Dave A
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Posts posted by Dave A
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6 hours ago, carlthess40 said:
Dave
I thought you were not going to mill wood?
Very messy to work with that’s for sure
Looks like some of your best work and I’m sure people will be wanting them by the box full. Great jobI am considering doing wood because I think their are sales to be had doing this. My retirement but not retiring hobby to keep me in speaker land.
16 hours ago, carlthess40 said:That’s beautiful work
how long did it take you to write the code for the C&C to mill those out ?
Are you going to be selling these?All told with revisions to the part as time went on and figuring out best ways and tooling for smooth finishes probably 40 hours or more. Code will mostly stay the same for the wood as it is for metal except there will be another revision and new machining program to accommodate additional depth for the wood lens. + a couple more hours when it is all said and done.
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2 minutes ago, DizRotus said:
I too liked the styling of the 68 Charger.
In 68, I was a sophomore at MSU and drove a 61 VW Beetle with a 65 Corvair engine. The Corvair’s stock four 1bbl carbs were replaced by a 300cfm Carter AFB 4bbl. With tube headers and straight through mufflers it put out >150 very loud horsepower. At night, flames were visible from the “mufflers.” I had a second set of reverse flow mufflers that would be temporarily installed just long enough to deal with the fix and repair tickets handed out by the campus police.
Nothing subtle about the Bug painted Mustang Poppy Red (Orange), with 15” chrome reversed rims. It did the quarter in the 12s. It was fun to be cruising at 70 on I-94 and watch a Cadillac approaching in the mirror. I would gradually accelerate to keep the Caddie — or other large car — at bay. Unconsciously, many drivers could not follow a VW Beetle. At about 85 I would floor it and accelerate away, leaving them to wonder what the hell had just happened.
As an aside, the MSU campus police drove 4 door Olds 442s, the only 4 door 442s I ever saw. Recall that Lansing, MI was then the home of Oldsmobile (RIP). The cars had the same sexy Walker chamber pipe exhaust, 400 cid engine, and rear sway bar as regular 442s, but 4 doors to better transport campus criminals. That high speed pursuit capability came in handy when pursuing miscreants all the way across campus.
My uncle had a VW he called the green monster. It had a Porsche racing engine in it and was a real sleeper. A friend of mine here in Nashville used to have a Mustang with a blown engine in it and he got the cops to agree to clock him to see how fast he could go. 176 mph. He then says you wont believe me but the only car that ever beat me was a green VW. Said he had it wound out one day in Indiana and saw a bouncing green thing catching up to and then passing him. The guy was waiting for him at an ice cream stand with a big grin on his face. I asked my friend if the guy was a kind of gangly toothy looking dude and he said yes how did you know? There was only one Russ crazy enough and smart enough to build that thing and it is amazing he did not kill himself with it. I did see it in pieces in Houston where he had taken it all apart and never did revive it as far as I know.
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26 minutes ago, oldtimer said:
Rig counts drop dramatically as the price of oil plummets (and vice versa):
https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_oil_rotary_rigs
Still up by over 100 from a year ago plus they are getting better at producing more from one drill. I remember when they, the major network news that is, said shale oil was over because it could not work at prices lower than $70 per barrel. Then it became $50 and those drillers were making money and the middle east pooped their pants over that one. Largest potential oil and gas field ever over Saudi Arabia and Venezuala discovered in New Mexico/Texas recently. Part of this is as I understand it subject to refinery capacity also which is being expanded to meet supply.
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3 minutes ago, Marvel said:
In '72, I was spending $ .37 a gallon for regular, which turns out to be $2.27 today. I just filled up paying only $1.83 here in Chattanooga. I just wish my salary had kept up with the cost of inflation.
Bruce
Drill Baby Drill!!! Gotta love it and I am sure glad an oil friendly dude is in charge now.
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4 hours ago, ClaudeJ1 said:
No kidding. I worked the afternoon shift there, summer of '73,driving cars off the line to repair stations. Small world.
Lynch Rd Assembly is still there. You remember how many houses used to be around the plant and no vacant lots? Do a Google satellite search for Lynch Rd now. Those people in Detroit have burned so much stuff down that you could swear you were at the country edge of the city and not in the high density area we can remember. Lynch Rd at its peak had over 4700 people under one roof while I was there. Most of the plant is still there but now employs under 300 as an affirmative action nuts and bolts company. Huber Foundry, Eldon Axle and Lynch Rd Assembly all in that spot and now weeds.
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5 hours ago, JohnJ said:
Barracuda 440 six-pack four speed that shook me when she cranked it up!
The road runner stuff ended in the 71 model year a couple of months before I hired on. They made those Sattelite Sebrings with big blocks in them too at Lynch Rd. The Barracudas were the fastest thing going at the time from Chrysler as they weighed a lot less. Those were back in the day when gas was cheap and you could see wheelie popping rides street legal and affordable doing their magic on Van Dyke and Woodward Ave at times.
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Probably. You see those two spots? The spindle assembly moves up and down and you have tool changes and somehow there is always a drop or two of coolant that spills out and that is what those are. Dirty wet hands, water drops everything seems to cause blotches so to even it all out something has to seal it. Whether it is me or the recipient it has to be done before people play with it. I am a fan of Satin Spar Polyurethane myself.
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I have been dragging my feet on cutting wood tweeter lenses and also learning how to do it. Unfortunately the wood I had on hand was small so I have to get more. I can say though that I have no doubt these Walnut lenses will be cutable and should be strong enough to be screwed into the old tweeter holes and not split. The surprising this is the 1/4 20 threaded holes look like they are going to be OK strength wise. Finish is very good and will require minimal finishing and while I was concerned with the pore size in this batch of Walnut I think that will not be a problem either and no chunks picked out while cutting. This one finished today has all the features in it and cut OK so all systems go. Apologies to you know who you are for taking so long on this and your wait will soon be over.
Stopped last week at a local hardwood supplier last week and there are some very colorful woods out there. There was a purple wood from Brazil I think that was super dense and should cut well. I might cut some free standing horns too with a large body (maybe 8" x 8" or so) and a cavity cut out on the back side for the clamp plate and driver.
Whether or not I will end up cutting these as limited offerings I don't know. The mess it makes in my mill takes some time to clean up.
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29 minutes ago, JohnJ said:
@Dave A Sounds like a dream job for me!
I wonder if you built that `73 SE 400 that I had for a while. With the flat spots over the wheels for tools and two teens could fit under the hood if the motor wasn't hot. That car would take my 16 yr old abuse without complaint, had to get the oil moving to the crankcase a little better but it was a very good machine. The exhaust pipes ran straight to the back bumper.... no twists or turns at all. Pretty good for a de-tuned big block.
Yes it was a single shift plant at that time so I did something on it.
19 minutes ago, Wolfbane said:Mopars were de-fanged/de-tuned for the 1972 model year.😢
Hired in in 8-18-72 just after the Hemi and Super Bee stuff ended there.
34 minutes ago, Wolfbane said:Where you there when they made this one? (1968 - my favorite year for the Charger):
The body style had not changed much by 72 so I did work with very similar ones and those early years were my favorites to.
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I'm with the don't do anything crowd until the warranty is over. You want to tinker buy vintage and play away. If the sound was good enough to make you buy new when did it deteriorate to the point you now want to "fix" it?
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1 hour ago, JohnJ said:
That's an automobile!
Every syllable should be used for what the folks in Detroit did to massage that steel into the fast, sturdy and pretty thing that it is.
I used to work for Chrysler Lynch Rd Assembly plant and was there for the last year of the 440ci Chargers. Every once in a while you would get to work weekends driving cars in from the repair yard to the plant. I was the only one who knew how to drive stick shifts so I got to "test" drive them on occasion.
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Front yard today
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On 12/11/2018 at 2:26 PM, Deang said:
Don’t feed the troll.
100% correct. The rant against pro gear with no basis in personal experience to judge by was enough for me. The day you say you know more than Bonehead is the day I tune out.
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That is correct it is just as the drawing shows. The reason behind this change is keeping it simple to build and adding little pieces adds complexity. Claude ran the numbers and this did not reduce the lower hz by any appreciable amount. This horn with the last plenum revision now has 106" depth.
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I know this may sound crazy considering what I normally listen to but here goes. When I have to concentrate and music has to be very low while working on CAD or machining files in the shop I have an old Klipsch Pro 2.1 computer speaker system and sitting right there in near field land they sound really nice. I think they were maybe $80 refurb buys.
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15 minutes ago, aljordan said:
Do these work as bolt on replacements with the existing horn, or are there further modifications that have to be made?
Thanks!
Check your PM and yes they are bolt on but not with the OEM horn lens.
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New anything is expensive to me. I consider new K-402 or K-510's only because I cant find them used and don't have Emiles secret insider K-510 pricing power.
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All crossovers I have tested that old have capacitors with high ESR or out of spec capacitance and often both at the same time. Yes recapping makes a difference. The very first thing I do with older speakers is recap. But as others mention your end result is an aggregate of the pieces of the puzzle used. I was shocked at how bad my music library was and Audacity fixed most of those problems and what it could not fix was thrown out until I could find a good copy of that music to work from. One of the other pieces was downloading a Realtec Hi definition upgrade to the basic sound card in my PC which made a big difference in quality. My vote is not for Ti diaphragms any more but rather for a B&C DE10 driver for the tweeters. People come by here to buy speakers and I take time to make sure they know how I got the sound they like so much and two of the biggies were Audacity and the Realtec download. Using Audacity just to normalize and set the bit rate to 96 or 192k makes a big difference and I show them by editing the music right in front of them. I use a Crown xli800 amp and like it more than my Integra 50.4 with all the bells and whistles.
My experience has been that the tweeters are the main culprit when it comes to getting rid of shrill.
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On 12/8/2018 at 12:14 PM, tomy2 said:
so I wonder why there’s not more talk about them or in general more discussion about the Pro series. Maybe there has been and I’m just new to it all.
I am not sure why either if quality of sound is the only important metric. I think in many cases just the idea of a speaker being professional creates a false impression in the minds of many who are looking for home use because home use must be better for the home, right? I had a chance one day to listen back to back to a new La Scala and a Jubilee with 402 horns on them. The clear superiority of the Jubilees was not small nor subtle. I have had many variations of pro and vintage veneer and while I really like the Chorus I's and La Scalas what I choose to keep for myself is pro gear all the way. I have been able to listen back to back in my environment to a number of both types in my shop and all I can say is if you do not consider pro gear you are not looking for the absolute best sound.
On 12/10/2018 at 5:24 PM, Woofers and Tweeters said:The guy I bought my MCM from said that they make LaScala and Khorns sound like bookshelf speakers.
Yes but very nice ones.
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On 12/10/2018 at 5:21 PM, Woofers and Tweeters said:
I agree with the statement. A fraction of a watt is plenty. From there they get very loud. I have never felt self destructive enough to turn them up more.
The main thing with the MCM stack is how accurate they sound and how they do it so effortlessly. Imagine filling the room with great sound without the blaring volume.
It is fun to watch peoples faces when they first hear an MCM stack. I see you have room for some Super MWM's
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5 hours ago, carlthess40 said:
I would like a set of the plans. Please
And would this work with a Klipsch k-45-kt 15” driver ?When the height is determined I will send you a set. Claude says that Crites better 15" woofer gave the best numbers. I am going to use some K-43-K's I have sitting around that came out of some old John Allen MWM clone bins. My guess would be you could use them but how good they will be here I don't know.
The set of drawings will be rudimentary. Top view of the complete horn with angles and lengths and the a front view of the motorboard with dimensions and between the two there is enough data to build by.
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Here is the final version which does away with the little pieces to make the full 67.75" width and stays withing the 60" width. It has the 8" section for the woofer and now has a travel of roughly 106". The only other change that may happen is the 15.375" inside height may change to as much as 19" since the wood allows for this and if Claude says the numbers work out. This is the final top view however and I am going to build one by the end of the second week in January so there should be a report soon after. Those of you who have older plans and want the new ones let me know.
This build uses 18mm or .709" Baltic Birch and all dimensions will reflect that. At one time I was thinking of using the 1" equivalent but that started getting heavier fast and these should not need more bulk to resist any resonance anyway being well braced to begin with.
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On 10/26/2018 at 3:38 PM, Panelhead said:
Dave,
sonically how do these compare to the B&C DE-120?
Update on these. I have been running some DE10's on my Chorus I test speaker and these are going to be my new go to drivers. They are clearly better than the DE120's and $60 a set cheaper to boot. These DE10's are superior to all the others tested so far by Claude and my ears for the large MAHL's.
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Claude had tested the B&C DE10 for the larger MAHL's some time back and I briefly had a set to play with here. Time passes and my driver vendors get these back in stock so I can place an order. Yes it is hard to imagine but true these guys often run out as far as I can tell and then you wait wait wait. Anyway I have had some DE10's to play with now and Claude is right these are the ones to get. They are $60 a set cheaper and sound clearly better and these will be my stock drivers for the larger MAHL's from now on unless someone requests otherwise. They are to big to fit through the cutout so you have to install the horn lens first and then mount the clamp plate to the back side while in place. Easy to do by removing the mid driver and reaching in though that cutout to assemble.
Forgot to mention these De10's will be the drivers that go with the road show large MAHL tweeters from now on.
Walnut tweeter lenses
in Technical/Restorations
Posted
I am thinking about it but not seriously until sometime next year. Tweeters are one thing but mid range horns are much larger and I have to determine if I can cut things like that and charge for my time and material accordingly and still have something people will want to buy..