Yet Another Statements Build!

[mattsk8]

I’ve been a member here for about a year now. I’ve been into stereos for a long, long time. After building some tritrix so I could get my speaker building feet wet (first set I’ve ever built), TriTrix MTM TL Speaker Components And Cabinet Kit Pair 300-702 , and a lot of deliberating, I’ve decided to build the statements and a pair of ER18s. This thread is for the statements.

Being a complete noobe in the speaker building arena, I have to completely rely on the amazing knowledge of the guys on this fantastic site and it was the general consensus here that these are some pretty phenomenal speakers. Also being a complete noobe, hopefully anyone that’s as skeptical as I am can gain much wisdom from this build thread. I will do my best to document every inch of what I do to build and finish these; including material costs and tools used. Being an ex-cabinet maker, fortunately I have a pretty exhaustive collection of tools and woodworking skills. While I post the build progress, I’ll try to make notes of different ways to complete this build; not everyone will want to run out and buy thousands of dollars worth of tools to build a pair of speakers!

I’ve received all the speaker and crossover components already minus 2 of the capacitors that are on backorder but should be here any day, I just ordered what Curt Campbell recommended right from Parts Express and Madisound per this site: Statements. So far I have about $950.00 into these, that’s for all the speaker and crossover components as well as the ports.

I’m starting to get my bearings for the cabinets. The design on Curt’s site is ported through the bottom, but can be ported through the rear as well; the rear port is the design I will build.

My first 3 questions are mainly for jinjuku: Can I trouble you for anything you think I may want to know before I start slicing up MDF (I do plan on dadoing everything; did you just add ½” to the pieces in Curt’s cutlist?); and, where did you mount the crossover and do you have finished pics of the crossovers?! Also, I see the mid/tweet cabinets pass thru the rear of the cabinets. Do have a pic of the finished backs of yours? If you could answer those questions that would be awesome! Thanks in advance!! While I have read through your build thread quite a bit, are there any changes you made to the design that I might want to consider?

Another change to Curt’s design I’d like to make is to the base. The base on the website is 3” thick and just based on the pic (didn’t do the math on the cut dimensions yet), it looks like about 1 ½” wider than the base of the actual speaker cabinet all the way around. I would like to avoid this if I can; I’m not a big fan of the way the bases look. If these are tipsy and need this for stability, I’d rather add something later; if I build this into the cabinets w/ MDF per Curt’s design, it’ll be tough to change later. I guess to simplify the question, does the base need to be made out of 3” thick pieces of MDF glued together? I would think a 1 ½” thick piece would be sufficient to support the 120lb weight of these monsters and I could put that inside the cabinet instead of on the bottom. That would make finishing a lot easier and allow me to add some nicer looking “feet” to the base of the cabinets later; know what I mean?

Thanks to everyone and especially to GranteedEV and Skyline_123 for all the wisdom you guys have shared!! I can’t wait to post comparisons of these next to the ER18s, the Tritrix, some JBLs, some Polks, some old Pioneer 3ways w/ 12” woofers, and whatever else I can dig up!!!

 

[GranteedEV]

My main recommendation is to line the cabinet walls with some viscoelastic damping etc.

Sound Deadener Showdown - Your Source for Sound Deadening Products and Information

and with 2 to 4" of bass absorption material.

 

[jinjuku]

My first 3 questions are mainly for jinjuku: Can I trouble you for anything you think I may want to know before I start slicing up MDF (I do plan on dadoing everything; did you just add ½” to the pieces in Curt’s cutlist?);

Yep, add 1/2" to the bracing

and, where did you mount the crossover and do you have finished pics of the crossovers?! Also, I see the mid/tweet cabinets pass thru the rear of the cabinets. Do have a pic of the finished backs of yours? If you could answer those questions that would be awesome! Thanks in advance!! While I have read through your build thread quite a bit, are there any changes you made to the design that I might want to consider?

Mounted the X-overs in the bottom of the cabinet. Only the mids tunnel through the back. simple knock a 1/2" hole in the back and use a bearing guided flush trim bit and then round over.

I don't have pics of the finished x-over. If you don't have any soldering experience and don't want to attempt I can put the x-overs together for you. PM me.

Another change to Curt’s design I’d like to make is to the base. The base on the website is 3” thick and just based on the pic (didn’t do the math on the cut dimensions yet), it looks like about 1 ½” wider than the base of the actual speaker cabinet all the way around.

You should be able to do what ever you want on the bases. I simply picked up some cutting boards on clearance from K-Mart. Primed and Painted.

 

[mattsk8]

My main recommendation is to line the cabinet walls with some viscoelastic damping etc.

Sound Deadener Showdown - Your Source for Sound Deadening Products and Information

and with 2 to 4" of bass absorption material.

Something like edead 80 or the edead teklite v4? I have quite a bit of both of these left from doing my car. If so, which one would you use?

I don't have pics of the finished x-over. If you don't have any soldering experience and don't want to attempt I can put the x-overs together for you. PM me.

I do have soldering experience but thanks!! I mainly wanted the pic so I could see your layout and get some ideas.

How far up to center from the inside bottom did you mount your port? And did you use the same port Curt had in the bottom, just move it up to the back?

Thanks for your replies BTW!!!

 

[GranteedEV]

Something like edead 80 or the edead teklite v4? I have quite a bit of both of these left from doing my car. If so, which one would you use?

Like with a car door, speaker insides want many different things.

You want to

-reduce panel resonances with constrain layer damping and well placed bracing. This improves the lower midrange and upper bass.

-reduce panel vibrations with mass loading (thicker MDF, and bracing helps in this too, but so would mass Loaded Vinyl. This is more relevant in deeper bass than mid bass),

-reduce internal reflections/standing waves from re-exiting via the driver cone and vent with acoustic absorption as well as poly fill. For an open back like the statements you don't want to stuff the midrange because they were voiced with no stuffing, both the bass portions are fair game IMHO. Just don't block up any vents with any stuffing.

- And then you may want to decouple the bass portion from the midrange portion and the ground. Latex or High Resilience foam is recommended!

It's all about how lazy you aren't

 

[jinjuku]

How far up to center from the inside bottom did you mount your port? And did you use the same port Curt had in the bottom, just move it up to the back?

Thanks for your replies BTW!!!

I put the same port back side above the bottom brace. The terminal cup went below the bottom brace.

One the crossover just use pegboard, zip ties, and hot melt glue. Play around with the arrangement first. Use alligator clips to connect everything and test out before applying solder. Use 4% silver solder from Parts Express and get a good 45 watt iron (you may already have all this stuff).

 

[Swerd]

On the crossover just use pegboard, zip ties, and hot melt glue. Play around with the arrangement first. Use alligator clips to connect everything and test out before applying solder. Use 4% silver solder from Parts Express and get a good 45 watt iron (you may already have all this stuff).

Agree with what jinjuku says, except I've always used standard rosin-core 60/40 (tin/lead) or 63/37 solder.

The inductors of the crossover should be arranged so their electromagnetic fields don't interact with other inductors. I follow the simple rules shown in this diagram. The capacitors and resistors can go anywhere without problem.

 

[mattsk8]

Like with a car door, speaker insides want many different things.

You want to

-reduce panel resonances with constrain layer damping and well placed bracing. This improves the lower midrange and upper bass.

-reduce panel vibrations with mass loading (thicker MDF, and bracing helps in this too, but so would mass Loaded Vinyl. This is more relevant in deeper bass than mid bass),

For this the edead 80 should work, correct? As far as the bracing, the cabinets are already a good design so no additional bracing required, correct?

-reduce internal reflections/standing waves from re-exiting via the driver cone and vent with acoustic absorption as well as poly fill. For an open back like the statements you don't want to stuff the midrange because they were voiced with no stuffing, both the bass portions are fair game IMHO. Just don't block up any vents with any stuffing.

For this the TekLite V4 should work, correct? It's 1/4" thick n feels similar to neoprene.

- And then you may want to decouple the bass portion from the midrange portion and the ground. Latex or High Resilience foam is recommended!

It's all about how lazy you aren't

This doesn't make any sense to me

 

[mattsk8]

Agree with what jinjuku says, except I've always used standard rosin-core 60/40 (tin/lead) or 63/37 solder.

The inductors of the crossover should be arranged so their electromagnetic fields don't interact with other inductors. I follow the simple rules shown in this diagram. The capacitors and resistors can go anywhere without problem.

Thanks! That helps a lot! I more wanted the pic just I so could see that I get all the components in the right spot. Still a bit foggy on how crossovers work but I know I can use the crossover sheet on Curt's site to figure all the ins and outs of it. Thanks again for that pic, that's huge!! I do have soldering experience, used to install remote starters a long time ago so I was soldering all day. Soldering circuit boards is another thing however; just don't have a steady enough hand for that.

 

[mattsk8]

This doesn't make any sense to me

GranteedEV, I'm still not sure what you mean. Would you put memory foam at the base of the inside of the cabinet? And then right below and also right above the mid/tweet cabinet? And if so, how thick? And also, would the edead stuff work to accomplish what you were talking about? Thanks for the help BTW! Sorry for all the questions, just want to get it right and that edeads not super cheap. That'll probably add another $200ish to the cost of the build if I do the whole inside and additionally, if I do have to do it, it would be impossible to do after assembly so I'd like to be sure I have enough material before I start. Know what I mean?

 

[GranteedEV]

GranteedEV, I'm still not sure what you mean. Would you put memory foam at the base of the inside of the cabinet? And then right below and also right above the mid/tweet cabinet?

Dunno about memory foam, but latex or hi resiliance foam would be used between the panels of the bass portion and the panels of the midrange portion it's connected to, to reduce vibrations.

And if so, how thick?

I think 1.25" should do the trick.

And also, would the edead stuff work to accomplish what you were talking about?

I don't know to be honest, if the foil used in these car audio products will work well for these purposes. the viscoelastic layer is fine, but the constraining layer in speakers, is generally done with something like 1/2" particle board + 3/4" ply or something along those lines, and then well placed bracing beyond that. And by well placed I mean as close to every four inches as possible. And yes, all that internal bracing could mess up the intended bass tuning so you may need a larger speaker than was originally designed to get the same internal air volume.

Sorry for all the questions, just want to get it right and that edeads not super cheap.

I recommend going to a place like DIYAudio or HTGuide for this kind of information. Unfortunately i'm not very helpful. I'm starting to think it might even be best to just follow the instructions word for word and never mind anything extra..

 

[mattsk8]

I recommend going to a place like DIYAudio or HTGuide for this kind of information. Unfortunately i'm not very helpful. I'm starting to think it might even be best to just follow the instructions word for word and never mind anything extra..

Appreciate your honesty. I think on this one I will just follow the instructions step by step. These speakers are for my dad and I really don't want to mess anything up, mainly because I don't have the spare time to redo any of it. Guess I'll get to cutting... Thanks again!

 

[mattsk8]

This may be a dumb question (mainly for jinjuku), but just want to be positive I'm reading the plans right! The tweeter doesn't have it's own cabinet like the 2 mids do, correct? And this is because the ribbon tweets that are used are sealed in their own plastic housing, right? The cabinets are designed so the air travels around the 2 mid cabinets in the main cabinet, right?

And additionally, the 1 3/4" x 16 1/4" vertical ties will be glued to the outside of the front baffles AND additionally a pair to the outside of the rears, at the same height as the mid cabinets and basically sandwich the mid cabinets in when it's all clamped together? I tried to simplify that as best I could, sorry if it's confusing!!

 

[jinjuku]

This may be a dumb question (mainly for jinjuku), but just want to be positive I'm reading the plans right! The tweeter doesn't have it's own cabinet like the 2 mids do, correct? And this is because the ribbon tweets that are used are sealed in their own plastic housing, right? The cabinets are designed so the air travels around the 2 mid cabinets in the main cabinet, right?

Correct.... The tweets don't need any space of their own.

 

[mattsk8]

Thanks again jinjuku! I think I have it all figured out and somehow, I managed to do it w/out my head exploding! I'm dadoing everything so I had to change Curt's cutlist to accomodate that; plus I changed the base to 3 pieces thick inside the cabinets as opposed to the base he had, so I had to change it for that as well. Long story short, I'll still maintain all the original inner airspace dimensions exactly (95% sure anyhow, I'll find out when I put it all together if my math adds up !), and my finished cabinets will be 56 1/2" tall x 11 1/2" wide x 16 1/2" deep. I'll figure out some feet that'll raise them up 3 1/2" to get my 60" finished height after I get them completely assembled... Now that I have my own cutlist, I hope to cut material tomorrow, wife's schedule permitting!!

 

[jinjuku]

Thanks again jinjuku! I think I have it all figured out and somehow, I managed to do it w/out my head exploding! I'm dadoing everything so I had to change Curt's cutlist to accomodate that; plus I changed the base to 3 pieces thick inside the cabinets as opposed to the base he had, so I had to change it for that as well. Long story short, I'll still maintain all the original inner airspace dimensions exactly (95% sure anyhow, I'll find out when I put it all together if my math adds up !), and my finished cabinets will be 56 1/2" tall x 11 1/2" wide x 16 1/2" deep. I'll figure out some feet that'll raise them up 3 1/2" to get my 60" finished height after I get them completely assembled... Now that I have my own cutlist, I hope to cut material tomorrow, wife's schedule permitting!!

Your dims are matching up to mine so I think you are good to go...

 

[mattsk8]

So after reading through the Enclosure design portion of Jim Holtz's statements wright up quite a bit more thoroughly, I have just a few more questions...

Jinjuku, I see on your front baffles you cut out quite a bit of excess all the way around both the woofers and the mids in the 3/4" part of the front baffle, but left the front 1/2" alone (just left the hole around the drivers round in the front 1/2" pc). Is this required on both the woofers and the mids or just the mids? I see in the wright up it says to do that to the mids but to use a 3/4" roundover on the inside of the woofers. Just curious if I missed something? Also makes me wonder, if Jim Holtz used the 3/4" roundover bit on the woofers, what did he use to fasten them? You wouldn't be able to use t-nuts cuz the wouldn't lay flat, their bases would protrude out into the 3/4" roundover.

GranteedEV, after reading through I see he says, "I lined the cabinet walls in the RS225 enclosure w/ 2" wedge foam. If you can find it, Owens Corning 703 fiberglass would also work great and offer more absorption of the driver back waves. The transmission line enclosures are lined w/ 1" foam w/ the foam held back about 1 1/2" or scalloped from the back of the W4 drivers."

Just saying this to iterate what I think you were trying to explain to me. I will be lining the cabinets w/ foam on the inside. Does this mean that I won't be needing the hollow-fill pillow stuffing? Also, if I do the sides of the cabinets w/ the 2" thick wedge foam, won't that impede the air flow from the upper woofer to the lower cabinet since there's only a 1 3/4" width between the transmission line cabinets and the inside of the main cabinets? Or does the airflow travel through the foam?

 

[jinjuku]

So after reading through the Enclosure design portion of Jim Holtz's statements wright up quite a bit more thoroughly, I have just a few more questions...

Jinjuku, I see on your front baffles you cut out quite a bit of excess all the way around both the woofers and the mids in the 3/4" part of the front baffle, but left the front 1/2" alone (just left the hole around the drivers round in the front 1/2" pc). Is this required on both the woofers and the mids or just the mids? I see in the wright up it says to do that to the mids but to use a 3/4" roundover on the inside of the woofers. Just curious if I missed something? Also makes me wonder, if Jim Holtz used the 3/4" roundover bit on the woofers, what did he use to fasten them? You wouldn't be able to use t-nuts cuz the wouldn't lay flat, their bases would protrude out into the 3/4" roundover.

GranteedEV, after reading through I see he says, "I lined the cabinet walls in the RS225 enclosure w/ 2" wedge foam. If you can find it, Owens Corning 703 fiberglass would also work great and offer more absorption of the driver back waves. The transmission line enclosures are lined w/ 1" foam w/ the foam held back about 1 1/2" or scalloped from the back of the W4 drivers."

I marked out the holes with a dime and pencil. I then used the 3/4's round over and rounded mark to mark. Next I used a 1/2" flush bit to knock out material until it lined up with the start of the round over as my guide. leaving 5/8's thick of baffle material

You will want plenty of breathing room around the woofers and mids. I wanted to go one step further than a 3/4 or 1" round over. I was fairly aggressive.

I used the pink fiber glass insulation for the cabinet. With all the dado construction and the baffle the cabinet is going to be inert.

Just use the Parts Express self adhesive speaker foam for the tunnels. It is open cell and is called for in the design.

 

[mattsk8]

Still haven't started the cabinets yet. A wedding, a funeral, and just super busy otherwise . Hope things will settle down after Halloween... I do have all the 3/4" MDF, just need the one sheet of 1/2" for the front.

I did find out I got HOSED on the 2" wedge foam from PE. I paid the same price for like 8 pcs as this place will sell a 48 pack for! Soundproofing, Acoustical Foam, Sound Control with Wedge Foam

 

[mattsk8]

Finally got to cut some wood yesterday. I got all the pieces for the main cabinets cut; waiting to cut the mid cabs till I have the mains test fit so I can figure if I want to dado them or just how I'm going to do it. Pretty excited!!

Basically what I'm doing is dadoing the back cabinet board, then I glued the 3/4" piece to the 1/2" piece for the front and I'll dado that as well. Also dadoing cabinets for the braces.

As far as the boards for the bases of the cabinets, I'm gluing 3 pieces together so the bases will be 2 1/4" thick when finished. I'm porting through the back as opposed to the bottom but I still wanted a thick base so I had sturdy options for feet or for any type of base I want. I still have to finish gluing the last piece on (have two glued together now, need 3) then I'll dado these. Hard to explain but I'll post more pics when I get em done so it makes more sense.

Just out of curiosity, I haven't assembled the crossovers for these yet and was planning on placing them in the base of the cabinet. I realize that by putting them here if something were to ever go wrong w/ them I would be SOL! Is there a way around this? I thought about building a base w/ the crossover in it but this would then raise the height of the speakers to over the 60" mark; right now my finished cabinet height will be 56 1/2", which will allow 3 1/2" for some feet or some sort of base (wasn't a fan of the original base, no offense to anyone please). Would adding a couple inches to the height have a negetive affect on the dynamics of the statements (I'm guessing a base to hold the crossover would be about 6 1/4" thick, making my finished height about 62 3/4")? A couple other options would be to put the crossovers on the back, or cut an opening in the bottom of the back of the cabinets that would screw on so I could access the crossovers. What way would you guys do it if you wanted access to the crossovers? BTW, The internal dimensions of the cabinets didn't change at all, just have to trust me on that one!!

Thanks in advance for any input here!!