My long delayed ER18 MTM (still in progress)

[capricious]

I bought the kit after reading the wonderfully documented first build thread here early this year. I bought the ribbon version from meniscus, and got started on the building sometime in march. Progress has been very slow with me sneaking into the garage a couple of hours every few weeks.

I'm not good with veneers and finishing, so i went with the cheapest backed veneer i could find, and used oil/urethane mix from general finishes for ease of use. I used mahogany stain and sprayed black lacquer on the edges for that burst finish look. I still need to plug the crossovers, put in the port, drill terminals and stuff the cabs. Hopefully sometime this week I should be able to do it.

 

[fuzz092888]

Looks awesome, Congrats on the progress. Pretty soon you'll be enjoying them visually and audibly

 

[j_garcia]

Looking good! Looks very similar to the finish done by a friend of mine on his DIYs. Are you going to do the baffles the same way?

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/diy-corner-tips-techniques/75271-some-pics-buddys-diy-bookshelfs.html

 

[capricious]

Thanks ... the baffle looks splotchy in the pic, but its not that bad when u look at it in person. It is poplar stained with java gel stain. I sanded it a bit too smooth (#220) before applying the stain which is not something that i should have done. #120/#150 is the recommended grit for applying gel stain. But i'm not too hung up on this yet. Worst case, i can sand the surface and redo it. Should not take more than a day or so.

Also, i would have liked the black spray pattern to be a little thinner. But i didn't have a spray gun to control the pattern. All in all, i think this looks decent enough to pass my WAF

 

[Alex2507]

That looks good and beyond that this is how all threads should be ... couple of paragraphs and then onto pic's of speakers. Well done !!!

 

[slipperybidness]

Do you have to build the cabinets from stock boards? Any cabinet kits available or suitable for these?

 

[skyline_123]

You're too modest, these look great!

 

[capricious]

Thanks for the kind words, guys!

slipperybidness - I built it using aruco ply board from home depot. I didn't want to deal with the dust of MDF. That stuff is just nasty. The cabinets by themselves are fairly easy to build. That is the reason i didn't bother taking any build pictures. I am not aware of any cabinet kits as such ... just the drivers/crossover and accessories kit from meniscus. I'm sure there are a few DIYers here and elsewhere who can spare some time to help either make the cuts or build the cabinets for a small fee.

 

[slipperybidness]

Thanks for the kind words, guys!

slipperybidness - I built it using aruco ply board from home depot. I didn't want to deal with the dust of MDF. That stuff is just nasty. The cabinets by themselves are fairly easy to build. That is the reason i didn't bother taking any build pictures. I am not aware of any cabinet kits as such ... just the drivers/crossover and accessories kit from meniscus. I'm sure there are a few DIYers here and elsewhere who can spare some time to help either make the cuts or build the cabinets for a small fee.

Thanks for the info. I'm not too experienced in wordworking, but I'm sure I could get it right with some trial and error. For me, it is the messiness of doing it in the garage and I would rather spend my time on the (interesting to me) electronics rather than the cabinets. I'm leaning towards the P.E. TriTrix in the future for that reason.

I've never really dealt with MDF. Is it even messier than cutting normal hardwood or plywood? Why are most speakers MDF? Is it just cheaper than wood or are there other sonic properties to it?

Thanks for the great info and pics!

 

[darien87]

Wow, that's the cheapest veneer you could find? Those look great.

 

[capricious]

Wow, that's the cheapest veneer you could find? Those look great.

I bought it on clearance for about $20 (4x8 sheet) The veneer had some light figure, but once i applied the stain it was all gone That was when i thought of going with the burst finish.

 

[capricious]

Thanks for the info. I'm not too experienced in wordworking, but I'm sure I could get it right with some trial and error. For me, it is the messiness of doing it in the garage and I would rather spend my time on the (interesting to me) electronics rather than the cabinets. I'm leaning towards the P.E. TriTrix in the future for that reason.

I've never really dealt with MDF. Is it even messier than cutting normal hardwood or plywood? Why are most speakers MDF? Is it just cheaper than wood or are there other sonic properties to it?

Thanks for the great info and pics!

I fully understand your point. Speaker building is not a wife friendly hobby. It can be very messy, and especially in this hot weather, it can get extremely frustrating. Every time i build a speaker, i swear to myself that i'm not building another one, but then after a few months, i go right back to building my next last one! It'd sure help if i owned a table saw and some semblance of dust collection. Its been a while since we've parked our cars in the garage.

As for why most speakers are made of MDF, the reasons i can think of are:
- Lower cost
- Easy to machine
- structurally consistent

But the main disadvantage as far as i'm concerned is the fine dust. Chips from plywood tend to drop down, and are much easier to clean up later. And also the MDF cabinets can get quite heavy. I don't mind the weight as much as the dust that flies everywhere. Its extremely difficult to clean up afterwards. But if you can get the MDF cut someplace else, you should be able to put them together in your garage with minimum mess. Like i said earlier, these cabinets are fairly straight forward to cut and glue up.

That being said, i've not heard the tritrix which have received some good reviews. But i'm willing to bet that the ER18 MTM will beat it handily (and at 4x the cost, it better!). Irrespective of what you decide to build, i wish you the very best of luck.

 

[mattsk8]

Thanks for the info. I'm not too experienced in wordworking, but I'm sure I could get it right with some trial and error. For me, it is the messiness of doing it in the garage and I would rather spend my time on the (interesting to me) electronics rather than the cabinets. I'm leaning towards the P.E. TriTrix in the future for that reason.

I've never really dealt with MDF. Is it even messier than cutting normal hardwood or plywood? Why are most speakers MDF? Is it just cheaper than wood or are there other sonic properties to it?

Thanks for the great info and pics!

The PE Tritrix are a great way to start, those are the first ones I built just because they're cheap and it was a great way to get my feet wet in DIY speakers. For the money they sound incredible, but plan on running a sub w/ them. They're listed as full range and they do play bass respectably for their size and cost, but just not enough IMO. I think you'll be thrilled w/ the experience and sound of them though, even w/out a sub; but I'd plan for a DIY sub build in the near future after you finish up the Tritrix

The ER18s do sound better. They have more depth, clarity and better bass. That's not to say the Tritrix don't sound good, the ER18s just sound a lot better. That said, the Tritrix have a great ability to play very loud w/ minimal distortion so don't let me paint the picture that you won't be satisfied w/ them. I use them in my garage/shop and LOVE to listen to them. You'll be hard pressed to find better speakers than the Tritrix at more than double the money from a store.

I fully understand your point. Speaker building is not a wife friendly hobby. It can be very messy, and especially in this hot weather, it can get extremely frustrating. Every time i build a speaker, i swear to myself that i'm not building another one, but then after a few months, i go right back to building my next last one! It'd sure help if i owned a table saw and some semblance of dust collection. Its been a while since we've parked our cars in the garage.

As for why most speakers are made of MDF, the reasons i can think of are:
- Lower cost
- Easy to machine
- structurally consistent

But the main disadvantage as far as i'm concerned is the fine dust. Chips from plywood tend to drop down, and are much easier to clean up later. And also the MDF cabinets can get quite heavy. I don't mind the weight as much as the dust that flies everywhere. Its extremely difficult to clean up afterwards. But if you can get the MDF cut someplace else, you should be able to put them together in your garage with minimum mess. Like i said earlier, these cabinets are fairly straight forward to cut and glue up.

That being said, i've not heard the tritrix which have received some good reviews. But i'm willing to bet that the ER18 MTM will beat it handily (and at 4x the cost, it better!). Irrespective of what you decide to build, i wish you the very best of luck.

Everyone has a different opinion about baltic birch and MDF; but I'd say you nailed it as to the real differences. Your ER18s look awesome Have you listened yet???

 

[capricious]

Finally hooked up everything and set it up:

I had infinity P363 before, and there is a huge difference between the two. I had selah SSR earlier (they are now in my office room upstairs), and yet the tone of the two speakers are very different. The first that hit me was the bass - holy batman! I've never owned a pair of speakers that put out this amount of bass before. The music digs much much deeper with these speakers. I'll spend some more time listening to them and then report back with my impressions.

 

[slipperybidness]

Those turned out nice.

 

[Swerd]

capricious - I think your finish looks great! Thanks for the photos.

Every DIY speaker builder I know makes mistakes during the build. Because they know all the hidden warts, if you speak to them, they can sound kind of iffy about the results. No one else knows but you .

The important part of making mistakes is what you do next to recover. Your finish probably wasn't what you had in mind before you started, but I repeat, your finish looks great! Enjoy them for a long time.

 

[cantonguy]

did i miss where it says the tweeter you used? I'm just about done with my Mark K ER18DXT design. Mine is veneered in rosewood. I used Watco Teak oil to finish it and I think they turned out all right. I just need to get the guts put in and it will be ready to go. Yours turned out very nice, way to go.

 

[capricious]

did i miss where it says the tweeter you used?

I used the ribbon tweeter.

I'm just about done with my Mark K ER18DXT design. Mine is veneered in rosewood. I used Watco Teak oil to finish it and I think they turned out all right. I just need to get the guts put in and it will be ready to go. Yours turned out very nice, way to go.

I love rosewood veneer! If i was more confident of my finishing abilities, i would've paid the premium and bought a fancy veneer like rosewood. Put up some pics. Tung oil is a great finish. I have used waterlox which is tung oil mix, and loved the results. I decided to go with oil/urethane this time around just so that i can build up the finish faster.

 

[capricious]

capricious - I think your finish looks great! Thanks for the photos.

Every DIY speaker builder I know makes mistakes during the build. Because they know all the hidden warts, if you speak to them, they can sound kind of iffy about the results. No one else knows but you .

The important part of making mistakes is what you do next to recover. Your finish probably wasn't what you had in mind before you started, but I repeat, your finish looks great! Enjoy them for a long time.

Thanks for the kind words, Swerd! They do look fine, just that they turned out a bit darker than i expected, but I was too lazy to return the stain once i tested it on this veneer. I was going back and forth whether to spray the baffle black or go with java gel stain. I went with java stain mainly because if i didn't like the look, its easy to spray it black

I haven't had much time to play around with it, but listen to cable TV, they sound plenty good. They are not as aggressive as the infinity p363 nor do their highs sparkle like the selah SSRs. It could just be the room though .... i need to play around with them a little more.

 

[mattsk8]

I say give em a month and try to give them a daily thrashing during that month. Speakers never sound good when they're brand new and it seems to take about a month before you begin to get the full sound out of them. Can't wait for your impressions. I'd speak as to my take on mine, but when I listened there wasn't any stuffing in them and the port wasn't there.

If I'm reading your impressions right, I agree (so far). The mids and highs were a bit too subdued for me, but they had really good bass. I'll leave it at that until I get them done and really get to pound on them.