# Handcrafted Car Audio speaker displays.



## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

I have been thinking about how I want to do my displays for quite a while now. Several ideas have come and gone but one thing always remained. I wanted speaker displays that would allow each set of speakers to aim at the exact same spot in the demo area so that it is a true a-b comparison. Now, I know that path lengths and all that will be different but I don't think it will effect my intended user experience. So, here's my pics.









The very beginning, all of my side pieces for the pods.








My jig for getting my pilot hole in the exact same spot on each one (pretty critical for rotation purposes).
















































It's pretty basic woodworking I know, but somebody might be able to learn from it. It's just a simple sled to go from a bunch of squares to this








quickly


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

I used a 2x4 to get a feel for how it would look and determine how far away they all need to be positioned.
















Threaded inserts will go in here to bolt the speaker baffle to.
















The sides of the stand with a 1 1/2" x 3/8" groove cut in the middle.
















Shaped on the top and another 1/2" x 1/8" groove cut into them. This groove will end up holding a piece of white acrylic.
















Gotta stick with that 1/2" border all the way around!


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

A little chamfering.








My base profiles.
































This is where the wires will come through.








Thanks again Doug for recommending the Duplicolor spray in bedliner for texture!


























Thats about where they stand for now, until I get some hardware. What do you guys think?


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

So give me your opinions. My original plan was to make the speaker baffles out of white acrylic bolted on with some black bolts and the speaker pods themselves out of real wood, stained with a nice polyurethane. Now that I have changed it up a bit, my new plan was to do the baffles out of real wood, stained. Looking at that last picture, I can't help but think the white acrylic would be really cool.

What do you guys think?


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## M3NTAL (Apr 9, 2006)

What is the inlay on the sides currently? I think brushed aluminum/stainless steel baffles would be pretty impressive or mirror the interior with an acrylic baffle to show off the back sides of the drivers.


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## sydmonster (Oct 5, 2009)

I would have made them open at the rear... the size of each "box" will colour the sound of the speakers, making your a/b comparisons skewed, unless that particular driver works well in that volume of sealed space... 
otherwise their great! (given that you have allowed for different path lengths)


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

My guess is that while the path length differences will be different from one set of speakers to another, they distance front the left and right of any set of speakers will be the same. I imagine this will be fine.

Jon, from past posts on FGF I thought you were working out of your home/garage...so are you finally setting up a shop? Good for you.

Good luck in this economy. 

Jay


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

M3NTAL said:


> What is the inlay on the sides currently? I think brushed aluminum/stainless steel baffles would be pretty impressive or mirror the interior with an acrylic baffle to show off the back sides of the drivers.


Yeah that would be cool, but the baffle needs to be easily replaced in case I change speaker size or something. Also, I thought about leaving a side of the box open for just that reason, but most of the side of the box is covered by the stand anyway.



JayinMI said:


> My guess is that while the path length differences will be different from one set of speakers to another, they distance front the left and right of any set of speakers will be the same. I imagine this will be fine.
> 
> Jon, from past posts on FGF I thought you were working out of your home/garage...so are you finally setting up a shop? Good for you.
> 
> ...


The PLD's from each set of speakers going up will be different, obviously, but since only one set will be playing at a time and each speaker in the set will be the same distance from the listener, it will be fine. I should probably say that there is another stand just like this one. Each one will be placed on adjacent walls in the corner of a room so that their paths meet at a 90 degree angle between them.

I did move out of the garage and get a shop last December. So far, it is working out great. Thank you very much for your support.


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

Here's an update, maybe you guys can point me in the right direction after seeing these.


























Now here's the start of the center section. By the way, it's HUGE!








Ran the top and bottom of each section through the table saw on it's edge, flipped it around and did it again. This gave me a 1/4" x 1/8" groove that i will fill with strips of white plexi after the whole thing is textured and black.








Put a chamfer on the edges








with my makeshift fence








and there she is, my behemoth!








My area for my amps and deck and whatnot








Area for subs...lots of subs


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

What do you guys think? I still need to add a top part that overhangs the rest of it for drop downs but I think you get the general idea. See my dillema? If I do the speaker pods in white plexi, I'll have to do the sub boxes in white plexi and the spots for the deck and amps. That's alot of plexi. Doing the natural wood, i think, will flow better.


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## M3NTAL (Apr 9, 2006)

Hmmm interesting - maybe we need more info on the rest of the shops theme??


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## sydmonster (Oct 5, 2009)

+ to my suggestion above, I'd place them atleast 4feet from the nearest wall too.


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

M3NTAL said:


> Hmmm interesting - maybe we need more info on the rest of the shops theme??


The shop doesn't have any natural wood in it now. Which is not to say that it can't or won't. The walls are gray as you can see in the pics, the trim and doors are white. I have my company logo laminated to a piece of plexi hung on the wall and the white and blue line extends all the way around the room. My desk is all metal and glass, the metal is mostly chrome plated or powder coated gray. 



sydmonster said:


> + to my suggestion above, I'd place them atleast 4feet from the nearest wall too.


I'd like to man, but I simply do not have the room for that.


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

These oughtta give you an idea of what the office of my place looks like.


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## CulinaryGod (Jun 5, 2008)

VERY NICE! I like your work/design.


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## ANT (Oct 15, 2005)

Looks great so far Jon..
Graet craftmanship for sure

ANT


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## Jefferson (Jan 15, 2010)

Wow, your craftsmanship is amazing!
I only wish I could do things an eighth as nice as yours.


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## Mless5 (Aug 21, 2006)

Man, you need some color in that office.... brrrr... cold... Props on fabrication!


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

Thank you all!

Mless, would you say that doing a natural wood color on the displays would help to warm up the place a bit?


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## mattyjman (Aug 6, 2009)

Jon, that looks great. "i love what you are doing with the place" .. props to the man!!


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

Thanks Matt, how's your FJ coming?


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## mattyjman (Aug 6, 2009)

I'll have to drop by next time I'm in the area... Still have some finishing touches and the never ending task of tuning... But it sounds really good right now


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## sydmonster (Oct 5, 2009)

RE:4ft from walls


handcrafted said:


> I'd like to man, but I simply do not have the room for that.


 understood, not easy or in your case possible if the room isnt there to allow for it. 
But i think looks wise they look great and will fit into what you have now really easy.


To "warm up" the office, think about some tight, focused, 1:1 scale photography printed, low sheen finish, on a mountable frame. This will bring some colour into the office and allow you and potential customers/visitors to "show off" what you have accomplished.


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

Wow, that is pretty odd that you said that. I have some Hi Res pictures that I got from Fred at Arc Audio of amplifier guts at extreme close-ups and odd angles, speakers and stuff too. I was thinking of having some of them printed and hung on the wall. So, when a customer is looking at them, he may not know what it is he is looking at, but he knows it's something electronic and the picture makes it seem high end.


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## sydmonster (Oct 5, 2009)

I

C


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## subwoofery (Nov 9, 2008)

sub's


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

huh?


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## subwoofery (Nov 9, 2008)

handcrafted said:


> huh?


sub's = subscribe to this thread  

Kelvin


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

Oh, cool!


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

Big update!!!!!!

Here's some pics of my switch panel illustration
























































Yes, it was a pain in the ass! That last one was printed and laminated to a piece of plexi...


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

Like so








All the gear minus the amps
















This is how I plan to not have to remake the aluminum pieces whenever I change amps. A piece of plastic will bolt to these, product bolts to plastic. If it changes, I just need to make a new piece of plastic with the same bolt pattern.
















My friend Ryan came and helped me yesterday and I am SOOOOOO thankful! He is the reason it is where it is today!


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

This is kinda cool. The speakers stand was a wee bit wobbly being so tall and skinny. I knew I had to secure it, but I also wanted to be able to move it. I made these wall plates, with one threaded rod from a turnbuckle mounted to it and mounted those to the wall with big ass anchors. The other end of the turnbuckle attached the speaker stand. So, if I want to pivot the stand, I just loosen the turnbuckle a bit and pivot, but it is still secured to the wall!








Aperiodic vents, just like Randy said I should do!


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)




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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

There they are. What do you guys think? I still have some thing to do, obviously, but they are playing and they sound awesome! What do you guys think I should do with the sides? I was thinking maybe spots for product literature.

Also, here's some pics of my previous "display"/testbench.

































































With this, I can test power to anything, test signal out of HU's and amps, signal in to amps, speakers, video into monitors, video out of dvd players and it also serves as the shop radio. I can take the box in the bottom out, set it in a customers trunk and have them tune to the same radio station so they can hear what bass sounds like in their car. It's crude I know, using FM, but its the most efficient way.


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## ISTundra (Jan 3, 2009)

Holy **** Jon! Looks awesome!

I need to come by and play.


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

Yes you do. Thank you!


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## TREETOP (Feb 11, 2009)

It looks awesome, nice work!

It's gonna suck when some asshat on the internet just _has_ to point out that you spelled "auxiliary" wrong on the switch panel though.

Oh wait.. :blush:


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## chapdawg1971 (Mar 8, 2010)

I didn't notice the spelling...LOL... due to the professional appearance of the display. Really nice! Well done


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

Holy crap. You just killed me! I consider myself a pretty well educated person, and I have always spelled it that way. Son of a *****!


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## astrochex (Aug 7, 2009)

That is an excellent looking display. I hope the places I visit have that kind of demo flexibility.

Nice work.


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

The places you visit?


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## mmiller (Mar 7, 2008)

very nice work!!!!


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## mattyjman (Aug 6, 2009)

jon, that is SO pimp. out of all the shops out here, that has to be the cleanest, most well thought out demo board i have seen out here. if the sound doesn't sell the people walking in, you telling them you did the board will sell your skills for sure.


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## ISTundra (Jan 3, 2009)

Jon, In the pic showing all of the boxed components, what's in the flat HAT box above the L6's, and what's behind the flat box?


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

I believe you are talking about the L2X xover set and the tweeters for the set.


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## astrochex (Aug 7, 2009)

handcrafted said:


> The places you visit?


.. future tense. I'm starting to go to shops to listen to speakers and amps. It appears that your setup enables you to rapidly change one component at a time. That way I could hear if one amp sounds different than another for a given driver. Right now that is what I am most interested in doing.


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## handcrafted (Sep 22, 2009)

astrochex said:


> .. future tense. I'm starting to go to shops to listen to speakers and amps. It appears that your setup enables you to rapidly change one component at a time. That way I could hear if one amp sounds different than another for a given driver. Right now that is what I am most interested in doing.


Oh I see. Yeah, my display was designed so that the only thing that chooses your speakers for you are your ears. Each set is in the same exact size enclosure, with the same amount of polyfil in it, with an ap vent and they all aim at the same point in the room...your ears! They all get their signal from the same amplifier and the same processor. There are NO gimmicks or tricks. Be careful of any shops that try to use tricks to make certain speakers blow others away. 

Also, don't be too concerned about the differences between amplifiers. Sure a Class A channel on an Audison amp is going to sound better than a full range class D. But chances are, there is going to be some reason why you won't really hear the difference on a display board anyway (poor recording, compression, poor listening environment.) My recommendation is to listen to each set of speakers you want, ran off of one, solid amplifier (something with plenty of stable power).


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## sydmonster (Oct 5, 2009)

Cool work in the end (despite spellnig) . It's actually quite impressive, considering the room you have to work with.

+1 on the Aperiodic Membrane styled vents!


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