Baby Boomer

[panteragstk]

Looks good.

 

[fuzz092888]

So I did a little rearranging and now the AB 800.2 is powering the little sub and it will be in the future as well. I'll be building a second Baby Boomer down the line so that I have one for each monitor (I think I'm repeating myself) which is also why I wanted to get the 800.2 out of the main system now rather than later. As of right now the Baby Boomer is with the Phils for a 2.1 system and I may disconnect the Mandolins and move them over to replace the Phils just to see what they sound like with the Baby.

All I can say so far is that I can't even tell the Baby is playing with the Phils, which I guess means it's pretty darn good even without EQ because the Phils have one excellent bass section.

 

[afterlife2]

Egag looking great. I'll take you on your offer one day, thanks. You should make a video. Soooooooooooooooooooooooo how does that monster sound?

 

[fuzz092888]

Egag looking great. I'll take you on your offer one day, thanks. You should make a video. Soooooooooooooooooooooooo how does that monster sound?

Thanks, only about half done. I still have to get the outer front baffle on, fill some edges, oil it, and poly it. Ugh.

Feel free to, I'm happy to have someone over to hear the Phils or whatever else I've got.

A video of what? Don't nobody wanna hear my voice

It sounds great. Unfortunately there is some panel resonance, but that was mostly because I couldn't fit any cross bracing in and because the driver is a monster. Not much, but a little. If I had enough scrap to make all the walls 1.5" thick I would have, but alas, I did not. Anyways, I don't think it affects performance much and it certainly won't once it's connected to the computer system since I won't be listening at anywhere near the volumes I listened to it with when it's hooked up with the Phils.

As far as I can tell, the bass is tight and controlled and never sounds out of place, even during demanding tracks with the Phils and I pushed it all the way up to 0 on the Outlaw. Just a cool little sub that I think can't be beat when it comes to SQ+size.

 

[fuzz092888]

Got the outer baffle done, checked the driver fitting now that it's glued on, and the next step is to sand it a little and then oil and poly.

 

[afterlife2]

 

[fuzz092888]

 

[afterlife2]

Very pro like dang. I HATE YOU!

 

[fuzz092888]

Very pro like dang. I HATE YOU!

The trim came out much better on the subwoofer than on the speakers. Still not perfect, but I'm definitely getting better at it.

 

[panteragstk]

It looks nice. Why did you use trim instead of a roundover router bit? Just curious. I haven't done either so I don't want to come across as telling you how to build things. You clearly know what you're doing.

 

[Adam]

The trim came out much better on the subwoofer than on the speakers. Still not perfect, but I'm definitely getting better at it.

I'm happy to hear that you're getting better with trim...

 

[fuzz092888]

It looks nice. Why did you use trim instead of a roundover router bit? Just curious. I haven't done either so I don't want to come across as telling you how to build things. You clearly know what you're doing.

Well, I don't know if I would go that far

I didn't use trim per se. I bought a maple board, cut it so that it was a touch larger than 3/4" X 3/4" and then put my own roundover on it. I like doing it this way rather than buying roundover trim and having to miter it so that it fits, plus I always end up tweaking the roundover every build I do. Sometimes I give it a little more, sometimes a little less.

The reason for all this is because the front baffle is double thick and it is made from Baltic Birch ply. So if I put the round on that, I'd have exposed layers and possibly voids showing in the roundover.

 

[fuzz092888]

Gettin there, although the miniDSP backorder is really killing me. Won't be able to hook this up until November it looks like and that's assuming the information on their website is accurate.

 

[macddmac]

Gettin there, although the miniDSP backorder is really killing me. Won't be able to hook this up until November it looks like and that's assuming the information on their website is accurate.

looks like a nice match!
4 lonely looking tweets there though

 

[fuzz092888]

looks like a nice match!
4 lonely looking tweets there though

Thanks, should look pretty good when it's done and gem better when I get around to building a second.

Won't be lonely for much longer . Slowly but surely, I'm inching closer.

 

[Alex2507]

The dark part on the hardwood nosing had me fooled. At first I thought it was an inlay. Do you not have an electric miter box? Sealer/varnish penetrates end grain more deeply leaving it a darker color. If you are staining wood a darker color you can apply natural (clear) sealer to the end grain to prevent this darkening and it might help even with clear poly. Not sure on that though.

 

[fuzz092888]

The dark part on the hardwood nosing had me fooled. At first I thought it was an inlay. Do you not have an electric miter box? Sealer/varnish penetrates end grain more deeply leaving it a darker color. If you are staining wood a darker color you can apply natural (clear) sealer to the end grain to prevent this darkening and it might help even with clear poly. Not sure on that though.

I do not. I wish I did, but I don't have the room to set it up or store it. Hopefully I'll be able to clear out my parents garage and make the move in there, or better yet find a job and move out. I tried mitering the hardwood on the bookshelves with the table saw and the provided miter gauge and got mixed results. I think it would have come out better if I had the Incra miter gauge, but I was well past making cuts by the time I acquired that. After I make some adjustments to the Incra, I'll have to try mitering with it to see what it looks like. I expect it to be much more precise.

As for sealing the ends.....I just plain forgot. In the attempt to not make some of the mistakes I made on the Mandolins, a few others snuck by. Heck, I'm already thinking of redoing the cabs for the Mandolins and it works out perfectly because I can still enjoy them while making them look pretty. Although I guess I should finish a few projects so I'm only working on one at a time.

Thanks for the tips

 

[fuzz092888]

3 coats down, probably another 2 to go before I polish. Although I'm quickly becoming disenchanted with the random orbital sander as a polisher. It is just not powerful enough.

 

[Alex2507]

Normal tool progression gets you a table saw after the miter box but I guess this is how speaker builders do it. Your projects look good ... especially for a mathematician. No other way to put it. The mitered panels on this build are certainly no cake walk. I don't think I've seen anybody pull that off. I've thought about it a time or two but the difficulty factor has always put me off. Well, that and the fact I'm a one trick pony in speaker building terms.

So you have a DSP to EQ that thing and you power it up with what? What are the dimensions on the box? One or two of those with ... well, what I'd really like is a couple of sealed JL 8W7s with Bash amps. Too bad money didn't grow like weird insect hordes in Adam's bathroom.

 

[fuzz092888]

Normal tool progression gets you a table saw after the miter box but I guess this is how speaker builders do it. Your projects look good ... especially for a mathematician. No other way to put it. The mitered panels on this build are certainly no cake walk. I don't think I've seen anybody pull that off. I've thought about it a time or two but the difficulty factor has always put me off. Well, that and the fact I'm a one trick pony in speaker building terms.

The mitered panels didn't come out perfectly, but not bad for a first attempt. A better blade, slower feed rate, and a better clamping procedure would have helped. The other thing that would have made the seams look better is if veneer was going over top. With veneer and fixing the issues already mentioned I think the mitered edges would look pretty darn good. I can't wait to start getting the lumber in for the next project. Although I'm definitely cheating because the wood is just too expensive to have me bungle it up.

So you have a DSP to EQ that thing and you power it up with what? What are the dimensions on the box? One or two of those with ... well, what I'd really like is a couple of sealed JL 8W7s with Bash amps. Too bad money didn't grow like weird insect hordes in Adam's bathroom.

I reconfigured the main system and managed to liberate the AB International 800.2. This way it has more than enough power and there is a spare channel for adding another later on. The box is 13" X 13" X 11.5" external with 1.5" front baffle and 3/4" everywhere else.

I don't know about distortion, but output they're near identical over the normal subwoofer operating range with the edge going to the larger driver. I'm guessing distortion would give the edge to the JL, but who knows.

Red is JL, Orange is SDX10 in the box I built.