SilentJ20's Tritrix Build

Well, I've been fooling around long enough! Time to build some speakers. A few days ago, I ordered the Recession Destroyer kit and it is due to be delivered to my house any minute now. This will be my first speaker building experience, with only a simple car sub being my only DIY experience.

I will build the sealed enclosure, with some small changes to be able to put a 1/2 inch roundover and grill on the front to better match the look of my Velodyne CHT 5-channel system (this will add 2 speakers for the eventual 7.1 capable receiver purchase).

I try to plan ahead as much as I can, and thus have already planned the cut sheets and stands to integrate them into my home theater (stand parts will be cut from 1/2 inch mdf and are not shown on the cut sheets).

Hopefully, provided the package delivery happens on time, I'll have some naked speaker pics coming soon.

Actually, the text says Recession 'Destroyer'. It's a good deal partsexpress put together containing all components needed (drivers, crossover) to build the tritrix speakers, minus the box.

Linky for those interested/unaware:
Recession Destroyer

Yay! Delivery has come. Partsexpress packages very well, by the way.



reecew:
I decided to go with these because they are an affordable entry-level type speaker (deal is too good right now). I don't have large funds available, so these made a good fit. Also, with being 8 ohm, I don't need a separate power-amp for them (nor does my current receiver have pre-amp outputs). I have a smaller room so I don't need large speakers, nor to I have the space available.

And the tritrix has always had very good reviews, and I look forward to judging that for myself soon. I'm no 'critical listener' but I know these will be worth the work.

Hopefully I'll be cutting wood soon.

Nothing new yet, I hope to start cutting wood tomorrow afternoon. I DO, however, have a question about routing a roundover on the corners. I borrowed a 1/2 inch roundover bit, with a 1/4 inch shank. Should I do multiple passes/depths to get the full roundover, or can I make just one pass? My router is decent, and I'm not worried about power, I just don't want to give the bit too much and break it. What do you think?

Fixed. Don't know what happened, I used the link tool the first time and it worked for a while...

So, I finally had some time to work. I was able to get all the driver cut-outs routed, pieces cut, and the top/bottom/side assemblies glued together. Not bad for a few hours of work. I even managed to get things somewhat cleaned up.

I have to say, I love circle-cutting with a router. Although I managed to mess up one of the inner hole diameters for the woofer a bit, it is an incredibly effective way to make circular cutouts. Just make sure you double and triple check measurements!! I used a diy jasper-type jig and learned the lesson of measuring before cutting. Also, check the plunge depth stops before cutting or moving from woofer to tweeter holes.





I figure I had enough clamps, as I was only doing two speakers, but I should have bought more. I could easily have used twice as many.





I thought about writing a song about the joys of cutting mdf. The dust getting everywhere, how it chokes you and dries out every moist part of your body. How the cloud hovers in the garage for 15 minutes after I was done cutting. But I didn't think it was all that worthwhile, especially since I don't think anyone wants to hear me sing about mdf boogers. And yes, I was wearing a mask, but the dust still managed to get into my nose/mouth a bit anyways, I can't imagine how bad it would have been without a mask.

My center channel is a Velodyne CHT Front Row center channel speaker (I have the whole set). See the manual here: Velodyne Front Row System

I like the sound of the front row system so far, we'll have to see how they compare to the tritrix.

For a tritrix center most people are just building a regular sealed or ported and placing it sideways. However, over at HTguide there is an old (mid 2008) design in project for a tritrix based center channel. See HERE.

I am hoping they blend in well. Both the front row system and the tritrix use soft dome tweeters, so they should have a similar quality ( from what my noob mind understands). The woofers are a different material, however, with the front rows using some form of plastic and the tritrix being treated paper.

As for aesthetics, I am going to make them match my front rows as close as I can. The same roundovers in the same places and the same grill design. Roughly the same surface finish. Maybe I'm just as crazy going through so much to make them match.

I was planning on mounting it to one of the longer flat sides. However, after reading a cautionary note about hot-glued crossovers mounted on vertical walls having the heavy inductors fall off and break wires, I'll probably mount them on the bottom (7in x 5.5in board). From the crossover assembly video on youtube, there will be plenty of room and everything will be well supported. I hope to get to the crossovers this afternoon. Unfortunately, life gets in the way and this isn't going as quick as I hoped it would. I'll keep on truckin, though. Not too much futher, really.

Dude, I know I really want time to finish. I already made a couple (small) mistakes on the circle-cutting from trying to speed things up. Turns out the faster you try to go, the more errors you make Soldering shouldn't be too bad, though. I'm assuming I can use the same speaker wire on the inside that I'm running between the receiver and speakers?

Well, I was able to get some work done, though not as much as I would have liked. I needed to clean off my workbench first, as is always the case when I want to use it. And since I was cleaning off the workbench, I had to take out some trash. So I took out the trash from the whole house. Then I saw that there were some winter decorations ready to back into the garage. Then I had to make some space on the shelves in the garage... Oy

Anyways, I got the crossover components laid out and glued to the boards. I pretty much followed the layout of the tritrix youtube crossover assembly video.

WATCH IT HERE

I cut the boards to 4x5 inches as described. However, this ended up a little smaller than the video. So things got a little tighter, but not too bad.



If you are worried about things getting too close or are wanting a bit more room to glue/solder, a larger board would be better. Note that a 6-3/4 x 5 inches is the largest that will (barely) fit in the bottom (smallest end) of the sealed box, or larger if you mount it to the side. I just have some soldering to do, and the crossovers are done. I decided to go ahead and glue in the lead lines into the crossovers at their full length. I left 12 inches of speaker wire (I think it was 16 gauge) trailing out so I don't need to attach anything more between the crossovers and the binding posts. Slowly but surely (and don't call me Shirley)

I could always zip-tie the heavy inductors, especially the one standing on the edge. The other components don't weigh much and there is plenty of glue. But the inductors would be the most likely to come loose and a couple zip-ties is quick cheap insurance. Thanks for the tip, stgdz.

TIME FOR AN UPDATE.

Okay, so not too much has happened, but I'm at a decent stopping point. I FINALLY got the crossovers soldered. I added the speaker leads to the soldering mess, and made sure to leave plenty to reach the speakers. It was a bit of a challenge going from the diagrams, comparing it to the layout on the board from the youtube video, and making the right connections. But, I think I've done it. Point something out that I did wrong. It's my first crossover, so go easy on me

White line is the positive lead, and where the wire is silver/copper, the silver color is the positive.



I haven't had time to do a listening test yet. I'll do that tomorrow, hopefully (provided I don't need to start over on the crossovers).

I also managed to get the back panels of the boxes drilled for the push-terminals and glued into place. If I would have thought ahead, I would have made sure to oversize the back (and front) panels so they would trim flush with my router. Let's just say I have some wood filling to do...



Anyways, I'm off to the store to get some wood filler and some other stuff. Till next time.