Overnight Sensations build

[panteragstk]

Hey guys, I am ready to finally start my first DIY speaker project so I grabbed the Overnight Sensations kit from PE.

Home

Overnight Sensations MT Speaker Kit PairWhen Paul Carmody first listened to the Overnight Sensations speakers that he designed he exclaimed, "I wish I had a time machine. I would go back to my bedroom when I was in Jr. High or High School and give these to myself. These are the little bookshelf...

www.parts-express.com

So I just got the basic kit without any sort of board for the crossover. I think I may end up using some thin 1/4" ply for the crossover board just to keep it simple. If not, I'll grab whatever you guys think will work better.

This is for a desktop build to replace the little JBLs in my sig for my office. They should be here on March 4th so I'll update things when I get the kit.

 

[slipperybidness]

Here are mine

 

[slipperybidness]

Inside

 

[ryanosaur]

I think I may end up using some thin 1/4" ply for the crossover board just to keep it simple. If not, I'll grab whatever you guys think will work better.

Even though it doesn't seem like a big deal, you want to minimize mass inside the speaker as much as possible. All good designers will account for some overage in cabinet volume to make up for XO Components, Cables, Drivers, etc.
For you, try to get some 1/8" hardboard or the peg board if you want. I wouldn't do anything any thinner or lighter-weight than that. But also, definitely not thicker!

 

[slipperybidness]

Inside

I could have done a nicer/cleaner layout, but I had 2 main goals on the XO. First, I minimized any extra wires, I think I did this one with the component leads and the input/output speaker wires only. I also wanted it compact, mostly getting practice to make the BMR XO as compact as practical, so I could get that XO all in the same area (I had read about the challenges of mounting that XO as it takes up a lot of real estate).

 

[panteragstk]

Even though it doesn't seem like a big deal, you want to minimize mass inside the speaker as much as possible. All good designers will account for some overage in cabinet volume to make up for XO Components, Cables, Drivers, etc.
For you, try to get some 1/8" hardboard or the peg board if you want. I wouldn't do anything any thinner or lighter-weight than that. But also, definitely not thicker!

I'll have to check the material I'm thinking of. It very well may be 1/8". It's very thin is the idea.

 

[panteragstk]

Here are mine

Did you do your own cabinets/veneer? Looks nice. Especially for garage speakers.

 

[slipperybidness]

Did you do your own cabinets/veneer? Looks nice. Especially for garage speakers.

Yup! Remember, your PE cabs should be baltic birch, so no need to veneer. I simply sanded with a cheap ryobi palm sander, stained with general finishes gel stain (link below, the speaker hardware site for the BMR cabs says this stain works best on BB), then went with a wipe-on poly. The main reason I chose wipe-on was so that I could keep the layers thin, so I didn't get massive buildup around the driver holes, then have to deal with that to get the drivers installed.

If you look closely, you can see that I actually "over-sanded" at the corners. That wasn't a mistake, I liked the way it looked.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001DT5HZA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[slipperybidness]

Also, note that the pic of the speakers in the garage was just for initial sound testing. I have them further apart now and in a much more ideal setting.

 

[slipperybidness]

Remember, all my OS work was just getting practice for these bad boys! Same finish, but went with more stain coats to get a bit darker finish:

 

[panteragstk]

Got everything in today. Will start assembly tomorrow. The documentation leaves a bit to be desired, but the crossover build should be easy enough.

Now to find out if my ~20 year old soldering iron still works. Keeping radio shack alive in memory.

 

[MrBoat]

I'll have to check the material I'm thinking of. It very well may be 1/8". It's very thin is the idea.

Paul Carmody typically allows for the crossover components if it is that critical. The board that Meniscus usually sells with their kits, is 1/4" MDF. With the Meniscus kits, they usually send a layout print for crossovers that adheres right to the board.

 

[MrBoat]

Remember, all my OS work was just getting practice for these bad boys! Same finish, but went with more stain coats to get a bit darker finish:

View attachment 45295

Those are on my radar. Nice work.

 

[panteragstk]

Paul Carmody typically allows for the crossover components if it is that critical. The board that Meniscus usually sells with their kits, is 1/4" MDF. With the Meniscus kits, they usually send a layout print for crossovers that adheres right to the board.

I had considered getting the Meniscus kit since it was "more complete", but this should do just fine. Especially considering some of the parts in the complete kit are things I already had from other builds.

I think the stock I plan to use will work great. I just want to make sure I don't screw up the crossover. This thing isn't all that easy to follow. I'm sure I'll figure it out, but I just don't want to make an annoying mistake getting the crossover all set up.

This makes my brain hurt less, but it's been a lot of years since I've had to assemble something from a schematic.

 

[panteragstk]

Those are on my radar. Nice work.

Those and the speedsters you just built are on my radar. There's honestly too many on my radar.

This should be fun. I'm excited.

 

[panteragstk]

Found this layout for the crossover. It seems to be the one to go by considering. Does this look right?

 

[ryanosaur]

For that .35mH inductor they show upright, ideally you would either lay that down flat, or turn it so it is perpendicular to the 1.1mH inductor. If you look at the first one you posted, that is a much better layout IMO, for the Inductors, as well as just looking more compact.

 

[panteragstk]

For that .35mH inductor they show upright, ideally you would either lay that down flat, or turn it so it is perpendicular to the 1.1mH inductor. If you look at the first one you posted, that is a much better layout IMO, for the Inductors, as well as just looking more compact.

I got everything dry fitted and it looks easy enough. I'll post pics tomorrow.

 

[panteragstk]

Alright. They're pretty much done with the exception of deciding on a finish.

So I went ahead and glued up the sides, top and bottom. A bit tricky, but I got it done with my helpers. The kids got a kick out of this project.

Once that was done, I got the baffles on.

These are pretty small speakers so I was able to build both at once.

That was the easy part, now for the crossover. I found out I still suck at soldering and that I'm not a fan of building crossovers with my current tools. If I do this again, I'm going to have to do something better. My 1/8" ply worked well though. Scrap wood always comes in handy.

Fit well and screwed down. I did have to adjust a bit since the port came into contact with the crossover.

Glad I had some crimp on connectors. Didn't think of that. Glad I had a lot of things on hand. That speaker wire did well, but it is stiff stuff. Next time I'll use more flexible wire.

Back is done.

Getting ready to put the drivers in. The tweeter was a PITA in one of them, but I got it in. Not looking forward to removing it when I stain them.

The labels were helpful. Drivers are in.

Tested and ready for final assembly.

Old setup. Doing this gave me an excuse to finally get my work laptop off my desk. I don't open it so there's no point to it sitting there.

 

[panteragstk]

New setup. Much better. Room lighting did some funky stuff with my phone's camera, but they look pretty good.

I like the raw look, but I'm going to do a Minwax Gel Stain. Red Elm is what wifey picked.

https://www.minwax.com/wood-products/stains/minwax-gel-stain#colors

These little speakers really have no business sounding as good as they do. I had the sub crossover set at 80hz and that seemed a bit too low. They put out decent bass on their own though. ~95hz seems to be better in my room.

I went through a lot of music yesterday and the main thing I keep hearing is how well they are able to put up a phantom center image. Better than anything else I have at the moment. I either placed these perfectly on the first try, or they're just that good. Tweeter is a bit laid back, but not in a bad way. It actually sounds excellent for how little it costs.

That's really the theme for this whole kit. Shockingly good for how cheap it is. For around $160 I have a speaker that sounds better than others costing MUCH more.

Thanks to everyone for pointing me down this path. I now hate you all since I'll be needing to build quite a few more speakers since results are this good with a cheap starter kit.