Christmas SLA Pro build

[tvent]

Took a couple days over the break and built the SLA Pro's I've been asking about lately.

Very, very happy with them. They are my new favorite tops for small/medium indoor gigs.
I expect they will probably prove useful for some corporate work and wedding ceremonies in venues without suitable sound reinforcement.

Coupled with a pair of T39's they are sounding great.
I'm so pleased with them that I am going to take them out tomorrow night for prime time.

ALMOST got both pairs built out of one sheet of 5x5. I think I got everything but the bottoms out of it. Might could have squeezed it all into one, but my goal was to cut all of a given dimension at the same time.
The build went pretty smooth. Only trouble spot was when I tried to go above and beyond and roundover the port/handles and used a 3/8" roundover. That threw the bearing just under the ply in the radius portion (it worked fine on the straight portion because I had lined them with a piece of half-round for carrying comfort.) A little sanding and then changing to a 5/16" roundover worked perfectly.
Side note: I did NOT stick my hands in any PL during this build! (I did get a bit covered in Duratex and flat Black, but that washes off.)

Completed weight came in at 34.4 pounds per cabinet.
Some of the clearances on this design are nothing short of amazing - well, that can pretty much be said for most of the other cabs I've built here as well.

Anywho, pics are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/HCjGcVmSvk2MYbNZ6

One thing I have noticed - when on the speaker stands they lean just a bit to the side of the woofers. I assume this is just due to the weight of the magnets on the 6.5" drivers. Any easy solution to straighten it up? Not a deal breaker, but if it can be remedied it'd be even better.

Thanks!

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Try some drawer slide tape on the pole to tighten the fit in the socket.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JFTKQ6H/re ... bc55b&th=1

[tvent]

Ordered. Thanks Bill!

[Tom Smit]

Looks good! Glad that you like them!

[tvent]

Thanks Tom.

So far, of the select few that have seen them and heard them the response has been unanimous... Looks Great, Sounds Better.

I am really impressed. I haven't turned them off since I finished the build. All last night and today I was listening to them through just whatever rudimentary EQ adjustments I could make from the iTunes equalizer on my laptop. Tonight I got my DriveRack back and ran it through the AutoEQ algorithm. Wow. Even better.

[tvent]

I wanted to chime back in here with a report after nearly a couple of weeks of using them.
I've commented regarding this on another post, but thought I'd come back here to the actual build thread to share my experiences.

First off, back to the lean with the speaker poles...
I initially had these mounted on my "best" speaker stands - the hydraulic assist (and pretty heavy for aluminum) Ultimate TS-110B.
They had a pretty announced lean toward the side with the woofers.
I sent those stands out on another job and only had my lowly (and very light) On-Stage Stands branded speaker poles laying around close. (note: I am typically NOT a fan of On-Stage stands products. I've had a lot of them fall apart on my over the years, but I do think they are getting better.) Anywho, I threw them up on the On-Stage stands and commenced to hooking everything up. After about 30 minutes I noticed there was no lean. Funny to me that the $59 stands hold the SLA's straight while the $388 (by the time you buy the NOT included bag) had a pronounced lean. So, now I send the expensive stands out on jobs/rentals while I keep the cheap stands to myself to use with the SLA's)

Back to the actual SLA's:
Absolutely stunned. I've used them now for DJ work, Karaoke bar, Live band, and just this past weekend a worship revival that went for over 16 hours spread across Friday night and Saturday.
They exceeded my expectations during each use. When I did the DJ gig, I had SEVERAL people coming up to me and asking what they were.
The sound I am getting out of them, combined with only a pair of 20" T39's (3012LF loaded) is stunning.
I think this is my 3rd time saying this on here now: These are my new favorite tops.

Pack space wise, they are great too. Can carry one in each hand at the same time with the provided port-handles very easily and can throw them up on the poles with little effort.
Since they are so slim, they fit in places other things might not - so I can actually pack the pair of these and the T39's in not much more space than I was spending with a pair of Jack 15's.

I can't get over how great these sound.
As is a part of the design - there is pretty much NO Bass under 100Hz-ish - so if doing any level of music reinforcement past simple background, you'll need subs.
On the last gig I did, the vocals were routed solely to the SLA's and that worked wonderfully - so I have no doubt that these will be great for speaking engagements.

Build wise, these were the fastest BFM designs I have built so far. I completed the entire pair from sheet goods to finished and playing music in about 2 full days (and I wasn't really rushing.) Since my tablesaw is getting old and difficult to adjust - I was also delighted that there were NO angle cuts in the build at all. Also, I've gotten quite used to building the melded piezo arrays and they don't bother me at all, but this array was SUPER easy to assemble - but do give them the recommended drying time (and remember that wax paper is your friend)!

I have other upcoming projects to build, but I'm definitely thinking of adding a pair of the 2x6's after using these.

[Tom Smit]

[Chris_Allen]

Good to hear.

I have a set of Faital Pro FE200s waiting to go in another set of SLA Pros (should I ever find the time). Which driver did you use?

[tvent]

Which driver did you use?

Chris,

I went ahead with the Alpha 6a. I was really on the fence about grabbing those $20 Dayton Audio PA165's that Tom mentioned over in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=25118

I decided the new Alphalite 6's were simply over budget at this point in time since I have other projects I need to complete this Winter and Spring - I think they would make for an awesome 25 pound cab if you had the $650 to spend on drivers alone.

The Dayton's had a bit of a peak happening around 5k, so I was going to try to tame them with a 12db low pass at around 3.5k. There was also no good info about their xmax (it is reported as "0" mm on the spec sheet, which I hardly think is right (note: the Dayton's are out of spec from what is recommended) - That being said, I was able to get my Alpha's at a sale price which made it a little easier to swallow so that's the way I went. I'm pleased with the outcome and am considering another set (2x) maybe in the future.

[Jools4001]

Good to hear.

I have a set of Faital Pro FE200s waiting to go in another set of SLA Pros (should I ever find the time). Which driver did you use?

I'm building a pair of mini SLAs around Faital Pro FE200s right now. I read somewhere on here that they're a good alternative to the Eminences, and at just under £100 for all four drivers, using a spare sheet of Baltic Birch that I had leftover from another job, four piezo tweeters that I had left over from my Jack Lite project (bought a job lot of 50 from Speaker Hardware), I should get a pair up and running for around £130...which will be an absolute bargain. Hopefully get them completed this weekend...just waiting on delivery of the right value inductors, and can't wait to hear what they sound like.

Great job on their big brothers by the way OP, if the little 'uns are anywhere near as good I'll definitely be building at least another pair to double up as FOH or to use as sidefills.