My tryst with speaker builds

[reubensm]

I've started collecting some speakers for my long cherished speaker project to create the "wall of sound" effect in my listening room. As a first step in this direction, I recently purchased a mint pair of Philips AD12100 M8 full range drivers from my good friend FM Shafic. Thought I'll post some pics of how the speakers reached home, to start of my speaker adventures. Received a well taped and projected solid box today. My wife thought that I had purchased some surplus defence equipment, that's how well it was packed. I spent a good half hour just to get to the speakers inside the boxes. And as usual, there were the Shafic trademark goodies inside, books for the kids and an empty take up spool for me :yahoo: Yet another fantastic purchase experience from Shafic and HFV. Take a look for yourself.

Photography: Joshua Reuben Sylvester (my elder son)

 

[denom]

Congrats Reuben! You are going to thoroughly enjoy the speaker build & the end result will be icing on the cake for you. Recently got the opportunity to hear another Phillips Driver, the AD1256/M8 & boy was i pleasantly surprised at how good the music sounded through them.
Do try to lay your hands on the cab details of these drivers, in order to get the best out of them. A fun build it will be for sure.

As for Shafic, I wholeheartedly concur on your experience with this fine gentleman. May he continue to make more friends on the forum & fill their lives with musical happiness.
Big :thumbsup: for Shafic
:cheers:

 

[ranjeetrain]

Philips AD12100 M8

I am jealous, sir :licklips:

 

[reubensm]

Congrats Reuben! You are going to thoroughly enjoy the speaker build & the end result will be icing on the cake for you. Recently got the opportunity to hear another Phillips Driver, the AD1256/M8 & boy was i pleasantly surprised at how good the music sounded through them.
Do try to lay your hands on the cab details of these drivers, in order to get the best out of them. A fun build it will be for sure.

As for Shafic, I wholeheartedly concur on your experience with this fine gentleman. May he continue to make more friends on the forum & fill their lives with musical happiness.
Big :thumbsup: for Shafic
:cheers:

yes, I have met some great people through the forum, lovely friendships indeed.

Regarding the speaker build, to share some initials concepts, I plan for a 3 tier speaker system (for each channel), onkens with vintage or modern 15 inch woofers at the bottom, the mid tier with the 12100 M8s in onkens or bass reflex cabinets and a tweeter array at the top tier. Things may change as its evolves but this is the initial throught process. As of now, no plans for tubes so my 216thx will drive the woofer tier and the NAD 3020 will drive the mid and highs tiers. No time lines yet but just want to collect the drivers first and then take a call. I also want to try out a few things with open baffle and corner horn designs (time permitting). If plans for tubes evolve at a later point, then the amps and preamps with be DIY.

There is absolutely little time for hobby these days, only get time to play records and CDs in the background while I work at home in the nights. I've got to complete my 2 turntable projects and audio rack project as well. Will be making a start with the turntable projects shortly.

 

[Record Player]

WOW. Lovely Reuben.

Quite a few projects lined up I must say and I am sure this is not going to be easy with regular work schedules. This is something I am experiencing with the 401 build!

 

[reubensm]

WOW. Lovely Reuben.

Quite a few projects lined up I must say and I am sure this is not going to be easy with regular work schedules. This is something I am experiencing with the 401 build!

yes its very difficult and that too, i have a probable long term out-of-home-location, work assignment coming my way in the near future.

 

[Record Player]

yes its very difficult and that too, i have a probable long term out-of-home-location, work assignment coming my way in the near future.

Ooh. When I complete the 401 build, I will pen down separately the entire journey and experience on the actual build and the nuances involved. These DIY projects really take a lot of time, planning, money and one should be aware of such facts before plunging in with any DIY especially with turntables for me at least.

 

[reubensm]

Got home late yesterday (from a weekend trip out of Trivandrum) and thought I'll try out the full rangers. Just hooked them up to my NAD 3020 and played them at low volume for some time. Yes, they present a sound stage rich with mids (lower and upper). Interesting sound. Will attempt to put them in a baffle and check them out next week.

On another note, soldering the speaker wires to the tag board was quite a challenge. My 25 watt solderon was unable to manage the largish tags. Will need to buy a higher wattage soldering iron.

 

[prem]

Hi Reubensm

My suggestion is hear a full range speaker and see if you like the sound before you invest serious money and time to the project. Full rangers and vintage drivers are not everyone's cup of tea.

 

[reubensm]

Hi Reubensm

My suggestion is hear a full range speaker and see if you like the sound before you invest serious money and time to the project. Full rangers and vintage drivers are not everyone's cup of tea.

Yes, I have two old huge plywood boxes lying in the car porch. These were used to transport the B&W DM3000s from Bangalore. With some modifications, I am going to try these speakers out in these. You are prefectly right Prem, full rangers are definitely not everyone's cup of tea, defintely not mine either. We grew up listening to the Hi-Q internationals and I always felt they lacked good lows and highs. Infact, my findings were justified when PA speaker brands like Ahuja started pairing full rangers with horn tweeters. This is just an experiment. Lets see how it goes. Personally, my music listening does not involve too much of mids. I've been listening around to get a perspective of different speaker types and systems. On Friday last week, I listened to 3 different pairs of speakers at Mr. Kuruvila's home and have come to understand the the choice is highly depended on room size, speaker positioning, type of amp, type of source, listening style (loud or soft, intense or background listening, etc) and genre of music.

 

[reubensm]

Full rangers and vintage drivers are not everyone's cup of tea.

Perfectly put. The time spent with Mr. Kuruvila had some great take-aways. One major one was in relation to speakers and speaker builds. Manufacturers often have their own ways of getting their speakers to sound good. These techniques and ingredients are often not shared with the outside world. That's what makes some of these manufactured speakers really special. For one to achieve these with some drivers and a good carpenter, is going to be difficult unless one has a very good understanding of the science involved and unless one has the ability to test and evaluate both from a listening perspective and a standards perspective. Its perhaps a good idea for me to go for manufactured speakers rather than try builds. But the spend is not all that much so thought I'll give it a try.

 

[prem]

Hi Reubensm

As long as you are enjoying the process, nothing like it

 

[kuruvilajacob]

Reuben,
If you can get vintage AR,JBL or similar ones and then change the caps with high grade ones, that should give you desired results. I am looking out for one for you.

 

[captrajesh]

I've started collecting some speakers for my long cherished speaker project to create the "wall of sound" effect in my listening room.

I plan for a 3 tier speaker system (for each channel), onkens with vintage or modern 15 inch woofers at the bottom, the mid tier with the 12100 M8s in onkens or bass reflex cabinets and a tweeter array at the top tier.

I have two old huge plywood boxes lying in the car porch. These were used to transport the B&W DM3000s from Bangalore. With some modifications, I am going to try these speakers out in these.

Very interesting concept Reuben. I'd be keen to audition the outcome. All the best for the build.

 

[reubensm]

Very interesting concept Reuben. I'd be keen to audition the outcome. All the best for the build.

I am going to make a start with the full rangers in big boxes, first with the sealed box approach and thereafter with the bass reflex approach.

You are most welcome anytime Capt. Currently I am in the process of setting up my turntables with Mr. Kuruvila's help and support. Hope to have them singing very soon.

 

[philistine]

Hi. Were you able to finish your builds. I must laud you for the quality of your work.