I wanted to share with everyone the build I finished this weekend. I've been building it the last couple of months. I knew it was going to take a bit for the driver to come in so I took my time and was working mainly on the weekends. The way I finished it also took a couple weeks to do thanks to giving it ample time to dry on each coat.
On Thursday my HS-24 mk III driver was delivered so I was able to finally finish it off. First off it's huge. I knew it was big but until you actually see and try to lift one... My dog in the picture is an 85 pound lab and she looks tiny. Help should be had when moving it. I made the mistake of being over eager and did it by myself which I'm paying for now with a tweaked back.
I did figure out one trick though for getting it and out of the box for drilling the mount holes. The FAQ thread gives the tip of putting zip ties through two of the holes to lift. That wasn't going to work with the weight of it. A zip tie was going to cut a finger off. But I was able to modify off of it. I put two ties through two opposite holes to get a little more strength. Then through each set I put a heavy duty micro-fiber tower that I could grip. It ended up giving me a handle on each side that control lowering it into the box and then picking it back out.
For the cabinet I made it out of 3/4" baltic birch plywood. The hardwood store I shop at was having a big sale so I went with it instead of using MDF. I then add a top and trim to it made from curly maple. I've like the look of figured wood for subs since I first saw pictures of a couple subs from Funk.
I'm not going to bore too much with construction pictures. Since it's sealed it's a rectangular box with fairly standard windowed bracing inside. I can follow up with some pictures of that if anyone wants to see it.
Due to the size of it and that it's going to be in a spot that can be seen I wanted to give it a nice finish. For the body, after a thorough sanding I gave it a heavy dose of a black cherry stain. It was then topped with three coats of satin arm-r-seal urethane.
For the trim and top I wanted to make the curls in the curly maple really pop. So I died it black and then sanded off the dye. This leaves some color in the curls but brings the rest back to natural. I did 4 coats like this to get the curls nice and dark. For the final coat I didn't fully sand it down. I sanded it just enough to give the wood a smokey gray color. I didn't take pictures during these steps and I'm really kicking myself now. I wish I had it documented for the future.
Once the last coat of black was done I added a light layer of purple dye over it. Some extra purple, black, and alcohol (removes dye) was finally used in spots to even out the color and look. This picture is right after the purple was added and it was drying.
All of the curly maple was then finished with 4 coats of a tung oil finish and then a wood wax. I'm really happy with the way the finish turned out on it.
So far the sound is great. I did a basic setup of it last night and ran Audyssey on it. All the demo scenes I played sounded great. The server scene from pulse felt like it was barely stressing it. A couple of the things in my room got stressed out though. I then watched RP1 and everything was amazing in it. The big explosion near the end was amazing.
I dialed everything in a bit more today and I'm going to go watch a movie now before bed. I can't wait to hear it some more.
On Thursday my HS-24 mk III driver was delivered so I was able to finally finish it off. First off it's huge. I knew it was big but until you actually see and try to lift one... My dog in the picture is an 85 pound lab and she looks tiny. Help should be had when moving it. I made the mistake of being over eager and did it by myself which I'm paying for now with a tweaked back.
I did figure out one trick though for getting it and out of the box for drilling the mount holes. The FAQ thread gives the tip of putting zip ties through two of the holes to lift. That wasn't going to work with the weight of it. A zip tie was going to cut a finger off. But I was able to modify off of it. I put two ties through two opposite holes to get a little more strength. Then through each set I put a heavy duty micro-fiber tower that I could grip. It ended up giving me a handle on each side that control lowering it into the box and then picking it back out.
For the cabinet I made it out of 3/4" baltic birch plywood. The hardwood store I shop at was having a big sale so I went with it instead of using MDF. I then add a top and trim to it made from curly maple. I've like the look of figured wood for subs since I first saw pictures of a couple subs from Funk.
I'm not going to bore too much with construction pictures. Since it's sealed it's a rectangular box with fairly standard windowed bracing inside. I can follow up with some pictures of that if anyone wants to see it.
Due to the size of it and that it's going to be in a spot that can be seen I wanted to give it a nice finish. For the body, after a thorough sanding I gave it a heavy dose of a black cherry stain. It was then topped with three coats of satin arm-r-seal urethane.
For the trim and top I wanted to make the curls in the curly maple really pop. So I died it black and then sanded off the dye. This leaves some color in the curls but brings the rest back to natural. I did 4 coats like this to get the curls nice and dark. For the final coat I didn't fully sand it down. I sanded it just enough to give the wood a smokey gray color. I didn't take pictures during these steps and I'm really kicking myself now. I wish I had it documented for the future.
Once the last coat of black was done I added a light layer of purple dye over it. Some extra purple, black, and alcohol (removes dye) was finally used in spots to even out the color and look. This picture is right after the purple was added and it was drying.
All of the curly maple was then finished with 4 coats of a tung oil finish and then a wood wax. I'm really happy with the way the finish turned out on it.
So far the sound is great. I did a basic setup of it last night and ran Audyssey on it. All the demo scenes I played sounded great. The server scene from pulse felt like it was barely stressing it. A couple of the things in my room got stressed out though. I then watched RP1 and everything was amazing in it. The big explosion near the end was amazing.
I dialed everything in a bit more today and I'm going to go watch a movie now before bed. I can't wait to hear it some more.