Anikun07's SLA Builds

[anikun07]

Do you think it would be essier to mount it "upside down" at the top of the cab buy the tweeters?

[Ian Westwood]

Do you think it would be essier to mount it "upside down" at the top of the cab buy the tweeters?

Anywhere you can fit them!

[anikun07]

Thanks Ian, got some pics to post later tonight. The center SLA is 98% done. I think I read the wire diagram properly and it does work. The way I chose to wire the drivers was to use the disconnect connectors on the terminals and then make groups of three (+'s and -'s) with the wires and join them with a wire nut. Then there's a fourth wire that is in that wire nut, too, and it either goes to the other group of drivers (the + to - change over) or the crossover board. So instead of daisy chaining each driver they all have a common "cluster" they come from. This ensures that each driver is in parallel.

[Ian Westwood]

Looks good to me. That's pretty much exactly where I put my cross-overs. As long as you wired per the instructions and all 6 cones move in the same direction when you test using a 1.5v battery you should be pretty much set!

[anikun07]

I did the wiring wrong. Only the center driver in each trio produces sound so I have to redo it. I really didn't want to solder it but I don't know of another way to get two wires on one terminal.

[Ian Westwood]

Hang in there. Soldering is the way to go to make it 100% reliable. The advice that Drey gave about soldering is spot on. So maybe practice a little bit outside of the cabs until you get a good method down. You'll probably have an "ah-ha" moment at some point when you figure the technique out.

Electrically there's nothing wrong with using the wire nuts.... you just have to make sure the circuit is right.

When I did mine I:

1- Made a bunch of 9" or 10" lengths
2- Stripped back the wire about 3/8" ish maybe slightly less
3- Twisted each end
4- Pushed them into each speaker terminal hole and then wrapped it around a little so it would hold OK
5- Soldered making sure there was good flow between the terminals and wire.
6- See the solder wicking up into the wire
7- Leave to cool until solid before moving.
8- Try not to inhale!

The terminal holes in the tweeters is small. I used smaller gauge cable for the tweets and kind of massaged the holes slightly with a jewelers screwdriver to make it easier to push the wires in first.

Job done. If you get really stuck I'll skype with you so you can see me solder. Hit me up via email if you want.

[anikun07]

Curved SLA is re-wired. I stripped the wire mid length, folded it, tinned it, then soldered it to the speaker. Just like this:




Here's what it looks like above the TV (with "Wild Hogs" playing). It looks good and it's very noticeable. It doesn't match the the Polk Monitor 40 mains anymore. But I can here it a lot better. I rean YPAO and it placed the curved SLA 5 dB less than the left M40 and 6 dB less than the right M40.



I haven't checked the resistance with a multimeter yet so I'm not sure what the overall impedance is. I don't know what the intended impedance was either. Six ohms? I also have one woofer that sounds garbled. I don't know this is normal and loosens up with use, but when I push on the cone it feels like it's rubbing against something. My guess would be the voice coil is just tight. But I don't know much about speakers and how they're made. Does this sound normal?

Well, one is finished, two more to go. I have PE sending my two replacement tweeters on Monday. Thanks, everyone, for your help and compliments. I can't wait to get the other two finished.

[Ian Westwood]

Rubbing isn't normal Check the others and I'll send you replacements!

[anikun07]

Thank you, Ian. I will watch it the next couple days and see if it loosens or anything, but the other ones didn't seem like that if I pushed evenly on the cone. They kind of had the same thing goin' on if I pushed on the cone on just one side. I finished one of my straight SLA speakers. I'll solder up the other one tomorrow, except for the replacement tweeters from PE.

[anikun07]

I don't know that I'll make a new cab anytime soon, but there were some things I learned from making these ones. It was a mistake to use #10 threaded inserts on 15/32" plywood. Most of the inserts went in okay, but a handful poke out the side of the cab. The hole has to be perfectly centered on the middle ply of the lumber to ensure a good insert. I don't know if I would modify the plans to have the baffle fixed or removable. But I did think the removable baffle made it easier to solder the drivers together. I would also say compared to the Polk Monitors I have the SLAs don't have the low end extension like they do - not that I didn't know they couldn't go much lower than 100Hz before building. During YPAO the monitors seem like they have more oomph than the SLA because they can play lower frequencies. But the SLAs have a bigger and fuller sound though. Maybe that's a difference between a 4" driver and a 5.25" driver. I think that would be the only thing I would like a little more so far. YPAO set the subwoofer crossover to 120 Hz. I'll have to finished the other straight SLA and see how it sounds at 80 Hz and 90 Hz. I think I will probably set it to 90, I know Ian's mentioned that's where he set his at.

[anikun07]

How important is speaker gasket tape with these speakers? I felt the PE 1/2" tape I have didn't curve easily around the woofer rims so I didn't use any. Should I go back and apply tape?

[anikun07]

I spent a couple hours tonight taping the baffle for drivers and tweeters. The trick to making it fit around the curves is to remove the paper backing. I don't know what I'm thinking sometimes.

[Tom Smit]

[anikun07]

I've got three SLAs up and running. They sound very good. I still have to replace the driver I skewered with my drill, but for now I put a bit of gasket tape over hold on the back side. I noticed a bit of distortion/garbled sound coming from that speaker but I don't know from what part. The other driver on my curved SLA still distorts, too. The driver that I think the voice coil is rubbing on the spider when flexed (I looked up speaker diagrams to find out what the parts are:)).

So if I built the speakers properly, and I still hear the occasional garbled sound, what might cause this? Airleaks, or possibly the driver not fastened down enough?

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

I've got three SLAs up and running. They sound very good. I still have to replace the driver I skewered with my drill, but for now I put a bit of gasket tape over hold on the back side. I noticed a bit of distortion/garbled sound coming from that speaker but I don't know from what part. The other driver on my curved SLA still distorts, too. The driver that I think the voice coil is rubbing on the spider when flexed (I looked up speaker diagrams to find out what the parts are:)).

So if I built the speakers properly, and I still hear the occasional garbled sound, what might cause this? Airleaks, or possibly the driver not fastened down enough?

I bet that tape is vibrating, and the one with the misaligned coil of course.