AR M2 bookshelf speakers from the Holographics series. Made in the USA. Fast sounding, bass is light but clean. Very difficult to get the right speaker stand due its slanting shaped cabinet.

The world famous studio monitor speakers from YAMAHA NS10M. Certainly not everyone cup of tea, it sings out everything! whether you like it or not, up to you! Very bright and forward sounding and no bass but it has everything it takes to be a good studio monitor speaker. Not Hi-fi.

LS4a from Rogers England. Great for vocals but can't handle faster music, bass is slow, can't catch up with the rest of the musics.

Heco Interior 35H floorstanding speaker. 2.5 way with twin 6.5" woofer, bass is slighty on the light side considering its size, midrange is a bit too dry and forward sounding.

DCM CX-07 monitor speaker. Made in the USA. Very good for jazz and pop music, bass lines are clear and extended.

Tannoy 607 2 way speaker from the Sixes series. Warm midrange, crisp highs and bass is reasonable for its size, good speaker!

Very big standmount 3 way speaker with 12" woofer from RCA. Loud!

Epos ES11

Epos es11 2 way speaker system. One of the very famous British speakers from the 90s. Warm smooth midrange delivery and very good imaging but bass lacks punch.

 

Clements 308di

Clements 308di "Dynamic Image" 2.5way speaker from Canada. Powerful bass, wide soundstage and crisp highs but quite rough in overall presentation. Very big speaker.

B&W DM220

B&W DM220 "Digital Monitor" 2.5way speaker system. Dual 8" woofers and 1" dome tweeter, great for party dance music.

Infinity SM115

Infinity SM115 floorstanding 3 way speaker systemwith 10" woofer. Big bold, forward sounding speaker from USA, best for home theatre use.

JBL SoundPact

JBL SoundPact. Lifestyle 2.1 passive speaker system, sounds harsh, good for background music applications.

Mission 731

Mission 731. 2 way budget speakers, great for entry level systems.

JPW Mini Monitor

JPW Mini Monitor speakers. Small compact 2 way budget British speakers, good bass for its size.

Horn loaded mini full range speaker

The building of a Horn loaded speaker based on a old school 3" Full range driver from Sony.

Slim cabinet design for wall mounting purpose.

So bad i accidentally poked one the dust cap.

Note that the 4 holes around the main driver are for the outputs from the back horn.

"W" shaped wall at the back

Front and the back views

The 4 pieces of wedge shaped wood to form the horn opening

Bending the grooved plywood against the wedge shaped wood piece 

Side view where the twin back horn openings are visible

 Filling up the grooves with wood fillers

 Laying real wood veneers

 Waiting for the adhesive to set

Veneer finally in place with the excess trimed

2 way floorstanding speaker

New project, 2 way floor standing speaker.
Preparation for cutting

 

 

Slightly slanted front baffle design

 

Cutting holes for drivers and reflex port

 

Starting to take shape

 

With the extra long PVC reflex port glued to the front panel

 

2 pieces standing tall side by side

 

View from the back

 

Lining the internal wall with felt

 

 

Finally it's time to put them together.

 

It is time to put all the drivers in place to proceed for sound tuning

 

5.25" Bass driver is from Castle acoustic and 3/4" soft dome from Vifa

 

Inside is the modified 2 way crossover from the KEF C series speakers

 

After switching with a few different tweeters to match with the bass unit, i finally settled for a less expected combination which is a hybrid design tweeter. I would have to redo the mounting hole to accomodate the squarish magnet at the back of the tweeters.

A rectangular shaped hybrid tweeter. Don't know what brand but looking at the built quality is quite decent moreover they are made in Japan and also patented with individual serial numbers.

Up and ready for audition!

 

close up pic.

 

It is time to share a bit of my experience with this pair of speakers after a few listening sessions. First test i powered them with my old and faithful NAD 3020 Series 20 amplifier with Epos ES11 as the reference speaker, what immediately draws my attention was the coherence between the midbass and the high frequency units are superb. Worth the hassle of cutting and drilling holes to switch tweeters. Midrange is smooth with a good level of warmth and very well presented. The highs are crisp and detailed without any trace of harshness while the bass lines are clean and extended.

However the down side is that i will need to dail the volume up a little to push this speaker, comparing with my other speakers i estimated it's output sensitivity should be in the 86 to 87dB region only.

Conclusion-I am very satisfied with the initial test results. Next is to power them up with different amplifiers and sources to see if they can perform better.

 

I cannot stop saying good things about this speaker when i switched driving them with my class A+AB 50 watter intergrated Duson PA50 amplifier combo with a Pioneer 20bit cdp. Improvements in every area and proven that the earlier 20 watter NAD is under powered. The soundstage opened up tremendously and bass has more slam and authority. It goes loud without sounding harsh or bright when pushed hard where i can continue listening on a pile of CDs for hours. I believed that it could be due to the natural characteristic of the hybrid tweeters itself that contribute to the overal oganic presentation. I can say that it outshines the ES11 in many areas.

I am eager to test them with more powerful amplifiers.

 

The very final thing to do, dress them up with stainless steel wrap.

 

Looks very heavy and solid, no not only it looked heavy it is heavy! imagine 2 layers of 3/8" MDF with high pressure laminate on both sides.

 

Painstaking details











Labour of love

Next, i am going to do modification on the midbass unit, to remove the dust cap and replaced them with custom made phase plug hoping for better midband delivery.

 

Dust caps removed, it looks like i will have to plug-up those ventilation holes near the neck of the cone before i can proceed to install the phase plugs.

 

Ok, i have the holes temporary covered with vinyl laminates to avoid the internal air escaping to the outside.

The immediate result of the initial test with the phase plug temporary in place is quite promising, fortunately the side effect on the bass is minimal.

I will need to work further on the wooden phase plug in order for it to fix properly.

The making of a Birch wood phase plug. First is to cut the wooden rod of a specific diameter in to desired length. Bore a hole at the centre to allow the fixture of a holding pole.

 

Next is to apply some heavy duty wood glue to fix centre pole in place.

 

Some knocking required to ensure the pole is properly fixed.

 

Well done.

 

A piece of foam gasket to seal the joining to prevent leakage.

 

Some painting to match the colour.

 

The installation of the plugs begins

 

I insert bamboo pegs to lock down the poles from behind.

 

Wolla! Done!

 

Putting them back to the enclosure and ready for firing up

 

I am further working on a "T" base for the speaker using plywood and MDF

 

Painted in black and now have the N-nut screwed in to accept floor spikes

 

With the 3 floor spikes inserted. I always don't like the idea of having 4 spikes as its normally very difficult to get it stable especially on uneven flooring

 

Done!

 

It was the most satisfiying DIY project ever done by myself. After a few fine tuning and mix & matching process, they have now taken over the centre stage in my house and sings like a pro. They are driven by a pair of Antique Sound Lab tube monos hooked to a Promitious TVC passive preamp and a Pioneer 20bit CDP by AudioQuest cables. Quite difficult for me say how good they are but the replacement of my all-time favourite JM LAB Megane Carat with this Metalic Floor Stander is self-explanatory.

In conclusion, it worth all the effort of putting them together and it also make me start thinking how much they worth if the value of the speakers are determined by the quality of the sound in commercial markets.