My madisound build thread

[lsiberian]

Box 1

Box 2

Box 3

Crossovers and solder gun

Drill and guide

Drivers and tweeters

Front Baffles

Router with a jasper jig(very useful tool)

 

[ErinH]

so... ummm, what does the design consist of? specs for enclosure and crossovers? Which drivers? etc, etc...

 

[jamie2112]

Feet shmeet lets see the finished speaker

 

[Highbar]

Why am I not seeing anything?

 

[fredk]

His feet are in the way?

 

[Adam]

Thanks for the pics! I always like seeing that stuff. It's interesting to me to see the products as they are being constructed and assembled.

It also makes me feel better about just having a box show up at my door with the completed gear inside.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Those are some uglyass feet!

 

[WmAx]

I don't suppose I could convince you to make the boxes in such a way as to have very low acoustic panel output, could I?

-Chris

 

[just-some-guy]

feet, lol.

how many are you building ? i wonder if they would be good for surrounds, hmmm.
i need good new surrounds/rears.

 

[lsiberian]

I don't suppose I could convince you to make the boxes in such a way as to have very low acoustic panel output, could I?

-Chris

I'm open to convincing if you have a better box design or suggestions.

My goal is the best sound. I'll probably use these boxes for now, but if I can upgrade with a different design. I'm all ears.

I'm thinking you would dampen them with 8lb rock wool all the way around.

Is this a correct statement?

 

[alexwakelin]

I've been waiting for your build thread, looking good so far. Are you following these plans for you boxes?

http://www.drmarksays.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/vifa_tc14wg-49-08.pdf

Just-some-guy, these speakers deserve better than just surround duty If you have the room for them (they can be bulky unless you build the sealed version), they would make great surrounds.

 

[lsiberian]

feet, lol.

how many are you building ? i wonder if they would be good for surrounds, hmmm.
i need good new surrounds/rears.

I thought the feet would be fun.

Anyway I'm building 3 for my front soundstage.

 

[lsiberian]

I've been waiting for your build thread, looking good so far. Are you following these plans for you boxes?

http://www.drmarksays.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/vifa_tc14wg-49-08.pdf

Just-some-guy, these speakers deserve better than just surround duty If you have the room for them (they can be bulky unless you build the sealed version), they would make great surrounds.

I actually and building them to the Madisound specs. I plan to build some of TLS coaxials whenever I upgrade. I'm using this as a learning experience more than anything else.

 

[MidnightSensi]

I'm open to convincing if you have a better box design or suggestions.

My goal is the best sound. I'll probably use these boxes for now, but if I can upgrade with a different design. I'm all ears.

I'm thinking you would dampen them with 8lb rock wool all the way around.

Is this a correct statement?

Some dampening and also braces.

 

[lsiberian]

Some dampening and also braces.

I thought adding a brace would reduce the internal volume. Plus I didn't think the enclosure was large enough to deserve a brace, but if you think it will make the speakers sound better. I'll add one.

So I haven't added one yet. I've considered adding a mid point brace to the boxes as a future upgrade. I plan to mod these down the road. Maybe even get an 8" driver and do a 3 way. There was some guy at PE looking at that route.

I was told by TLS that in a ported design one only needs to half the internal surface and that by dampening the entire surface it would kill the bass. I was told to dampen the back wall, but that's all i've done so far. Not sure where to put the other dampening. There seems to be conflicting opinions on this.

 

[MidnightSensi]

Are you cutting that wood in your living room? My girlfriend would absolutely /kill/ me.

I thought adding a brace would reduce the internal volume. Plus I didn't think the enclosure was large enough to deserve a brace, but if you think it will make the speakers sound better. I'll add one.

So I haven't added one yet. I've considered adding a mid point brace to the boxes as a future upgrade. I plan to mod these down the road. Maybe even get an 8" driver and do a 3 way. There was some guy at PE looking at that route.

I was told by TLS that in a ported design one only needs to half the internal surface and that by dampening the entire surface it would kill the bass. I was told to dampen the back wall, but that's all i've done so far. Not sure where to put the other dampening. There seems to be conflicting opinions on this.

I'm not sure where the cutoff is, but most high-end speakers are well braced, even small bookshelves (my Bag End monitors have a bunch of bracing in them). It will lower the internal volume, but, you just account for that by making the external dimensions a bit bigger. Basically, you take the inside volume and then subtract off the bracing.

I wouldn't mod the enclosure later, because the wood is so cheap and its so easy to add bracing when its apart that you might as well just do it to begin with.

 

[lsiberian]

Are you cutting that wood in your living room? My girlfriend would absolutely /kill/ me.




I'm not sure where the cutoff is, but most high-end speakers are well braced, even small bookshelves (my Bag End monitors have a bunch of bracing in them). It will lower the internal volume, but, you just account for that by making the external dimensions a bit bigger. Basically, you take the inside volume and then subtract off the bracing.

I wouldn't mod the enclosure later, because the wood is so cheap and its so easy to add bracing when its apart that you might as well just do it to begin with.

Yeah I deliberated on this a lot. But this isn't a high end build. It is a total budget build. As the drivers were nearly the price of the wood. I'm sure it would help and I know that a nice mid brace with a large hole would probably improve the sound. But the design called for MDF I believe and I'm using 3/4" ply so I thought the rigidness of the box would be sufficient.

I did use the right glue at least. Titebond is the strongest glue according to the test I just saw.

I would consider an upgraded box for these driver in the future. But my goal with this build was to see the performance of the originally specified design. I know that may sound crazy, but hey I wanted to see what the speaker would sound like as is sort of.

Building a box with superior parameter, porting, dampening and bracing is a future goal of mine.

I don't see these boxes as a great long term investment. They are the first thing I've built and not exactly to my standards long term.

 

[highfigh]

I'm open to convincing if you have a better box design or suggestions.

My goal is the best sound. I'll probably use these boxes for now, but if I can upgrade with a different design. I'm all ears.

I'm thinking you would dampen them with 8lb rock wool all the way around.

Is this a correct statement?

If they won't be used for bass, I'm pretty sure you don't need as much damping material and it doesn't need to be as dense.

They're the Madisound Recession Busters mentioned in your tagline, right? Any estimate as far as a completion date? I'm toying with doing a set of them, too.

If you want to experiment, buy a pillow at the Dollar Store and use the polyester stuffing and then use more, or more dense stuffing, noting the differences.

I decided to re-work my speakers yesterday (apparently because I was really happy with them and decided that I wanted to mess with them) and realized that I had never used any damping. I built them in about '96 so I hadn't looked inside for a long time and what I thought was response issues caused by room modes turned out to be from internal reflections, so I split the stuffing from a pillow. Made a huge difference in the bass and lower mid-bass, which is exactly where the problems were. I tried them without high pass and they kill, which is pretty good for a 6-1/2" 2-way.

 

[just-some-guy]

Just-some-guy, these speakers deserve better than just surround duty If you have the room for them (they can be bulky unless you build the sealed version), they would make great surrounds.

yeah, well. seeing as how di/bipoles are so expensive/over priced. i was thinking i could build my own. since surrounds are not so critical, it could be an easy/cheap build. idk, just thinking out loud.

 

[lsiberian]

If they won't be used for bass, I'm pretty sure you don't need as much damping material and it doesn't need to be as dense.

They're the Madisound Recession Busters mentioned in your tagline, right? Any estimate as far as a completion date? I'm toying with doing a set of them, too.

If you want to experiment, buy a pillow at the Dollar Store and use the polyester stuffing and then use more, or more dense stuffing, noting the differences.

I decided to re-work my speakers yesterday (apparently because I was really happy with them and decided that I wanted to mess with them) and realized that I had never used any damping. I built them in about '96 so I hadn't looked inside for a long time and what I thought was response issues caused by room modes turned out to be from internal reflections, so I split the stuffing from a pillow. Made a huge difference in the bass and lower mid-bass, which is exactly where the problems were. I tried them without high pass and they kill, which is pretty good for a 6-1/2" 2-way.

I covered half the surface with Polyfill. It's not rock wool which I would have preferred to use, but We'll see how it sounds.

I think i may add a middle brace, but still debating it a bit. I want to get these done. I'm tired of having satellites for mains and I want my 7.1 back.