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UXL Group Buy-The Sequel

95K views 2K replies 177 participants last post by  tfest 
#1 · (Edited)
UPDATED Feb 27th Extended

Some of you may have heard whispers in the dark corners of AVS that there was going to be another UXL group buy... I'm pleased to announce that those rumors are true! The only caveat is that we need commitments, and eventually deposits, for 60 drivers. 60 will be the minimum order. Without that number the group buy won't happen and the UXL may not return for some time. With the deposits, Mark will be able to acquire all the parts he needs to begin a production run and get the UXL's shipped out.

The group buy price in CAD will be $460 including taxes and shipping. For you lucky ones south of the Canadian border, the price will be $400 USD including taxes and shipping.

Please use this thread to leave a comment with how many UXL's you would like. After doing that, you will then need to PM me your name, email, phone number and full shipping address. I will pass your info along to Mark and he will take things from there to collect deposits and begin production soon after. The deposits will be 50% of the value whether CAD or USD. Mark will then collect the balance just before shipment.

I've created this post with the approval of Mark and hope to keep this as the information hub for the group buy. As I receive updates I will post them here and will also keep a list of how many commitments we have and from whom.

-UPDATE - January 17th
Price for our American friends will be $400 USD to avoid having to adjust for the tanking Canadian dollar when delivery starts.

-UPDATE - January 17th
This group buy filled up much faster than I think any of us could have anticipated! Since it has pretty much all been over the weekend, Mark didn't have the chance to order the parts early like he had hoped he could. Monday morning he will order what he needs and start assembling what he can to get ahead. Once the other parts arrive production will start. Expect it to be about 45 days before he has all of the materials and can start assembly. It shouldn't be too long after that until we start seeing drivers ship :)

-Update - January 20th
Mark ordered all of his materials and supplies yesterday and asked me to let everyone know the lead time of 45-60 days may be slightly delayed. Some of his supplies have a ship date near the end of February so he likely won’t see them till the beginning of March. Like I said earlier though, he is going to do as much as he can now with the supplies he does have to get the drivers out ASAP. He understands if there are some cancellations as a result of the delay.

-Update - January 24th
With the rate that this first group of 60 filled up, Mark has decided to extend/expand the group buy for another 60 units. That makes it 120 total. Rather than people on the overflow list wondering if they will get drivers or not, we're going to create a second group of up to 60 drivers.

-Update - February 4th
Invoices went out for the first group of 60 on February 3rd. If you did not receive an invoice, let me know. If you got an invoice but feel there is a discrepancy with it, email Mark directly. Remember, we are paying 50% now for each driver we committed to and the other 50% just before they ship. You have until the end of this week to pay your deposit.

-Update - February 27th
If you're in the second group, don't worry that you haven't heard from Mark yet. He has all of your contact info (if you sent it to me) and he will send you an email when things get rolling for the second group.

Commitments:
First group
2 - Devon
2 - Fattykidd
2 - asarose247
4 - dmoney76
2 - Niavlys
1 - Overland
2 - irchow
2 - chrisslone
4 - Gargazol
2 - BrutalBodyShots
2 - markymiles
4 - cmryan
2 - andersa
2 - kmhvbal
4 - BCRSS
2 - jcam2881
2 - gpmbc
4 - Sean MC
2 - d_c
1 - RH55
2 - Shadowed
2 - Fastman
1 - homeskizzle
2 - MajorCanuck
2 - Video1
2 - likelinus
First Group Total = 61

Second group
2 - dlozy
4 - Azkker
1 - klirvin
2 - Matman1970
1 - annjones
2 - tbald2h
2 - vinodk
3 - theblackangus
2 - rhodesj
2 - ASU
2 - uopdrmark
1 - brendelac
2 - girmic
4 - Doradoguy
2 - Johnnymenudo
1 - Thomps33
4 - milll36
2 - Brairn
3 - N8DOGG
2 - salehdidit
2 - IronMaiden
2 - AVHack
1 - amo76
1 - niavlys
2 - surrie
1 - jhanda
1 - stegen
2 - Radi0active
1 - gjreid
2 - surrie
2 - Meret
2 - Wormraper
2 - slc85
2 - Buknakyd
4 - nologic2001
2 - Owen81
2 - Traider79
2 - tfest
2 - AFRANZKY
1 - Myggpower
2 - plasma_fan
2 - mrc12973
2 - ShamrockLex
2 - jwebtx
2 - redliner140
2 - K9woofer
2 - Andy497
1 - rocksoldier1
2 - Keithbanford
4 - Peterc613
2 - mbw23air
2 - asangamnerkar
2 - nebrunner
1 - Bassment
2 - Fattykid
2 - wldrkd1
2 - k2fast4u
Second Group Total = 119
 
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#927 ·
thanks devon
I was considering this for my 88 build, maybe the 8" drivers only, then
but being all black, some removal of material in the on/off axis dimensions is possible but how that would help, IDK


any news wrt to drivers/construction/shipping for the first group for the GB?


when you know something, you'll be the first to spread the wo
 
#932 ·
I've heard Mark Seaton say 4-5" when people asked how far the submersive needs to be from the wall. Sound below 60hz isn't directional so placing it firing towards you, away, left or right should not change how it sounds. It will however, change how it interacts with the room and it will create a different frequency response. But it shouldn't "sound" any different.. If that makes sense.
 
#939 ·
@DevonDeyholos Any word? I'm gettin antsy... need some carbon fiber :)
 
#941 ·
Looking good Devon, when you gonna have those cinema 10's up and running? Did you order 3 or two and a 1099 for center? I'm gonna be having some guys over again and we're gonna have 4 or 5 differntvbrands of amps that we're going to compare and do some measurements with... I'd really love to get some of tour diy speakers there to compare with too. Would you be up for something like this?
 
#943 ·
Hahaha.... no, no clones on the speakers... were got my emotiva xpa2 and xpa5 ,a crown xls 1500 that I just ordered yesterday. My buddy is gonna bring over a monster mpa 5150 amp, I got another guy I'm trying to convince to bring a sunfire tga 7201. I'm really curious what the different amp are gonna sound like connected in the same room to same speakers etc. In reality we could try the clone on the speakers too as long as we don't get stupid on the volume.

I just really want to hear some seos in my room... of they're that good I'll sell my jtr's and make a few bucks..
 
#944 ·
Is there an estimated time of when the next batch of UXL 18's will be available? I have sold my subs (but still have them for a bit) but want to insure my replacements are up and running before the existing subs are gone.
 
#949 ·
^ +1
my semi-unfinished Lhorn cabs are fine right where they are
thanks
 
#952 ·
If those are anywhere near the dates, I will need to go in another direction as i will be subless at the end of May!!
 
#955 ·
Don't want to rush Mark but i'll be ready for those UXL in a couples of days :D

Product Shelf Shelving Furniture Room
 
#958 ·
Don't want to rush Mark but these have been now sitting for almost 2 weeks
 

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#959 ·
Look at you all being nice and saying you don't want to rush Mark. I want to rush Mark... where are my UXLs!?

J/K. I think many of us are in the same boat; enclosures built and ready to drop in some drivers. I know he said end of March for parts to all arrive, so I'm thinking in the next 2 weeks or so he'll start building drivers.

Devon, once Mark starts cranking these things out do you know on average how often he completes one? I'm oblivious to the sub driver building process. I wouldn't know if he can produce 1 in a day or 10.
 
#960 ·
^
Quality doesn't cost , it pays, build it slow and build it right
and being patient here, we know what we're going to get,
how can amy one not be cool with that. . . it's a freakin' UXL!


how can this publicity/excitement not be good for business . .? not just Mark, but our hobby in general, ya know, competition
 
#961 ·
I have no problem waiting. I want them yesterday, but not at them being built in a rush. I want quality hand built drivers. Something special like that. Craftsmanship that is obvious just by looking at them. I will wait for that.
 
#964 ·
A


BUMP - If Mark is readng this ;-).WE definitely need Quality and Craftmanship. No Rush here.

BTW BRCSS who is in for 4 UXL's here ( Surprised he did not chime in today :) ) has an XPA-3 I believe and he has usd it with his 1099's vs his Denon 4311 and has noticed NO DIFFERENCE PERIOD when using the XPA. He listens at Reference and beyond so he knows what he is talking about.
 
#969 ·
I'm still catching up on all the threads and saw what I think was some discussion on a group buy on a INuke?000DSP.
If so, let me know as I'm in for one.

Thanks
We all wish. Don't think it can or will happen. Think their price is as low as it gets.
 
#971 ·
Hi Mark,


You might not have free time to do it, but I think a lot of us would love to see some "how it's done" type pictures. All that mundane stuff like winding coils and such is interesting to those of us that haven't done it before. :)


I know I would be interested in "shop pics." Just a thought. Thanks for what you're doing for the DIY community!
 
#976 ·
for SUBMAXIMUS inside the airtight sealed chamber using double thick baffle
I opted for #10 panhead bolts into the epoxied T-nuts. I needed to keep some wiggle room wrt to mounting that thing, it weighs 60+ lbs
as I recall it took me a bit over 2 hours to be satisfied with the seating
I also used bonded washers and lock washers and flat washers with the panheads to work around tightening, trying to get as much pressure uniformly wrt to that necessary airtight seal
you could use 1/4 20's, the drivers is sized for them to pass thru


.02
 
#977 · (Edited)
I dug these up for those who'd like to see. Like Mark said, these are the pics he posted of the first group buy build.

Someone in this thread requested shots on the progress of this run, so I went out and splurged on a new camera to take the pictures with - a whole $58. So things begin here....

I ordered in about 1.5 tons of steel for this and a few other projects. Steel is fairly expensive up here so I usually try to order in bulk when I can.

The DoAll saw takes little time to rip through the 8 1/2" round steel.




A shot of a finished top plate in the turning center. I would kill for live tooling! you machine guys know what I'm talking about. Maybe next year
Coil operations - putting the final touches on a coil (taping). As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, making a UXL/FTW coil takes about twenty minutes. Other coils don't take nearly as long, but these ones are special. Adhesive is applied to each winding layer and then heated. A final coating is applied to the outside and the coil is then baked in an oven.




I had a coil from an MJ-18 so thought I would snap a pic of them side by side. The MJ-18 had a rating of 800 watts RMS.

Some of the top plates drilled, tapped, painted and baked. Many more to go...

Now working on the back plates.

Coil assembly today. just a pic of the tinsel leads getting prepped for soldering.

So the entire process is 85% preparation with the balance being the final assembly. From machining the motor parts to coil creation to attaching surrounds to cones, I actually look forward to the final phase. This is where I can take a breather and piece things together.

With the motor magnetized and the basket attached, the coil and spider are being aligned and glued. This picture was taken just before the tinsel leads were glued to the spider at the exit points. Doing this maintains spider integrity and keeps the tinsel leads in place.



This shot shows the cone in place and glued to the basket (notice clamps). The centering plug keeps the coil centered while all this goes on. The cone then receives a good thick bead of glue. Notice the indentation for the dust cap. What I've shown here is how drivers have been put together for decades. From small shops to large assembly lines where hundreds of units are cranked out, the process is pretty much the same. As mentioned, consistency is key.

 
#978 · (Edited)
:nerd: I love it! Great pictures! I did not realize that these are actually "MADE" one at a time from raw materials (vs. production line of some kind). Top/back plates manually cut/drilled/painted one by one...incredible. Seeing the care that goes into making each one makes me want my twins even more! I'm proud to be part of something special and these drivers sure are just that. Special.


Now I just need WinISD to make friends with me and we'll be good to go. LOL!
 
#979 ·
:nerd: I love it! Great pictures! I did not realize that these are actually "MADE" one at a time from raw materials (vs. production line of some kind). Top/back plates manually cut/drilled/painted one by one...incredible. Seeing the care that goes into making each one makes me want my twins even more! I'm proud to be part of something special and these drivers sure are just that. Special.
This is why I tip my hat to folks like John at AE and Scott at Fi - small shops who like making their own stuff. Leaves me with a warm fuzzy feeling inside.... :cool:
 
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