Cabinet build: GR Research XLS Encore, XCS Encore, SW12B + SA1 Subwoofer

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Rgn1

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Hi Folks,

At the outset my thanks and warm regards to Captain. Without his patience and commitment it would have never been possible for me to get the kits. And many thanks to every senior member of this forum. Why do I say this? Because this is one of the rare forums where us "noobs" are not hated and detested. They have been most gracious in answering the most basic and rudimentary of questions without any exasperation and resentment. This makes this one of the most friendly and welcoming place ever. For example, contrast it with this: You are a Noob on XDA-Developers - YouTube. Anyway I digress.

I am a newbie to all thinks HIFI, living on a steady diet of Philips HTIB. But yes, I was not satisfied the sound, which was tiring and boomy. I have heard some Altecs and Waferdale systems at friends' and cousins' places which were so smooth and fully rounded and not tiring on the ears at all (forgive the phrases, I do not know how else to describe the sound :)). So I began scouting for an upgrade to the HTIB system. Came across HifiVision and the group buy thread and the rest happened as you all know thanks to Captain and Danny. I got my hands on the following kits.
[1] X-LS Encore without Sonicap upgrade.
[2] X-CS Encore without Sonicap upgrade.
[3] SW-12B Subwoofer and SA-1 Amplifier (Non Servo).
[4] 2 Sheets of No-Rez.

So I received the kits, and were in storage till last week. I had earlier communicated with a FM exljp and he had graciously provided me with the details of a CNC wood workshop in Kormangala. It is a bit far from my home but fortunately I came across a CNC wood workshop near my house. Seem convenient and the charges were same as the workshop that exljp had used. So I decided to go ahead and use his services. I gave him the print out of the cabinet plans. They were missing the plans for the back panel XCS Encore showing the speaker terminal cup hole and the back panel for the sub woofer with the hole for the amplifier. So came home measured the required elements and gave it to him the next day. Checked his measurements on Friday and got 2 sheets of Green Panelmax MDF from Greenply to his place. Was able to source 17mm MDF only. 19mm is not available in India and no one had stock of 18mm. Cutting was completed in 2 Hrs on Saturday. BTW I modified the sub woofer plan to have double layered cabinet (34mm).

Now the wait for the my local carpenter to come and get things rolling for assembly.

Some pictures below.

Cheers!



















 
Last edited:
Lucky guy! This step was really PITA for me. Lot of sweat and 2 small wounds made to it.
 
Thanks captain, omishra. :)

I know going the CNC option was on costlier side, but yes saved a lot of PITA follow up and supervision with local Carpenter. Here all I had to do was to sit and review his design for an hour and make necessary corrections to it.
Round over yet to be done, will get it done during assembly. My carpenter has promised to come in next week. Fingers crossed :) . I will keep you posted.

Cheers!
 
Rgn1,

Please ensure you get the round over done around the woofers as Danny mentioned. It is very important. I dont know if the CNC shop has that capability. Else let your carpenter do it. My carpenter missed that even after telling him several times. I told him to do it manually which takes long time.

Thanks
 
baswamin said:
Rgn1,

Please ensure you get the round over done around the woofers as Danny mentioned. It is very important. I dont know if the CNC shop has that capability. Else let your carpenter do it. My carpenter missed that even after telling him several times. I told him to do it manually which takes long time.

Thanks
Click to expand...

It took 1/2 hr per panel. Look here.
 
baswamin said:
Rgn1,

Please ensure you get the round over done around the woofers as Danny mentioned. It is very important. I dont know if the CNC shop has that capability. Else let your carpenter do it. My carpenter missed that even after telling him several times. I told him to do it manually which takes long time.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Well, the CNC shop guy was not sure if it could be done as the round over was at the back face of the panel. I thought I could get it done my the local carpenter. If he refuses, I will check with the CNC guy again, else I noticed one more shop with what looked like a router table. I will check with him. If that does not work out then will do it myself on a weekend as per the images shared by omishra.

Cheers!
 
My box is all done and fixed. I then checked and found that round over was not done. This after I told him specifically and gave drawings mentioning this. Anyway, it will take longer since box is all done and fixed solid.

Thanks

omishra said:
It took 1/2 hr per panel. Look here.
Click to expand...
 
Hi Folks,

At last I managed to catch hold of a carpenter for half a day today and kicked off the Cabinet builds.

Have completed the Glue and Nailing process on all the cabinets, except for the Front baffles. They will go on once the Internal Lining and stuffing and Cabinet works are completed.

Issues Faced:

[1] Alignment of braces and sides: Since I used 17mm MDF whereas the plans are for 3/4 inch MDF, have seen protrusions of around 2mm on the sides. I had to supervise the carpenter at each step to make sure the braces are tight. The carpenter has promised to pane off the protrusions once the cabinet is complete. You can see these at the edges if you observer carefully.

[2] Got the internal braces if the X CS encore upside down :( :( and noticed it too late. Now there is no space to mount the crossover on the bottom sheet. I am hoping to mount the crossover to the top sheet. Any cons of doing this? If not need to explore some other way to mount it. In the pics you can see the two central braces upside down.

Pending tasks:
[1] Round over of the inner edges of woofer holes for X CS and X LS.
[2] Clearing of side protrusions.
[3] Adding No-Rez and Tar Sheets to the speaker and Subwoofer respectively. Any special gun needed to attach the tar sheets?
[4] Soldering work on crossover and speaker and binging post wires.
[5] Assembly of all above components.

Here are some of Pictures of the current state of things:










Cheers!
 
Some questions for the Gurus:

Will it be a problem if the crossover board is mounted to the roof in inverted position, instead of mounting it to the base? Because of my goofup in inverting the central braces, there is no space on the floor for the crossover board.

Other workaround would be to change the orientation of the speaker, that would make the outer 2 braces inverted instead of the 2 central braces. Would this have an adverse effect?

Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Rgn1 said:
Some to questions Gurus:
Will it be a problem if the crossover boa RR d is mounted to the roof in inverted position, instead of mounting it to the base? Because of my goofup in inverting the central braces, there is no space on the floor for the crossover board.

Other workaround would be to change the orientation of the speaker, that would make the outer 2 braces inverted instead of the 2 central braces. Would this have an adverse effect?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Absolutely no issues mounting inverted on top.

Thanks,
Bibin
 
Sorry read the whole post only now. Is there any progress?

Rgn1 said:
Since I used 17mm MDF whereas the plans are for 3/4 inch MDF, have seen protrusions of around 2mm on the sides.
Click to expand...
If you have used 17mm MDF on all the sides, where is the scope of protrusions unless your carpenter didn't align the edges precisely? This would also mean that the internal volume has got reduced little bit. But since the braces are also of 17mm thickness instead of 19mm thickness, the issue of reduction in volume would've got addressed to some extent. How much would this issue affect the SQ is a million dollar question which only Danny can answer.
Rgn1 said:
Got the internal braces if the X CS encore upside down :( :( and noticed it too late. Now there is no space to mount the crossover on the bottom sheet. I am hoping to mount the crossover to the top sheet. Any cons of doing this?
Click to expand...

Though the Xover should be mounted on the bottom from the stability point of view, you could probably mount them on top too but make sure that the components are affixed to the PCB with some adhesive like silicon glue so that the solder joints between the components and PCB are not put to strain due to gravity.
 
cha_indian said:
Can anyone give some ideas about damping inside the cabinet ? I got the cabinets made by bibin ..and about to complete the build ....
Click to expand...

I thought Bibin was equipped to do this dampening part, you sent your kit to him or just got the flat packs or the cabinet from him?
 
AmitKumar said:
I thought Bibin was equipped to do this dampening part, you sent your kit to him or just got the flat packs or the cabinet from him?
Click to expand...

Hi Amit,

I had provided only the finished cabinet to Chandan as it was his requirement.

Where as for Sivakuru, he sent me the entire kit so that I upgraded the caps in the X-over, did the dampening, tested and fine tuned it.

@Chandan,
If you can't find poly fibre locally, please let me know. I think you only require 200 to 300 grams to fill both cabinets.

Thanks,
Bibin
 
bibin3210 said:
Hi Amit,

I had provided only the finished cabinet to Chandan as it was his requirement.

Where as for Sivakuru, he sent me the entire kit so that I upgraded the caps in the X-over, did the dampening, tested and fine tuned it.

Thanks,
Bibin
Click to expand...

That is what i thought so, but thought to confirm.
 
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