Thought I might upgrade my center channel with a horizontal
Cohesive 893 from DIY Sound Group. I based that decision partly on limited availability of 3-way horizontal centers with available cabinet flat packs, but mostly because of the 893 center's
impressive listening window response graphs.
Other than inserting sub drivers into pre-finished cabinets, I've never attempted a DIY build before.
As follows is my attempt to compensate for ineptitude with enthusiasm. Firstly, let me echo what every other DIYSG customer ever says about the superlative packaging of drivers and other stuff. Erich E. Tetris'd all the contents of the packages perfectly, adding padding where needed, and I'm pretty sure everything would've survived without a scratch even if it fell off the back of the truck.
Erich also recommended that I contact Joemar Abetong for a PCB to help me assemble the crossover. You can see the PCB in the upper right corner of the following photo. Since I had some spare PC motherboard standoffs, I figured that'd be a great way to mount the crossover.
I nearly set fire to the thing trying to cut the hole for the binding post cup. Is that normal?
Hole is cut and the enclosure (minus front baffle) is assembled. I could've used more clamps or a finishing nailer or something, but it's close enough for government work. I even captured my toes in the pic for you pervs.
While waiting for the cabinet to dry, I assembled the crossover on Joemar's PCB. It was a worthwhile purchase. I highly recommend contacting him if you're planning to complete a DIYSG project.
The mounting looks a little off-square in that pic because the PCB was laid out for an electrolytic 50uF cap, but my DIYSG kit shipped with a much larger 50uF polypropylene cap. Joemar said he would modify the board for future designs and offered to ship me a replacement. I told him not to bother. What I have works well enough.
And now, a story in pictures:
I also used spray primer on the cabinet, but I didn't think to snap any pictures. Here's the cabinet with a couple coats of Glidden Peachwood oil-based semi-gloss enamel.
Krylon silver metallic. I strongly recommend against using this on your project. It does not sand well at all. But my project budget is blown, so I'm sticking with it.
Dramatic lighting!
Third and final coat of Peachwood. Yeah, you can see my crappy hole cut here. Neophyte tip: cut your hole from both sides and meet the cut in the middle.
I let the Peachwood coat dry for a full week. Now it's time for the faux wood grain finish. To practice, I started on the bottom of the cabinet. I splashed a thimble or two of paint thinner on the cabinet and spread it around using the cheapest, crappiest chip brush I could find from Dollar General. I then dipped the thinner-sodden chip brush into Glidden Old Redwood and spread it around the surface of the box. Once fairly evenly distributed, I dragged the bristles in one direction, row by row, paying special attention to make the lines slightly imperfect. It's those imperfection that make the texture plausible.
Bottom and back done. From here on out, my technique matters more.
Not too shabby, if I don't say so myself. After drying, time to insert the crossover and glue on the front baffle.
After a couple coats of poly:
I was torn between spit sanding again for the 100th time and adding a couple more coats of poly, but
@afterlife2 talked me out of it. He said it was good as-is. Who am I to argue?
Anyway, the box is stuffed with chunks of an $8 mattress pad from Wal-Mart, the drivers and binding post cup are loaded, and the fully assembled center channel is in my system. The finish came out a little redder than I anticipated, but it's still a pretty decent match to my mains.
Initial listening impression: it sounds pretty good so far. With my previous center, occasionally voices sounded a little boxy. I haven't heard boxy sound from this center so far. More listening is needed before I develop a full opinion.
