Very High Quality DIY speakers anywhere? - Page 7

Guys,
More on the sonosub. I got a chance to turn up the volume more this morning. All I can say is make sure your room is large enough for one of these things. I still have it in the small end of my basement HT and it energized the entire room. I could feel the pressure change and it made the hairs on my arm move. Once I get into the larger space, I'll be very selective about it's location.

Jeff,

Click on the links on the left of the following page to see a great looking set of stands for the Audax Home Theater Front speakers. Also check out the link for the Stands.

I am thinking of something like these... but in flat black to match my speakers.
Check out the Audax HT speakers and Stands built by this DIY'er

Great news on the sub... I figured your family would not have been happy if you cranked up the volume on it in the middle of the night... I can't wait to start on mine... but first, the rear surround speakers have to be built. I'm going to Home Depot this afternoon... there is hope yet I'll catch up to you.

Joe L.

JL,
I've seen that exact site before. Those are nice stands and I think the same design as Brian's at RAD. I'll be out of town from Mon-Thurs and won't get to work on mine again until next Fri. I still have some time today and tomorrow but today is Christmas decoration take-down day.
jeff

I'm looking at building a sealed sub into a knee wall in my home theater. I'm planning to use a 15" driver... Stryke AV15 seems like one of the best. Since the knee wall is essentially dead space, I can build a fairly large box that could be on the order of 12-15 CF. All the designs I've seen are targeted at 3-4 CF enclosures. My thinking that as the box gets bigger it starts to approach an Infinite baffle design. Is there any disadvantage to making it larger than the T/S parameters call for ? The box will be triangular and be externally braced by the roof joists, floor joists, and knee wall framing. I'm also thinking about doing some internal bracing. I've seen that a number of people cut a series of random holes into a sheet of MDF for the internal brace. Is there any science to this or is it just cut a bunch of holes while leaving sufficient meat to make it stiff ?

Thanks
Bruce

actually intended to post this to the DIY sub thread....

After reading thru this thread, the Audax kit caught my interest. When I go to their website, it is dead. Does anyone know if Audax is still around or whether they have gone the way of the dodo? Also, do speaker kits never/sometimes/always include a schema for building the cabinets? I imagine they would, but would like to hear from someone who knows. Thanks.

Brian S.

i think madisound still has audax kits.

Thanks. I noticed that Madisound, among others, still carry the kits. But the concerning thing is that most sites that sell Audax have broken links to Audax.

Also, anyone know whether speaker kits never/sometimes/always include a schema for building the cabinets?

Thanks again,

Brian S.

Many of them have reccomended sizes or dimensions. The construction styling of the cabinets are up to you, as is the ratios, since sometimes the size they have spec'ed will not work for placement.

If you buy the kits from Madisound, you'll get prebuilt crossovers and cabinet plans. The Audax site has been down for about a week now. I don't think they are out of business...at least I hope not.
Jeff

Madisound included printed copies of the Audax web-pages needed to construct the Audax Home Theater speakers with their "kits" I did not need to use the material from the audax web-site to construct the cabinets. The supplied paper copies were sufficient.

As Steve said, the dimensions (inside and outside dimensions) of the cabinet are given. As he also indicated, I was able to keep the volume of the Left/Right front speakers as designed and yet reduce their depth, by increasing their height accordingly. Most folks will not need to do this.

Also...

I did a quick check and the Domain Name Server entry for Audax.com expired on Dec 25, 2002. That is why we can't get to their web-site.

I sent e-mail to the two contacts listed in WHOIS to alert them to the situation.

In the meantime, anybody know the actual IP address of the www.audax.com site? I'll bet they are still accessible via it.

Joe L.

BTW, There is an Audax site that is in French, but allows for english translation. It is very limited as to what is on there, but if anyone wants to e-mail them through that site, it may be a good idea. The site is: www.audax.fr

Bummer...

The email I sent to Ralph Nicholes came back as undeliverable.

Reason: Unknown Recipient

I saved the Audax home theater system info from their web site to my hard drive a couple years ago when I was considering the system. I can probably zip up the files and send to those interested.

EMT,

I have the three PDF files (plans for the Center, L/R, and Rear speakers) but do not have the text from the web-site that describes the speakers.

Do you have copies of the web-pages themselves?

J. L.

I just looked up the IP address for www.audax.com. It's 209.58.221.7, and yes it is still active. However, they appear to be using virtual server software that relies on seeing "www.audax.com" in the URL you use to hit the site, so simply typing in that IP into your browser address bar won't work.

You can, of course, add an entry mapping www.audax.com to 209.58.221.7 into your C:\\Windows\\system32\\drivers\\etc\\hosts file, and then you should be able to access the site as www.audax.com. You may or may not need to reboot after editing the file.

(Note: I don't know anything about Audax; just thought I'd be helpful here...)

skriefal,

Thanks for the true IP address. I tried to figure out how to determine the real IP address, but everything I found relied on the name server lookup... which obviously is not working.

I added the entry to my hosts file so I could capture copies of the web-pages. It works as expected.

Now all we need to do is get somebody at Audax to renew their domain registration. I'll bet they don't even know they are off the map.

Thanks again....

Joe L.

Joe I had to laugh... I went home and checked out whether or not I had d/l the web-page as I am fond of doing and I hadn't... but I had copies of every one of your pictures of the Center Channel

blitzkreig,

I didn't think my photography skills were that good. I am honored for someone to have started a collection.

Joe L.
(It is a good thing you can't see all the bad photos I erase. You would lose all respect for my work)

Yes.

i`ve seen 3 ways crossover at RS are they anygood
http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...5Fid=40%2D1299

saffa,

It is my understanding that a crossover is designed using the specific drivers in a speaker enclosure to put the crossover points where they will work best. The values depend upon the drivers characteristics. (resistance, inductance, frequency range, etc)

It also is typically designed so the the output level of the different drivers is matched based on their relative efficiency. (so the woofers play at the same volume as the midrange and tweeters)

If the universal crossover has the crossover points at those that match your drivers, and if your drivers are matched in efficiency, then it might work for you.

Since there are programs that model crossovers, If Radio Shack provides a schematic, I would model it with my specific drivers and see if it would be suitable.

I can tell you one thing. It will probably be better than running the woofer full range and using a single non-polarized electrolytic capacitor as the "crossover" for the tweeter that I've seen used in most of the less expensive speakers I've taken apart in my youth. But, unless very very lucky, it will not be as good as a crossover designed for your specific drivers.

Joe L.

JL,
Anymore to report on the break-in of the fronts and center speakers?
jeff

Jeff,

The speakers have broken in nicely. My wife and I are very happy with how they sound. Currently, we are using them with one of the PartsExpress budget 10" DLS subwoofers. (In my case, it was *yery* budget, as I only paid $20 for it at the Dayton Hamvention last year...It was not functional, but a 20 cent resistor in the plate amp fixed that)

I'm working crazy hours this next week or so. We are doing a massive data conversion project that we figure will start this evening at 8PM and finish on the 27th. With any luck, I'll be able to get a bit of time during the daylight hours to be able to cut some MDF for the Audax Rear speakers and some speaker stands.

Soon after that, I'll be building a sonosub. (Adire 15 inch Tempest driver)

Joe L.

Well JL,
I now have the same problem and I'm going back...again, to Home Depot to buy a sanding drum to widen the rabbit.
jeff

Well, the rabbets are finally cut. My 1/2" rabbeting bit when used with the driver hole sizes in the directions didn't cut enough out for the driver flanges. I tried to use my Dremel Tool with a sanding disc but that didn't have enough oomph. So, I traced the outline of the flange and used a new 1/4" straight cut bit and did it free-hand. Fortunately, I have a variable speed router so I could control it better. I have a few spots that were off a little but after the drivers are permanently mounted, I can add a little caulk and it won't be noticeable.

From what I can see, the flange on the woofers measures just a bit under 6 7/8ths inches in diameter.

If both Jeff and I accurately followed the PDF plans, then the hole we cut would have been 5 3/4 inches in diameter. Add 1 inch to that (1/2 in rabbet on two sides of the driver hole) and we get a rabbet about 6 3/4 inches diameter... and as we both found out, about 1/8th inch too small .

So... for those following in our footsteps...
Jeff confirmed (the hard way) that the published hole sizes for the Audax HT woofers may be about 1/8 inch too small if you intend to flush mount the woofers by use of a 1/2 inch rabbeting bit.

If you intend to use a 1/2 inch rabbeting bit in your router to cut the rabbet, and subsequently trim the veneer, then instead of cutting 5 3/4 inch diameter holes for the woofers, make them 5 7/8ths inch.

Joe L.

Exactly! I forgot to mention that it was 1/8" too small.
Jeff

JL,
Did you stuff the interior of the center channel with addtional polyfil or did you only use the egg-crate foam? I have both in the sub-enclosure but didn't see anything about the main cabinet.
Jeff

OK, I've been playing the center for approx 4-hrs now. I haven't attached the top or sealed it or put the polyfil in the mid/tweeter enclosure and it is sitting on the floor. I did place the lid on top and the first thing I noticed when compared to my small Energy center channel is the sound is much bigger. I don't know if it is any clearer, but definitely bigger. I discovered that I had the two woofers actually wired to the midrange crossover when one wasn't working. The midrange was also wrong and connected to the woofer crossover. I made the corrections and now everything is working properly (I hope). More to come...
Jeff