SLA's and TT for Christmas

[erriod]

About two years ago I started talking this site and the different build of speakers up to my dad. He previously has talked about buying some Axiom speakers (~$3000) for my parents home. Now, both of them are on hearing aids and typically have to turn up the tv quite a bit just to hear. So, new speakers were a good option. He ended up just buying the CD from BFM, which will leave plenty of options in the future.

Around October when my parents visited me in Colorado (they live in MN) I brought up the option of building some of these speakers for my parents for Christmas as a way of spending time with my dad. He was game, we discussed different options and the SLA seemed best with a TT to add a little something more. This is just 2 fronts and a sub, no center channel yet.

All the parts are on hand and we just picked up some nice baltic birch today and have most of the rough cuts done for the TT. The oak we are building the SLA's with will be picked up tomorrow morning. So tonight is to get a panel or two installed on the TT.

Some questions I have so far are:

1. Do the fronts of the SLA's need to be sealed with something so that they are airtight, the same with the speakers? (I'm assuming yes).

2. How do the speakers sound with the recommended drivers (goldwood 4" GW-4028 and GT-302's) mounted on the front vs mounted from the backside of the front piece of wood? It seems much easier to install from the front and just add a grill over them.

Stephen - on behalf of my Dad.

- pictures to follow when I can link them to this post.

[Bas Gooiker]

Have a good time building with your dad.

On your first question: Airtight is the way to go.
On the second: Its really a mather of preference, if you look at the sales page they are on the front. Most people mount them on the back or flush for a more smooth look. But if you are adding a grille, take the easyest way.

[Tom Smit]

Bas has it right.

For pics, .....
.....Resize your pics before you export them. Save the resized in an appropriate location (that you can remember) on your CPU. Then, when it's time to 'browse', you can go to that folder on your CPU and 'Add the file'.

.....
To post pics, at the bottom of the 'reply' box is where you can add 'files'. Your pics are files. Click on 'browse' to locate them on your computer, 'open' that file, and once it appears in the box beside 'browse', click "add the file". You can preview the reply/pic before you submit the reply.

[bassmonster]

You can also use a pic hosting website like Photobucket; that's what I use. They have a resizer tool, I resize them to 640x480 since the image size limit here on the forum is 700x700. After you upload the pics to your hosting website and resize them, insert them by right click--> "Copy Image URL"--> on your post on the forum, hit the "Img" button-->paste the image URL.

Have fun building with your dad, it's a good bonding time that's for sure.

[88h88]

for picture hosting I will recommend imgur.com, the front end is really well designed for uploading masses of photos in one go. Once they're uploaded you have the option of full size photos (which won't work on this site) or using the 'large thumbnail' option which is the perfect size for using on this forum.

[erriod]

The build is complete....and the reviews are in.

First and foremost....read the plans carefully, multiple times and keep them open when you do your build. Since a few of us were doing the build, I knew the TT would be the more difficult of them and I had been focusing on those for quite a few nights and was very familiar with them. Since there were three of us working we sort of split forces and did both builds at the same time. What that ended with was someone else putting the SLA's together but missing the point in the plans to cut the size back by 1/2" when using 3/4" wood vs 1/2" wood. We had to go get more red oak for the front plate to make things work. I hope the extra 1/2" on the inside doesn't screw things up too much as it was easier to just use a bigger front plate then cut through the PL to break the speaker apart...

2 - You can never have too many clamps. It helps having a neighbor with a nice workshop that he lets you use for almost 3 days straight with more than enough clamps, a very nice table saw, compound miter saw, drill press, router and all the tools in between.

3 - The build will take way longer than you plan (3 days...roughly 12 hours per day).







Here are some very early photo's.

REVIEW:

The 'Mom' department supported the build initially as it's something for you guys to do together for Christmas given the cost. Her review I think is the most important. Since she is in her 60's with hearing aids sometimes watching TV with her is a bear as the volume would need to be near war levels for her to hear but for those with somewhat better hearing that level is driving you to madness. Now with the new SLA's she can actually hear the TV at comfortable volumes to others and still hear the punchlines in the commercials. She is sold!

From the 'Dad' department, it sounds great. Nothing to really add there other than that he enjoyed the build but wished we had been able to relax more over Christmas while doing the build (the 12 hour days were tough because I'm such a slave driver...)

My review. In the 10 minutes I actually got to listen to them as I was packing to head home, they sounded great. I didn't get to listen to them following Audessy's EQ on the new receiver, just listened to them on an older one, but they sounded great. I made sure that they were able to place them at a good height near the TV vs. placing them on the floor as that would have defeated the purpose of the speakers by focusing the 'sweet spot' at their knee's or ankles instead of their ears.

When I was able to fire up the TT and give it a good listen, the rattle I heard didn't sound to great. Once I moved all the pictures from the window the rattle went away and everything sounded much better. Again this was a quick listen so I wasn't able to really delve into testing it to see if I could hear any other problems in the actual speaker. But what I did hear makes me want to build my own!

More pictures of the actual build to follow.

Stephen

[Tom Smit]

REVIEW:

The 'Mom' department supported the build initially as it's something for you guys to do together for Christmas given the cost. Her review I think is the most important. Since she is in her 60's with hearing aids sometimes watching TV with her is a bear as the volume would need to be near war levels for her to hear but for those with somewhat better hearing that level is driving you to madness. Now with the new SLA's she can actually hear the TV at comfortable volumes to others and still hear the punchlines in the commercials. She is sold!



Stephen

I think that statement is quite critical to the value of the SLA since it shows that the SLA has the needed clarity.

I'm happy for you in that you could share some bonding time in the "shed", and that you were able to attain good results.

[erriod]

Here is a photo that my parents finally sent me. (My dad has all the build photo's)

This is what he captioned the photo with:

"Here they are.mounted to milk cans. 30 lbs of sand for stability. Pretty cool"



Stephen

[Tom Smit]

Nice!