Latest Creation ...

I can hardly believe its getting on towards two years since I last dropped in. Life has been nothing if not hectic during this period, but I have been able to get some more designs constructed despite being time poor. Some of you may remember these ,that I posted about at the time.

Well I've been at it again.

This time I'm doing a set of PMS speakers, or rather a slightly reworked design. I'm starting to get close to the end of the construction phase and the beginning of the finishing stage. I have been keeping a build log of these on our audio forums and you can view that in the build log thread here .

Any questions or comments I will answer in this thread.The front baffle plate is going to be either dark stained or painted a textured matt charcoal grey/black.The edge caps are stained English Mahogany as is the top. I'm trying to make up my mind whether I spray them a gloss poly finish or use a satin finish.The image below shows one of the speakers with the front baffle still in the native color and the rounded side panel have had a couple of coats of Zinszer Amber Shellac applied for coloration and to act as a sealer. You can see from the color difference how much the character of the wood changes.Below are a few of the images from the build thread showing the basic process.

nice looking speaker case

The case looks fantastic but to me it would all be in what they sound like.

Few people seem to know that the most inefficient part of a sound system setup is the speaker. The amount of electrical energy actually converted to sound is very low I recall from my studies somewhere around 4%. yet people spend fortunes on the amplifier and its super duper response and power output and then cheap out on the very essential transducers (loudspeakers) to hear the actual sound. Wish there was a way we could hear what these sound like when you fire them up. So much for the virtual world.

What category of music do you listen to most?

Thanks for sharing your build great work. How long did they take you to do?

A beautiful and distinctive design Ralph. Well worth the effort. They will be a pleasure to see as well as hear.

glenn bradley said:

A beautiful and distinctive design Ralph. Well worth the effort. They will be a pleasure to see as well as hear.

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Took the words right out of my fingertips.

Looking good...real good!

Cheers Folks

Rob Keeble said:

The case looks fantastic but to me it would all be in what they sound like.

Few people seem to know that the most inefficient part of a sound system setup is the speaker. The amount of electrical energy actually converted to sound is very low I recall from my studies somewhere around 4%. yet people spend fortunes on the amplifier and its super duper response and power output and then cheap out on the very essential transducers (loudspeakers) to hear the actual sound. Wish there was a way we could hear what these sound like when you fire them up. So much for the virtual world.

What category of music do you listen to most?

• Most anything but rap and I'm not overly fond of opera.

Thanks for sharing your build great work. How long did they take you to do?

• So far I'm up to about 100 hours. mostly because of having to do the work over weekends and after work at nights - sometimes

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Thank you all very much for your kind encouragement.
Hopefully this weekend I will put the edge caps on as well as the top cover and be able to start serious sanding and prep work prior too doing finish sanding and applying the black paint. This has to be done first and let cure for about 4 days and then I will mask up and gloss poly or matt spray the rolled sides,caps and top of each enclosure.

Its all in the finishing

Today I completed the finish work for the new speakers. I will let it harden off for a few days then hit it with some 0000 steel wool and cream polish just to take off any little imperfections and then a good buffing to finish.

Wipe on gloss poly, 10 coats at 50/50 then 6 coats at 70/30 poly to mineral turps. The finish is very much like a piano. Very shiny and reflective.
The photo don't really show it that well. I run a build thread on the local forums for those that want a bit more info.

Those are beautiful, Ralph. I like your decision to mix the wood grain and black.

Oh my, Those are spectacular. Sure to be the center (or side?) pieces of whatever room they are in. Well done!