Frugal Horn MK3 - MA CHR-70A

[bijinmb]

Hi Manniraj,

I was actually surprised to see that how quickly you have build FH's close to its finish stage.

Your passion and determination is your advantage it seems.

Nice to see lots of guys are building FH here.

 

[manniraj]

Hi Manniraj,

I was actually surprised to see that how quickly you have build FH's close to its finish stage.

Your passion and determination is your advantage it seems.

Nice to see lots of guys are building FH here.

Thanks Bijin, yes I was very excited to finish it and hear them quickly after looking at your build. I finished the complex build of aligning the internal and back panels for both the cabinets on Saturday and left them to dry overnight and finished the rest yesterday. I think it was too much of work over the weekend my back is aching :sad: but when I hear them its all gone .

Going with laminate veneer is the easiest solution with less work and complexity compared to the spray paint. There are some imperfections in the outcome of my cabinets and making them proper with sanding/putty for the paint will be a huge task. I will try to get hold of my carpenter to get it perfected and then fill up the gaps and hopefully veneer them in the next couple of weeks.

I think the passion and determination is the key for any DIY :clapping:

 

[musicbee]

They look good and super impressive dude.

 

[praveencshekhar]

Congrats, it neatly done,:clapping: waiting to see the finished one.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

I can now proudly say that this is my baby as I did the entire cabinets myself and I think I improved from my Zaph build but still the finish is not as good as bijin/bibin's. Hopefully I can improve further and by the time I become expect my wife would have thrown me out

When DIYers have high engineering/carpentry skills and facilities to match they produce better work than comes out of any factory. They are giving each piece individual attention, love and care. Their accomplishments are an inspiration to us, but also a little intimidating, and knowing that we can't come anywhere near their standard can be enough to make us not bother trying.

Hats off to you, manniraj, for not being deterred and simply getting on with it. Your results, even so far, look a million times better than those of us that never even get started! And they surely sound infinitely better

Congratulations! :clapping: hyeah:

 

[keith_correa]

Can't locate it now but I distinctly remember that Mark Fenlon [from Mark Audio] had mentioned somewhere that MA drivers need to be broken in for 100 hours at very LOW volume for them to really shine.

 

[manniraj]

When DIYers have high engineering/carpentry skills and facilities to match they produce better work than comes out of any factory. They are giving each piece individual attention, love and care. Their accomplishments are an inspiration to us, but also a little intimidating, and knowing that we can't come anywhere near their standard can be enough to make us not bother trying.

Hats off to you, manniraj, for not being deterred and simply getting on with it. Your results, even so far, look a million times better than those of us that never even get started! And they surely sound infinitely better

Congratulations! :clapping: hyeah:

Thanks for the kind words Thad and I concur every word of it. It surely is the thinking that goes like I made it myself with my own hands hyeah: and I am sure the effort it has gone into and also the care I took in gluing the joints carefully so that there are no gaps but yes the finish may not be as good as a professional one but still its my own make rather theirs . In fact the carpenters were surprised that I asked them only to cut the panels rather than making the entire box, I know the interest that they take in making it but they would have realized my intentions as couple of carpenters took almost a day to finish just the panel cuts to my measurements and satisfaction.

 

[manniraj]

Can't locate it now but I distinctly remember that Mark Fenlon [from Mark Audio] had mentioned somewhere that MA drivers need to be broken in for 100 hours at very LOW volume for them to really shine.

Yes keith I read it on the diyaudio forum where multiple people have referred that the CHR-70 drivers need at least 100 hours to break-in. I have already run them at 4% volume all over the night yesterday :lol:. But my expectations are not beyond what I am hearing right now but yes it will be icing on the cake if they improve further.

 

[keith_correa]

Yes keith I read it on the diyaudio forum where multiple people have referred that the CHR-70 drivers need at least 100 hours to break-in. I have already run them at 4% volume all over the night yesterday :lol:. But my expectations are not beyond what I am hearing right now but yes it will be icing on the cake if they improve further.

I just opened up the CHR-70 Data Sheet and there it was:

For the first 100 hours, operate them at very low volumes. After this period, gradually increase the volume to a normal listening
level.

 

[denom]

Quite a journey in a short span of time!!!
It feels like just yesterday when you bought the Yammies for 5k
Congrats for taking DIY very seriously & banging out projects left, right & centre :clapping:

Keith, hope manniraj is the catalyst you need to jump start your back log of projects

 

[manniraj]

Quite a journey in a short span of time!!!
It feels like just yesterday when you bought the Yammies for 5k
Congrats for taking DIY very seriously & banging out projects left, right & centre :clapping:

Keith, hope manniraj is the catalyst you need to jump start your back log of projects

Ha ha Denom good one on the Yammies, yes no looking back at those after I built my Zaph and of course I was able to dispose them off last year for a pittance but no regrets :lol:

I took the FH build as it was cost effective and VFM which is half the cost of my Zaph build or may be less than that.

 

[hydra]

Great work, manniraj! Great DIY, and that too with very little pro-tools involved.

I love the way you measured and marked that curved cut! :clapping:

 

[manniraj]

Great work, manniraj! Great DIY, and that too with very little pro-tools involved.

I love the way you measured and marked that curved cut! :clapping:

Thanks for the wishes...

Yes the basics that we learned in the school are very simple but can be adapted in the most difficult situations. Once my daughter grows up to little higher classes I think I need to re-learn some of those concepts along with her.

 

[quad]

Congrats, Manniraj. Very nice build.

Are the boxes airtight - some gaps are visible. You can fill in any
gaps with a paste made of sawdust mixed with fevicol.

 

[manniraj]

Congrats, Manniraj. Very nice build.

Are the boxes airtight - some gaps are visible. You can fill in any
gaps with a paste made of sawdust mixed with fevicol.

Thanks...

Yes there are some gaps because of imperfections in the panel cuts. In fact I had to do lots of sanding of the internal brace and back panel before pasting and got tired to make them perfect and the result is one of the gaps on the left cabinet. I thought of going with the putty but I think your idea is great will do this over the weekend.

 

[bijinmb]

Thanks...

Yes there are some gaps because of imperfections in the panel cuts. In fact I had to do lots of sanding of the internal brace and back panel before pasting and got tired to make them perfect and the result is one of the gaps on the left cabinet. I thought of going with the putty but I think your idea is great will do this over the weekend.

Applying silicon gel which is coming in tube is also way to easy and it won't make your hands dirty.

 

[rbalu72]

Just got my CHR70 Drivers delivered hyeah:

Now the big task of getting myself motivated to build the FH MK3

http://i59.tinypic.com/muzseb.jpg
http://i60.tinypic.com/am84r6.jpg
http://i62.tinypic.com/289kmkw.jpg

 

[captrajesh]

Hey Balu, congratulations. Please start a new thread documenting your build.

Wish you all the best.

 

[arunlouie]

Congratulations!! Waiting to see the progress.

From where you bought? How much you paid in total??

 

[manniraj]

A small update on my FH build with veneering done today by the carpenter. Also I did some DIY for spikes/spikes stand. Got the spikes from soundfoundations.in almost 4 months back and the discs from Mr. Murthy couple of months back. I got a SS cut to my dimensions and cut the holes as per the thread dimensions of the spikes. With the spikes the height of the speakers has increased slightly and I think reached exactly to the ear level when I sit on my sofa.

Next I am planning to do polishing with matching color as my interiors :licklips:. Will try to get my hands dirty for polishing hopefully by this weekend.

Here are the pictures You can find the better quality pictures in this link https://imageshack.com/a/4NEz/1