling light:




























Money shots with the LEDs:






































Still enjoying the system. Still intend to color match the surrounds to the walls. And still intend to do something about a center channel at some point, but for now, the room at least looks finished!


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## abusiveDAD

Just wow!


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